The Oregon Coast Council for the Arts is pleased to welcome Claudia Ryerson-Ignatieff as the latest artist to join the Coastal Oregon Visual Artists Showcase (COVAS). Ignatieff will exhibit her paintings in the COVAS Showcase from November 7, 2014, through January 3, 2015, at the Newport Visual Arts Center and will be featured in an artist video documenting her work and process. The “Beauty Abounds” exhibit will open at the VAC during its First Friday reception, and the artist will discuss her work at 5:30pm during the opening.
“I paint because I appreciate the beauty I see all around me,” Ignatieff says. “I am inspired by the ocean and its gifts, wildlife and their devotion to their young, and the innocence, faithfulness and unconditional love of pets.”
Ignatieff paints with water-based oils and prefers her art to have a soft, blended feel. “My art has a sense of realism without being overly detailed,” she says. In addition to brush work, she uses different sizes of spatulas to create textures such as bark on trees or fur on animals, and other textures.
Ignatieff has taken lessons from gifted artists such as F. Michael Wood and John Leasure, painting landscapes and seascapes, and for the past two years she has studied portrait painting. Ignatieff expresses her lifelong love for animals by painting them, as demonstrated by her most recent art work. Her paintings have been on display at Oregon Pacific Bank, Peace Health Medical Center, Silver Lining Gallery, Surfside Restaurant, Siuslaw Library, Florence Events Center and the Florence Regional Arts Alliance’s (FRAA) Art Center. Ignatieff serves on the Board of FRAA and is co-chair of the Florence Events Center Gallery Committee. She is a retired early childhood administrator, with a BA in child development. She also served as an accreditation consultant for the National Academy of Early Childhood Education.
The COVAS Showcase is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 4pm, at the Newport Visual Arts Center (777 NW Beach Dr.).