New exhibit opens at Moses Lake Museum Friday

MOSES LAKE - The opening reception for an exhibit of eastern Washington landscapes is scheduled for 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center.

Admission is free.

"Big Bend and Palouse Farmscapes," the works of artists Gregg Caudell and Aaron Cordell Johnson, will be on display through July 3.

Caudell lives along the Sanpoil River in northeast Washington. "I've spent most of my life painting," he wrote. "I currently spend my time painting, painting, painting in the studio and 'en plein air.'"

Caudell also owns draft horses, and used them in a logging operation for about a decade, he said. The horses still work every summer harvesting hay, he wrote.

Johnson is a native of the Rocky Mountain region. "Living in the Rocky Mountains and being the son of an art teacher has greatly influenced my love of the outdoors and of art," he wrote. He teaches art at Lewis and Clark State College, Lewiston, Idaho.

Caudell's subjects include the landscape of the area called the Big Bend country, east and south of Grand Coulee Dam. Johnson's subjects include the rolling hills and fields of the Palouse. Most of the works in the Moses Lake Museum show will be in the "plein air" tradition, according to a press release from the museum.

Johnson described plein-air as "works done on site," where the painting is completed without returning to the studio. "I paint on location using canvas as a camera," Caudell wrote. He described plein-air painting as "being in the moment."

The plein-air movement became especially important in the mid-19th Century, with the landscape painters of the Hudson River School in the U.S. and the Barbizon School in France. The Impressionists of the late 19th Century also emphasized painting outdoors.

Both said they were inspired by the landscape and history of eastern Washington, "a land of rural life in which families have worked hard for generations to carve a living," the press release said.

The opening reception will include refreshments and a wine tasting with wines from Camas Cove Cellars, Moses Lake. There will be an opening night discount on any works offered for sale, 20 percent for museum members, 10 percent for non-members.