PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend School of the Arts’ Downtown Gallery will host “Two Sides of a Square” with the work of Max Grover and Tracy Bigelow Grisman during the Port Townsend Gallery Walk on Saturday.
The two artists and other Port Townsend School of the Arts (PtSA) faculty will be available at the gallery at 236 Taylor St., to talk about their work and classes they offer during Gallery Walk from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.
Grover continued to mentor Bigelow Grisman after she took one of his painting classes at Port Townsend School of the Arts.
One day, 350 16-by-16-inch panels were delivered to Grover’s studio, and the pair agreed that together, they would paint solely in square format for a duet show.
Throughout many months, they met weekly in his studio to paint together, side-by-side, listening to music and sharing their inspirations and muses.
Of Bigelow Grisman’s work, Grover said, “I admire Tracy’s abilities as a painter with unusual abilities to capture the nuance of the natural world. She paints what she knows.”
Grisman responded, “I was really surprised and honored to be invited to show with Max Grover, with the common thread that links our work together being the actual dimension of the surface.”
She decided to base her body of work for this show on three artists who have influenced her: the late great magician Ricky Jay, the surrealist Rene Magritte, and her mentor, Grover, who she calls “the maestro of serious play.”
Also during the monthly gallery walk:
• Northwind Arts Center, 701 Water St., will feature the work of William Wessinger and Kristian Brevik in “Whales, Ships and Sky.”
• Port Townsend Gallery, 715 Water St., will feature the photography work of Kay Harper and Will Kalb.
The two artists will be at the Port Townsend Gallery from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.
Harper continues her exploration of flowers. She said she thinks of her work as portraiture as she strives to reveal the unique essence of each flower she photographs.
Since black-and-white photographer Kalb is sharing the featured artist spotlight this month with her, Harper decided her theme would be black-and-white and color, in particular, the many variations of red.
She said that she calls her work “enhanced photography” because she takes the raw image from the camera and uses a variety of software-based techniques to develop the image.
For 35 years, Kalb has been doing black-and-white photography in Jefferson County and the San Francisco Bay area.
He now is making greeting cards of his most popular, and his personal favorite photos; these at times are not always the same.
For more gallery information, call 360-379-8110.
