Art in the Spotlight

Two treasured local artists, Catherine Hingson and Veta Bakhtina, will show their work at the next Yaquina Art Association’s Spotlight Show, opening on Saturday, Aug. 17 and running through the end of the month.

For Hingson, painting represents freedom. The freedom to play, to explore and to experiment. The freedom to think outside the lines using color, shapes and textures. The freedom to connect with nature and explore its complexities.

Using a variety of mediums, including watercolor, acrylic, oil and pastels, her paintings capture the personality of place, whether the environment of the Oregon Coast or its coastal communities. A contemporary artist with an impressionistic style, she weaves bold color choices, strong brushwork and her personal journey into each painting as she symbolically expresses the interaction between humans and nature.

Bakhtina is an Oregon Coast based oil painter, muralist and children's book writer. Her works draw from the natural world as well as myth and fable from her Slavic heritage. Bakhtina grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia at the end of the Communist era and credits her exposure to uncharted nature and cultural traditions for much of her inspiration and working style. She is a traveling muralist, and when not out collecting reflections around the world, her original art can be found in her working studio at Crow's Nest Gallery in Toledo.

Published work by Bakhtina includes the children's book, “The Magic Traveling Bunk Bed” as well as the popular divination deck, “The Creatures' Secrets Animal Divination.”

The Yaquina Art Association Gallery is located in Nye Beach at 789 NW Beach Drive and is open daily from 11 am to 5 pm. For more information, go to yaquinaart.org.