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WEARABLE ART: The Potter's House is featuring handcrafted jewelry by Charles Albert and others ().

LA GRANDE- Take off the April chill by soaking in some African sun.

The Third Thursday Art Walk will kick off a new show for Opal Rose Gallery, 209 Depot St., which will be featuring large canvasses of African wildlife and landscapes by artist Kenneth Chombah.

Art walk runs from 5 to 8 p.m. at participating businesses.

Chombah, who hails originally from Botswana and Zimbabwe, is finishing up an art degree at Eastern Oregon University where he has been applying his artistic talents in capturing his native animal life — elephants, hippos, cheetahs, gazelles and other familiar animals of the African savannah.

Other artists showing at the Opal Rose include Nancy Allen, who specializes in wildlife themes using pointillism techniques with varying colors of ink. Some of Allen's work is subtle, so you might have to get close to her art to fully appreciate it.

See new glass by Mary Sue and Kevin Elliot of Cove. Kevin is coming into his own with new designs. Especially notable are Mary Sue's new stained glass lamps — a must- see.

Marcia Cook of Baker City also has new work on the walls — lush landscapes of Union and Wallowa counties.

Please also welcome Suzanne Achilles who now helps out at the gallery weekday afternoons. Achilles' art is on display, including hand-painted bird eggs and wood carvings.

This month The Potter's House, 1601 Sixth St., will feature handcrafted jewelry by Rolaine Winkle, Linda Wright, Cathy Turley and Charles Albert.

Winkle lives in Boise and works as a bookkeeper. To satisfy her creative side, she creates jewelry, primarily bracelets. She uses beads of silver and semi-precious stones to create pieces that express milestones such as confirmation, baptisms or becoming a mom or grandmother. From her studio, Designs of the Heart, she sends her pieces throughout the country.

Wright, meantime, from Edmonds, Wash., runs a studio named My Mother's Buttons. Wright explains: "When my mother's box of buttons was passed down to me, they were too beautiful and cherished to keep hidden in a box. I chose to enjoy them through jewelry, which is how My Mother's Buttons came to be."

She now collects, from around the world, vintage buttons that date back as far as the early 1800s to create jewelry and accessories. She also makes unique bookmarks from these treasures.

The Potter's House also has have a collection of Turley's glass pendants.

Albert, meanwhile, has been designing unique jewelry since 1990. He grew up in northeast Pennsylvania, where he discovered an interest in fossil and other minerals at a young age. After graduating from the University of Scranton in 1988, he turned his childhood fascination into a successful business by creating unusual yet stunning wearable pieces of art The Potter's House has on display a large selection of his fine sterling silver pendants.

Refreshments will be served, and a highlight will be a raku firing by resident potter Bob Jensen at 7 p.m.

At Highway 30 Eats, 1302 Adams Ave., April is poetry month. See local elementary students' artistic views and read middle school students' original work.

Highway 30 Eats will also feature local beading artisans and a portrait painter. Local beader Elisha Stark brings necklaces, earrings, bracelets and anklets featuring natural stones including amethyst, jasper and sodalite set in sterling silver and crystal accents. Sabina Mulryan, from Germany, enjoyed beading with gemstones to give presents to family and friends. Now her work is available to everyone.

Rachel Henry, a La Grande native, had influences from her grandmother and father, who are sculptors and painters. She started painting portraits for friends and family only two years ago.

The Nightingale Gallery at Eastern Oregon University presents "EXP. points," first of the 2007 Senior Capstone Exhibitions by art majors:Cody Bloom, Donnie Henderson and Caitlin Mack. The works in EXP. points consist of paintings, drawings, video installation, photographs and sculptural works done by the three artists in fulfillment of their bachelors degree in art. Nightingale Gallery is in Loso Hall, at the corner of 6th and K Avenue.

Leave It to Beezer at 2203 Adams Ave. has two new jewelry makers on board.

Designs by Anina creates chandelier earrings and stranded necklaces. Heathers by Heather has earrings and bracelets.

The store also has other handmade items and will be open until 7:30 the night of the art walk.