Four new exhibits of student artwork are displayed at Three Rivers Hospital in Brewster. Sponsored by the hospital in partnership with Methow Arts, the exhibits feature work by Brewster Elementary and Methow Valley Elementary students and include block prints, chalk pastel landscapes, mixed-media self-portraits, and watercolor salmon paintings.

Methow Valley sixth graders completed an interdisciplinary unit, beginning by learning about fish and fish habitat in a workshop in their classrooms with local naturalist Dana Visalli. They then sketched images and learned how to carve blocks and print them with teaching artists Laura Gunnip, Emily Post, and Jennifer Molesworth. The block prints feature fish, mammals, and habitat of the Methow Valley watershed and celebrate the riparian habitat of the Methow Valley and the diversity of flora and fauna that inhabit it. Student artists are Nella Belcher, Max Bennett, Keira Dainwood, Olive Frady, Layla Mortland, Helaina Remsburg, Audrey Roman, Tayah Salas, and Sierra Schroeder.

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Then-third graders (now fourth graders) at Methow Valley Elementary School worked with teaching artist Annie Venable to create cool and warm modern landscapes using oil and chalk pastels. Starting with black oil pastel and black construction paper, students drew rolling hills, rounded mountains, and a sun or moon with concentric circles. Next, students selected either cool colors or warm colors from a collection of chalk pastels and colored inside their outlines. Cool colors turned the sky into a night sky, warm colors created a daytime sky. Student artists are Bayne Buzzard, Zoie Dubowy, Porter Evans, Rowan Kelley, Jack MacMorran, Tova Slostad, Mackenzie Spellman, Sutherland Stokes, Caleb Thomson, and Avery Vracin.

Brewster Elementary third graders worked with teaching artist Christa Culbert to create oil pastel and watercolor resist paintings, as part of a unit on the life cycle of salmon. Watercolor is a rewarding medium to use with kids, it’s a forgiving technique. Colors mix easily, results are vibrant and beautiful, mistakes are easily covered up. The brushes pull well through the thin paint, making it easier to have control. And you can vary the tone and intensity of the colors by using more or less water. The oil pastel drawings “resist” the watercolors, allowing the paper to absorb the paint everywhere except where the oil pastels have been used. Student artists are: Brisa Cabrera, Mili Churape, Alexander Flores, Keziah Infante, Victor Lopez, Pete Lucas, Elizabeth Perez, Jasmine Perez, Litzi Ramirez, and Aracelie Renden.

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Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977) is one of the foremost portraitists of the 21^st century, redefining a genre rooted in privilege. Inspired by Wiley’s unique style, Methow Valley third grade students in the Youth Arts Initiative program made their own stamps to create a patterned background showing texture. Next, they drew self-portraits.  Teaching artist Bethany Wray took the project a step further, exhibiting the pieces and guiding the students in a mini-critique session. Student artists are Connor Days, Joshua Grimes, Junie Horner, Preston Irvine, Leona Naumann, Henry Pepper, Chance Reece, Willow Richards, Savannah Seifert, Eldon Smith, Clayton Suter, Jasmine Torres, and Keelan Welborn.

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These hands-on art residencies were brought to students by Methow Arts Alliance, which serves more than 5,200 students and 370 teachers across Okanogan County with arts programs in classrooms in the Omak, Okanogan, Brewster, Pateros, and Methow School Districts, and in the Paschal Sherman Indian School. Learn more about Methow Arts’ education programs HERE.

Each year student artwork from schools in the Three Rivers Hospital service area will be curated, rotated and maintained by Methow Arts. The public is invited to visit Three Rivers Hospital to view the artwork.

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CONTACT: info@methowartsalliance.org or 509.997.4004