Kathy Deggendorfer’s new show, "Streamside" will open on Thursday, September 30, with a Special Preview Artist Reception from 5 to 8pm at our downtown Bend, Oregon, gallery. For collectors and fans alike, this event is considered more intimate and convivial, with Oregon wines, light hors d'oeuvres, and the chance to mingle and chat with the artist. The show is the culmination of ten months of work by Kathy Deggendorfer, showcasing paintings that offer a diversity of color sense, composition and subject matter.
"Most painters will tell you they're inspired by the way light illuminates an object...I think it’s pattern for me," Kathy Deggendorfer explains. "I love the way the light breaks up a flat plane into multiple layers...leaves with bits of blue sky behind, water rippling into a fishnet pattern of light and color." Talking about the way she sees the world, Deggendorfer often describes her fascination with color and pattern as stemming from growing up in a home where fabric and pattern reined supreme. "I think my muse loves summer and green, green, green," she laughs. "But seriously, I love bright, saturated color. Many of my paintings are built from a base of yellows – I have to capture the gold or yellow tone of light and then build over it with greens and reds. The new sage pieces were fun for me to do since the colors of the Steens Mountain in South East Oregon area are more subtle than the Metolius images."
How did you plan for this show? I came back from a trip last winter, where I tried to paint amid lots of distractions. I felt like I had lost my touch. Nothing was coming together and I couldn’t finish a dang thing. My good friend John Simpkins, a talented painter and expert in acrylics, took me aside and said, "Kathy - you just need to paint BIG...and you need to experiment with acrylics."
Simpkins gave her a list of materials and took her to the lumber yard to pick up a sheet of masonite. He gave her a few lessons in the medium of acrylic and then let her experiment. "It was very freeing," Kathy explains. "Painting big like he showed me was more like sculpting...you paint, and then wipe away what isn’t right for the image."
What did you enjoy most about the acrylic pieces in this show? The piece, Bubbles and Squares turned out so great! It is a study in what I usually do on a very tiny basis...fun to see it like under a microscope! Golden Afternoon was also an amazing painting experience. I spent a lot of time on the upper Metolius River marveling at the light in the afternoon. The water up there is shallow and the stones and mosses change color as the sun moves across the sky. At one point I thought I had almost captured it with my sketchbook using watercolor, colored pencil, and sharpie. I took that sketch back to the studio and started playing with the canvas and acrylic - wow! That color and pattern just sprang to life on the canvas. I love this piece. Sometimes my mind just needs to rest and I feel like this piece captures that water movement and color. It's very restful.
How are the Steens Mountain paintings different from the Metolius River paintings? 
The Steens Mountain pieces, titled Patterns in the Sage (left image) and Jenkins Ranch, came after 3 days of sketching and soaking up the feeling of place. Patterns are everywhere out there in the sage. Some of the tiniest dots and patterns are like little sound bites - those are the amazing number of insects living in the field. The place is alive with all kinds of life, and not the human kind. It was a great experience.
What do you like to put in to a painting? Pattern with significance. Travelers Rest 1 and 2 and Grosbeak’s Party are all inspired by experiences from earlier this year. Remember when we had the false spring? The birds started their annual migration back and flowers and trees thought it was time to bud out. Then we got slammed with mini snowstorms - one after another. We had so many birds around the house during one of those snow storms, all cold and hungry. I felt sorry for them. I took some black sunflower seeds and sprinkled them on our front stone porch. In minutes I had over 100 of these amazing Grosbeaks. Beautiful with flashes of yellow and funny little parrot shaped heads. They jumped around gobbling up those seeds like there was no tomorrow. Look closely at those pieces. You’ll see the pattern of the Montana Slate porch and the ovals of the seeds.
How did your ideas for this show evolve? I painted The River is the Thread last year. It 
was intended to be the basis for a collaborative piece with Tonye Phillips, but I ended up putting it together myself and selling it at the gallery. I wanted to do another similar piece and painted Streamside - a full sheet with lots of fun patterning in the water and those great big red ponderosa trees. That led to Summertime, Full Bloom (left image) and Early Summer on the Metolius (top image). Water...it’s the stuff of life. It seemed like this was a sustaining image that would carry me through to the opening of my first autumn show.
What are you most excited about? I think that I have a really good body of work for this show. I love that there is a mix of sizes, and different surfaces, too. Pieces like The Travelers are done on clayboard, the watercolors are on rives and canson papers, and the acrylics are on board and canvas. I pushed my visual comfort zone for this show. I’ve painted subjects from the mountains to the deserts, incorporated birds and people to pattern and landscape. I’ve been working hard for over ten months to produce an interesting and diverse mix, and I want to thank High Desert Gallery for this chance to see “Streamside” presented beautifully!
Exhibition: Streamside, showcasing new work by Kathy Deggendorfer. Runs from September 30 through October 31 at our downtown Bend, Oregon gallery, located at 10 NW Minnesota Avenue at The Oxford.
Special Preview Artist Reception: Thursday September 30, from 5 to 8pm. More intimate, with Oregon wines, real food and the opportunity to meet the artist
First Friday: October 1 from 10 to 9 pm.
First Friday Artist Reception: Friday October 1, from 5 to 9pm. Meet the artist, refreshments, and live music by The Anvil Blasters, from 5:30 to 8:30pm during First Friday Gallery Walk
Exhibit and sale runs September 30 through October 31
High Desert Gallery
10 NW Minnesota Avenue at The Oxford
Bend, OR 97701
541-388-8964
www.highdesertgallery.com
Open Daily 10am-6pm, Sunday 11am-5pm
About Kathy Deggendorfer: Kathy Deggendorfer lives on a cattle and hay ranch just 
outside of Sisters, Oregon. Inspired by the color, pattern and texture of her surroundings, she creates vibrant and colorful watercolor paintings. Whimsical images of flowers and ranch life fill the paintings with color and life. "Folks tell me they just feel happy when they look at my work-- that makes me happy." Raised in Portland, Oregon, in a clothing manufacturing family, she says ,"Sewing skills skipped a generation with me... but I love fabric and pattern, much like the quilters who live in Sisters. I like to call my creations 'Painters Quilts.' I just put my fabrics in with a paintbrush." (Image Credit: Lynn Woodward)
Kathy has been working on a project about Oregon Specialty Farms and sustainable farm practices. This project takes her out into the fields of Oregon farms to paint and learn about what makes Oregon agricultural practices and people unique. Trips to the cattle ranches of Eastern Oregon and vineyards of the Willamette Valley provide her with plenty of rich and colorful images. She says it’s mostly an excuse to see some of the prettiest places in Oregon and meet the nicest people.
Kathy’s current work celebrates the diversity of the High Desert. The charming cabins along the Metolius River at Camp Sherman, the patterns in the water and the verdant foliage streamside are favorite subjects. A trip to Steens Mountain in Southeastern Oregon provided the inspiration for some great new Sage Land images. “It’s amazing how complex and beautiful this landscape can be when you take the time to sit in the sage and paint.”
Kathy's collaborative work with master quilter, Tonye Belinda Phillips, is fun combination of painted image and textile interpretation. Their two styles and mediums have been the source of some beautiful and unique pieces. Kathy, spinning her story with a paintbrush and Tonye piecing hers together with fabric and thread.
Kathy's work is collected throughout the Pacific Northwest and reaches out to all corners of the United States, Canada, New Zealand, England and beyond! Kathy was selected to create the official Oregon 2008 ornament for the White House Christmas Tree. She has pieces in the permanent collection at Redmond Airport, was the 2007 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show Poster Artist, and has been chosen to create the 2011 Quilt Show poster!
Kathy wrote and illustrated a children's book last year, “Smells Like Spring” and also created one for St. Charles Medical Center for children who were patients at the SurgiCenter. Her work has been translated into clothing and fabric for Columbia Sportswear, you can find it on mugs and purses . She is proud to announce a new line of quilting fabric from In The Beginning Fabrics , Seattle Washington.
In 2005, Kathy was awarded 'Citizen of the Year' in Sisters Oregon for her contributions to the community and the arts. In 2010 she was appointed by Governor Kulongowski to the Board of the Oregon Cultural Trust.
High Desert Gallery & Custom Framing of Central Oregon is honored to represent Kathy Deggendorfer exclusively in Central Oregon.
About High Desert Gallery & High Desert Frameworks!: High Desert Gallery, The Art & Soul of Central Oregon™ is an award winning fine art and custom picture framing gallery with two High Desert Gallery retail locations in Bend, Oregon, and Sisters Oregon and High Desert Frameworks! located at 61 NW Oregon Avenue at Lava in downtown Bend, Oregon. The gallery specializes in Central Oregon Artists & Beyond™ and Stellar Custom Framing. High Desert Gallery honored in 2005, 2006 and 2007 by Decor Magazine as a "Top 100 Art and Framing Gallery in America" and voted "Best Art Gallery" in Sisters, Oregon (2005, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010). International Framing Awards earned by High Desert Gallery include First Place and Top Honors in the Professional Picture Framing Association (PPFA) 2007-2008 International Open Framing Competition, Third Place in the Professional Picture Framing Association 2008-2009 International Print Framing Competition, and Top Honors and "Best Use of Fabric" in the Professional Picture Framing Association (PPFA) 2009-2010 International Print Framing Competition.
For more information please visit: www.highdesertgallery.com or call toll free 1-866-549-6250.
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