A winding path to art

The Kenai Art Center’s June exhibit features an array of works by local talent Thor Evenson, with a display dedicated to his father, Jim — one of Kenai’s most well-known artists.

Evenson’s pieces featured this month are a mixture of three-dimensional designs, abstract paintings and gray-scale drawings, among others.

“The show is mostly paintings, mostly acrylic, but a lot of mixed media and constructions with clusters of paint and stuff,” the artist said Tuesday. “So a lot of abstract stuff too.”

A larger painting of an aerial view of Snug Harbor is one of the most notable of the show, he said. It depicts a bustling cannery along the water and mountain range.

Evenson said a lot of inspiration for his art comes from the career paths he’s taken throughout his life. The artist has also been a fisherman, a professional basketball player and an architect.

Most of the elements of the show adhere to a similar theme of the Alaska outdoors.

“I was interested in boats,” he said. “I was interested in everything that was designed: trucks, cars, boats, airplanes. I was fascinated with design.”

Evenson said he started drawing at just 18 months old, and went on to major in art for his undergraduate degree, before getting his master’s in architecture.

“I work in architecture and design stuff (and) did a lot of renderings for architectural offices,” he said. “But I would say that my paintings are more like a mood thing. … I don’t really plan them out so much as I just follow what my mood is at the moment.”

The reception is open to the public from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Kenai Art Center on Thursday. Patrons are encouraged to park outside the center and on Cook Drive, not in the Peninsula Oilers Baseball Club bingo hall parking lot.

The Evenson exhibition will be on display throughout June from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

Reach reporter Camille Botello at camille.botello@peninsulaclarion.com.