PORT TOWNSEND — As 14 artists unveil their work at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery, “it’s a thrilling time — an influx of light, color and even humor,” Northwind spokesperson Diane Urbani said.
The yearlong “Showcase 2025” exhibit has three cohorts of artists, each with a four-month display period.
The first cohort’s work stayed through May 12; the second cohort will be on view through Sept. 8.
The public is invited to see all of the fresh work in the inner Showcase space at Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water St., where the hours are from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays. In addition, for first Saturday Art Walks on June 7 and July 5, the gallery will stay open until 8 p.m.
More about “Showcase 2025” and Northwind’s other gallery shows and art classes can be found at https://northwindart.org.
“Visiting the gallery is a way to get away from it all and see something entirely different,” Urbani said.
One of the artists whose work is on the irreverent side is Tabitha Blackburn, a painter from Quilcene. She creates scenes from the wild West — with twists that might make viewers laugh out loud, Urbani said.
Anne Pfeiffer of Port Angeles has her plein air paintings in the show, while Roger Morris of Sequim is showing his digital paintings made with a tablet and the Procreate program.
Shelley Jaye of Port Townsend, a geology professor, has brought in her mosaics made with local stones and other materials.
Also appearing in “Showcase 2025” are whimsical ceramics by Ariel Zimman; wild animals in assemblage by Peter Koronakos; striking linocut prints by Kelli MacConnell; pinhole photographs by Jen Cohen; color-field sculpture by John Bradshaw; vivid paintings by Jani Freimann and David Van Galen, pictograph-inspired artwork by Kathy Fridstein, bandannas by Kira Mardikes and jewelry by Joanna Beachy. These artists hail from Port Townsend, Chimacum, Clallam County, Kitsap County and Seattle.
A jury of local artists, Jaiden Dokken, Meg Kaczyk and Kim Kopp, selected the “Showcase 2025” participants.
The third cohort of “Showcase 2025” artists will come into the gallery in mid-September and stay till early January 2026.
At the same time, the rest of the space at Jeanette Best Gallery features temporary exhibits, including “Into the Woods,” a one-woman show of unusual landscape paintings, many done en plein air, by Patricia Hagen of Port Townsend. That exhibition will open Thursday.
Artist Kathy Fridstein, who is inspired by pictographs, painted “Full Circle.” Fridstein’s art will appear in “Showcase 2025” at Northwind Art’s gallery in downtown Port Townsend. (Kathy Fridstein)
