Whidbey Island artist’s approach wastes no time
Published 12:01 pm Thursday, June 5, 2008
Whidbey Island artist Deon Matzen uses her oil paintings not to symbolize, but to represent life.
Matzen paints in alla prima style: working on one painting at a time from start to finish without the benefit of drying time between applications. Her work may be viewed until June 29 at Edmonds Library, 650 Main St.
By painting alla prima, Matzen feels it makes her work more spontaneous. She uses bright colors, but rarely uses more than five colors in any one piece. The exhibit features work from two different series: “Doors of China” and “Jumble Sale Treasures.”
Walk the walks: Art lovers can get their walking in tonight strolling the gallery walk from 6 to 9 p.m. in Anacortes.
The walk includes:
Anne Martin McCool Gallery, 711 Commercial Ave.: showing new clay crow sculptures by Teri Silva.
Insights Gallery, 516 Commercial Ave.: featuring gallery artists in the “Summer Show.”
That Photo Shoppe, 512 Commercial Ave.: “Boating” by Leslie Dorn and other Northwest images.
Adrift, 510 Commercial Ave.: presenting local artists.
Scott Milo Gallery, 420 Commercial Ave.: presenting work by the Washington Artist Group.
Gallery at the Depot, 611 R Ave.: “Clay, Fire and Form” with more than 15 of the area’s working clay artists as well as an auction of garden-themed pieces.
Bowman Gallery, 801 Fifth St.: photographs by Marius and David Hibbard.
Moooove over turkeys: The cows are taking over La Conner in June as more than 30 artists have pieces from paintings to quilts displaying the beloved bovine.
The cows will come from artists such as Bert McCabe, Joann Ossewarde and Bob Abrams. There also will be a “budding artist” show at the La Conner Fruit and Produce Market, 116 S. First St., where art produced by students can be purchased through a silent auction. A map will be provided at each shop with the location of the art.
The cow art in the shops can be purchased anytime during the month of June with a live “cattle auction” to take place at noon June 28 at La Conner Garden Club, 622 S. Second St. The art exhibit and sale is sponsored by the Kiwanis of La Conner as a fundraiser for their student scholarships. For more information, call 360-466-3352.
Portraits of change: Nationally renowned photographer Rich Frishman’s show called “Metamorphosis: Portraits of Our Children” records the growth of 20 Whidbey Island children over an eight-year period.
The show starts Tuesday and runs through June 18 in The Front Room Gallery at Bayview Corner, 5603 Bayview Road, Langley. A reception is planned from 5 to 9:30 p.m. June 13. To view the gallery online, go to www.historyoftheheart.com.
This moving series of black-and-white portraits, shot from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2008, follows a group of students from the Whidbey Island Waldorf School as they grow from innocents to adolescents.
Langley resident Frishman, a former Herald photographer whose photography regularly appears on the covers of Life, Time, Sports Illustrated and other national magazines, began this project when his own son entered the Waldorf School as a first-grader.
Wolfe’s animal art: “Washington’s National Parks: Sound Sanctuaries?” is the title of a photo exhibit by acclaimed photographer Art Wolfe to help raise awareness for the wildlife of Puget Sound-area national parks.
The National Parks Conservation Association is presenting the exhibit to highlight critical Northwest wildlife species including the Pacific fisher, the Olympic marmot, chinook salmon, the gray wolf and killer whales. Visitors will be encouraged to take action to protect the wildlife found in our national parks.
This free exhibit runs through Sept. 27 at the National Parks Conservation Association Parks Information Center and Gallery, 313-A First Ave. S., Seattle.
For more than 25 years, Wolfe has captured the beauty of wildlife. His photographs are recognized for their mastery of color, composition and perspective. Wolfe has taken an estimated 1 million images in his lifetime and has released more than 45 books, according to his bio.
Animated art: Elizabeth Beronich Sheets is highly influenced by 1930s animation, work that features intense color saturation. See Sheets’ artwork through July 2 at Art/Not Terminal Gallery, 2045 Westlake Ave., Seattle.
Also, the gallery’s Subterranean Room is showing “Peering Behind the Veil,” in which artists Kurt Vance, William Fahey and Don Farrell offer the sacred and the esoteric in images of spirit, life and transformation, myths, epiphanies and illuminations. An opening reception for both shows will be from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday.
The language of paint: Minneapolis-based artist Stephen Filla makes sharp, chic abstractions by pouring and painting layer after layer of high-sheen resin. T.L. Lange’s paintings are often the result of experiments with found objects, crumpled paper and dropped paint.
The work of both artists can be seen though June 21 at Foster/White Gallery, 220 Third Ave. S., No. 100, Seattle.
Mirrored murrelets: On Saturday,the Museum of Glass in Tacoma will introduce “Mirrored Murrelets,” a new outdoor art installation created by Arlington artist Joseph Rossano.
Rossano created the glass birds for the installation in the museum’s hot shop during his visiting artist residency in January. The murrelets will be on display through 2009 before the exhibit travels around the country.
The installation comprises more than 250 mirrored glass birds that will “float” just above the surface of the museum’s mid-level pool. The mirrored surfaces of the birds will reflect the viewer’s image, as if to suggest the impact of humans on the natural world. Fiberglass benches, designed to represent charred stumps in old growth forests, will surround the pool, according to press material on the exhibit.
