Gallery celebrates Deschutes River

Clearwater Gallery hosted the third annual Wild River Show during the Fourth Friday Art Stroll last week. The gallery featured the Deschutes River with interpretive works of over 20 Northwest artists.

The Wild River Project was launched in February of 2013 by Clearwater Gallery featuring the magical Metolius River. Collaborating with "Friends of the Metolius," the nonprofit organization benefited from the sales generated by a community art show.

This year's Wild River Project sought to raise public awareness for the Lower Deschutes River. Clearwater Gallery owner Dan Rickards continues his commitment to the preservation of Northwest rivers by donating 20 percent of the proceeds from his prints from this year's Deschutes River painting, "Afternoon at Steelhead Falls," to the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, a nonprofit that actively supports the wild and scenic Deschutes River.

Rickards explained why he was inspired to paint Steelhead Falls for his wild river series this year.

"I have been living in Central Oregon for 20-plus years and had never been to Steelhead Falls until this past summer. It was my oldest son Kyle's bachelor party day before he got married, and we had gone on a few outings throughout the day in our area and one of the stops was to see Steelhead Falls and to jump off the cliffs into the pool of water. From a scenic river perspective it's just one of those iconic gorgeous spots, and it's quite the fun spot for kayaking and fishing. It's obviously a very popular spot since several of the other artists chose that area to depict in the show."

Each artist captured the essence of the Deschutes River in their own unique artistic expression.

Local artist Curtiss Abbott submitted two of his photographs for the juried art show, one titled "Steelhead Falls."

"Dennis Schmidling and I went out to Steelhead Falls in January to photograph the area. I was looking at the bluffs and the water and at that time of day, the right lighting, that's what I was shooting for, to be able to pick up what the eye is really seeing," said Abbott. "The shadows aren't too dark and the highlights aren't too bright. I did it with my technical camera and a slow exposure."

Schmidling, manager of Sisters Gallery & Frame Shop, also inspired by the falls, submitted his photograph of Steelhead Falls, just as stunning, but with dramatic differences.

"It's been a hard journey for me getting back into photography and looking for something that really inspires me. I stood there with my camera in that same spot on the bluff for about 30 minutes just looking out at the falls, and it finally hit me that this was really a beautiful spot, it truly inspired me," Schmidling said.

The Upper Deschutes Watershed Council teamed up with Clearwater Gallery during the art show as Educational Director Kolleen Yake and Executive Director Ryan Houston talked about their approach to restoration projects for the river.

The Watershed Council has worked on over 40 watershed enhancement projects since 1996 in the Upper Deschutes area.

"We are working in two primary areas, one is stream restoration and the other is education. You've probably read in your local paper about some of our restoration projects; we removed a dam in the upper Pine Meadow Ranch last summer, and we've also been involved in some of the big restoration downstream at the Camp Polk Meadow Preserve. We are really trying to protect water quality and promote fish and wildlife habitat and trying to bring places like Whychus Creek back to their full potential in terms of their ecological integrity," Houston said. "We like to focus on collaborative solutions with the community."

Houston introduced Yake, who is managing the restoration program.

"Our primary goal is to get kids outdoors and connect them with the rivers and streams. We work with over 3,000 local students every year, providing hands-on stewardship experiences designed to educate and inspire students of all ages," explained Yake.

The warm spring weather brought folks out and into the galleries that line Hood Avenue for the late afternoon stroll. Hood Avenue Art's Early Spring in The High Desert exhibit highlighted the best new work of the season during the art stroll, and Tony Lompa provided the music.