Michael Gibbons and raffle winner Pat Klinkhammer with "View from the Bluff"

Congratulations to Pat Klinkhammer of Newport, who won the raffle drawing at the St. Patrick’s Day event at the Toledo Yaquina River Museum of Art on Sunday, March 17.  The winning ticket was pulled by Museum office manager Rosa Decembrini at exactly 3:00 pm as all present cheered.  Michael Gibbons, Founder of the Museum, donated his original painting, “View from the Bluff,” (shown on easel in photo) to help the museum raise funds for operating expenses. During the very successful one-month campaign, 425 tickets were sold at $10 each in the raffle for the painting, valued at $3,500. 

Founded in 2002, the Yaquina River Museum of Art offers financial support for local art events and mounts art shows each month for First Weekend Toledo Art.  YRMA is also the Sponsor of Toledo Art Walk, an annual Labor Day weekend event that daily brings hundreds of people to the Toledo area and showcases the art of Toledo artists and guests. This popular event will be celebrating its 20th year this year and runs August 31, September 1 and 2, 2013.  Each year, the Museum invites a special guest artist to show their work during Art Walk.  This year, we are pleased that Rick Bartow of Newport will be our Guest Artist at the Museum. 

The School House Exhibit & Office, 151 NE Alder St. in Toledo, is open noon to 4:00 pm Wednesday through Sunday, and the Vicarage House Museum, 140 NE Alder St., may be visited by appointment. Call (541) 336-1907 or email yrmaoffice@qwestoffice.net for more information. 

Toledo artist Becky Miller, known for her paintings of Oregon kelp and tidepools, will be one of two featured artists at Ozone Fine Art on the bayfront in Newport for a month, beginning March 16.  A wine and appetizer reception from 5:00-7:30 pm will kick off the show. Entitled, “Take a Closer Look,” the show also features Geoffrey McCormack, who, like Miller, goes macroscopic in his realist paintings of oceanic themes.

Miller will be giving a brief presentation of some of the “back stories” behind many of her paintings currently on display in the gallery, including her most recent painting, “Ahnfeltiopsis Fantasy,” which has been a year and a half in the making and which will be unveiled for the first time at the opening reception.

Additionally, Miller will be participating in a paint-in at the gallery on Saturday, March 30, from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. She will be bringing in a 36×48″ canvas in progress and invites the public to come watch the creative process in action.

Michael Gibbons, Toledo artist and Thomas Kitts, Portland artist, are shown above working near the Port of Toledo marina boats at the foot of Main Street on Tuesday, March 12.  The artists were there working to complete paintings for the First Annual maritime-related juried art exhibition at the Pacific Maritime & Heritage Center  located at 333 S E Bay Blvd. in Newport.

The Center and year-long art exhibit will open in June, 2013. Gibbons and Kitts both paint en plein air (in the big air) regularly and will make their next destination the Second Annual Plein Air Convention & Expo on April 10-14 in Monterey, CA, along with 700 other painters already registered for the event.

For more information regarding the maritime show, please call the Center at 541-265- 7509 or Gallery Michael Gibbons at 541-336-2797.

Michael Gibbons has donated his exquisite painting, “View from the Bluff” (pictured below), to raise funds for the Yaquina River Museum of Art programs.  YRMA participates in all First Weekend Toledo Art monthly events; facilitates the three-day Labor Day Weekend Art Walk event, and sponsors a guest artist in the School House; mounts art exhibits throughout the year; purchases art from artists working in the Yaquina River watershed for the Permanent Collection; offers free meeting space to non-profits; and supports Volunteers’ service for the Museum.

“View from the Bluff” by Michael Gibbons

“View from the Bluff,” a 12″x9″ oil painting in a custom gold wood frame (valued at $3500), was painted on location (en plein air) 3 miles north of Pacific City on the Oregon central coast.  Michael Gibbons, internationally recognized painter who lives and works in Toledo near Newport, has captured the Pacific Ocean surf in a calm moment. The nearby trees included in the painting, as their bent trunks indicate, often are subjected to great winds and storms.  This painting is a glimpse of the pristine beauty of the area shared by the artist on a bright sunny day. Please visit the website of the artist for more information www.michaelgibbons.net.

Win this fabulous view of the Pacific coast for your art collection! Tickets are $10. each or 6 for $50. available at the School House. Your chances are greater by purchasing lots of tickets! Monies received go directly to the Yaquina River Museum of Art programs which benefit the whole community. Thank you for helping and good luck in winning!

*Drawing will be held on St. Patrick’s Day March 17^th! You need not be present to win!

More information at the Museum office, (541) 336-1907 or yrmaoffice@qwestoffice.net, or at Gallery Michael Gibbons, (541) 336-2797 or michaelgibbonsart@charter.net.

Toledo’s arts community has been highlighted in a feature article in the December issue of Fine Art Connoisseur magazine!  This is a BIG DEAL.

"Soon Forgotten" by Michael Gibbons

In addition to featuring this large photograph of one of Michael Gibbons’ beautiful paintings, “Soon Forgotten,” the magazine had this to say about Toledo:

“Art lovers eager to experience another side of Oregon should visit the town of Toledo, just a 10-minute drive inland from the Pacific coast. Home to 3,700 people, Toledo is surrounded by thickly forested hills overlooking Yaquina River and Bay. There the landscape painter Michael Gibbons (b. 1943) and his wife, Judy, have been instrumental in fostering the Toledo Arts District, which centers on the studios of several artists and on the Yaquina River Museum of Art. Founded by the Gibbonses in 2002 in an 1887 building that once served as a Sunday school, the museum collects and exhibits artists who have worked in the Yaquina watershed region. Today it holds a growing collection that includes 80 paintings and drawings by Michael Gibbons, as well as works by such other artists as Emil Carlsen, William Russell Flint, and Loran Speck. Gibbons’s studio nearby occupies a former Methodist church, and his Signature Gallery was the Episcopalian church’s vicarage. To arrange a tour of Toledo’s buildings, visit michaelgibbons.net.”

Michael Gibbons invites you to celebrate Christmas at the 1926 VicarageHouseMuseumduring an Open House for First Weekend, Dec. 1 & 2, from 11 to 5:00 pm each day.

Enter at the ground floor level in the Gallery to see art by Michael and enjoy the lighted Christmas tree; wend your way upstairs to the main floor to look at more art and enjoy hearty refreshments in the dining room under a Tiffany style chandelier by Waldport artist Howard Rubin; wander through the holiday decorated living room to the jewel of the house, “the Music Room,” to hear live Christmas music on the baby grand piano under another jewel-like lamp; and sign up to win free art door prizes and collect your original free art stamp with “The Close and Holy Darkness” theme of the month carved by Michael Gibbons, who wishes you a very Merry Christmas!

The Signature Gallery of Michael Gibbons is located one block above Main St.in the Uptown Arts District, 140   NE Alder Street, Toledo. For more information, call (541)336-2797 or see www.michaelgibbons.net.

Karisma Goodell, a 19-year-old graduate ofEddyvilleCharterSchooland up-and-coming photographer, will beToledoartist Becky Miller’s guest for her first solo photography show during First Weekend Toledo on December 1&2.  The show will be open to the public from 11:00 am until 5:00 pm Saturday and Sunday.  Refreshments will be served, and all are welcome.

Karisma has been an artist from a young age and took her first art class in elementary school.  She continued to draw and paint throughout middle school and high school.  Although she enjoyed drawing and painting and even participated inToledo’s annual Art Walk her Senior year, she felt something was missing.  “Some say I was good at it,” Karisma explains, “but I knew it was something I did just for fun.” Then Christmas 2009 came, and Karisma got her first camera. “For the first week I couldn’t put the thing down!”  Still sure that Karisma was set to be a painter, her art teacher proposed she take random shots with her camera that she could then attempt to draw or paint.  Instead, Karisma stumbled upon her true calling as an artist. “I got so focused on taking pictures,” she explains, “that I never painted again!”

Karisma became immersed in seeing the world from her unique perspective and taking others along for the beautiful ride.  Still, it never occurred to her that her passion could be anything more than a hobby.  “When graduation was only a measly two months away,” she says, “I began to panic.  Everyone else was so set in what they were going to do or who they were going to be, but I felt lost.”  An assignment to write an essay describing her dream job triggered the epiphany that changed the direction of her life.  “I kept running through my mind all the possibilities of a career for me: doctor, teacher, accountant, etc. None of it seemed right. Then I began to write about how I loved to take pictures, and how, if I could do anything for the rest of my life, that would be it. I wrote about my wish to travel to unbelievable places, see incredible things, and be able to share the experiences with everyone. Pretty soon I had four pages!”

A year and a half after graduation, Karisma is prepared for the reality that making her dream come true will not be easy.  She currently works odd jobs to support herself while actively pursuing her dream.  Meanwhile, she has started her own photography business, which is quickly taking off.  Not only does she indulge her artistic eye and sell art prints, but she also is doing custom portrait sittings, including maternity shoots, pet portraits, and senior portraits. She also does school sporting events, weddings and birthdays.

Photograph by Karisma Goodell

When Karisma launched her Facebook page, Becky Miller, who was familiar with Karisma’s paintings, realized immediately that she was seeing a blossoming talent and invited her to join her for First Weekend in December.  “Karisma has a wonderful eye and the special ability to capture art and emotion in a well-composed image.  I believe she has a great career ahead of her and am pleased to give her a chance to show off her talent to the community.”