Creativity blooms in Toledo
Artists offer a warm welcome at February First Weekend
With spring right around the corner, the town of Toledo is preparing for the new season with First Weekend this Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 1 and 2.
This monthly art event sees galleries and studios throughout town throw open their doors to the public.
The Yaquina River Museum of Art will open its new exhibit, The Founders Celebration, featuring works by the late founder Michael Gibbons, including pieces painted and sketched during his time in England. Gibbons stayed for almost a year in the Cotswolds, creating art and working with many artist groups in the area. Without a car in rural Winchcombe, Gibbons used footpaths throughout the countryside. “Along the Pilgrim’s Way” is an original oil that captures the artist’s time in the English countryside along the footpaths.
Throughout First Weekend, the museum will be featuring rare film from Gibbons’ feature on OPB’s Oregon Art Beat, and offering complimentary cake and champagne to gallery-goers.
The Yaquina River Museum of Art, located at 151 NE Alder Street, will be open from noon to 4 pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. For more information, go to www.yaquinarivermuseumofart.com or call 541-336-1907.
Across the street at Michael Gibbons’ Signature Gallery, guests can view “Grace’s Garden,” an original oil that captures the beauty of a summer garden with full-bloom rhododendrons and an intriguing pathway leading the viewer into a pacific wildflower forest. Gibbons found beauty in every nook and cranny of Toledo. He liked to work near his home on NE Alder Street and found an exquisite garden created by Grace Ross, of pioneer family stock descending from Toledo founder John Graham. She could be found planting and growing 50 azaleas and as many rhododendrons as she could find from scratch simply because she loved to garden.
See this work and many more originals at Michael Gibbons’ Signature Gallery, located at 140 NE Alder Street, open from noon to 4 pm on Saturday and Sunday. For more information, go to michaelgibbons.net or call 541-336-2797.
On Main Street, Crow’s Nest Gallery & Studio will feature the works of more than 20 artists. The gallery-space run by assemblage artist Janet Runger always features new and exciting works for viewers to see. Veta Bakhtina’s prolific portfolio of works enchant viewers into her world of storied paintings. “The Chapel,” a fine gouache work of a scene in the Balkans, is demonstrative of her ability to capture the world in vivid color with her trademark elements of folk art. Val Bolen will be featuring suncatching glass and ceramic works; Alice Haga, fused glass; Sylvia Hosie, award winning photography; Paula Teplitz, sculptural jellyfish mobiles; Jeff Gibford, digitally manipulated photographs; Tish Epperson, watercolors; and Susan Jones, woven fiber jellyfish.
Crow’s Nest Gallery & Studio is located at 305 N. Main Street and open from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday and Sunday.