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Gallery hopes new show will become annual event Photo by Bob Pennell Jime Matoush finishes hanging the Rogue Gallery's summer regional art show, which opens today. The painting on the left is "Can't Touch the Dream" by Ellen Spring of Grants Pass. By BILL VARBLE Call it a case of thinking bigger. For years the Rogue Gallery and Art Center used to mount a regional art exhibit dubbed the State of Jefferson Open. The idea was to bring together artworks produced by artists living in the mythical State of Jefferson, the area that stretches from roughly the Sacramento River in Northern California about as far north in Oregon as the Umpqua drainage. The exhibit that opens today at 40 S. Bartlett St., Medford, has been christened the Pacific Northwest Exhibition 2001. It continues through Aug. 25. Included this time out are works by 30 artists from as far as Alaska, Washington and California's Bay area. "The goal is to broaden the scope of the exhibit," says Judy Barnes, the gallery's director. Barnes says plans call for building the show into an annual event. The State of Jefferson event has not been held since 1995, in part because a chronic lack of money threw the very existence of the gallery into question in the late 1990s. But there are no questions about interest in the new show. "There were applicants from all over," Barnes says. "Not all of them got in."Artworks in the exhibit were chosen from more than 125 entries. Artists paid a $25 fee to enter. More than $2,000 in prizes will be awarded at an opening reception at 5:30 p.m. Friday. The piece that easily traveled farthest to the show is "Fisherman's Delight," a small acrylic by Jeanne Joslin, of Cordova, Alaska, that depicts a smiling fisherman. Also commuting long distances for the exhibit are "Liquid Amber No. 1," an abstract oil painting by San Rafael, Calif., artist Susan Goldsmith, and "Morning Ritual," a large watercolor by Sonoma, Calif., artist Francine Deering. Washington artists include Jon Aesoph of Coupeville and Sandi Yorke of La Center. But the lion's share of the art comes from the Rogue Valley, and much of it features regional or local themes. Here is a great blue heron by Medford painter Kenneth Ampel, a study of Table Rocks by Jacksonville's Sue Bennett, a view of the Rogue River Trail by Rena Scott of Eagle Point. Other entries testify to artists' ongoing fascination with a sense of place, including Jerry Shanafelt's "Tumalo Reservoir" and Jean Walker's "Spring Cascade." In that category is Jacksonville artist Charlene Brussat's watercolor, "Eaves of Kyoto," and Medford painter Frank Rinna's watercolor of a street in San Francisco's Chinatown. The human personality shows up in Sue Bennett's study of a man with his morning coffee and Nancy Block's stylized interpretation of three women. Animals are a popular theme, with Ashland artist Teresa Giacomini's watercolor of elephants, Shady Cove artist Ray W. Thompson's mischievous kitten and a large crow by Ashland's Charlotte Poulos. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.