Plein air painters offer varied interpretations

The Sunday morning scene could hardly have been more idyllic: farmstead with red barn and white house, fenced pastures of tawny late-summer turf stretching away toward groves of dark-green trees in the distance, placid alpacas grazing in the foreground and at least a half-dozen people scattered around the landscape, sitting or standing at their easels as they painted what they saw.

It’s called “plein air painting,” going out into nature to capture the changing mood of the landscape as clouds come and go and the light changes as the sun travels overhead, with every person who commits oil or acrylic or gouache to canvas interpreting the view in a different way.

Victoria Biedron, coordinator of the Plein Air Painters of Lane County, has been hooked on the practice since moving to the Eugene area about 15 years ago.

“I have to be out here three to six times a week doing this,” Biedron said. “It’s part of my life, a huge part. If it’s not raining sideways or freezing, I’m out painting somewhere, from the wetlands to the ocean to the mountains.”

On Wednesday, Biedron and other plein air practitioners will be out in force, participating in a “paint out” — complete with cash and other prizes — sponsored by the city of Eugene as part of a monthlong “Create! Eugene” effort to get residents involved in artistic activities.

While Biedron plans to devote her time to offering a demonstration of plein air painting in the downtown park blocks at East Eighth Avenue and Oak Street, others will fan out to create their own artworks to enter in the contest at the end of the day.

In addition to bragging rights and prizes, the winners’ work will be displayed at the DIVA Gallery downtown through the end of the month.

In addition, an exhibit of the Lane County group’s previous work already is on the walls at the Jazz Station, also in downtown Eugene, through the beginning of September.

Many painters choose the plein air style instead of painting from photographs or notebooks of previous sketches “because it is so immediate,” Biedron said.

“You can tell the difference right away — it has a freshness and movement and light,” she said. “You can tell that the artist is not laboring over the painting to make it perfect. It has a feeling of being in the moment.”

Even so, many plein air painters take sketchbooks with them or do an initial sketch on the canvas as a guide, “because that helps you work out the details you want to put in and those you want to leave out,” she said.

Her own canvas this morning focused on a single tree near the farmhouse at the Aragon Alpacas farm off Dillard Road southeast of Eugene, while Sally Schwader and Barbara Weinstein, other members of the group, chose to paint a more long-distance landscape.Xenon HID Worlds make hid lighting affordable to everyone and for all your vehicle needs. Their paintings differed markedly.

The High Street Streetscape Project is continuing to make progress with the start of the WVU semester. There are a few things that still need to be done, but the end of the road work is coming.

Contractor Anthony Merante, of A. Merante Contracting, Inc, reported to stakeholders and businesses on a meeting on Thursday, Aug. 15, that the sidewalks are mostly complete on the east, or left, side of High Street. Pedestrians can now enter those businesses without using temporary crosswalks.

There are still a few detours planned and Kirk Street is closed right now.

On Monday, Aug.We have a great selection of blown glass backyard solar landscape lights and solar garden light. 19, crews will close the east side of Kirk Street, between Hastings Funeral Home & Mark IV Printing & Office Supply, for a couple of days. Crews will do this to place a red stamped brick crosswalk. It will be covered with a protective plate and reopened.

If weather permits construction, on Thursday,A solar lantern uses this sunlight that is abundantly available to charge its batteries through a Solar Panel and gives light in nighttime. Aug. 22, Foundry Street will be closed to install a stamped brick crosswalk after Kirk and High Streets have been reopened. Light pole installation will begin the week after that with the installation of the poles and the wires needed to provide electricity to the streetlights.

Pedestrians and drivers are asked to use caution when traveling towards the end of High Street.

Please visit his website at www.streetlights-solar.com. 

Village Car Wash and Laundry

The Village Car Wash and Laundry reopened its doors for the community of Dexter and surrounding areas recently.

Cheryl and Peter Caffrey, who have owned the businesses since 2005, invite locals to experience the new car wash and laundromat after it was demolished by the tornado of 2012.

The Village Laundry has a new layout that is more accessible than the previous layout. Washing machines line the walls of the building, rather than standing back to back in the middle of the building, making the space feel larger.

The extractor style washing machines and dryers survived the tornado in style and have been refurbished. Multiple 18-pound washers, one 35-pound washer and one 50-pound washer are available.

Customers can use the 35-pound and 50-pound washers to wash comforters and blankets or just a very large load of laundry. All washers are front loaders and extractors, which means very little water is left in the clothes for the dryers to remove.


 
Additionally, several new in-bay features enhance the Village Car Wash, including new signs, booms and bay ceilings. The five self-serve bays, including one outside bay for larger vehicles, allow customers to wash in comfort.

Along with the mechanical room equipment being refurbished, the car wash is outfitted with LED lights. The new lighting system provides more light than the previous system, and it is also very energy efficient.

A new token system is in place at the Village Car Wash. Fleets, businesses and other customers can purchase car wash tokens to use or give as gifts. To buy tokens, call the phone number on the coin machine at the front of the car wash.

“We are very appreciative of customers returning to the business and the encouragement they have offered,” Cheryl said. “It has been a very long process going from destruction to reopening and their smiles and appreciation make a world of difference.”

To do this, the company received a $2.4 million grant from the Department of Energy for work expected to last through 2015, the company said. The work is specifically looking at improving the manufacturing process of light-emitting diodes to speed the process by three times the current rate, reduce LED light engine costs by five times and reduce assembly costs by 50 percent.

LED lighting is six to seven times more efficient than conventional lighting and can last 25 times longer, the company said in a statement, but that might not be enough.

“LED is currently more costly than traditional lighting,” Mark Eubanks, president of Eaton’s Cooper Lighting Division, said in a written statement. “Eaton is focused on innovation that will simplify design and manufacturing process to maintain high quality and lower costs for consumers.”

This grant is part of a larger $10 million DOE program. Eaton’s work on this research is expected to happen at the company’s Wisconsin and Georgia facilities. Eaton’s electrical division is based out of Moon Township.More information about the program is available on the web site at www.streetlights-solar.com.