PORT TOWNSEND — Gallery-9, the Port Townsend Gallery and the Jeanette Best Gallery will be among the venues participating in the Art Walk from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday in downtown Port Townsend.
• Gallery-9, 1012 Water St., will feature felted hats and other fiber arts by April Bederman and Lisa Dawson’s mixed media abstract paintings from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.
Felted hats by April Bederman are on display at Gallery-9 throughout October.
Bederman is interested in functional art. She grew up in a home of makers and appreciates hand-made functional beauty.
“When knowing how a thing is made and who made it, then it becomes a treasure,” Bederman said.
Bederman was introduced to felting while working in Alaska and uses it to make hats.
Felting involves applying layers of carded wool to a form or pattern, establishing the color and design sequence, applying water, soap, agitation and elbow grease and then shaping the final product.
Dawson took her first art lesson at the Long Beach Museum of Art in Southern California at age 4, and her passion for art is still found in experimentation, blending various mediums and techniques and not following any rules or principles for creating art.
After struggling to capture true-to-life landscapes and portraits on canvas, Dawson discovered abstract painting and has not looked back.
Lisa Dawson’s abstract painting, “A Good Day,” is on display at Gallery-9.
She begins with a base of applied unique papers that may or may not be viewed in the final art piece, then selects clashing paint and material and uses strokes of the palette knife, mark making and the application of random materials to the canvas.
Bederman’s fiber arts and Dawson’s abstract paintings will be on exhibit from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Mondays throughout October.
For more information, visit www.gallery-9.com.
• The Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water St., will feature “Showcase 2024” and “Elemental” from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The recently updated Showcase exhibit features the work of local artists in a broad range of media, including mosaics, abstract oil paintings, Gyotaku prints, etchings, acrylics and photography.
The gallery is calling for artists to highlight in the “Showcase 2025” exhibit; more details are available at www.northwindart.org/pages/exhibit-with-us.
“Elemental” is an exhibition of works by Port Townsend painter Jeanne Toal and Whidbey Island sculptor Jan Hoy.
It opens Thursday and will be on display through Nov. 18.
Both exhibits can be viewed from noon to 5 p.m. daily at the Jeanette Best Gallery.
• The Port Townsend Gallery, 715 Water St., will host a reception for October’s featured artists, Melissa Bixby and Maegan Sale Kennedy, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.
Kennedy began to work in pen and ink while attaining a bachelor’s of fine arts degree in photojournalism.
Maegan Sale Kennedy’s mixed media graphics are featured during October at the Port Townsend Gallery.
After moving to Port Townsend in 2013, Kennedy began to devote more time to her art, adding color into her black-and-white ink drawings and, over time, incorporating watercolors, colored pencils, acrylics and chalk.
She uses mixed media graphics to best describe her artwork.
Kennedy often uses bright colors and intricate textures to draw viewers into her work, and some of her drawings have taken as long as three months to complete.
Kennedy said the details add a rewarding complexity to her work.
Born and raised in Soldotna, Alaska, Bixby has a deep connection to the ocean from the rugged beaches and tidal pools of places like China Poot Bay, Cook Inlet and Seward.
The raw beauty of these coastal landscapes sparked a lifelong fascination with sea creatures and the underwater world.
After earning a master of fine arts degree in sculpture from the University of Idaho, Bixby reconnected with the ocean in Port Townsend.
Taking a pause from sculpture, Bixby has taken up the art of batik, in which she continues to express her love for the ocean. She uses dynamic colors and forms to capture the essence of the undersea world in a way that is both simplified and striking.
The artwork of Bixby and Kennedy will be featured from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily at the Port Townsend Gallery.
For more information, call the gallery at 360-379-8110 or visit www.porttownsendgallery.com.
