August 2016 Featured Artists

Join us at First Thursday, August 4th to meet the featured artists: Susan Supola, Ronnie Barone, Janis Newton, Beth Bailey, William Swinth and Ray Cooper.

Mingle with fellow art lovers in historic downtown Longview. Live music provided by local musicians. Featured artists artwork is on display all month.
During the August 4th First Thursday from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm, enjoy the music of Brad Matthews.

About The Artists

Susan Supola – Painter

Susan Supola

I often work in watercolor and dye on silk, but have been interested in the use of texture and a more abstract approach using acrylic paints and mediums. These paintings are derived from natural subjects I find appealing.
Artist’s Biography:
Because I grew up in a small town in the mountains of Montana and spent a lot of time outside hiking, swimming, rowing my dad’s fishing boat, skiing, and sledding, I get most of my inspiration from Nature. I am also inspired by travel and the stories of other countries and peoples. You will see subjects in my art from places I’ve visited or lived: Italy, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece, Jordan, Egypt, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Thailand, and Myanmar. Artists who have influenced me are Zoltan Zabo, Gustav Klimpt, and Peter London. I’ve taken workshops and studied under many different artists, including Peter London, Peggy Zehring, Jean Dobie, and Don Andrews.

I graduated from Whitworth University with a B.A. in Art and English Education and taught at Mead School District, Washington for two years, Flathead High School, Kalispell, Montana, for twenty two years and Narmer American College, Maadi, Cairo, Egypt for a year. While I was teaching, I received a Fulbright-Hayes grant for a six-week study program in The Czech Republic and Slovakia, an appointment to the National Center for the Humanities as a consultant for their program for the Modern Era in America for teachers, and showed art in several shows, receiving First Place, Second Place, and People’s Choice awards. I moved to Longview, Washington, in September, 2014, where I joined the Broadway Gallery.

Ronnie Barone – Illustrator/Painter

Ronnie Barone

My mother took a few art classes in high school. In her later years, she took a few more classes at a community college in Central California. The years in between she practiced her art as a hobby and raised six children. In quiet times past, my younger sister and I would sit at her feet and play with our coloring books. At about age five and being two and a half years older than my sister, I generously gave my sibling the benefit of my advanced expertise in the fine art of coloring within the lines. Amused, my mother picked up our crayons and quickly sketched us. When she was done, she showed us the finished product.

I was utterly amazed! There, without a doubt, was my pudgy baby sister, sitting cross-legged in the fashion that helped her maintain an upright posture, gripping her crayon in a fist that physically prevented ever getting color on paper. I was depicted with my mouth open, intent on my image, but giving an unending stream of advice. Everything in the picture captured that moment in time perfectly, with love, with soft hues, with accuracy and with obvious, undeniable talent. Even to a five year old.

I wanted it. I desired it. I craved it instantly and with a passion I did not fully understand. I wanted to possess it more than anything I had ever wanted in my short sojourn on this planet. Not the picture. I wanted her ability. I wanted to do what she had just done.

And so I was driven from that moment to capture a portion of her talent. Always thinking my artwork could not quite compare. Striving always to do better. Never entirely satisfied with the final product and hoping other folks wouldn’t notice the flaws glaring out at me.

After I retired from fifty years of nursing, I joined The Broadway Gallery and was so tickled they accepted me as a member. I see their striking works and again, quite often, I feel the same desire I felt at my mother’s feet.

So, what precisely is the origin of my soulful, passionate, driven artistic inspiration? Why…it’s envy. It’s a greedy, grasping, immature emotion that keeps me dissatisfied. It pushes and prods me to try to be as talented as all those countless artists I envy.

Janis Newton- Painter/Sculptor

Janis Newton

Art has been an important part of my life since early childhood. I have always been impressed with created art around me. My teachers and other artists, including my father, nurtured my desire and ability to create in several media. I express myself in photography, sculpture and oil painting.

My involvement as a high school art teacher for 29 years and an art instructor at Mohave Community College, has been rewarding and has given me new perspective to my own work. I feel that art is more than putting ink to paper or oil on a canvas. In order for art to have an impact and value to others, it must convey a message to its viewers. This is a personal statement by the creator of the art.

To create my sculptures or paintings, I use a camera as a tool. The images captured by the camera are not viewed as complete compositions but rather as supporting documentation. For me, the camera is an information gathering instrument- my sketchbook. I add elements of my personal emotional response to any image created. It is this artistic sovereignty that separates art from photography and creative painting from copied photographs.

Beth Bailey-Watercolorist/Illustrator

Beth Bailey

It’s been a great summer to work in plein air painting with some other artists in such locations as the Woodland Bottoms, Kress Lake and Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge. I have been the only watercolorist among the many oil painters. When I am not painting en plein air, I am working from photos I take along my travels or while on my painting sessions. I love celebrating the beauty of the Pacific Northwest.

As a member of the Broadway Gallery, I also offer classes and paint parties throughout the year. This year I started a Watercolor Exploration Class that went well. I was looking for some ways to challenge myself and help people enjoy painting. In the process, I have been working on some bolder colors and unique techniques in watercolor. Some of these small paintings reflect that endeavor while the others involve my outdoor painting adventures.

I hope you enjoy this new collection of small paintings.

William Swinth-Ceramist

William Swinth

As far back as I can remember, I have always been doing something art related with a sketchbook never far from my side. I have had some formal art training at The Art Institute of Seattle where I received an associate degree in Computer Animation. I think this set the base for many of the things I have done since.

Many years later I went to Evergreen State College and received a BA with emphasis in China Studies. It was my time at Evergreen that got me interested in ceramics, particularly the two study abroad trips to China. It was a combination of seeing all the intricate teapots at the various teashops a small group of us visited and having the opportunity to throw my first piece on a pottery wheel that led me to this media. I was grateful to the host university because that was what hookedme into this art.

About a year and a half later, I ended up in Kelso and began taking ceramic classes at the Lower Columbia College. I have been doing ceramics for about two and a half years now focusing mostly on wheel thrown pieces.

My current work is all wheel thrown using red and white clay. The impressions on the side are made using a can opener and the end of a paint brush handle. I used the same base pattern and added different elements to each as inspiration struck. To bring out the pattern, I used an interactive pigment or wash that I pulled away in some areas. Following that, I glaze them and fired to cone 6.

Ray Cooper-Painter

Ray Cooper

Artist statement: “In regard to what I’m painting now, perhaps it is an accurate reflection of my achievements.”
Ray Lynn Cooper is a contemporary artist who was born in Walla Walla, Washington and is now living in Kelso , Washington. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Drawing and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting, Sculpture and Art History, both from Washington State University.

Ray began to formally study fine art at Eastern Washington University. During his two years at Eastern, professors Ruben Trejo and Bruce Beal were both influential mentors in Ray’s academic and creative development. Transferring to Washington State University Ray then came under the tutelage of Jo Hockenhull, Selene Santucci, Patrick Siler, Jack Dollhousen, Robert Helm and Michael Holloman .

Ray is interested in portraiture and figurative paintings, landscape paintings, nonrepresentational abstract painting, airbrush painting and he also produces sculpture.

Currently, Ray works at his private studio located in Kelso, Washington. Since 1999 Ray has taught at Clark College and Lower Columbia College in Southwest Washington as an adjunct professor at both institutions. He has been responsible for teaching courses in art appreciation, design, watercolor, beginning, intermediate, and advanced painting, drawing and figure drawing. He served as a board member for the Washington Community College Humanities Association and art editor for the WCCHA’s annual publication Crosscurrents from 2009 to 2013.