There are at least 18 good reasons to go to Whidbey Island this weekend.
Let’s start with art, art and more art.
And don’t forget the mussels.
Starting tonight with an artists’ reception, the island’s fourth annual Spring Art Studio Tour begins. The free self-guided tour lets visitors go from art studio to art studio – 18 in all – to buy, to talk to artists or just to look.
Travelers to the island can either start from the south end via the Mukilteo-Clinton ferry route or at the north end via the Deception Pass route through Oak Harbor. Either way, there are artists to see from one end of the island to the other.
In the middle of all this art, there’s the Penn Cove Mussel Festival in Coupeville, where the dark-colored mollusk becomes the center attraction for cooking demonstrations, recipe contests and adult scavenger hunts.
“It’s a neat thing,” said painter Gerald Roberts of the mussel festival. “What we’re trying to do is combine more things when possible.
“One of the things that makes the studio tour unique is there’s a good mixture of disciplines. We have some good three-D artists as well as two-D artists,” Roberts said.
Roberts is helping organize this year’s event, though it is his first time opening his studio for the tour.
Roberts is known for his Native American art, horses, cowboys and Western scenic-scapes.
“What I’m hoping to get out of it is positive exposure,” he said. “That’s what every artist hopes for, and hopefully that leads to sales.”
With 24 artists participating in the tour, Whidbey Island is definitely filling its role as an art center, Roberts said.
This tour features a wide variety of artists’ works in many disciplines, including jewelry, scarves, rugs, paintings, pottery, glass art and contemporary furniture.
Tour information and maps will be available during the two-day event at these locations: Deception Pass Visitors Center; Penn Cove Pottery, San de Fuca; Coupeville Boys &Girls Club, Coupeville; and the Artworks Gallery and Greenbank Farm Wine Shop, Greenbank Farm.
Arts writer Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424 or goffredo@heraldnet.com.
Whidbey artists represented on the studio tour include (clockwise from left): watercolor by Anne Wilson; jewelry and scarf by Marcie Johnson and Camille Noble; oil painting by Gerald Roberts, and burl table by Gary Leake.
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