PORT TOWNSEND — As soon as Northwind Art sent out the call in January for photographs exploring water, the pictures poured in like, yes, a deluge.
Ice, sea, puddles and creeks inspire the photographers in “Wet: Reflections on Water,” the exhibition to open this Friday at the Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water St. in downtown Port Townsend.
“It’s a mixture of beautiful and thought-provoking pictures on the most important subject on Earth,” said Christopher Rauschenberg, the show’s juror.
“It’s going to be a strong show,” he said, adding that the photographs he selected have a way of “talking to each other.”
Rauschenberg, a Portland, Ore., photographer and gallerist, received hundreds of submissions from 82 artists across the West.
Winnowing the pictures down to fit into the gallery — though it’s a spacious one — was no easy feat, he said. From hundreds of submissions, Rauschenberg chose 49 images from 30 entrants.
They’re in color and black and white. They depict ocean waves, marine creatures, people lingering by a peaceful shore, storms, ice, pools and other water bodies, both calm and roaring.
“There’s a great variety in the work, with a lot of different sensibilities,” Northwind Art Exhibitions Director Michael Vince Snyder DuBose said.
“One thing that strikes me is that [Rauschenberg] has kind of a surrealist eye,” he added.
“There’s a dreamy quality to the whole ensemble.”
“Wet” is open from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays through April 30. While Rauschenberg and Northwind Art choose the recipients of the Juror’s Choice and Merit Awards, all visitors to the gallery are invited to take part in the People’s Choice voting.
That prize will be awarded next month at the end of the show.
Photographers from Port Townsend, Quilcene, Seattle, Olympia, Bend, Ore., Missoula, Mont., Cheyenne, Wyo., and other locales across the region have their work in the show.
Each responded to the call for photographs that explore the power of water. It’s the basis of life, after all. It can demolish mountains and nurture home gardens. It’s for sailing, drinking, bathing.
All are reflected in “Wet,” DuBose said, in ways that are moving — and sometimes playful.
Rauschenberg, a photographer who shows his work in galleries and museums around the globe, will come to Port Townsend on April 15 to give a public talk on the “Wet” exhibition. Details will be announced soon, along with the winners of the juror’s and merit awards.
“Wet,” in the Jeanette Best Gallery, is adjacent to the Artist Showcase gallery, Northwind Art’s other space in the Waterman-Katz Building at 701 Water St.
Three blocks from there, Northwind Art’s Grover Gallery, at 236 Taylor St., is also open from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays.
Showing at Grover is “We Love Our Teaching Artists,” an exhibition of eight local people — fiber artists, painters, photographers — who teach classes at the Northwind Art School at Fort Worden State Park.
For information about the nonprofit Northwind Art’s school, galleries and artist resources, see https://northwindart.org or phone 360-379-1086. To join the newsletter mailing list, email info@northwindart.org.
Sarah Wright of Port Townsend’s “float” appears in “Wet: Reflections on Water,” the photography exhibition opening Friday at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery in Port Townsend.
“King Tide” by Anne Weaver of Port Townsend is among the photographs in “Wet: Reflections on Water,” the exhibition opening Friday at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery in Port Townsend.
