SEQUIM — “A Visitor,” luminous and golden, looks like the sun at first. But that’s not who we’re beholding.
“The ‘Visitor’ is moon . . . one of the most welcomed to our single, multi-purpose living room,” said the painting’s creator, Ryoko Toyama of Sequim.
The moon “comes in freely, with a flood of transparent colors; it lit up the space and my heart.”
“A Visitor” is now lighting up another space, during tonight’s First Friday Art Walk and throughout March. It’s on display with other watercolors by Toyama and sculptures by her fellow featured artist, Janine Hegy, in a monthlong show titled “Paper, Rock, Wood.”
The celebration of these artists and their media starts tonight during the gallery stroll from 5 p.m. till 8 p.m.; admission is free to the Blue Whole Gallery and to the many other participating venues.
While the Blue Whole has been a stop on First Friday Art Walk for years, the Gallery at Dungeness Design is a relatively new kid on the block. The showplace, at 520 N. Sequim Ave., is making a photographic splash tonight with “Water Bending Light,” Jayne Johnson’s display of highly unusual images.
Johnson’s pictures peer into the Dungeness and Hoh rivers, Salt Creek County Park’s marine life, the iridescent bodies of salmon and the sands and wood on Rialto Beach. In this, her first show in Sequim, the photographer means to share her reverent feeling for the natural world.
The pictures highlight “the fragility of everything around us,” Johnson said.
Her skill comes from studying photography at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, and from her belief in taking time to truly see the beauty of water and its creatures.
“If you stop, and look and wait, you will see so much more,” she said.
Tonight’s art walk around downtown Sequim, organized in part by Renne Brock-Richmond, is the next in a series with a color theme. February was red, in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, and now March’s color is green, for spring and St. Patrick’s Day. Brock-Richmond invites art lovers to participate in any way they see fit, at any or all of the venues keeping their doors open this evening. Galleries hosting receptions today from 5 p.m. till 8 p.m. include:
■ The Sunshine Café, 145 W. Washington St., with bright paintings by Pamela Hastings and free edible treats;
■ Rainshadow Coffee Roasting Co., 157 W. Cedar St., with creations by tin artist Deborah Paul;
■ Prairie Springs Assisted Living, 680 W. Prairie St., with a dessert buffet and a reception for featured artist Richard S. O’Connor;
■ The Museum & Arts Center, 175 W. Cedar St., with a party and awards ceremony around the 18th annual Sequim Arts Student Show of works by local youth in grades six through 12;
■ Pacific Mist Books, with chocolates by Cocoa d’Amici, paintings by Saundra Cutsinger and author Buc Keene discussing his book The Kind of Western I’d Like to Read;
■ Wind Rose Cellars, with wine tasting at 155 B West Cedar St.;
■ Doodlebugs Scrapbooking, 138 W. Washington St., with its Creative Café Art Bar open for craft projects from 5 p.m. till 7 p.m.
For a map of all the stops, see the Sequim First Friday Art Walk page on Facebook; details are also available by phoning Brock-Richmond at 360-460-3023.
And for those wanting to plan their outfits for forthcoming art walks, she’s chosen hues for the rest of year: April is pink, May aqua, June white, July purple, August yellow, September blue, October orange, November brown and December gold.
