SEQUIM — One way to fully see our fellow creatures, Ken Campbell believes, is to re-create them in wood.
Campbell used to count thousands of ducks in a given day working for the New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game. Enchanted by their colors and variety, he became a master wood carver, retired and moved to the place of plenty, as far as wildlife goes: Sequim.
New England is nice, sure, but it’s nowhere near this neck of the Pacific Northwest when it comes to abundance of animals, Campbell said.
And soon after arriving, he found kindred spirits — human and avian — just outside the city of Sequim at the Dungeness River Audubon Center.
The center is in Railroad Bridge Park, one of Campbell’s favorite havens, and where he’ll be among 14 demonstrators of wildlife-inspired art.
‘Teaching moments’
Art in the Park, a new event for the River Center, will offer an array of “teaching moments.”
Campbell said he revels more in sharing his carving techniques than in selling his work, and another demonstrator, Sequim painter Judy Priest, is eager to attract novices, something like a feeder attracts sparrows.
The demonstrations will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in the courtyard outside the River Center, where the artists will be surrounded by birds and towering trees.
Janet Duncan of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe will share her beading techniques, Tuttie Peetz will sculpt driftwood, and gemstone artists will demonstrate wire-wrapping and jewelry-making, while others paint, print and mix other media.
Inside the center, an art show will open Friday and run through Aug. 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The display will be a revelation of both local artists and wildlife.
It features birds sculpted in driftwood, salmon in watercolor, a cedar weaving by Ann Adams, Sallie Radock’s “Egret’s Garden” block print and a landscape by Patricia Andrews titled “The Fog Lifts.”
“We’ll have people’s choice voting in the indoor exhibit,” said Julie Jackson, an organizer of the weeklong show.
Admission is free, while many works both indoors and outdoors will be available for purchase.
A portion of the proceeds from art sales will benefit the River Center’s educational programs for children, teens and adults.
This Saturday and Sunday The Sauer Kraut, a deli and bakery near Sequim, will offer picnic fare for park visitors, and will also donate a percentage of sales to the River Center.
For Campbell and Priest, the weekend is a chance to share their delight in making art that celebrates wildness.
“I never really looked at a duck until I started carving,” Campbell said.
In the 30 years since he first put pocketknife to wood, he’s helped Cub Scouts, teenagers and octogenarians learn the craft.
Portable pastime
Carving is a lifelong, portable pastime that anyone can pick up, said Campbell, 52.
“To me, it’s recreation. I can carve anywhere — except on a plane. [The airlines] don’t like the knife part.”
But he doesn’t consider himself an artist.
“I’m a fine craftsman,” and nature is the creative force that shaped his subjects.
Campbell and his wife Mary are both wildlife photographers, and don’t consider these their “retirement years.”
“They’re sort of our ‘artist years,'” Campbell said, that come also with time to volunteer at Sequim’s Northwest Raptor Center and with the Olympic Gleaners at local farms.
Campbell will teach carving during Art in Park on Sunday only, while Priest and most of the other artists will demonstrate both days this weekend. She hopes visitors will consider joining her art classes at the Sequim Senior Activity Center, from 10 a.m. to noon Mondays.
Priest has volunteered for many years at the center at 921 E. Hammond St. For information about her classes and other offerings, phone 360-683-6806.
Now 78, Priest has been painting since she was a teen, and is still finding fresh artistic frontiers.
“Skies,” she said, “just fascinate the hell out of me.”
“I’m still learning what happens,” with watercolors, Priest added. And while demonstrating, “I have to let what happens happen.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
