Projects | The Painter of Parks

Silver Falls State Park Artist Residency Year 1

The Oregon State Parks decided to begin an artist in residence program, and Peace was selected as the first recipient of the honor. Camping in an 8 x 12 foot hut for the winter, Peace hiked and painted the 10 mile trail of ten falls daily. A copious amount of work went into not only painting the 20 paintings asked for by the park, but the arduous task of hiking into the gorges laden with painting supplies in the middle of an icy winter. Peace's concern for accuracy and high quality led him to create over and in abundance preparatory sketches and studies in addition to the final works. Furthermore, Peace milled, routed, and assembled all the frames, up-cycled from former park signs.

Silver Falls State Park Artist Residency Year 2

Officials at the Oregon State Parks were so pleased with the paintings from year 1, that they invited Peace to come back for a second year. In addition, they gave him two iconic historical buildings in which to work. The focus and images were dictated in the previous year. However, this year they allowed him carte blanc to create what he thought was the best images to reveal the character of the park. Peace, always exceeding the mandate, produced 28 large scale works, and over 200 smaller paintings and sculptures. The final selection was made by a committee. They selected dozens of works which now grace several parks in the Oregon State Park system. As in the previous year, Peace designed, created, milled, assembled and stained all the frames from old park signs and fallen timber.

Silver Falls State Park Artist Residency Year 3

Covid closed the park for a year and a half. Because of this, the park managers invited Peace to paint in the parks once again. This time he would spend his time in the lap of luxury in a 6 room cabin with a meadow and a stream. He had the 9000 acre park to himself. With no humans, the animals returned in droves. This was especially true for the beavers and bobcats. Peace decided to make this one of the themes of his next series of works. Framing the works for this year's offering offered special challenges as the frame for the largest work was 12 x 6 feet!