SEQUIM — If you choose to visit the three artists at the Rock Hollow Farm this weekend, chances are good you’ll hear laughter pouring out the barn door.
The trio — painters-sculptors-collage makers Susan Gansert Shaw, Lynne Armstrong and Mary Franchini — are among the artists getting ready for largest-ever Sequim Arts Studio Tour, a free event unfolding in conjunction with the Lavender Festival this weekend.
Free street fair
The 14th annual celebration of the purple herb includes a free Street Fair in downtown Sequim, six local farms hosting live music, crafts, you-pick lavender and culinary demonstrations, and many other fragrant events today through Sunday. For details visit www.LavenderFestival.com or phone 877-681-3035.
Amid all of this, 24 artists at 17 studios in and around Sequim will open their doors and, by way of their work, their hearts.
The variety of media is magnificent, as is the talent on display, said Shaw, who lives at Rock Hollow Farm.
She invited Franchini and Armstrong to bring their art to her barn on studio-tour weekend, and the result is an array of watercolors, collages, pastels, oil and acrylic paintings, “recycled” bowls painted in bright colors, and Su-Su sticks, female figures Shaw makes out of beach sticks, stones, fleece and Fimo clay.
“Mixing it up is fun,” said Franchini, who will display her collages made with found objects.
Like the other two, she’s into experimentation with paint, canvas and whatever catches her fancy.
“Mary is always playing, always pushing the limits,” said Shaw.
The studio tour is a rare chance to not only survey the diversity of art being made in the Dungeness Valley, but also to buy some without paying gallery prices, Armstrong said.
“We have everything from a card to a high-end painting,” Shaw added.
Stops on the tour
A few of the other stops on the tour: Charlotte Watts’ photography studio on Chicken Coop Hollow Road east of Sequim; Dana Hyde’s Metal & Mud studio on Spruce Street near downtown; Coffee Miklos’ jewelry and garden art on Palmer Street in Dungeness; Lexie Coleman’s abstract acrylics on Bon Jon View Way; Roberta Cooper’s gourd art on Serpentine Avenue; and Marlien Hennen’s Dancing Cedar Arts studio near Lost Mountain Road.
At Hennen’s place, visitors can see a tall, cedar-bark-and-glass-mosaic totem pole titled “Harmony,” as well as a majestic thunderbird made of cedar and a large, etched conk mushroom.
And lately, Hennen has been embellishing her cedar hats with carefully cut sprigs of lavender.
Longer hours
For the first time this year, the studios are staying open until 8 p.m. both tonight and Saturday, so if people are at work or at the lavender farms during the day, they can still stop in and see some art.
Five of the 17 studios are wheelchair accessible, and all will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. today and Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Armstrong, for her part, hopes parents or grandparents will bring kids out with them, since the tour is a chance to learn about artistic techniques and inspiration.
“I really want young people to get into art,” Armstrong said. “It’s been such a gift in my life.”
During the tour days, Armstrong will be painting outside, while Franchini and Shaw will likewise show visitors how their art takes shape.
Most of all, “I want to give SSRqem a good time,” said Shaw, “and introduce them to different styles of art.”
Looking out at her grassy front yard, with its picnic tables and shade from a Gravenstein apple tree, she added, “this is a great spot. We’re going to have fun.”
At each location, visitors are invited to purchase tickets, at $1 each, to drawings for 24 works of art donated by participating artists; proceeds will benefit Sequim Arts, a nonprofit that sponsors community art shows, workshops and scholarships.
For a brochure with a map and pictures of each artist’s work, see www.SequimArts.org or stop in at the Sequim Visitor Information Center, 1192 E. Washington St.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
