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Story and Photographs by FRIDERIKE HEUER

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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.

On display until October 25, 2024 is an extravagant collection of works by numerous artists, all centered on 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 more than 40 years of summer painting sessions at the coast, organized by Nelson Sandgren, a painter and printmaker who taught at Oregon State University for 38 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 college level and established a track record as one of Oregon’s most noted and collected painters in his own right, and continues the PaintOut tradition.

I had written about the experience of being at a PaintOut previously; Erik 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.)

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, their 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 home 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 spotlights 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,

Left: Carol Norton Yates, “Coos Bay Boat Repair,” Charleston. 1985. Right: Susan Trueblood Stuart, “Yaquina Harbor,” Newport, 1985.

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

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.

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.

Left: Susan DeRosa, “Overlapping, In the Woods,” Neptune State Scenic Viewpoint, 2017. Right: Gretchen Vadnais, “Big Spruce,” Newport.

Left: Cynthia Jacobi Grove, “At Neptune State Park,” Neptune State Scenic Vewpoint, 2023. Right: Sally Bolton, “Resting Spot,” Cape Perpetua, 2023,

“Threshold” is often defined as beginning, and the PaintOut gatherings, which continue, were certainly something new and obviously very desirable. They gather 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.

Left: Nelson Sandgren, “Rocky Creek,” Rocky Creek Scenic Viewpoint, 2000. Right: 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, enhanced rather than detracted from the appreciation of any individual one. Just as 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.

“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.

Here they were, some time ago, painting together, and painting 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 through Erik Sandgren; contact information here.

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

• Exhibit Dates: September 9-October 25, 2024
• Location: The Giustina Gallery, LaSells Stewart Center: 875 SW 26th St., Corvallis, Oregon, 97331.

GALLERY HOURS:

• 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, unless in private event use. Please confirm your date and hours to ensure access.

This essay was originally published on YDP – Your Daily Picture on July 20, 2024. See Friderike Heuer’s previous ArtsWatch stories here.