Tag: Featured Artists

An award-winning watercolorist, Koch tries to evoke a place of familiarity or belonging—a feeling of “being home.”

Painting began as a childhood passion for Susan. As far back as she can remember she was intrigued with drawing what she saw. She always knew painting was what she would do with her life and was determined to go to art school.

She studied watercolor at the American Academy of Art in Chicago under the late Irving Shapiro, one of the great watercolor artists of our time. Right out of art school, she found a job as a professional artist—doing graphic design for Yellow Pages ads.

With the exception of a few years after her second daughter was born, Susan has been painting all her adult life.

“I have to do it,” she says. “It’s too much a part of me. I’ll never retire because I’ll always be painting.”

Since then, she has won many awards, including “Best of Show” and “Peoples’ Choice” several years running in the Watercolor Society of Oregon annual shows.

Susan now devotes herself painting what she finds meaningful.

“Art is an expression of a deeper spiritual need,” she explains.

She draws her subject matter from the world around her, painting detailed landscapes, florals, and still lifes. She also creates beaded jewelry featuring complex, luminous designs.

“For me, what captures my interest in a scene is the quality and angle of light. It changes constantly and with that change comes the challenge.”

She has lived in many places around the country but favors the Pacific Northwest. She lived for 10 years on the Oregon coast, and several more in central Oregon, but the romance of the farms and vineyards of the Willamette Valley called to her. Today she lives just west of Portland.

See the Works of Susan Koch at Village Frame & Gallery

Her exhibit, along with the works of Dee Anderson, is on display throughout the month of August. Stop by during regular Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm, at 7808 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR 97219.

In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek of Susan’s artwork:

This Saturday, August 1st, will be the last day we exhibit A Lifetime of Work by Kaye Synoground at Village Frame & Gallery. It was Kaye’s last show, a retrospective of her decades-long career as a full-time artist, and we have been honored to host it for the last two months.

As you probably know by now, Kaye passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer this month. It has been a hard loss for our community, but Kaye’s zest for art and life never waned, and it was clear she wanted us all to continue to commune with her art in her absence.

After August 1st, Kaye’s work will be available for viewing and purchase from The Geezer Gallery at the National College of Natural Medicine’s Spalding House, located behind the administration building at 2828 SW Water Street, Portland, OR 97201.

Kaye Synoground, beloved mother, wife, teacher, and artist passed away in July, 2015.

Kaye was a career artist with over thirty years of experience including professional illustration, as an owner of her own studio gallery, A Closer Look in Multnomah Village, and teaching at places like the Multnomah Athletic Club and The Multnomah Art Center. Kaye was a member of the Watercolor Society of Oregon, the Colored Pencil Society of America, the Beaverton Arts Commission, and the Westside Artists group. Her work has been exhibited at the Washington County Museum, the Columbia Arts Center, the Halvorsen Gallery and the Newport Visual Arts Center. She also has had work published in “The Best of Colored Pencil” 1996 and 1997 by Rockport Publishers in Massachusetts.

Kaye passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer. She had enjoyed a brief remission in the spring and early sumer of 2015, during which time she worked in her studio and put on a lovely retrospective show at Village Frame & Gallery in Multnomah Village. An artist until the end, Kaye showed a zest for art and life that was remarkable and was admired by all that knew her.

We Interrupt this Monday for an Art Break

Let the phone go to voicemail for a few minutes and enjoy …

Ahhhhh … that’s better, isn’t it?

We now return you to your regularly scheduled activities. Let’s do this again soon.

We have some additions to our Mary L. Parkes exhibit arriving at the Gallery today. Stop by and see what makes her contemporary still life paintings so tantalizing.

Artist Statement

What inspires me are the objects in nature. Grasses, leaves, colorful vegetables. The fabulous forms that the ocean makes on the sand when the tide comes and goes are awesome!  These wondrous things can have a gleeful, dancing feeling.  The viewer may often see frogs lurking, strawberries taking off like rocketships and ribbons streaming. The effervescent colors reflect my joy of life.

I live in Hayden Island, near Portland, Oregon, with my husband and kitties. It’s view of the water and sailboats makes it seem like I am living a vacation. I love that my studio is larger than the one I had in Santa Fe but I really miss my friends.

Currently I show my art in several new galleries in Oregon: Primary Elements Gallery in Cannon Beach and Geezer Gallery in Portland. If you are in Oklahoma City, you can see my work at Kasum Contemporary Gallery.

Process/Technique information

My paintings are done mostly on stretched canvas or linen.  The depth is at least 1/\.5” deep.  I have used clear glazed linen for my surface, which gives a more natural feeling.  Some of my canvases have many color glazes that have been sanded, glazed and sanded again to give a smooth surface.  All depending on the subject matter of course.

Associations

Mary L. Parkes is a member of:

• Oil Painters Of America
• International Guild of Realism.

See the Work of Mary L. Parkes at Village Frame & Gallery in March:

About the Artist

Award-winning artist, Kimm Byers describes his creations as “Emotionalism” and defines emotionalism with, “where color and feeling meet on paper or canvas for an eye opening Flash.”

After graduating from high school in 1969 Byers set out to develop his own style of painting, the result is “Emotionalism” and unique to Kimm Byers. He has displayed his art in Galleries up and down the West Coast of the United States.

Kimm Byers’ work has been purchased by and is displayed in international galleries and museums. Byers was commissioned by the Portland Rose Festival as the official Artist in 1988 and 1989 – the first person to be honored with this title since the Festivals inception in 1906.

Byers was selected as the “official artist” for the Valley Center, CA., Sesquicentennial Celebrations in 2012 donating the commissioned art to the Valley Center Music Festival as the Grand Prize in a raffle fundraiser – the winner consequently donating the piece to the Valley Center Historic Society, where it is displayed in the Museum.

See Kimm Byers’ Artwork in Person at Village Frame & Gallery