Beginning this month and extending through May, the Living Room Gallery in the Tualatin Library will have on display the artwork of a local legend – Jeannine Miller. You may know or remember Jeannine from Tualatin High School, where she taught Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, and Multicultural Art classes to high school students for the last 21 years.
Well-loved by her students, Jeannine was awarded OAEA High School Art Teacher of the Year in 2016. She also received a Community Service Award from the City of Tualatin in 2014 for a long-term project she developed, which recognized the artistic achievements of her students. She worked with the City to create a program called the Tualatin Visual Chronicle. As part of this program, the City purchases several works of art from local high school students each year to go into a permanent public art collection housed in the Tualatin Public Library. Included in the Visual Chronicle are three paintings by Jeannine purchased by the City that speak to the life and times of our fair City.
Recently, upon retiring, Jeannine embarked on the creation of Red Barn Studio, located on her farm in Hillsboro. The Red Barn studio serves as a working studio with ongoing art classes, meetings of artists who participate in small group critique, and art sales through her gallery of work. Her workspace is a lively mix of people, paints, papers, and various works in progress.
Jeannine paints all kinds of subjects, from rusty old trucks to merry-go-rounds to realistic portraits of favorite characters in her life and wildlife and domestic creatures around her, lately with a focus on birds, which you will see on display in her show. This makes sense because, when you live in a pretty place like the Pacific Northwest, the natural landscape around you often becomes a part of who you are and what you do. Jeannine has a special flare for painting birds, which is why her Spring exhibition at the Library has a flock of exciting bird artwork. Other notable works include sheep, fish, and a singular pig!
In addition to being an award-winning artist and a strong advocate for art in our community, Jeannine also works with her husband, Jim, where together, on their small ranch, they have been breeding American Quarter Horses for the past seven years.
Jeannine is a native Oregonian from the Central Oregon Coast. She has a Fine Art Degree from the University of Oregon and Graduate Teaching credentials in Art and Mathematics from Humboldt State University in Northern California. Her work has been featured in the US Lighthouse Quarterly and the Oregon Coast Magazine. Also, Jeannine has two published historical surveys, The Heceta Head Lighthouse, which she illustrated in 1982, and The Cape Perpetual Story, which she wrote and illustrated in 1982. A large collection of her paintings were purchased by Meridian Park Hospital in Tualatin, and you can see them on display in the Children’s Center of the hospital as part of their permanent art collection.
The birds are starting to sing outside. Come hear them sing inside the Living Room Gallery in this new show featuring recent works and new techniques. If you are a former student who would like to say hello and thanks, or someone who would like to order a commission, you can reach Jeannine at g9miller@aol.com. If you are interested in knowing more about the art program at the Tualatin Library, you can reach coordinator and gallerist Angela Wrahtz at angela.wrahtz@comcast.net. This program is sponsored in part by the Tualatin Arts Advisory Committee.
