Coos Art Museum

Coos Art Museum has outdone itself this time, truly. Currently showing the 16th Annual Maritime Art Exhibit in the main gallery, CAM has made it’s selections and they are masterpieces. I have to celebrate local artist William A. Selden’s work. Selden’s paintings, Resting Peace, Charleston Fishing Boats and Foggy Afternoon in Yachats, are each symphonies of color and expertly balanced. Also, Paula Holtzer’s scenic sunsets capture a golden freshness and immediacy, they are: Shining Seas, Indian Summer and September Evening.

Upstairs you’ll find artist, doctor, architect and author (phew) Lian Zhen, whose idiosyncratic color palette and many charming scenes capture the natural world. Slate blue, coral pink and blood red dominate such pictures as Family, a yard of sweet-eyed chickens and Koi, a pond of undulating fish.

Also, the National Watercolor Society Traveling Exhibition delivers with a room of award winning paintings including Irena Romans Connected by Shadows, the perfect example of how light and transparency are captured in watercolor. Toshiko Ukon, from Lake Oswego Oregon, has painted in plein air a dramatic, swooping street scene titled, Love From Malta. Brilliant and amusing, Feeding Time, by Soon Yi Warren vibrates with energy, also highlighting a pond of fish. Sundown No. 2 is a dense and moody desert, abstract and opaque; Carole Pickle has subtly defied every convention of watercolor.

I plan to visit again.