The Artful Blogger

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As promised here are some of the images from Dianne Gardner’s monthly gathering at her south Kitsap studio. Artists who attended this month were, Donna Trent, Terry Sceli, Karen Wisley, Sheila Anderson, Sid Cloud and Loretta Anderson. The models were Tina Hagedorn and Diane Asplund. Gardner says painting from life is the best way to learn, but during the summer her group gets out of the studio for some plein air painting as well. Learning is good, but getting outside sounds so wonderful right now. The spirit of turpentine has permeated the walls of my studio/guestroom. I could really use some plein air.

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Oil painter Dianne Gardner has a monthly gathering at her studio for several South Kitsap and Gig Harbor artists. The next gathering will be Thursday, January 14, which is tomorrow (sorry about the short notice). It’s from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be two models available to paint, draw or sculpt. The models will hold one pose for 20-minute intervals with time-out for lunch, which Dianne says is potluck. The cost is $15. Her studio is located at 9385 Olalla Valley Road, Port Orchard. You can reach Dianne at gardnersart@wavecable.com, or check out her Web site here: http://gardnersart.com I’m particularly fond of her piece “The Poultry Keeper,” not just because it’s a stunning piece of art, but the Artful Blogger has just finished painting a chicken — they’re not easy subjects.

Dianne says she will send me some of the results of January’s gathering. I can’t wait.

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Oil & Water Has been Elevated

Artists on Bainbridge Island wondering what happened to Oil & Water art supplies just need to go to the old location and look up. They’ve moved on to the next story.
I talked with Pam Christiansen, who is the head of the Creativity Center there associated with Oil & Water. She tells me that they made the move upstairs not because it’s a bigger space but because it’s a more focused space. Now it’s located right next to the Creativity Center classrooms. Christiansen started the Creativity Center three years ago; in June the center merged with Oil & Water. “We had the same vision and ideas,” she said. Moving downtown to the Winslow Mall was “great because people can come over from Seattle. It’s centrally located,” she said.

The Creativity Center now has 16 faculty members who teach classes in most mediums, including oil, watercolors, acrylics, pastels, multimedia and drawing for both adults and children. They run labs with nude models every Thursday night, and even have an off-site sculpture class.

New sessions begin this month. You can get information here: oilandwaterarts.com/classes.html.

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I work on the Kitsap Sun’s design desk, which means I normally work very strange hours. If you send me a message during the day, and I don’t get back to you right away, it’s because I normally don’t fire up my computer until after 4 p.m. Reader Dianne Gardner points out that there is no way for people to get in touch with me other an by posting a reply to my blog entries. That is a problem.

Although I would encourage people to post replies to the blog entries, you can also send me information and images at jdwilliams@kitsapsun.com, or jon.williams@kitsapsun.com. They both work. I switched my byline to J.D. because there was another Jon Williams in the company. I kept getting his e-mail. For some reason the problem cleared up and I don’t get his mail anymore, so you’re welcome to use either address.

GYPSY SWING: If you want to get in touch with me this Friday night I will be at the Collective Visions Art Gallery, along with a lot of other art lovers, and lovers of Gypsy swing. The great Seattle Gypsy jazz band Pearl Django will be playing at the gallery located at 331 Pacific Ave. Bremerton. What a show that’s going to be! And what a great place to see them play!  I’m thrilled, and so is my 9-year-old daughter. I took her to a Django Reinhardt festival in San Francisco a few years ago, where we saw a guitarist named Durado Schmitt. She was about 5-years-old and had the attention span of a five-year-old, so I was expecting her to lose interest real fast. To my surprise, Schmitt’s Gypsy swing performance captured her attention through out the whole show. Now we’re looking forward to Friday’s show. You can see Pearl Django too by calling Collective Visions at (360) 377-8327. I just called over there, and they still have tickets available at $20 each. However, I’m told they’re going real fast. The show starts at 7 p.m. See you there…

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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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