Artist depicts songbirds in Sisters

Sisters music and art enthusiasts gathered for the official unveiling of the annual Sisters Folk Festival poster on Tuesday evening, March 3, at The Open Door wine bar and bistro.

The unveiling featured original festival poster artwork by Dennis McGregor. Last year he wowed folks with his 2014 poster that spotlighted a hipster mule deer buck sporting a harmonica.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Sisters Folk Festival (SFF) and the 15th year that McGregor has been commissioned to paint original artwork for the annual SFF poster image that attracts thousands of people to the three-day music festival.

Usually The Open Door is closed on Tuesdays, but beginning in February Clearwater Gallery owners Dan and Julia Rickards have offered a new program, Dine for a Cause, to help local non-profits. Each month a different nonprofit organization will be featured and receive 10 percent of the gross receipts for every Tuesday of the month, and this month the nonprofit is Sisters Folk Festival.

Musicians Brad Tisdel and McGregor provided music while folks mingled among friends anticipating the unveiling of the poster.

Around 5 p.m. the 2015 SFF poster was revealed, and folks couldn't have been more thrilled when they gazed upon 10 beautifully depicted songbirds from around the country singing their hearts out into a vintage microphone, while some of the birds hung onto the ponderosa pine branches that are indigenous to Sisters Country.

"I painted 10 songbirds and two wings each to represent the 20 years for Sisters Folk Festival," McGregor said. "I had a lot of fun painting the buck for last year's poster and you all loved it. So this year was a challenge of how to top that buck, and I did my best."

This year Dennis McGregor has also painted poster images for the 40th annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show and the 75th annual Sisters Rodeo (see related story, page 9).

"Dennis does a lot more than paint poster images for Sisters Folk Festival, he helps book the talent and he has helped create our image. Between the logos and My Own Two Hands, a lot of work has gone into it with his intellectual creativity, his painting, and his music," Tisdel said.

McGregor's original painting, "Songbirds," is for sale and on display at Sisters Gallery & Frame Shop on Hood Avenue.

For more information about this year's festival lineup for September 11-13, 2015, visit www.sistersfolkfestival.org.