Category: Blog

Join us Friday at Village Frame & Gallery where Susan Kuznitsky will be on hand to visit with you and demonstrate her craft.

About July Featured Artist Susan Kuznitsky

Over 30 years of painting and teaching gives Susan Kuznitsky the experience and confidence to paint any subject in either pastels or oils. Plein air painting is her focus and passion. Susan has a keen eye for composition and detail with a great ability to turn an ordinary everyday scene into something extraordinary. Comfortable in both oils and pastels, Susan likes to work in both mediums to keep things fresh.

Born in Chicago, Susan began her art education as a teenager with the late Joe Abbreccia. This was followed by more training at the American Academy of Art. She later studied with great living masters Albert Handell and Richard Schmid. Susan currently resides in Portland.

If I can leave the world a bit more beautiful than I found it through my artwork, then I have done good. The beauty is everywhere, my job is to translate it onto canvas and share it, to make the ordinary extraordinary.

— Susan Kuznitsky

See Susan’s Artwork  at Village Frame & Gallery in July

This exhibit is open to the public, free, starting at 6 p.m. Friday, July 7th, and throughout the month during regular business hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm. We are located at 7808 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR 97219.

Our First Friday Artist’s Reception starts at 6 p.m. — Join Us!

This month, we are showing Scott Cordner’s latest exhibit of fine art photographs: Spring Celebration. As always, our exhibit opening and artist’s reception is free to the public at Village Frame & Gallery in the heart of Multnomah Village.

Artist’s Statement

As a photographer and artist, my goal is to create realistic images and prints of natural landscapes that encourage people to spend time in the wild, appreciating and protecting it. And for when those people are not in the wild, I want my prints to remind them of the natural world and help shape the choices they make.

About Fine Art Photographer Scott Cordner

Scott Cordner was destined to become a fine-art landscape photographer. A browse through his portfolio illustrates his passion for the medium and the outdoors.

The pure, unaltered and uncomplicated scenes are captured in the finest light. His exacting prints are made with the best materials that last lifetimes. Hand made hardwood frames from renewable and managed forests are enhanced and finished with environmentally friendly oils and a water-based polyurethane (made from whey, a byproduct of cheese). No detail is overlooked, and it is apparent.

Scott grew up in the rural Allegheny Mountains of northwest Pennsylvania in the town of Bradford. He spent most of his childhood outdoors, exploring the hills and forests, observing the flora and fauna, cementing his relationship with nature. But when indoors, Scott drew inspiration from his Grandfather, Jack McCutcheon.

Scott loved to draw just like his Grandfather, a self-taught painter and award-winning advertising manager for Zippo Lighters. Like many children, Scott’s artistic creativity was nurtured. In the 8th grade ‘Design an Ad’ contest, Scott took first place with a hand-drawn advertisement for a local Chrysler dealership.

His Grandfather also had a deep connection with the outdoors and wrote a weekly hunting and fishing column for the Bradford Era. He also respected Native American people and their culture, which were often the subject of his paintings.

During middle school Scott took some photography classes, where he learned to develop and print his own photographs. He excelled in math and science, and learned from his father how to take apart and fix things. It was a more traditional career path and one he pursued academically in high school and in college. While his passion for photography still consumed his free time, a degree in Electrical Engineering guaranteed him work and a job designing test equipment brought him to Southern California.

Frustrated with the confines of employment, Scott decided to put his engineering career on hold and set out to hike the Pacific Crest Trail in its entirety – from the Mexican border to Canada. He brought along his first SLR to document the trip, a Canon Rebel 35mm with a kit zoom lens. Six months, four pairs of shoes, thirty-five pounds, 50 rolls of Fuji Velvia later Scott knew he had rekindled his love for the outdoors and his passion for photography. Even now, more than 20 years later, Scott entertains audiences with that early slide show of that 2700-mile trek.

Hiking had put things in perspective for Scott and he took a pragmatic approach when he returned to the workforce. He earned his living mostly through technical work as an engineer while honing his craft as a photographer and printmaker. Those years were special for Scott because weekends were devoted to road trips that introduced him to the iconic landscapes of the American West.

It would still take another ten years before Scott could pursue photography full time but those years weren’t wasted. During those years and after, Scott continued to combine adventure travel with fine art and outdoor photography. He has trekked and mountaineered in Peru documenting the remarkable landscape and the Quechua culture. Scott climbed and stood on the summit of Denali, North America’s tallest peak, and has captured the magnificent hostility of the mountains.

He traveled to Russia’s Lake Baikal – the largest and deepest fresh water lake in the world – in 2002 as part of a team of four to kayak the remote northeast shoreline. While the Russian landscape was stunning, it was the Russian people who captivated him and set the stage for a return visit.

It was then that Scott developed his interest in using his travels and his images to document people and places that matter. Scott used his second trip to Russia’s Far East to promote ‘sustainable travel.’ He photographed the entire month-long expedition to Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, including the people and his team’s use of public transportation for self-powered, ski touring instead of the normal skiing style – heli-skiing. His images appeared in Backcountry magazine in connection with an article written about the remote region of Mount Bakening, a now extinct volcano located in the center of the Kamchatka Peninsula.

With the explosion of digital photography and printing, Scott drew from his technical background and started scanning his film and slides. Using digital cameras, he eliminated film and the harsh chemicals used to develop it from his practice. He started producing images with pigment inkjet printers. His printing style removes chemical processing from the equation and will last hundreds of years instead of fading like traditional color prints.

Desiring to create a better overall presentation of his photographs, six years ago Scott experimented with woodworking and now crafts his own frames. His process includes milling the wood by hand to create strikingly simple frames that naturally complement his photographs.

Scott is fast-becoming known for his large, panoramic prints, which capture the quiet magnificence and individuality of ordinary scenes. In fact, he shies away from more common and well-known iconic landscapes. “I am so proud to hang Scott’s work in our Gallery. His photos have such emotion, movement and vibrancy,” says Tamara Breunig, owner of United Wood Craftsmen Gallery. “You feel like they are a window to his world. His talent for capturing the moment is so real. It’s as if one could just walk into the photos and explore the spot where he took them. His work has such a sense of peace, and our clientele thinks so too.”

Collectors demand for his prints has grown because they feel a connection to the scene. Scott shows his work at art exhibits and fairs, in lifestyle retail stores and in fine art galleries. Scott has also sold collections of his finished prints to corporate offices. One of his corporate clients said this of his work, “Everyone is still raving about the prints, Scott. Thanks again for sharing your talent!”

Scott is focusing on conservation photography. He believes if someone notices an image of his, it becomes an opportunity to start a dialog about nature in general and the importance of preservation specifically. His ultimate goal is to create more stewardship of these important though lesser-known places throughout the world.

Spring Celebration Will Be On Exhibit Throughout June at the Gallery

Can’t make it on First Friday? No problem. Stop by any time during regular business hours in June. We’re open Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm, at 7808 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR 97219.

More First Friday Goodness

We’re not the only business in Multnomah Village that stays open late on First Fridays. Come to the Village for dinner, shopping, art, and a nice walk on a summer evening.

Join us this Saturday at Village Frame & Gallery in Multnomah Village

See watercolorist Scott Johnson paint, learn more about his methods and process, and find out how his paintings get started.

Free, open to the public at 7808 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR 97219.

This year, First Friday and Cinco de Mayo fall on the same day — what a great excuse to get out of the house and spend the evening in Multnomah Village! We’re open late and have a brand new show featuring the work of local artist Scott C. Johnson.

About Watercolor Artist Scott Colin Johnson

Although Scott C. Johnson’s landscape studies are rooted in plein air painting, early-on he began to add the little touches that rouse the imagination—the faint treetops that indicate a valley beyond the hill, or the tiny glint of water that tantalizes over a grassy dune. These hints at an unseen landscape beyond the one we see, were an introduction to his dream world.

Scott developed the soft washes of the Japanese tradition, as well as the refined linework of the Persian miniature. As he grew more confident with the brush, he also became more involved in meditational techniques, and the painting became more concerned with recording a process, a trance state, a finding of the happy accident, and less with a specific reality.

He is a developed sensual being, with an appreciation for music, dance and garden design. Scott’s love of nature, refreshed by frequent trips and hikes, is evident in his work, but its mood, often portrayed by impending weather, dominates the objects in the landscape. There are subtle references to change in the clouds and stronger references to death and loneliness in the leafless trees of his latest work, yet the mood is never hopeless, but lets us know that the next season, bringing the tiny leaves of Spring, is just beyond and approaching.

Scott’s work has been exhibited on the west coast since 1986 and is represented in private collections throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan.

Artist’s Statement

In the act of painting
it is my intent to express a beauty
my soul yearns to manifest
in imagery of lush colors and
open space.

The images often arrive out of waking or,
quiet [trance like] moments in their entirety.
When I am available to chase them down,
the ceremony of starting blossoms
into a myriad of new directions.
Thus the chase continues
and I will often not know the direction of a painting
until it is over half way done.
Mastering patience of the medium
and perserverance of vision
is the practice I have chosen.

Join us First Friday for the Exhibit Opening and Artist’s Reception

We’re starting at 6 p.m. and everyone is invited. Village Frame and Gallery is located at 7808 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR 97219. Can’t make it this Friday? Our exhibits are always open to the public during regular business hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm.