This October, explore Portland’s vibrant gallery scene, where standout exhibitions showcase the city’s most engaging artists. And let’s face it, sometimes art is easier to engage with than others.
That’s the case at Augen Gallery where Mark Andres is showing his landscapes, many featuring Sauvie Island. Mark paints in a free style in the vein of early 20th century French masters. With the line quality of Cezanne and at times a fluidity that only comes from knowing your subject intimately, Mark walks us through his path through the landscape.
Sauvie Island is a favorite this time of year. Although Mark doesn’t go as far as to paint a corn maze or pumpkin patch, when we know a place well, we’re often drawn to depictions of it. That’s the case for the mountains that peek up over the PNW, and for the island itself.
At Augen Gallery, a painting of Mt St. Helens was somewhat surprising. Shown with a farm scene in the foreground, I assumed it must be Washington State. Mark however confirmed it was indeed painted on site in Sauvie Island. It’s a presence for me that wasn’t remembered, although I was later shown a photo of me looking at the mountain from the island. It didn’t look as big in the photo as it did in Mark’s painting. It’s an effect the artist was familiar with. It blends into the sky, and while it seems overwhelming on site, if you take a photo, it looks small, he told us.
Most of Mark’s work is on the large side. There are six or more smaller works like this in the show, however. All, except for one nocturnal scene (which he says can’t be painted on site) were en plein air. While there’s something to be said for scale, the directness of these small works is enjoyable.
The smaller nocturnal work is titled “A Light in the Window.” I can’t help but think how strange it might feel to be on Sauvie Island that late at night or what it must have been like to live on this low-lying land surrounded by the Columbia.
A large work hanging in the back gallery that really makes you feel like you’re being swept into the landscape, and In That House You Could Touch the Sky, which Mark says was painted in his North Portland neighborhood.
On the topic of night, Kay Henning‘s Acquainted with the Night brought us to Gallery 114 where she had several large paintings on display. Here works reveal a mysterious communication between human form and the built, and decaying environment. The figures are dreamy and feature humans and dogs in addition to arched openings, doors and stairways. It’s clearly a time of transition as we arrive in this layer of activity just below the surface.
The Writers Block (818 NW Flanders) co-working space features the work of Catherine Rondthaler and Barbara Weiss, whose encaustic landscapes delight with color and structure.
Of course, there’s a lot more. So make some time for art this month by visiting these and other shows.
