“Painting is my passion! I think half of my love for painting is getting out and experiencing life. Even the smallest of creatures excite me when I can observe them in nature. It’s my goal to make an impact in wildlife art so I may give back to nature.”

Deian Moore has as many glistening passions as there are subtle colors of light illuminating an undulating stream on her easel.

She paints in the magical space between absolute fidelity to nature’s creatures and vital imagination.

She and her son Braedon, 8, live deep in the Coast Range on a small river, where she does everything from garden to her own cement work. She also shares her place with her horses, cats, and beloved shepherd-cross dog.

Just to be sure there is enough creative juice flowing, she has a full-time job in Corvallis doing scientific research and graphic art.

She convincingly says, “Nothing seems too big to me.”

This remark referenced her athleticism for hiking, snorkeling and outdoor life. As her eye falls on Braedon, who is exploring the sleepy summer river at my home, she adds, “Within reason, of course. I’m not into bungee jumping.”

The difficulty in profiling Deian is choosing which of her accomplishments to focus upon.

She’s a scientist-artist, having graduated from OSU with a degree in art and a minor in fisheries and wildlife. She worked for the U.S. Forest Service in fisheries where she did field and laboratory work and occasionally made complex scientific drawings.

She is a pretty, slender woman as unselfconsciously graceful as the preening swan in one of her paintings.

Deian’s gentleness manifests in both her tenderness to Braedon and in her art.

In speaking about a series of wolf-bison-cougar paintings, she says, “You’ve got to get the eyes right. If you don’t, the whole painting won’t work.”

It was Deian’s high school art teacher in Clark Fork, Idaho, whose encouragement helped inspire her confidence to pursue art. “Otherwise, I’d probably have been a vet.”

May blessings rain on gifted teachers!

“My dream is to be a full-time artist rather than just on weekends, but I’m lucky to have a great full-time job with E&S,” which is an environmental consulting business.

Deian works in GIS mapping and conducts research for reports/assessments. More, she’s the company’s graphics specialist, designing publications such as Web sites and report covers.

The woman’s ability to juggle the balls of life is nearly as inspiring as her phenomenal gift for translating what she sees and knows intellectually to vital art that touches the viewer deeply.

Honors are rightly coming to her. Spend time at: www.deianmoore.com. I did my holiday shopping there in 10 happy minutes. The site is both beautiful and calm — almost a wildlife retreat in itself.

A year ago, Deian was part of Corvallis’ own prestigious Pegasus Gallery show of “A Celebration of Birds.”

She is a featured artist in “Artists of the West,” a hard-cover, coffee-table volume by Skamania Publishing Company. This book showcases accomplished artists from the West and is scheduled for release by the end of this year. It will be available on her Web site and all the usual places.

Additionally, her “Early Morning Surprise,” showing a local Blodgett herd of elk in a misty, light-filled field, has won honors in the international Paint America competition.

Most exciting for those of us who value both art and life on Earth, Deian’s magnificent salmon sculptures are up for viewing and auction at the Portland Art Museum on Oct. 24, a week from today, in the marvelously conceived show, “Salmon for the Sandy.”

This culminating show hosted by the Western Rivers Conservancy is a celebration for Oregon’s largest dam removal in history. Only 24 artists from around the region were contracted to participate.

In Celtic mythology, the salmon is the creature of wisdom because it completes its cycles; there are lessons here.

Her three-dimensional pieces, in exquisite detail, display the vitality and vulnerability of the great fish. “The Disguised Form” and “It’s What’s on the Inside that Matters” can be seen at http://www.westernrivers.org/salmonart/salmon09.html.

Not too shabby for a “weekend artist”!

Peg Elliott Mayo writes from the Coast Range. She invites comment at uncommonideas@rivervoices.com and readers to her blog: http://www.peak.org/~pegmayo/