PENDLETON – More than just another accolade among a long list, the Flintridge Foundation Award for Visual Artists puts James Lavadour of Pendleton among some of the most accomplished artists in the Northwest.

West Coast artists eligible to apply for the award must have sustained a high level of artistic pursuit for 20 or more years.

“It’s an honor to me, considering the artists who have received the award previously,” Lavadour said. “It’s nice to be included with those people.”

Lavadour submitted 30 images of his work representing an even spectrum from the beginning of his career to the present.

He pinpointed the start of his career as 1985 when local art patrons Betty Feves and Lori Baxter spearheaded an artist advocacy project based on a similar project in Portland. Although he had been working at his art 10 years before that, the project enabled him to devote himself entirely to his work and build a substantial inventory of paintings, Baxter said.

“He must have created 75 works in that year,” she added. “A lot of things were happening for him then including recognition at the state level in Oregon and Washington and the southwest.”

Lavadour described Betty Feves as an early supporter of his work and an indefatigable mentor.

“I am indebted to the many individuals and the Tribes (Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation) for the many times they have helped and supported me,” Lavadour said.

Among Lavadour’s other awards and honors are an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Eastern Oregon University in La Grande that he received in 1999; a 1998 Joan Mitchell Foundation award; the Oregon Arts Commission Oregon Governor’s Arts Award in 1994; the Seattle Art Museum, Betty Bowen Special Recognition Award in 1991 and the Seattle Arts Commission, Northwest Major Works Award in 1989.

He has exhibited throughout the northwest, including Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Wash.; the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, the Portland Art Museum, Boise Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum and the University of Oregon’s Museum of Art.

“My great pastime has always been walking over hills and mountains of the Umatilla Indian Reservation , where I grew up,” Lavadour is quoted as saying the Flintridge Foundation publication acknowledging its 2003/2004 award winners. “At some point I made a connection between the ways walking conditioned my body movements and the way my body governed my hand when I painted. Links between muscle and memory, place and identity became the basis of my art.”

The Flintridge Foundation values the commitment required to pursue a life in art and encourages artists who do not have current national renown. In 1997 the Foundation launched the Awards for Visual Artists program to acknowledge and support the creative contributions of visual artists to cultural life.