Page 8 - WashCountyArts_Fall13.indd

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washington county arts guide
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September — November 2013
By Cindy Dauer
C elebrating its 40th year,
the annual Painter’s
Showcase will return to
Washington County this
September, but in a new
venue.
The group, which represents 30
visual artists from around the
Portland area, will host its annual
showcase, exhibit and sale at the
Reserve Vineyards and Golf Club in
Aloha on Sept. 27 and 28.
The show is open from 10 a.m. to 8
p.m. both days, with a chance to meet
the artists at a reception from 5 to 8
p.m. both evenings.
Admission to the showcase is free,
and guests can enter to win eight
original paintings that will be given
away.
The Painter’s Showcase includes
an elite group of artists. Some of its
members have been with the group
for decades. Each artist has a unique
style and background. Learn more
about some of the participating artists
below.
Chris Stubbs
Chris Stubbs loves to paint detailed
portraits of people and animals —
whether it’s her grandson in his green
rain boots and jacket looking for
frogs, a young granddaughter looking
thoughtfully into the distance or
elders sharing a story.
“Anything that has personality is
fun to paint,” noted Stubbs.
Stubbs has lived all over the world,
including China. Her worldliness is
reflected in her paintings.
She tries to capture her subjects
“in the act of life” or posed in an
unusual way. Stubbs likes to include a
high level of detail, trying to be very
precise.
“Portraits by nature have to be
very accurate,” she said.
While she loves to focus her
paintings on people, in her life and
studio she is surrounded by sweeping
landscapes. Her home in Carlton is
nestled among 120 acres of farmland,
wheat fields, clover and vineyards.
She also has a stunning view of the
Coast Range from the window of her
home art studio.
Chris Helton
Chris Helton’s paintings usually
contain a distinctly human element.
“I love to have people, or at least a
sense of humanity, in my paintings,”
Helton said.
Sometimes it is just a hint of
someone somewhere, an open window
with flower pots on the sill, a grassy
trail that leads out to the beach or
shoes neatly lined up near the door.
Other times, Helton will focus on
children playing in the public
fountain, a mother and child at the
market or strangers lined up for a
parade.
A retired teacher of 30 years,
Helton has always had art in her life.
She most recently taught drawing and
painting at the Arts and
Communications Magnet Academy in
Beaverton. She also spent years
teaching primary grades and younger
children in the Portland area, making
art literacy an important part of the
curriculum.
Helton, a Bethany-area resident,
recently entered a program to become
a docent at the Portland Art Museum.
Airi Huoponen Foote
“I have no idea when I start what is
going to happen next,” said Airi Foote,
an experimental abstract artist
originally from Finland.
Foote — who works with mixed
media, watercolors, and acrylics —
often mixes colors together in a bowl
and pours them onto the paper and
watches to see what happens.
“I let them move on the paper by
themselves,” she explained.
The 74-year-old says abstract art
“makes you think” and that everybody
sees it in a different way.
Her paintings get their names in a
unique way too. Foote’s husband
names each piece, often using a
dictionary to carefully choose the
right word that captures the essence
Local artists’ work will be on display in Aloha this fall
Showcase boasts a world wrapped up in paint
Chris Stubbs’ grandson was a willing subject for her “Looking for Frogs” painting (left). Airi Foote’s abstract work “Jubilation” is a
mixed-media piece.