A Summer Garden

Jim and Terry are both masters of capturing the elusive qualities of light, at any time of year. But in this show, it is all the shades of brilliant summer sun. There are large paintings spattered with the colors of hundreds of flowers and the hedge in the background. There are also small paintings, like Terry’s portrait of a velvet red poppy, caught in the petals of the gladiola behind it. One of Jim’s paintings features three rose bushes covered in pale yellow blooms, the lawn beneath them broken into panes of endless shades of green.

“I think beauty is very mysterious,” Terry says. Why are we drawn to it? For Jim and Terry, the compulsion to paint comes from this inexplicable attraction to the land, air and water, in all of its colors. They are both passionately in love with the beauty they find in the world and full of gratitude for the life they live, spending their days soaking it in. That joy is the real source of light in their paintings.

Meridian Fine Art Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays. It’s located at 833 9th Street in Arcata in the Raymond James Financial Services building. Walk through HSU’s sculpture garden to get there. There will be a reception for the artists at Arts! Arcata this Friday, Dec. 14, from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Twenty percent of sales from the show will be donated to the Northcoast Children’s Services Children of the Redwoods Infant and Toddler Center in Arcata.

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ONE Comments

Comment / By Wendy Dunford / March 15, 2009, 11:28 a.m.

I think this may be the same Terry Oats I went to high school with (Division Avenue H.S., Levittown, NY.) If so, would love to hear from her. My name then was Wendy Max. I am now Wendy Dunford, living just outside Charleston, SC.