Mitch Baird, Old Autumn Route, oil, 20 x 24.
Mockingbird Gallery, Bend, OR
December 1-31
The beauty of the landscape is in full view during the new exhibition Lasting Impressions at Mockingbird Gallery in Bend, Oregon. The show highlights the work of five elite painters: Mitch Baird, Tad Retz, Marc R. Hanson, Silas Thompson and Shanna Kunz. Along with the timelessness of their paintings, gallery owner Jim Peterson says, “this month we also want to focus on how each artist has mastered their own approach and celebrate each unique quality in the process.”
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- Tad Retz, Big Sur, oil, 16 x 20.
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- Marc R. Hanson, Elevated, oil, 36 x 36.
One of the works by Kunz in the show is SERENITY IN THE TREES, which was based on a friend’s Mississippi-based property as well as the artist’s love of work by tonalist Dwight Tyron. “I love the idea of the evening dappled light peeking through the trees, inviting the viewer further into the distance,” she says. “There are opportunities to move throughout the entire painting looking for places for the eye to rest.”
For the coastal painting BIG SUR, Retz shared photographic references with fellow artist Derek Penix. “The misty air along the coast lit up by sunlight is what draws me to these scenes,” Retz shares. “It really pushes the feeling of depth which is always good for paintings. I also love the seemingly hidden coves around this area that feel mysterious and untouched.”
Hanson’s painting ELEVATED is from the Roan High Bluff Overlook on the Appalachian Trail near the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. It has views of Bald Mountain, Unaka Mountain and the Tennessee valley. “It’s a breathtaking hike in a near subalpine habitat that reminds me of many places that I’ve hiked in the Mountain West. As you walk along, the trail seems to disappear, then reappear, as it dips and winds around the trees and shrubs, up and down the topography,” recalls Hanson. “What I hoped to express is the grandeur of the Appalachian Mountains as they disappear into the almost always, cloudy, hazy distance.”
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- Shanna Kunz, Serenity in the Trees, oil, 20 x 34.
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- Silas Thompson, Winter’s Escape, oil, 30 x 40.
The snow-covered painting WINTER’S ESCAPE, by Thompson, “plays on the theme of remembering or memory, which has been something I come back to a lot in my work,” he explains. “It is the imputed beginning of the resurrection phase of nature. The thaw comes as the long, cold [and] necessary beauty of winter gives way and life escapes.”
Baird’s painting OLD AUTUMN ROUTE was inspired by a painting trip through the San Juan mountains in Colorado. “At the top of this old route there was a spectacular overlook of the mountains with aspens in full autumn color,” he says. “As beautiful as it was, I was most taken by the slightly worn trail leading to a stand of aspens that were tightly knit together.”
The show opens with a reception on December 1 during First Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. It will remain on view through December 31. —Rochelle Belsito
contact information
(541) 388-2107
mockingbird-gallery.com
This story appeared in the December 2023/January 2024 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Subscribe today to read every issue in its entirety.