The Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery is pleased to offer new paintings by Oregon artist Ken Grant from Jan. 12 to Feb. 6.

This year’s exhibit relates to shadows and light as they play off interior corners, chair legs and tables.

It also includes a rare selection of figurative paintings.

Ken Grant has lived in Oregon all his life, born in Klamath Falls in 1938. He grew up in Portland, and from 1956 to 1962 studied at the Advertising Art School (where during his last three years taught drawing and anatomy). From 1969 to 1970, he further honed his skills in drawing and sculpture at the Museum Art School (now Pacific Northwest College of Art).

During the summer of 1960, he and a friend from art school opened an art gallery in Cannon Beach, Oregon. Having fallen in love with the Oregon coast, in 1972 he moved with his wife and two sons back to Cannon Beach to spend more time on his art and build a permanent home and studio there. As this small town was now becoming known as an artist enclave, Grant’s drawings and sculpture were being exhibited in several galleries in Cannon Beach and Portland.

In 1975, he and several other local artists founded the Winter Gallery in Portland to have an outlet for their work in the coast’s off season. One of his drawings “Life Size Self Portrait Paper Doll” was the feature piece in the “Works on Paper” exhibit at the Portland Art Museum the next year and in 1982 a book of his drawings, “The Nude” was published.

Along the way, he has done numerous illustrations for books, magazines, greeting cards and advertisements.

The Ken Grant “Enlightened Shadows” shadows exhibit, which runs from mid-January to early February will have a preview night Wednesday, Jan. 12, from 6-8 p.m. The Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery is located at 800 Bellevue Way N.E. #111.