An impressionist painter, Melville Wire was an ordained Methodist minister in Oregon and serving parishes throughout the state for sixty-one years, painted on canvas the countryside he traveled by car. In addition to painting hundreds of oils, he produced over thirty etchings of landscapes. Combined, his many scenes of Oregon make him "one of the state's foremost chroniclers of its diverse scenery" (126) before modern development. He was not a part of any organized group of painters but was a solitary figure using impressionist style to convey his feelings about the land he loved.

Melville Wire was born in Austin, Illinois in 1877, and at age seven moved with his family to Salem, Oregon where his father became pastor of the First Met...