The Artful Blogger

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The Artful Blogger: Just replace the the first “g” with a “d”  and turn me into The Artful Blodger.
That’s right, it’s a horrible pun… a real groaner. So right off the get-go I can tell you’re not impressed with my ideas. And that’s OK, because I’m not going to use this space to promote my ideas.
What I would like to do with The Artful Blodger is pick your brain, not your pockets. I mean that figuratively, of course, although I may use that image sometime in the future. I want to use this space to showcase KItsap’s visual artists, and I need your help.

With your help, we can turn this into a place in cyberspace where people in the visual arts can gather to see what others are up to, or to find out what’s coming up in the community. I’ll try to stay on top of who’s offering classes, presentations and gallery openings. That kind of stuff I can handle,  but I’m going to need some help with suggestions about who to highlight here. So If you know someone who is doing interesting things with paint, clay, pixels or even potato prints, and you think others would enjoy seeing their work, please send them to the attention of The Artful Blogger.

Anglers and artists have a lot in common when it comes to drawing inspiration from the nearby streams, rivers and the Puget Sound. Watching the huge salmon wiggle up tiny streams is like watching a very tall man stuff himself into a Yugo and drive off. It takes a lot of determination to get those big bodies where they need to go in those small spaces. Artist Derek Gundy might agree. Gundy became inspired by the salmon after he moved to Washington from Rockland, Maine six years ago. He started reading about them, then he began to paint them.  “It’s really a supernatural thing. That’s why I started painting them flying.” It’s even a spiritual thing, says Gundy. Spiritual, yes, but his work is also very whimsical. His latest piece, Holy Mackerel, seems to capture both of those themes.  In some of Gundy’s paintings, the salmon are flying through the air, relieved of their watery confines. Almost all of Gundy’s work contains fish, or water. Sometimes the fish are in the air, and sometimes the water isn’t water: it’s wine, or flowers. His work illustrates just how much fun it is being an artist. On canvas anything can happen.

Perhaps it is because he’s  been around the water his entire life that he makes it such a theme in his work. Gundy grew up in coastal Maine, where his parents ran an art supply and framing store. Their shop did the framing for many local artists, including Andrew Wyeth, who had a summer home near Rockland. He attended the Portland School of Art, now called The Maine College of Art, then made his way to Washington after his wife grew tired of the Maine winters. She grew up in the Northwest, and wanted to move back.

The apple apparently didn’t fall too far from the tree, because, when he’s not working in his studio, he manages The Artists’ Edge art and framing shop in Poulsbo. Like many art stores, The Artists’ Edge offers classes taught by qualified local artists. Gundy says he’s going to return to teaching some of those classes this month after a long hiatus. In the past, he’s taught watercolor and drawing classes, at the shop. Later this month, he’s going to be teaching acrylics. He says says he enjoys helping people develop their skills, and he’s had some requests to begin the classes again.

If you’re interested in picking Derek Gundy’s brain, you can reach him at The Artists’ Edge, or you can see his blog at gundyart.blogspot.com

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 4:36 pm by J.D. Williams and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.