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Brian Cameron and Kirk Jonasson
April 12 - May 6, 2008
More About the Artists:
Brian Cameron
Kirk Jonasson
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For Immediate Release:
Mood . Light . Landscape
Two North Coast Artists Offer a Dual Perspective
At RiverSea Gallery in Astoria, two North Coast artists will offer a dual perspective of regional
surroundings in an exhibition opening April 12. Brian Cameron will present paintings of landscapes
rendered with bold strokes and suffused with soft light. Kirk Jonasson will offer a series of photographs
juxtaposing structure with expansive vista. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, April 12, from
5:00 to 8:00 pm. The artists will be in attendance, and Dave Drury will entertain with a lively mix of
guitar jazz. The artwork will be on display through May 6.
Brian Cameron did not begin his creative life as a painter, or even an artist. The Seaside native built houses
for years before delving into sculpture and fine furniture, ventures that stoked his creative fires.
But after years of productive output, something still lacked: color. Realizing that the power to capture mood,
light, and landscape all comes through color, Cameron began to paint, and others started to notice. After all,
it isn't often that a wood sculptor morphs into a talented painter.
Cameron still creates sculpture and fine art in wood, or just about any other material he can get his hands
on. But for capturing the essence of the beauty he sees all around his ocean front home, Cameron turns to
the world of paint.
"If I see a scene and become completely inspired, I hustle back into the studio and do it," says Cameron.
Cameron's recent body of work is heavily influenced by his sense of light and mood. Though he keeps
his palette spare, the effect is vibrant. Cameron's spirited strokes put red next to green and blues
swarm within yellows. The eye of the viewer blends the vivid colors, and the impression is complete.
Cameron has plucked some of his inspiration from the views along our local coastal highways.
In "Maddie's Farm," wooly sheep cluster in soft light, their puffy bodies illuminated by a rising sun.
A fog rolls in, and the entire scene purrs with a strictly impressionist sensibility.
In "The Apple Orchard," the effect is even more intense. Lush violets vibrate beneath a canopy of
spring-white blossoms; the trunks of the ancient trees recede gently to invisibility.
Cameron often works in the very abstract, and then periodically veers back toward a more literal body of
work like his current one. The impressionist masters still hold sway over the 55-year-old, though his
paintings are imbued with a fresh, Northwestern sensibility.
On a rainy March afternoon, Cameron ponders over one of his favorite paintings; a work by Frank W. Benson
that shows his wife on a grassy hillside looking out over the ocean, her white dress a dance of light and
shadow.
"When someone catches something like that, I'm kind of like, 'wow,'" says Cameron.
Cameron's paintings have elicited a lot of 'wow' themselves lately. His work is selling well, collectors
are taking notice, and the compliments are piling up.
Kirk Jonasson often elicits the extraordinary from the ordinary, as he explores his surroundings through
a camera lens. The side of a dumpster becomes an abstract tapestry. An oily puddle becomes a landscape.
While his work is often infused with the color and energy of coast life, Jonasson avoids more straightforward
images of the ocean and rivers.
Sometimes just the surface of a wooden hull or the fractured tip of a well-used oar says much more than
the image of an entire ship.
In other words, Jonasson's style eliminates the whole kit-and-caboodle in
favor of the quintessential.
In fact, Jonasson's work is such a close examination of surface quality, shape, line, color, that the original
scene often fades behind his keen eye for the eye-popping abstract.
"I take an intuitive approach to photographing and in making images," says Jonasson. "I look forward to that
moment when subliminal connection is made to the subject."
Jonasson does not plan his photographs so much as he discovers them. Expertly, Jonasson navigates the space
between 'reality' and 'imagination.'
Despite Jonasson's abstract tendencies, his latest body of photographs draws power from the grandeur of
Astoria's architecture, locality, and history.
Jonasson says much of his past work has been abstract; more an exploration of the artist's interior world.
His current body of work brings in more of the exterior.
"With Astoria, I wanted to back away a bit," says Jonasson, "I wanted to maintain a tight personal connection
with the imagery while at the same time letting the place speak for itself."
If he once distilled the grand from the minute, he now chooses to widen his lens-work to include the enigmatic
relics of the region, and their relationship to the land and sea.
"There's just something about Astoria," says Jonasson. "The historical significance and the magnificence
of the setting have really been drawing me there the last couple years."
Jonasson has lived in Lincoln City for a decade but has found himself wandering Astoria's waterfront
more and more.
"There's a grittiness about the place that I like," explains Jonasson. "It's not just an attraction for
the tourists, it's a working town. There is a real air of authenticity about the place."
The show is doubly sweet for Jonasson and Cameron, who've maintained a personal friendship for over a
decade. In fact, Jonasson used to sell Cameron's furniture within Portland galleries. They've wanted
to have a show together for some time.
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