Featured News, South County

SAM’s 2nd Saturday Reception of TWO Exhibits

by Shareen Strauss Views: 501

On September 9th, the Siskiyou Arts Museum (also known as SAM), presented another Double Art Opening for their 2nd Saturday & Reception. 

The Siskiyou Artists Association (SAA) held their 65th Annual Art Show in SAM’s Main Gallery with a variety of art work of different media from 36 artists including 2 students that were presented with scholarships, and a large painting by artist Charlie Mills, who was the art critic for the show. Through his 60 years as an artist, Mills has produced abstracts, metal sculptures and commercial signs and illustrations. He said that this is his first time as a critic.

“I should be more critical of myself. Hopefully, people have taken my evaluations well. Work has a volatility of its own expression,” he said. 

2023 marks the 3rd year in a row that the SAA has held their art show at SAM. This well-established art group always includes a silent auction to benefit their scholarship program, and viewer’s choice judging as part of their annual art show.

Two scholarships were awarded this year: Aryanna Johnson, a fine arts major at College of the Siskiyous (COS), won a $1,000 scholarship after including 15 to 20 pieces of her artwork with her application.

The 2nd scholarship winner was Amanda Thomas, who is a COS graduate working towards her Masters’ Degree at Northwestern State University of Louisiana. She received a $500 scholarship.

Each of the students displayed an oil painting in the exhibit

SAA member Howard Jones, who has some of his unusual sculptures of a snake shovel, a double ended hammer, and a typewriter brush in the exhibit, presented the two student scholarships during the reception. 

Live music was presented by locals, Tom and Kevin.

Cheryl Petty stands next to her two oil collages she has in the exhibit. “I blend eastern and western painting styles that causes questions of what I am doing.” She explains that the upper painting she has on display is a blend of two different paintings together.

Darlene Ball stands next to her three oil paintings of local scenery. She says that she has been painting for over 20 years. 

Chris Schneider, who has a sculpture in the show, admires fellow artist Dennis King’s work.

Chris says that Dennis King was chosen by the Hearst Corporation to paint the art work on the Hearst Castle here in South Siskiyou County. 

Lauri Sturdivant was the 1st executive director for Siskiyou Arts Museum 10 years ago. Her fiber art birds were all purchased during the reception. 

Stan Sours of Weed entered 3 wood sculptures that he carved, assembled, and painted after line drawing them; yet people admiring his work all said that they thought his work was made of wrought iron!

Joy Price had some of her lovely watercolors paintings in both the 65th Annual Art Show and the Invitational Watercolor Exhibit.

Charlie Mills, the art critic sitting with his abstract that he put in the show

The “Museum Gallery” at SAM held an Invitational Watercolor Exhibit curated by Lindsay Hanley.

There were eight local artists represented in this show:

Catherine McElroy, whose watercolors are used to create her whimsical collection of greeting cards that can be found in SAM’s gift shop,

Michele Allen Fulkerson,

Joy Price, Bea Duran-Whiteman,

Aaron Hoerber,

Kim Solga,

Chris Messer,

and

Elizabeth Anderson, who also brought a nice collection of greeting cards and prints made from her original watercolors. You can read more about the watercolor artists on SAM’s website.

Lindsay Hanley, the curator of the watercolor show

“I am very proud of the watercolor show,” says Hanley. “It is a perfect representation of the different styles using the same medium. Each is distinctly different.” Local artist Jane Seeley said of the Invitational Watercolor Exhibit, “This watercolor exhibit makes me want to go back into painting watercolors again.”

Both the Siskiyou Artists Association 65th Annual Art Show and the Invitational Watercolor Exhibit will continue in their respective galleries through November 4th. Siskiyou Arts Museum is located at 5824 Dunsmuir Ave. in Dunsmuir. Regular hours are Thursday through Sunday from Noon to 4pm.
For more information go to https://www.siskiyouartsmuseum.org, where you can also sign up to receive their e-Newsletter, visit their Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/Siskiyouartsmuseum,
or call (530) 235-4711 during business hours.

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Author: Shareen Strauss"Shareen Strauss is a good writer who gets details for her news articles, taking time to get to know the smaller stories within the bigger stories."

2 Comments

  1. Ernie W.
    September 12, 2023 at 5:18 pm  ·  Reply

    Elizabeth Anderson paintings are not posted. Somehow Catherine McElroy paintings got posted where Elizabeth Anderson photos should be.

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