For Art Gala winner, good luck came in threes
By Jason Cox Of the Keizertimes Winning the top prize at the Mayor’s Art Gala couldn’t have come at a better time for Barbara Bassett. The Silverton-based artist’s “Peaceful Path,” a landscape oil painting, won first prize at the Mayor’s Art Gala Saturday night at the Keizer Civic Center. The painting was purchased for the building using private dollars and becomes a permanent part of the city of Keizer’s art collection. “Love the size and color with the Community Center interiors, and I like landscapes in public places very much,” Christopher said about the winning work. For Bassett, the prize money was part of a good-things-come-in-threes personal miracle, allowing her to travel to Boston for her adult daughter’s heart surgery. “Artists are always struggling for money,” Bassett said. “It’s not a real lucrative field. I was almost on my knees, saying I need to make something happen here. Within a week I won this contest, another piece sold and I had someone who had heard about my work and wanted to commission a piece.” Art itself is almost as personal as family health – so much so that she had never entered a juried contest before the Mayor’s Invitational. “Peaceful Path” held even more meaning – it was depicting the same kind of landscape her late father loved to gaze upon. “He was a farmer and loved to look at...
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