Archive 2012

April

First Thursday – April 5
5:30 – 7:30 pm
Music by Dian McCracken

Featured Artists
Michael Kohlmeier (paintings) | Mary Fortner (jewelry)
Tom Roth (photography) | Scott McRae (miniatures)

About Tom Roth

A native of Longview, Washington, Tom Roth is a 2008 graduate of Mark Morris High School. Tom is a senior at the University of San Diego where he is a photographer for The Vista, USD’s student newspaper as well as for USD Radio.

He has covered many sporting events including West Coast Conference athletics and the Dubai World Cup. He has shot dozens of concerts including Train, Erykah Badu, and Maroon 5.

In addition to private client work, Tom has produced several gallery pieces. In 2008, he was featured in the Broadway Gallery’s Senior Feature show as a student of Susy Halverson.

 

About Mary Fortner

“The spirit that guides my hand and makes my heart race with a new idea or design is that same force that all artists feel. The drive to create; to make something beautiful or functional or inspirational is what keeps us breathing and living. Art—in all forms— gives joy to the world and to the artist. “

~Mary Fortner

See more of Mary’s Jewelry

 

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March

First Thursday - March 1
5:30 – 7:30 pm
Music by Steve Harvey

Featured Artists
Ron Nelson (paintings) | Peggy Bird (kiln formed glass work)
Mitzy Christiansen (paintings) | Linda Schneider (paintings)

About Mitzi Christensen

Mitzi grew up in Northern California and lived for many years along the California coast and on the Big Island of Hawaii before retiring to Cathlamet. In school she took art classes but didn’t get back into it until retirement. Since then, she’s taken classes and workshops and accumulated a library of instruction books.

Her love of the sea and endless hours spent on boats is reflected in her paintings. She enjoys drawing and sketching with pen and ink and painting in acrylics. Although she has a picture in her mind when she starts, she prefers to work out the details on the canvas as she goes, making changes as needed and letting it evolve. She works fast and likes the quick drying aspect and strong bright colors.

The ability to make changes until she’s happy with the result gives a freedom and boldness not available in other media. If her art brings happiness to someone, then she has achieved her goal.

 

About Linda Schneider

Linda is a nurse by profession. She has always admired art in many forms. She began painting 15 years ago, upon her return to live in Washington, when her Mother invited her to join her at a painting workshop; acrylic on wood. Her
interest in painting grew quickly, as painting for a hobby makes a wonderful balance for the demands of the nursing profession.

Linda has studied many types of painting; beginning with acrylic, then on to oil, pastel and watercolor. With her watercolor, she particularly enjoys creating scenes with animals and flowers as found in nature.

For this exhibit, Linda’s focus is in her three dimensional art, which is painted acrylic on wood. She has always admired the Russian floral style of Zhostovo and Russian fairy tale style of Palekh. She has studied with Master Palekh Artists Boris and Tanya Kamardin, and has taken Zhostovo painting lessons from Master Zostovo Artist Misha Lebedev for 10 years. Misha travels from Russia to teach painting workshops in the Northwest on an annual basis. Linda and her Mother continue to study with him each year. This year’s workshop is at Friday Harbor,
on San Juan Island, hosted by JoAnn Karpf.

Another favorite style of painting for Linda is Rosemaling; Norwegian decorative painting. Linda has taken Rosemaling from Bjorg Klevi.

Linda enjoys painting in different styles and is always looking for an opportunity to learn new styles to create things of color and beauty.

 

About Peggy Bird

Peggy Bird has been working with glass for over a decade, creating both functional and art pieces, exhibiting in galleries and shows in Southwest Washington. She was first attracted to glass when she saw stained glass windows in old churches during overseas travel and heard romantic stories about lost formulas for the stunning colors created by medieval artists.

Later she did some rudimentary stained glass herself. But it was when she took classes in kiln-forming at Bullseye Glass in Portland that she truly fell in love with the material and began to explore the possibilities of working with it.

The pleasure—and challenge—of working with glass is its unique structure. It can take shape in a kiln when slumped over a mold or with the merest breath when blown. It uniquely captures, transmits and reflects light and color. It has flow and movement.

It also hates to be cut when it’s cold. Turns muddy if you don’t clean it properly before firing. And takes advantage of the haste with which you put it in the kiln and moves to join the piece next to it if you have put them too close together.

The colors, shapes and movement of painting, photography and fiber art all have informed Peggy’s work. As have words. For this medium, there is no limit to what can be inspirational.

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February 2012

First Thursday – February 2
5:30 – 7:30 pm
Music by Dave Mongeau

Featured Artists
Michael Tolleson | Irene Bacon (china painting)
Susy’s Seniors | Beth Bailey (small paintings)

About Susy’s Seniors: Shawnee Chadwick

My name is Shawnee Chadwick and I’m 18 years old. Besides all the hard work I do in high school, I dedicate myself 100% to art. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been interested in any form of art, starting with crayons at an early age and working my way up with pencil. To further my art skills I started taking oil painting classes with Susy Halverson and stuck with it for eight years. I love painting and have definitely seen an improvement over the years

As for drawing, I’ve always taught myself new drawing skills with detailing in portraits. But to learn some more techniques, I started taking charcoal classes with Lorena Birk over the summer. She’s helped me  learn to place the right shadows and detail to really make portraits come alive. I’ve been impressing my friends and family with how far I’ve come by practicing, bringing me one step closer to fulfilling my dream of being a professional artist

Music has also been a major influence in my life. Besides all the love and support from my friends and family who are constantly encouraging me, music helps my imagination run wild. Whenever I hear a song that presents an image or story, I have to write it down. Then I can draw the image later or create my own story from it. If I don’t make it as an artist, I would probably fall back into writing and developing my own stories, using my artwork to explain the story. That way I wouldn’t really be leaving art behind, just expressing myself in a different way.

Here’s some of my paintings that will be on display in February.

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About Irene Bacon

Irene Bacon has been painting since 2001. She paints regularly with a group of painters working with Marie Geisler.

China painting is an ancient art form requiring a soft touch and patience. She finds it very satisfying to create beautiful, yet functional art art objects. Floral motifs are her most common subjects, but she sometimes incorporates other art interests of landscape and calligraphy.

 

 

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January 2012

First Thursday ~ January 5
5:30 – 7:30 pm
Music by John Crocker

Featured Artists
Fiber Arts Show
Mia Shulte (paintings)
Margo Westfall and Don Lovett (metal sculpture)

About Mia Schulte

“This series of paintings reflects a year-long quest to capture the essence of a bridge between nature, and significant moments in my life.

My inspiration comes from time spent on Whidbey Island, and along the Columbia River Gorge this past summer, as well as time spent exploring life drawing. Nature and the human form are often merged in my paintings, all natural forms being reiterated in the world around us. I see an intimate connection between the human body and our natural habitat.

It has been said that abstract art is tweaking reality with emotional intent; this is certainly what defines the objective of my paintings. The emotional twists and turns of everyday life inhabit my images of nature. What I see, and what I feel, melds together into an abstract statement, that I hope will connect the viewer to the painting.” ~ Mia Schulte http://www.mia-artist.com/

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About Margo Westfall and Don Lovett

Line, Shape and Form is a small-works sculpture exhibit by self-taught metal artisans Margo Westfall and Don Lovett. A departure from their large public art sculptures, this home/business-scaled collection is a unique blend of painting and steel sculpture that primarily features botanicals.

For Westfall and Lovett, the recurrent theme of transformation influences and motivates their work. The artists see steel as a metaphor for transformation, as nearly all steel has been recycled or transformed.

“Steel also serves as a metaphor for people in our lives,” Westfall noted, “that is due in part to their shared traits: inherent strength, resilience, unpredictability. Like people, steel transforms and develops a unique patina over time.”

Described by noted artist Gail Ramsay Wharton as “out of the box yet approachable”, their balanced and detail-driven style is heavily influenced by the contemporary Sogetsu School of Ikebana – Japanese flower arranging. Westfall and Lovett hope their love of steel as an art medium will be infectious, and that their steel works will broaden the common conception of, and appreciation for metal sculpture.

~ Margo Westfall and Don Lovett

Margo Westfall and Don Lovett have been working together in steel and other metals since 2004, selling their work from their Olympia, Washington workshop to clients throughout the Pacific Northwest, California, Arizona, Massachusetts, and beyond.

Margo has been involved in art and media much of her life. She hails from a musical family and has worked as a writer, television and radio producer and director of art and music video documentaries. She is an accomplished glass artist and welder, and is a professional steel sculptor with a critical eye for detail.

Don is a licensed professional land surveyor and consultant, amateur Northwest historian, wood carver, and self-trained artist-craftsperson whose mathematics and critical thinking skills complement the duo’s creations in metal.

Together Westfall and Lovett produce large steel sculptures for international sculpture exhibitions, one-of-a-kind corporate and residential sculptures, and a line of rustic indoor and outdoor sculptures for galleries throughout Puget Sound. They have served as shop assistants for the South Puget Sound Community College’s welding program, and are members of Arts Olympia.