View my photography
CURRENT SHOWS
My solo show at Canyon Way Bookstore/Restaurant
extended through 2012
1216 SW Canyon Way, Newport OR
PAST SHOWS.....
OCTOBER 2011: Photographer Claire McGee to speak
at Coastal Arts Guild Luncheon Thursday October 6, 2011.
The first Thursday of each month, the Guild holds a luncheon for members and guests at the Visual Arts Center from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM and invites Lincoln County residents interested in the arts to attend.
This October, the Coastal Arts Guild welcomes Newport photographer, Claire McGee as our guest speaker.
Her favorite subjects are nature and pets. She is a member of the Yaquina Art Association and a past president (current member) of the Coastal Arts Guild. She is also a member of Buy Local Lincoln County. Her background is Liberal Arts. She completed Nikon's workshop in composition, and studied art at the University of Hawaii and Portland State University in Oregon.
She became interested in photography while learning from her father, developing prints in the home dark room before she was ten years old. She placed in competitions around Detroit, and had a hand in the opening publicity for the Renaissance Center. During the 1970’s, she worked with local lithography companies, capturing shots for school publications, as well as freelancing with a company producing menus for local restaurants. She took several decades off from commercial photography, to raise her family and complete a BA in English from the University of Hawaii.
She feels photography is best defined by Ambrose Bierce, who claimed that a “Photograph: [is] a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art” -- to which she adds “without the aid of digital collage via computer.”
McGee says, “Just as I feel that pushing buttons in QuickBooks is NOT bookkeeping, I feel that PhotoShop too, is a computer skill, and not photography. People tell me I have a good eye, and that I capture the soul of what I see. You be the judge.”
McGee has been published in Sunset Magazine and Ka Nani (a University of Hawaii production). Currently, her tabby cat Olivia is “Miss September” in the Friends of Lincoln County Animal Shelter Calendar. Her website is clairemcgee.com.
The public is always invited to attend the Coastal Arts Guild (CAG) luncheons. The CAG welcomes new members and will provide staffing training for new members to sit at the Runyan Gallery. CAG members always look forward to the fun-filled monthly luncheons and the variety of guest speakers.
The Guild is comprised of artists and art supporters and provides opportunities for community involvement, teaching after-school art in elementary schools and other efforts to further the Arts on the Central Oregon Coast (emphasizing the Visual Arts).
Guild members volunteer to staff the Runyan Art Gallery of the Visual Arts Center, and hold special events throughout the year. Our fund raising efforts support art in the schools, as well as sponsoring artist receptions at the Runyan Gallery, which is located at the Historic Nye Beach Turnaround at 777 NW Beach Drive. The Gallery is open Tuesday – Sunday from 11 AM to 5 PM.
To learn more about the Coastal Arts Guild (a volunteer program to staff the Visual Arts Center and serve the art community of Lincoln County) or to make reservations for the coming luncheon and program, call the Visual Arts Center at 541.265.6540 and speak with a Coastal Arts Guild volunteer.
