“A Public Treasure: Painting the Coast” Call for Entries
FOUR DECADES OF THE SANDGREN PAINTOUT PROJECT EXHIBITION OPENS AUG. 2 AT THE NEWPORT VISUAL ARTS CENTER
Oregon Coast Council for the Arts is pleased to announce a call for entries into “A Public Treasure – Painting the Coast: Four Decades of the Sandgren PaintOut Project,” an exhibition planned for Aug. 2 to Sept. 29 in the Newport Visual Arts Center’s Runyan Gallery.
The call for entries is open to those who have painted with either Nelson Sandgren or Erik Sandgren between 1978 and 2019 at the Annual Sandgren Coast PaintOuts or Workshops. Paintings may be of any size in any medium, representing Sandgren Workshop/PaintOut sites along the entire Oregon Coast, and is not limited to work finished on site.
Deadline to enter is May 13, with an additional window in July to accommodate entries of additional paintings at this year’s PaintOut, set for July 8-20 on the southern Oregon coast, with an embedded three-day workshop set for July 9-11 at Cape Arago. PaintOut sites in 2019 will include Cape Blanco, Port Orford, Samuel Boardman SSC, Cape Sebastian, Harris Beach, Rogue River, Pistol River and others as chosen. Learn more about the 2019 PaintOut at eriksandgren.com/events.
Entries should include up to six digital images of the best possible resolution; an accompanying email specifying title, medium, date created, geographic location, image size, approximate framed size, and value/sale price for each image; and an artist biography or CV. Email entries to OCCA VAC Director Tom Webb at twebb@coastarts.org. Early entries are welcome. Notifications of acceptance into the exhibition will go out June 7.
The curators – Webb and artists Sandy Roumagoux and Erik Sandgren – will select for exhibition 50 to 60 pieces by PaintOut and workshop participants representing the entire Oregon coast and conveying coastal living: lighthouses, harbors, headlands, changing weather, boats and bridges, roads and beaches, headlands, wetlands and tide flats, estuaries and cliffs, forests, trees, snags driftwood, state parks, middens and mountains, birds and creatures – from Brookings to Astoria. They will be looking for familiar coastal subject matter visually structured into things of beauty and formal merit.
Over the decades the format and name of the PaintOut has evolved. Its heart, however, remains the goal of painting with a fluency that belies an underlying pictorial integrity. On a spectrum from strongly abstract to rather naturalistic, these nature- inspired paintings create equivalents in form for the freshness of coastal experience. Starting with Nelson, there has always an emphasis on formal challenges that enhance the painters’ experience of experiment, observation, composition and above all, personal response. For this self-selected group of painters, individuality of expression seems to be supported by concentration on the stuff of painting, long days of observation and attention to the fundamentals of painting and design. A variety of styles, variety of media and levels of experience have always been encouraged.
Please contact Webb at 541-265-6540 or twebb@coastarts.org with questions.