Artist Curt Hitch works in his North Bend studio. His art is being featured in a show at the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve near Charleston. Contributed Photo

Artist Curt Hitch crafts tiny boats from bits of wood and wire.

No, wait a minute, in his watercolor “Shore Acres,” Hitch captures the glow of filtered sunlight on pink rhododendrons.

Hang on, something’s still missing here. Hitch, popular North Bend artist, constructs one-of-a-kind frames for problematic paintings. During a recent visit to his eclectic studios, he pulled out a neatly framed oil painting of a night sky — an inky void, threatening to engulf the sun during a total eclipse.

“It’s X-ray paper,” explained Hitch, peering down at the painting, “Kind of strange stuff. A friend of mine, an artist from Reedsport, asked if I could frame it for her and here it is.”

The painting is darkly interesting; the frame is both sturdy and appropriate. And Curt Hitch is a Renaissance man of sorts, an artist who never met a medium he didn’t like.

An exhibition of his art will open tomorrow at the South Slough Interpretive Center, located four miles south of Charleston on Seven Devils Road. Hitch has plucked a representative sampling of his work for this show, and will be on hand for the artist’s reception which is slated for 1 to 3 p.m.

Although the subject matter for his art ranges freely from still life dishes of fruit to seagulls perched on piles, Hitch is quick to declare his love of boats. He has featured them in assemblages, in photographs, in the water, and in dry dock. His paintings of vessels and waterways and wharfs have been juried into numerous shows at the Coos Art Museum, and have been consistent prize winners.

He paints, draws and builds boats. He points to a boat model resting high on a shelf (a gift from a friend’s yard sale), and then shows me the teensy packets of wooden blocks and the tiny, half-inch cannons that will transform the model into another distinctive piece of art by Curt Hitch.

As he works, he might paint using acrylics and then finish off the canvas with feathery pencil strokes. He’ll cover illustration board with highly reflective paint, and then layer pastel crayons over the top to produce a deceptively chalky surface and compelling depth of color.

The home of Hitch contains hundreds of his artworks, and his life contains 10 times that many friends. Pointing to an oil portrait of a smiling gentleman, he asks if I know Charles of Charleston. I do, and so as I gaze at another painting — a busy wharf scene — I hear the story of how Charles and Curt traveled north to Tacoma to see the tall ships. The paintings that grew out of that trip are wonderful examples of marine art, nearly as wonderful as hearing about the trip from this 73-year-old boat enthusiast. For the South Slough show, he wants to feature boats. But ... there are those abstracts. Hmmm. And then, what about the Hitch version of the John Singer Sargent painting “The Oyster Gatherers?” Hitch frequently works by copying the masters, and this painting is a remarkable study.

Will he bring his vintage cigar box, its lid partially covered with a painting of a Haitian woman? I hope so. And the Tire Shop, a whimsical, fun, wooden shack no larger than a shoe box, replete with signage, doors that open, and a crab frozen in mid-scuttle along the porch. We probably won’t see his great, sepia-toned 3-by-5-foot print of the “Coos,” a paddlewheel boat that plied the rivers around the Bay Area nearly 100 years ago, but we can hope for the feathers.

Hitch has placed a tall glass mug with a graceful handle on a table next to the front window. The glass overflows with soft, gray feathers.

One can only wonder.

Teri Albert reviews art and artists for The World. Comments on or story ideas for this column are welcome, and can be e-mailed to malbert3@verizon.net.