PORT TOWNSEND — Paintings, woodworking and a special sale of some 500 pieces of local art are to be presented during the Port Townsend Gallery Walk on Saturday.
The free self-guided tour of galleries in Port Townsend is from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. the first Saturday of each month.
Among the special events this Saturday is the Port Townsend School of the Arts’ second annual Sherry Grover Art Sparks Benefit Sale.
Viewing opened earlier this week at the PtSA Downtown Gallery at 236 Taylor St., and will continue only through Saturday night.
The sale will begin at noon Sunday at the gallery.
Since early July, more than 500 6-by-6-inch painting tiles have been picked up by local artists, PtSA faculty and students for creation of original works of art to benefit PtSA and its students.
Each piece will be $40 and sold on a first-come, first-served, buy-it-and-take-it basis. Half of the proceeds go to the artist, and half to PtSA.
“The Sherry Grover Art Sparks exhibit is a wonderfully unique Port Townsend event — really showcasing the enthusiasm and talent in our community,” said PtSA Executive Director Teresa Verraes.
“This participation encourages PtSA in our mission of bringing out the artist in all of us.”
In addition to the popular 6-by-6-inch format, 20 artists were invited to create 12-by- 12-inch works, which will be available to bid on via silent auction through tonight.
These artists include Darsie Beck, Mike Biskup, Kathy Constantine, Maria Coryell-Martin, Nonie Gaines, Meg Kaczyk, Jane Kilburn, Kim Kopp, Suzanne Lamon, Frank Samuelson, Kerry Tremain, Chris Witkowski, Stephen Yates and others.
The late Sherry Grover developed a program called Art Sparks to empower artists to take charge of their careers by becoming better business people.
The annual show is a tribute to her contribution.
Many of PtSA’s artist-teachers will be on hand to talk about their work and the classes they offer at PtSA during Gallery Walk.
For more about the art group, see ptschoolof thearts.org.
Also hosting artists’ receptions Saturday are:
• Port Townsend Gallery, 715 Water St., which will feature the watercolors of Diane Holmes and the bags and purses of Nancy Pascoe.
Both artists will be on hand from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.
Holmes moved to Port Townsend from the Bay Area in California in 2005.
A self-taught watercolorist, Holmes’ latest creations come from using the Japanese sumi-e technique.
She said she loves the free movement and flow of the watercolor paints and sumi-e ink that work together.
Visitors can see the free-flowing motion in her paintings of koi, elephants and birds, organizers said.
Pascoe delights in crafting pouches and purses for everyday life.
She draws inspiration from the patterns and negative space of Japanese woodblock prints, vernacular Northwest architecture, and the indigo and grays of the Puget Sound waters and sky.
Many of the purses are hand-quilted using the Japanese style of embroidery called “sashiko.”
For more information, call 360-379-8110 or see www.porttownsendgallery.com.
• Northwind Arts Center, 701 Water St., will host artist receptions for two exhibits from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.
“Stillness” opened in the Artist Showcase in October, with work by Scott Pascoe, Jinx Bryant, Marian Morris and Duane Ervin.
Pascoe is a painter and photographer.
His paintings move from a post-impressionistic style conveying light to non-objective abstracts of regional Northwest color and texture, organizers said.
His photographs experiment with layering, color and texture and the process of aging, restoration and renewal.
Bryant embarked on a new medium this last year, moving from her first love of pastels and watercolor to oils.
Morris enjoys painting en plein air and plays with color, using acrylics.
Ervin works with wood, creating boxes made of different combinations of wood.
On Thursday, the Northwinds Arts Center opened another show, “In Residence,” which welcomes back six artists out of the 36 that have been selected to participate in the Centrum’s Emerging Artist Residency Program since 2014.
Artists Alex Boechenstein (2015), Jaleesa M. Johnston (2018), Mario Lemafa (2017), Morgan Ritter (2014), Cicelia Ross-Gotta (2018) and Zorn B. Taylor (2016) exhibit work that has evolved since their time in the program.
For this inaugural exhibition, the group takes a range of approaches to reflecting on “residence.”
The show will run through Oct. 27.
For more information, see northwindarts.org.
Jix Bryant’s “The Big Ditch” is among the p[aitning in the Northwind Arts Center’s sixth annual Artist Showcase.
