MOSES LAKE — The opening reception for a new exhibit featuring four artists – and friends – from Wenatchee is scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday at the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center, 401 South Balsam St.

Admission to “Four Northwest Visions” is free.

Artists James Huber, Russell Hepler, Robert Wilson and Susan Steinhaus Kimmel will display paintings, mixed media collages and handmade books. This is the first group show for the quartet, Kimmel said.

The opening reception also includes a project for adults, part of the museum’s “Adult Swim” series. Crafters will have the chance to decorate mugs using permanent markers.

Kimmel said the four artists met while they were members of the board of the Robert Graves Gallery, on the campus of Wenatchee Valley College. While working on gallery business they became friends. “We just really get along well.”

As they became friends they realized they had something in common as artists too. “There is a common core that is present in all our work,” Kimmel said. All are abstract artists, and all use art to express their beliefs and what they see as common human values.

They also discovered their ways of working had something in common too. “We really do have this intuitive way of working,” Kimmel said. They are interested in texture and shape along with color, and that led some of them to collage, she said. “We allow the material to dictate where the piece might go.”

Huber and Hepler are displaying paintings, while Kimmel will display mixed media collages and six handmade books. Wilson uses oil sticks, “like an oily crayon, is how I would describe them,” on paper and mixes in found objects, Kimmell said.

All have other careers in addition to art. Kimmel was an art professor at Columbia Basin Community College, and Huber is an elementary school art teacher. Hepler is an architectural designer, who designs interiors for new buildings constructed by his firm.

Camas Cove Cellars will be selling beverages during the artists’ reception.

The “Adult Swim” program was inspired by the tradition at public swimming pools of setting aside a time for the adults, according to a press release from the museum. It’s been a feature at all opening receptions this year, with a different activity each time.