Merriam-Webster: Threshold, noun

Just my luck. The randomly picked day for a visit to the Giustina Gallery at Oregon State University in Corvallis turned out to be move-in day for the students. Go Beavers! And their parents! And about every car in Oregon clogging the streets and making parking near impossible to find. No regrets, though. I soon left the chaos and the cacophony of competing marching band practices behind, entering a world that transported me quickly to a very different place.

Erik Sandgren Wreck of the Peter Iredale and Cape Disappointment Fort Stevens State Park 2014

On display until October 25, 2024 is an extravagant collection of works by numerous artists all centered around imagery found along the length of the Oregon Coast: Pacific Threshold: Sandgren & Sandgren- Painting the Oregon Coast with Friends 1978-2023. The selected paintings, watercolors and charcoals emerged from over 40 years of summer painting sessions at the coast, organized by Nelson Sandgren, a painter and printmaker who taught at Oregon State University for thirty-eight years, from 1948 until 1986. He was joined by his son, Erik Sandgren, who continued to keep the PaintOuts alive and kicking, while he taught art at university level and established a track record as one of Oregon’s most noted and collected painters in his own right.

Dee Vadnais Ecola Arch Ecola State Park 2019

I had written about the experience of being at a PaintOut previously; Sandgren opens a window into that world in more detail here. It is worthwhile reading his description either before or after you visit the exhibition, because it puts a context around the presented art that will make it easier to grasp the variety of works on display. Some are at the threshold of notable artworks, others have long crossed that line. Some capture the threshold between land and sea, others focus on a threshold where visual objects are translated into psychological experiences, (for both painter and this viewer, I should add.)

Anthony James Cotham Driftwood Shelter at Seal Rock Seal Rock State Park 2009

Curated around the geographical locations defining the coast, the salon-style – hung works allow you to peruse familiar and unfamiliar vistas, depending on your travel habits. Much joy in recognizing familiar scenery. The fact that different media are bunched together, diversity further emphasized by individual framing choices that eventually blend together in a lively fashion, sharpens the sense that we encounter here a collective at work. They all hone in on the way nature shapes the coast, shapes our perceptions, and informs ways of expression that need not be literal, although representationalism is the most frequent mode in this show.

Here is a helpful list of those artists exhibiting as well as of participants in the annual workshops. Those showing were invited to maximize the range of styles on display. As Sandgren told me, the goal was to present all possible styles, from abstract to expressionist to impressionist and California neoimpressionist approaches, all tackling a unified subject matter. The only regret of the exposition was the lighting – the rather dark rooms have plenty of spot lights directed at the art work. Since most of it is behind glass, as aquarelle and charcoals must be, the glare is a nuisance.

That said, there are interesting observations of how the styles of the teachers influenced those of the participating students and colleagues in some cases, and how others found quite independent voices while still adhering to the shared value: the connection to, appreciation of, and love for nature. I should add that there are also a number of perceptive nods to the fishing industry,

Nelson Sandgren Summer Harboring Depoe Bay Motif Depoe Bay

Carol Norton Yates Coos Bay Boat Repair Charleston 1985 — Susan Trueblood Stuart Yaquina Harbor Newport 1985

Erik Sandgren On the Hard at Port Orford Port Orford 2017

or the visual beauty of structures that define the coastal regions, bridges and light houses.

Bets Cole Yaquina Light Yaquina Head

Netson Sandgren Cape Blanco Light Cape Blanco — Erik Sandgren Visionary Light at Cape Blanco Cape Blanco 2017

In fact, there was barely a seascape that did not have some structural element prominently in view, rather than solely waves and water. Contrast helps visual definition, I guess. Who knows, maybe there will be soon another J.M. Turner in the making…. those unmatched seascapes that transferred the threshold between land and water into that of water and sky.

Erik Sandgren Barview Jetty Tillamook Bay 2010

Nelson Sandgren Florence Dunes Honeyman State Park 2000

I was particularly drawn to the many and varied depictions of trees. The rainforests along the coast have some of the toughest conditions of survival, battered by winds, salt water and rapidly changing temperatures. Artists captured the defiant nature of these gnarly giants well.

Debby Sundbaum-Sommers Sea Dragon Shore Acres State Park 2019

Susan DeRosa Overlapping, In the Woods Neptune State Scenic Viewpoint 2017— Gretchen Vadnais Big Spruce Newport

Cynthia Jacobi Grove at Neptune State Park Neptune State Scenic Vewpoint 2023 —Sally Bolton Resting Spot Cape Perpetua 2023

Threshold is often defined as beginning, and the PaintOut gatherings were certainly something new and obviously very desirable. They gathered a community of like-minded artists, with the shared commitment likely pushing individual participants over their own thresholds of insecurity regarding their art, or their threshold of willingness to get up regularly and defy the weather, something much harder when it is just yourself out there.

Nelson Sandgren Rocky Creek Rocky Creek Scenic Viewpoint: 2000 — Humberto Gonzales Rocky Creek Rocky Creek Scenic Viewpoint: 2007

Threshold is also the point where a psychological effect emerges, if certain variables all come together. The accumulation of paintings, so many all in one spot, really enhanced rather than detracted from the appreciation of any individual one. Just like the coast surrounds you with multiple varied stimuli, the light, noise, smells and sensory experience of the wind and rain, the depictions congregated into a representational landscape of their own.

Robin Berry Tide Tossed Seal Rock State Park

Jim Shull Elephant Rock 2 Seal Rock State Park 2005

Congregation, come to think of it, is an applicable term for the community of artists who, summer after summer, spend time together painting, critiquing, encouraging and learning from each other. Not a religious fervor, but a fervor nonetheless for capturing nature, pushing an individual’s experience across a threshold into artistic depiction. Makes one jealous in a world ever more bent on isolation.

Leland John Nelson and Friends at Bandon Bandon 2002

Here they were, some time ago, painting together, and each other. I photographed subsequent generations two years ago.

At least we can share the output. If you can’t make it to Corvallis to visit and explore this treasure trove, there is a book that serves as the catalogue for the exhibition. It is available on site or can be ordered here.

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Pacific Threshold: Sandgren & Sandgren- Painting the Oregon Coast with Friends 1978-2023

Exhibit Dates: Monday, September 9, 2024 to Friday, October 25, 2024

The Giustina Gallery: 875 SW 26th St., Corvallis, Oregon, 97331.

GALLERY HOURS:

The LaSells Stewart Center, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., unless in private event use.

Please confirm your date and hours to ensure access.

Susan Rudisitt Conversation on the Cobbles Neptune State Scenic Viewpoint 2016

Title image : Erik Sandgren Drift Log Fort Seal Rock State Park 2023