PORT LUDLOW — The Port Ludlow Art League offers celebration in its online group show in July, while honoring its featured artists, Carol Nielsen and Sharon Zablotney as well as the winners of an abstract painting raffle.
For its group show, league members created artwork that celebrates the large and small things in life. From a perfect sunset to gathering with friends and family, the inspirations for the group art show were boundless.
Nielsen, a collage artist, is the league’s Artist of the Month while Zablotney is the Jeweler of the Month. The work of both will be at the Sound Community Bank at the corner of Oak Bay Road and Osprey Ridge Drive in Port Ludlow, as well as online at www.port ludlowart.org.
Zablotney’s work also will be seen at the Port Ludlow Art League Gallery next door to the bank.
During the pandemic, Nielsen, explored new techniques to incorporate into her mixed media artwork, organizers said.
She creates monoprint papers using acrylic paints, stencils, lines, textures, and stamps and incorporates other handmade papers, acrylic paints, and Asemic writing into her designs.
Her work has been exhibited at many venues, including the Port Ludlow Art Gallery, the Port Ludlow Resort and Inn, the Old Alcohol Plant, and at the Northwind Arts Center.
Zablotney is known for her glass, silver, and enamel beads.
She combines them with a variety of other materials, including zirconia and Swarovski crystals.
For Zablotney, “the freedom to take raw materials and transform them into intricate, beautiful designs is the height of the creative process,” organizers said.
Raffle winners
The Port Ludlow Art League’s Abstract Art Critique group, which was meeting on Zoom, collaborated on two paintings, circulating the two 24-inch-by-18-inch canvases from artist to artist.
The paintings were raffled off, with all proceeds going to the Port Ludlow Art League Scholarship Fund.
In the drawing on May 31, the winners were JoAnna Caro and Alan Ahtow.
Caro selected the painting title Echoes of the Past “because the warm colors and Asemic writing really spoke to me,” she said.
“As a member of the Abstract Critique group, I watched both paintings come to life during February and March, as the canvases were passed from artist to artist. It was amazing to share in the journey of two beautiful works of art. … It was my pleasure to be a small part of someone’s dream.”
Ahtow said he was delighted to hear he had won the Blue Dawn abstract painting.
“I heard about the Abstract Critique Group’s idea of working collaboratively during the pandemic,” he said. “It was such a clever way for the group’s artists to continue to explore and grow while maintaining social distance guidelines.”
He was impressed by the effort to raise money for the scholarship fund.
“This is a wonderful example of how collaboration can achieve amazing results,” he said.
“The world could well benefit and is in dire need of more gestures like this.”
For more information about the Abstract Critique Group and to view the online group show, go to www.portludlowart.org.
The gallery’s hours are from noon to 4 p.m. Thursday and Friday.
For more information, email info@portludlowart.org.
