May 28 – August 17, 2025
Cascadia Art Museum is pleased to present A Reverence for Nature: Melville Wire and the Oregon Landscape, a major exhibition of paintings, drawings, and etchings by celebrated Oregon artist Melville T. Wire (1877–1966).
An ordained Methodist minister and lifelong artist, Wire sought to express the divine through his depictions of the natural world. His career spanned nearly a century and brought him considerable acclaim, including having three works exhibited at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915.
Wire’s plein air paintings and drawings evoke the soft atmosphere and emotional depth of Impressionism, while his etchings offer precise, contemplative renderings of the rural Oregon landscapes he revered. This exhibition celebrates his artistic range and his enduring devotion to capturing nature’s quiet majesty.
Through Wire’s work, viewers are invited to see the Pacific Northwest landscape not only as a source of visual beauty but as a spiritual experience, one that resonates across time and place.
Image Credit:
- Melville Wire (1877-1966), Untitled (Sunset with Cabin, Eastern Oregon), c. 1910-1912. Oil on canvas glued to board. Collection of John and Annick Impert.