Cannon Beach artist shines a light in the woods.

Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard

EXHIBIT PREVIEW From the Woods: New Paintings by George Kettlewell What: Oil paintings by Cannon Beach artist George Kettlewell Where: Karin Clarke Gallery, 760 Willamette St. When: Tuesday through July 29 Hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday

George Kettlewell switched a light on in the Oregon forest one night and turned the scene into art.

The Cannon Beach artist did that literally. He borrowed a couple of big lights from a friend and set them up in the woods at night near his home. He took photographs of the dramatically lighted scene before him and brought them back to his studio to turn the images into large oil and acrylic paintings on canvas.

The result of all that playing around with light can be seen in a new show of Kettlewell's dark and brooding work that opens Tuesday at Karin Clarke Gallery in Eugene. The exhibit, which runs through the end of July, offers 18 oil and acrylic paintings and eight watercolors from the little-known painter, who was exhibited at the gallery in 2004.

Though he studied art at Kent State University in Ohio, graduating in the early 1970s, Kettlewell has worked for years as a handyman and carpenter at an Oregon Coast motel. His day job, which he enjoys, allows him to paint at night without worrying about the pressures of the art market.

It was working at night that led to the paintings in the current show.

"Every night after dinner I would take a walk in the dark with the dog and see things along the road," Kettlewell said in a phone interview. "A lot of the paintings are black and white, or sepia, night scenes. The sky may still have some light in it. I did a lot of those. And then I borrowed some big lights from a friend and went into the woods behind our house. I spot-lit those tree trunks and took photographs and painted from those."

Compared to the Clarke Gallery's usual fare, which consists of established Northwest artists with long resumes, Kettlewell is relatively little-known. Beside the Clarke Gallery shows, he has been exhibited locally around Cannon Beach and once had a show at the William Jamison Gallery in Portland.

Eugene lawyer and art lover Roger Saydack, who is a friend of the Clarkes and sometimes curates shows for them, saw Kettlewell's watercolors on the coast two years ago.

Saydack put together the 2004 show of the artist's small watercolors of cut flowers at the Clarke Gallery.

Despite the difference in size and subject matter, those flower paintings have a similarly brooding presence to the new show of landscape paintings, with their dramatically illuminated trees.

The common factor is the mystery of night.

In a brief essay he wrote for the new show, Saydack talks about the importance of night in Kettlewell's work.

``The darkness pulls us into the painting,'' Saydack says. ``And it becomes a place which seems mysterious yet familiar. Like a neighborhood late at night. Everything around us has a quiet presence we hardly notice during the day. ... The darkness takes away the distractions of the day. The night brings memories that fill our mind as we walk these streets.''