‘Four Corners of the Year’

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Museum & Art Center’s first exhibit of 2026 encompasses the entire calendar.

“The title of the show is ‘The Four Corners of the Year,’” said Gallery Coordinator Veronica Talbot. “It goes through all four seasons. We wanted to start with winter, since that’s where we’re currently at, and then move our way down the year.”

Pamela Petry-McKinsey’s exhibit, which opens Friday, is almost entirely done in acrylics. Her work harks back to the Impressionism of the 19th century, which emphasized feelings and spontaneity over realism, Museum Superintendent Dollie Boyd said.

“I personally love the color in this show,” she said. “It’s really wonderful to have such exuberant color up on the walls in the middle of winter. … The love of nature really shines through her work.”

The paintings are arranged at the museum to evoke the shift and order of the seasons, Talbot said. “Pone” depicts a row of playground swings packed with snow; another shows a little boy waving a U.S. flag with flowers in bloom behind him.

Boyd said she has a special liking for “Spring Breeze,” which shows a row of quilts waving in the wind on a clothesline.

“I have a love of quilts,” she said. “I’m from the South, and there’s a huge quilting culture back there. We all get handed down quilts from our grandmothers. It’s kind of emotional.”

The exhibit will kick off Friday at 4 p.m. with a reception where patrons can meet Petry-McKinsey and enjoy some complimentary refreshments. Along with the reception, the museum will host Art After Hours, a regular event where adults can turn loose their inner artist without children. This time around, the featured craft will be record mandalas, upcycling old record albums into art.

“It’s the cheapest date night in Moses Lake,” Boyd said. “Free food and a free craft.”

Most, if not all, of the paintings at “Four Corners of the Year” are for sale, Boyd said. The prices vary, but the smaller canvases are particularly affordable and sell well, Boyd said.

“There’s just nothing like owning a piece of original art,” she said. “It can’t be duplicated. You can’t just go down to Walmart and buy it. You own a piece of someone’s artistic vision.”

‘The Four Corners of the Year’

By Pamela Petry-McKinsey

Jan. 9-Feb. 20

Moses Lake Museum & Art Center

401 S. Balsam St.

Opening reception 4-7 p.m. Jan. 9

    Pamela Petry-McKinsey’s painting “Spring Breeze” calls up images of a windy day in the country. The style is that of the 19th century Impressionists, using bold colors and blurred shapes to call up feelings in the viewer.
  

    In a departure from her usual acrylic medium, Pamela Petry-McKinsey’s multimedia piece “Rooted in Knowledge” shows the deep unseen roots that underlie a bright bunch of flowers.
  

    This Pamela Petry-McKinsey painting uses dark, bold hues to show a summer night in the woods.