Dine on mussels, view local art on Whidbey Island this weekend

Published 5:51 pm Thursday, March 5, 2009

Spring is on our heels, or shall we say on the half-shell, as we welcome the opening of the Penn Cove Mussel Festival along with the sixth annual Spring Art Studio Tour brought to us by the Whidbey Working Artists.

This free, self-guided tour gives you another reason to be on Whidbey Island this weekend and fills you up on culture while you are filling up on the cousin to the clam.

The studio tour runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. A color brochure with a map and artist information is available online at www.WhidbeyWorkingArtists.com.

Printed brochures with maps are available at most art galleries in Island, Snohomish, and Skagit counties, or at the Coupeville Rec-Hall, 901 NW Alexander St., Coupeville.

The tour features 39 artists at 27 studios, more artists and locations than in previous years. The studios are scattered between Greenbank and Oak Harbor.

Most artists will be demonstrating during the tour. An exhibit featuring one piece from each artist will be available for viewing at the Coupeville Rec-Hall during tour hours.

Potter Lyla Lillis is opening her doors so visitors can see the process of making decorative drums from local Whidbey Island clay. Her studio is at 442 Wilderness Way, Oak Harbor.

While on Whidbey, check out “Art in the Cafe” at Island Angel Chocolates shop where Susan Jensen is the featured artist for March.

After doing media relations for 26 years, Jensen retired to Whidbey to write and paint with soft pastels. You can meet Jensen from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday at the chocolate shop, 138 Second St., Langley.

“Spreading the Fire” is the name of Gallery North’s luminous collection of paintings by Pacific Northwest artist June McCallum.

The public is invited to meet McCallum during an artist’s reception from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at Gallery North, 508 Main St., Edmonds. Light refreshments will be served.

McCallum’s painting amplifies Christian themes with bright and radiant colors and multi-media collage. McCallum gives thanks through her paintings for pulling through a challenging 86 years of life that included polio as a child and other severe illnesses as an adult.

In the abstract: When Solovei Art Gallery owner Lyussy Hyder thinks of abstract art, she thinks of the purity of the modern style, the playfulness of color and texture and she thinks of artists Duane Simshauser and John Vistaunet.

Hyder is holding an artists reception from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday at her gallery, 2804 Grand Ave., Everett. The abstract exhibit will run through March 28.

Simshauser’s large canvasses add an exciting element to his work as these large paintings — on average 4 by 6 feet or 5 by 7 feet — make large statements.

Vistaunet has won awards for figurative works, usually nudes, in oil and pastel. His series of works “Live Canvas” evolved from paintings into 3-D canvas installations of fabric stretched and gathered in seemingly chaotic manner.