The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WALLA WALLA-Work celebrating the local landscape with Waitsburg artists Greg Tate and Bill Rodgers will be exhibited at Cavu Cellars in Walla Walla from July 7 to July 30, 2023. There will be an artists' reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on July 7, 2023.

In the upcoming exhibition, "A Celebration of Earth and Landscape," the work focuses on the artists' love of regional landscape and the varied physical aspects of the surface of the planet. The show will feature ceramics and watercolors by Tate and landscape photographs by Rodgers.

Growing up on the Columbia River in eastern Oregon, inspired Greg Tate in his latest series of dramatic wall ceramics and paintings. His work viscerally captures his "landscape perspective," using contrasting visual and tactile textures, shapes, and colors in pieces he describes as a "non-functional venue."

Artist and educator Tate received a bachelor's in art education from Western Oregon University and a Master of Fine Arts in painting and ceramics from Washington State University.

Tate taught at Skaget Valley College for 35 years and started the schools ceramics program. He recently retired from Columbia Basin College after five years.

Though Tate and his wife Twila are deep into a renovation of a large Foursquare home in Waitsburg, Tate has plans to open a teaching space for private art classes this summer.

Bill Rodgers grew up in Spokane, Washington. He developed an early passion for the emotionally visual power of the mountains, lakes, and valleys where he and his family hiked, camped, and explored.

Since receiving his first camera in the fifth grade, Rodgers has contnued honing his skill in two-dimensional landscape imagery. Exploring and photographing farmland, mountains, and his favorite "eyebrows" in the area, he approaches his work in a painterly fashion. Experimenting with the tools of the modern photographer, he seeks to create lyrical and sumptuous images, which he loves to share with others.

Rodgers received Bachelor of Science degrees in Biology from Whitman College and Geology from the University of Washington. He spent ten years hunting for precious metals deposits in the western U.S. and the following 26 years as an environmental consultant in the U.S. and internationally.

Since retiring, Rodgers has focused on photography and conservation. He has compiled, edited, and contributed to the Blue Mountain Land Trust's five-volume collection of photography books titled "The Blues."

Cavu Cellars is located in the Walla Walla Regional Airport District at 175 E Aeronca Avenue in Walla Walla, for more information on the winery, http://www.cavucellars.com.