(Hillsboro, Ore.) — The City of Hillsboro Cultural Arts division is pleased to announce the exhibition Inspirations, featuring artist Hope Angel. The collection of water-themed paintings highlights landscapes, clouds, and familiar sites from the artist’s favorite places in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. The works will be on display from July through August in the lobby of the Hillsboro Civic Center. The Civic Center is located at 150 E. Main St. in Hillsboro, and is open to the public Monday through Friday, 8 am – 5 pm. Visitors to the Civic Center are required to wear masks at this time.

According to Angel, from the moment she picked up a brush and started painting, she found a sense of peace and calm. More recently, painting has been an avenue to cathartically work through the COVID-19 crisis and isolation, leaving her with a sense of inspiration. Angel feels that even if she is working through something stressful, “she ends up with something pretty in the end.”

After wandering through nature and taking photos, Angel brings images and memories back to her studio and begins to paint in an intuitive process, which typically results in the work not turning out the way she intended. Building abstracted backgrounds, Angel applies big brush strokes and swaths of color, saving the detailed work for the palette knife. Enjoying the dimensionality and texture of the knife, Angel applies gesture and depth, feeling much a part of the painting.

Angel’s work has been featured at the Cannon Beach Arts Association, the City of Beaverton, and the Beaverton Arts Mix, as well as in numerous private homes.

The Cultural Arts is a division of the City of Hillsboro’s Parks & Recreation Department. For more information about Cultural Arts, visit Hillsboro-Oregon.gov/CulturalArts.