Creative Spirits Gallery
The goal of the WLLC Creative Spirits Gallery is to support emerging and established artists and give their works exposure. The gallery exhibits works by area professional artists with opportunities for amateur artists as well. The gallery team seeks to create collaborations among the artists and between the artists and the community.
The gallery has two main exhibition walls, each approximately 15 feet long and 8 feet tall. In addition to this space, two of our sanctuary’s walls serve as exhibiting walls, each approximately 8 feet tall and 40 feet long. There is also a niche gallery space called “Little Spirits” that can hold 2 large or up to 20 small pieces. Glass art can be displayed in natural light and fabric art hanged on poles or with clips. Artists also have brought in their own cabinets for display of jewelry and other 3D pieces.
Artists Currently on Display in the Gallery
Joy Nunn
Painting for me is, well, fun. It is also energizing, joyful, challenging, escapist, humbling, magical, exasperating and always revealing. It is an ongoing, never-ending endeavor to express something and to discover a way to do that. No matter how small or how vast the subject, everything I see radiates potential. The desire to put that down, to find or give enlightenment or achieve some emotional connection within another person, is with me
always.
Painting is also a love affair with the tools of trade – a kaleidoscope of colors in every medium, brushes, water, pencil, crayon, pastel and ink. It is
incredible to me that with these tools and on a flat, two-dimensional surface, I can create something that has never quite been done in the same way before and can preserve this image as a record of myself.
Marieke Mertz
Sitting at her childhood dining table about an hour south of Amsterdam is where Marieke Mertz’ love for creating art began. A graduate of the Milan Art Institute Mastery Program, she now enjoys working with oil paint and mixed media on canvas, using layering techniques to create depth and spontaneous brushstrokes to convey movement.
Marieke’s art is filled with compassion and hope, inspiring viewers to contemplate how they feel, how they can lift up others and make the world a better place for all. A certified Oregon Naturalist, she has a big heart for wildlife and uses her art to advocate for nature conservation, simultaneously highlighting that we need nature for our own physical and mental wellness. While our world can be so challenging and complicated, her art celebrates the simple joys.
10% of sales will be donated to Creative Spirits Gallery to support the gallery and its important work for the community.
Kathleen Buck
My paintings attempt to capture the essence of a scene using abstract painterly elements and careful color choices to enhance the illusion of reality while creating a harmonious unity. I like to play with texture and color, yet often allow a recognizable image to emerge from the chaos. Other times I want to paint an abstract that has a strong composition and will entrance the viewer, without necessarily being tied to reality.
I paint primarily in watercolor and acrylics. Watercolor lets me play with light and color; acrylics encourage a layered painting style with great depth.
I have been a member of the Watercolor Society of Oregon since 1994. I am active in the Arts Alliance of Yamhill County, which annually sponsors the Art Harvest Studio Tour, in which I have participated since 1997. In 2005, I joined with 5 partners to create Currents Gallery in McMinnville, OR, and we have since been running this successful Gallery.
Past Artists
