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SAM’s Exhibit: “Landscapes that Inspire Us”

July 21, 2024 12:01 pm

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Dunsmuir 2nd Saturday started from Siskiyou Arts Museum (SAM) in Dunsmuir holding their art show openings with a reception on this day each month. This month’s exhibit called ‘Landscapes that Inspire Us’ features 6 women who all have studied under master painter and instructor Alek Balos at Art Roster in Mt. Shasta. Each artist in this show has their very own style and insight to their landscapes which makes each so unique and diverse even under the same tutorial of Alek Balos.

Interestingly enough, Anne McTavish, Joan Shepard, Janet Crittenden, Cindy Corrales, Lynda Hardy, and Suzanne VanSummern each used oil as their medium in this show.

Anne McTavish (below) has been taking classes with Balos since 2015. Working with bold colors, she likes to recreate compositions and finds it challenging to produce copies of master paintings. She has desert scenes on display recreating composition, values, color, and technique from the originals.

Joan Shepard (below) got inspired to paint landscapes from the many miles she hikes with her dog, Tucker. She originally would take photos of these landscapes to paint . She was self taught until she found Chuck Prudhonne while she lived in Redding to study under for about three years, and then when she moved to Mt. Shasta, she found Balos and feels that her landscape painting skills have improved in the studio of what she finds on her hikes.

Janet Crittenden (below) studied ceramics and received her MFA from Bradley University in Illinois, a BFA from Tulane University in Louisiana, and spent many years teaching ceramics at college level in Texas and then taught all levels while she lived in the Bay Area. She started painting and perfected her techniques of realism under Balos. She feels that her paintings tell “stories from her inner, imaginary world” creating a more dreamlike mood with bold colors on a large canvas.

Cindy Corrales (below) has been painting for over 20 years while dabbling in other crafts including lapidary, silversmithing, welding and fabricating sheet metal. She is a graphic designer and publisher by trade. Oils captured her interest in painting because the way it blends and stays wet. “I love getting lost in it.” In the past, she has tried forgeries like the Mona Lisa, but being a Charley Crockett fan, she loves painting portraits of him trying different complexion tones.

Lynda Hardy has been using oils to paint for about 8 years. Prior to that her focus was in three dimensional working with a lot of other mediums including water colors, silk, ceramics, jewelry, waving and glass blowing. She graduated from VCU with a BFA.

Suzanne VanSummern (below) enjoys using bright colors “that jump” which shows in her landscapes like her mushroom oil paintings as they seem 3-dimensional. She started painting portraits but after a while, she wanted to do more looser, impressionistic stuff than abstract. She has worked with pencil, pastel, and watercolor. She enjoys creating simple images with richness and various levels of complexity.

This show runs through September 7th and is located at 5824 Dunsmuir Avenue

Siskiyou Arts Museum and Gift Shop is a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization.
They have hosted over 100 openings and have recently celebrated their 10th Anniversary.
They are half way to their goal of purchasing their historic building which was built in 1925.
Their goal is $250,000 and to establish a small endowment for SAM’s future.

Below the art gallery is a makers’ space for artists to use or offer classes there.

They are asking for help to achieve their goal by having people make donations, sponsor one of their shows, or donate art to the gallery and gift shop.

Visit their website at www.siskiyouartmuseum.org for news and upcoming events, or call (530) 235-4711