“ARNOLD CREEK ESTUARY” oil painting of the Yaquina watershed by Michael Gibbons

A travelling exhibit of 35 oil paintings by Michael Gibbons, Toledo, will be on display at the Pacific Maritime & Heritage Center beginning Thursday, October 9th. The artist will be present throughout the day from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm, and invites everyone to stop by and see his unique views of the Yaquina watershed.

A Regionalist painter of the landscape, Gibbons is dedicated to capturing the beauty and diversity of the Yaquina Bay and River. He also considers it an absolute necessity to chronicle and document this vast watershed and the wild life it supports. “I have never felt so close to life as when working along this body of water,” Gibbons recently told a group of plein air painters he mentors.

Over this past Labor Day weekend, the Yaquina River Museum of Art offered their 1st juried plein air show to artists working in the Yaquina Watershed for the 21st Annual Art Walk held in Toledo. Some 14 painters trekked throughout the watershed for months in their quest to capture painted scenes done on location, finally selecting and presenting their best work to the Jury.

Arnold Creek Estuary, near the South Yaquina bay in Lincoln County, was Michael’s first plein air location as he worked on a commissioned painting for the Oregon governor’s residence, “Mahonia Hall.” At that time, he completed a series of 14 small oil studies (shown in this exhibit) from which he created the painting “Arnold Creek Estuary,” oil on linen, 62″x 42″ in 1998. The painting now hangs in the dining room of Mahonia Hall in Salem, Oregon. He then wrapped up and stored the oil studies, only bringing them out to public view when the decision was made to assemble a travelling exhibit.

Funding and Supporters of the Yaquina Traveling Exhibit are:
Oneatta Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation
Oregon Coast Bank
Pacific Maritime & Heritage Center
Yaquina River Museum of Art

“Yaquina” will be shown at the Pacific Maritime & Heritage Center through January 1st, 2015. For more information, contact the Lincoln County Historical Society at (541) 265-7509. For more information about the traveling exhibit, contact Judy Gibbons at (541) 336-2797. The Yaquina River Museum of Art can be reached at (541) 336-1907.