acrylic paintings by Peter Bedell

HEADWATERS GALLERY

With a mission to conserve, protect and restore the forest ecosystems, clean water and biological diversity in the Klamath Siskiyou Bio-region, Headwaters Headquarters on Fourth Street in Ashland has long been a meeting space for individuals passionate about safeguarding the region's beauty. The addition of a gallery that features environmentally-themed art was a natural progression. Gallery coordinator Bob Swingle donates his time each month to recruit environmentally inspired artists to display their work. "Headwaters has a unique advantage as a gallery space. Ashland is full of talented artists as well as people striving to increase environmental awareness. We hope to provide a showcase for emerging as well as established artists to help promote appreciation of the beauty around us."

March Artist: Peter Bedell
With the natural world as his palette, digital editor and artist Peter Bedell is at a crossroads in his role as one who brings the natural and the technological world together. Surrounded by the latest digital technology in a High Definition Television Format editing suite at COBI DigitalHD, a lone acrylic painting of Bedell's composition hangs on the wall. The painting of Ashland's Plaza with mountains dominating the landscape illustrates the contradictions in his chosen lines of work. There are no people or cars in the Plaza of Bedell's imagination. The natural world reigns. Very unlike the world of technologically produced ads and videos where cars, people and the spoils of civilization are king. Trying to reconcile these two seemingly opposing lifestyles has been what his art is all about. "I'll spend the day editing a very slickly produced video for Pixelworks or Harry and David. Then I'll come home at night and paint the view of Emigrant Lake outside my studio window."

"I've always painted these things that I saw around me, out the window, where I hiked. The Applegate grabbed me 23 years ago_the mountains and the sky and the trees and the creeks. I tried to record that sensation of wonder I always feel when I'm out amongst it all, and at times my dismay as I see it slipping away. That's the reason a gallery showing at Headwaters appealed to me. I've always seen my role as the observer or chronicler of the environment. That these feelings of intense joy and wonder that the outdoors in Oregon evokes in me, is worth translating onto canvas for others to share, and that the feelings of conserving the natural beauty around us has value. But paintings shouldn't be about words; they should be about what you see. Come see the show."

A gala opening for Peter Bedell's Natural World will be held March 5 at 4pm at the Headwaters Gallery at 84 Fourth St in Ashland. Paintings will be on display throughout the month of March.