The art of the perfect weekend

At the start of every month, Toledo celebrates its vibrant arts community in a citywide First Weekend event at local galleries and studios. This month’s event will invite art lovers to connect with local artists on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 4 and 5.

Visitors to the Yaquina River Museum of Art will get to see the Board Members Collect exhibition featuring artwork from board members’ personal collections. One of the works on display, “Drama Before A Storm,” is a striking Arizona landscape painted by the museum’s late co-founder Michael Gibbons. This plein air painting was donated from the estate of former original board member Kay Moxness, who loved Gibbons’ work and believed strongly in the formation of the Yaquina River Museum of Art to bring fine arts to the local community.

The museum is located at 151 NE Alder Street and open from noon to 4 pm on both days of First Weekend. For more information, go to yaquinarivermuseumofart.org.

Across the street, Michael Gibbons’ Signature Gallery will be displaying more original works by the late plein air artist. A special spotlight will be on “April Mist Over Springhill,” a vineyard painting of grapes growing on the vine against a vast backdrop of evergreen Oregon rainforest shrouded in a graying mist. Gibbons created a series of plein air vineyard paintings, including one that was chosen to be featured on the label of a Flying Dutchman Syrah. Gibbons often captured the relationship between man and nature and sought sites that visually represented the industrial and the wild. 

Michael Gibbons’ Signature Gallery is located at 140 NE Alder Street and open from noon to 4 pm on both days of First Weekend.

Down on Main Street, Crow’s Nest Gallery & Studio will feature the works of more than 15 artists. The gallery-space run by assemblage artist Janet Runger always features new and exciting works for viewers to see. Also shown in the gallery are the works of Alice Haga, fused glass; Val Bolen, tile and ceramic pieces; Paula Teplitz, sculptural jellyfish mobiles; Jeff Gibford, digitally manipulated photographs; Veta Bakhtina, oil paintings; Sylvia Hosie, wildlife photography; Tish Epperson, watercolors; and Susan Jones, woven fiber jellyfish. Crow’s Nest Gallery & Studio is located at 305 N. Main Street and will be open from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Also showing along Main Street are the current artists selected for the quarterly installments of Art Toledo’s Phantom Galleries. The City of Toledo launched an art revitalization initiative to promote Toledo’s art, industry and history. Phantom Galleries is an ART Toledo project that promotes available commercial building spaces on Main Street by exhibiting local art. The Phantom Galleries change out on a quarterly basis with new artists that apply to have their work on display. Currently featured are gyotaku prints by Toshio Toguchi and watercolor and mixed media works by Erin Smith.

For more information, go to ARTToledo.com.