Whitefish Gallery Night at Cawdrey Gallery features spontaneous mixed media, dream paintings

Cawdrey Gallery presents two featured artists for Whitefish Gallery Night this Thursday: Nancy Dunlop Cawdrey, known for her carefully rendered museum pieces, and Richard Rodriguez, a Colorado-born artist whose work walks the path between memories and dreams. 

The public is invited to meet both artists, and experience Cawdrey’s new expressive mixed media adventures alongside Rodriguez’s poetic interpretations of everyday grace. 

After months of creating precisely planned works destined for art shows in the West and Oklahoma, Cawdrey embraced spontaneity this summer.  

“I needed a break from carefully rendered pieces,” she said. “I found some boxes of handmade papers and began mixed media pieces with no plan in mind. It was like an artist summer camp.” 

Her process began organically – one piece started with deep reddish-brown fabric that felt like the “heart” of something, evolving into a horse-like figure as she layered handmade papers with acrylic medium.  

Another piece, beginning with dyed silk and Chinese newspaper scraps, transformed into what she described as “an Indian brave—or maybe Isidore Duncan in a fast car, scarf trailing.” 

“Generally artists start with a plan, a sketch, an order of operations,” she said, “but I just went with my gut and sense of adventure.” 

Rodriquez’s artistic journey began in Golden, Colorado, where his Cuban immigrant parents settled in 1959 after traveling from Miami. His passion for art ignited while painting alongside his mother and growing up in the modern western landscape provided a strong foundation for his creative vision. 

Educated at the University of Colorado and the Art Students League of Denver, where he received the “Big Heart Scholarship,” Rodriquez has developed a distinctive artistic voice. He said he finds inspiration in “the fleeting beauty of the overlooked that delivers unexpected grace to the everyday.” 

Using brushes, palette knives, scrapers and squeegees with oil paints, Rodriquez creates compelling works that blend abstract shapes with realism on canvas and hardwood panels.
Whitefish Gallery Nights is Thursday, August 7, from 5 - 8 p.m.

    "Promise of Spring," oil on canvas by Richard Rodriquez. (Photo provided)