PORT TOWNSEND — Wendy Higgins used to stand before her easel in Santa Fe, N.M., making still life paintings with great focus and passion. She exhibited her art in the city’s famed Canyon Road galleries.
After a couple of decades, Higgins — one of the new artists at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery — started over. She began playing with brilliantly colored ink and found she couldn’t control it at all.
“It had a mind of its own,” she said.
The movement, the transparent color, the surprises: All were irresistible.
“It showed me a new joy in letting go and being led by the medium, rather than by my mind and my will,” Higgins said.
“I now stand and witness what wants to come into view on the page each day,” she said.
For her, art-making is a healing process.
Higgins’ purple, gold and aquamarine works have been installed in time for Port Townsend’s Art Walk this weekend. She’s among five new artists in the Showcase space at Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water St.
Art Walk is open to all from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday while the gallery’s regular hours are from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays.
For information about Northwind Art’s gallery shows and its art classes at Fort Worden, see https://northwindart.org.
Also new in the gallery are Gyotaku printmaker Cody Hagen of Port Angeles, sculptor Kim Simonelli of Port Townsend and photographers Jeff Sweet and Patrick Slattery of Sequim.
Hagen’s process involves fish, sumi ink and watercolor, which together make prints mixing the Japanese Gyotaku method with his own technique. Hagen applies bold ink to the side of a freshly caught fish, and then presses rice or mulberry paper onto the fish to create a relief image.
“Cody’s large piece titled ‘Fall Return’ is just a stunner,” Northwind Art spokesperson Diane Urbani said.
“The gallery is refreshed with a lot of color from 17 local artists,” she added.
For her part, Higgins noted that her works, made in Port Townsend, are different from the still life paintings back in Santa Fe.
“Mostly now I enjoy watching the show and staying out of the way of the inks. They, in turn, are reflecting the beauty of pure being. No words required.”
“Fall Return,” a Gyotaku-style print by Cody Hagen, is among the many new works arriving at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery. The gallery in downtown Port Townsend participates in Art Walk from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. (image courtesy Cody Hagen)
