EDMONDS — A mid-century modern building here has a new purpose, and important Northwest regional art from the late 19th century through the 1960s has a new home.
The much-anticipated grand opening of the Cascadia Art Museum includes free admission on Saturday and Sunday.
The inaugural show celebrates pieces from the nonprofit museum’s permanent collection, paintings and sculpture on loan for the museum’s first year, and, until Jan. 3, paintings featured in the Northwest Watercolor Society’s new book honoring its 75th anniversary.
The book — “A Fluid Tradition” — is written by Seattle art scholar David Martin and published by University of Washington Press. What’s most important about the book is the revelation that the society’s early members, men and women intent on promoting the status of watercolor in the art world, produced amazing modern work in a mix of styles of the time. (Think Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Guy Anderson and Kenneth Callahan, but in watercolor.)
No bright red geraniums in these watercolors.
Dark and gritty city scapes, Depression-era scenes, working-class subjects, lumber mills, foggy landscapes, rainy ocean beaches. Asian and Coast Salish-inspired colors. Abstract, impressionistic and thoroughly Northwest.
It’s the sort of art that museum founder Lindsey Echelbarger and his wife Carolyn, of Woodway, began collecting 30 years ago when they bought their first house.
A graduate of Meadowdale High School and Amherst College, where he studied history and art history, Echelbarger, now 63, found himself in this new house with a 12-foot white wall that begged for some art work.
“Our college dorm posters wouldn’t do and family portraits only go so far,” Echelbarger said with a laugh.
Having studied regional art throughout the country, Echelbarger and his wife decided to focus on Northwest art.
“We couldn’t afford Tobey, Graves, Anderson or Callahan, so we began with other art produced at the same time,” he said. “We began discovering Northwest art that had been neglected, set aside or forgotten.”
Among the pieces the Echelbargers collected is an untitled watercolor painting by Paul Morgan Gustin, a top landscape artist of the 1920s, of Mount Rainier from Queen Anne Hill looking across downtown Seattle when the tallest building was the Smith Tower. The painting is in the book and also in the museum’s permanent collection.
Other artists whose work is displayed include Everett-born Alden Mason and James Martin; Arne Jensen, who grew up in Everett; Edwin Burnley, who started the forerunner to Art Institute of Seattle; famous Seattle artists Paul Horiuchi and George Tsutakawa; Dorothy Dolph Jensen, a founding member of the Women Painters of Washington; Vara Grube, Northwest Watercolor Society’s first president; Ambrose Patterson, Glen Alps and Frederick Anderson, who taught at the University of Washington; and World War II veterans Jess Cauthorn, Irwin Caplan and Daniel Pierce.
The society, with its 900 members, asked Martin to write “A Fluid Tradition” and the UW Press agreed to publish it, but only if it had a corresponding exhibition. Echelbarger stepped in to offer space at Cascadia.
“The watercolor show fits the mission of the museum,” Martin said. “And I had already tracked down the artwork for the book. It worked out perfectly.”
Martin is happy about the museum’s focus on Northwest art from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century.
“All of our fine Northwest museums do a good job, but Cascadia is focusing exclusively on this period. Nobody else is doing that,” Martin said. “There were a lot of great artists then, but we rarely see their work. It’s buried in family and museum collections. These men and women produced beautiful work, much of it ahead of its time. We need to put these artists back on the map.”
Martin believes young people who have had limited exposure to this Northwest regional art will be enthralled with the work shown.
Echelbarger agrees. The museum is working with school districts and colleges to ensure that students visit the museum.
Along with the watercolor exhibit, the museum is hosting borrowed work by Anderson, who grew up in Edmonds, Graves, who lived for a time in Woodway, and Callahan, who had a place in the Granite Falls area.
Anderson, Graves, Callahan and Tobey were among the artists in the Northwest garnering national attention when Life magazine published its 1953 feature story “Mystic Painters of the Northwest.”
A large Anderson painting that normally graces the Edmonds City Council chambers will hang in the museum lobby. Four Graves paintings from the collection of photographer Mary Randlett have a special place in the main hall of the museum. Randlett, known for her portraits of Northwest regional artists, also lived in Edmonds.
It’s been only two years since the idea for the museum came together.
A fixture in downtown Edmonds since it was built in the mid-1960s as a grocery store, the museum building has been stripped down to show its beautiful curved hemlock beams. Architect Steve Johnson capitalized on its modern look and high ceilings.
“It’s cool and it’s gratifying,” Echelbarger said. “The building was great for a museum conversion and the city of Edmonds was so welcoming.”
The museum takes up about 11,000 square feet of the 20,000-square-foot building, which can be rented for events. It is surrounded by Scratch Distillery and Brigid’s bottleshop. Other businesses to be added to the complex include a Top Pot doughnut shop, an upscale restaurant and a Spud’s fish and chips shop.
The $350,000 renovation of the old Safeway created a museum space of six galleries, a central hall and an education room with a gift shop and proposed adjoining library. The glass entry, seating area and gift shop overlook container gardens that complement the museum’s mid-century modern aesthetics. The museum has heating, cooling and humidity standards equal to those maintained by the Smithsonian.
A 12-member board of directors, a few employees and a cadre of volunteers run the museum.
“Now we need people who will buy memberships and season passes and claim this museum as their own,” Echelbarger said.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.
If you go
The new Cascadia Art Museum opens to the public 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 12 and 13 at 190 Sunset Ave., Edmonds, with free admission those first two days. Cost is $10 beginning Sept. 16. Free admission is offered during Edmonds’ third Thursday art walk events. Memberships are $50. Seniors in the same household can share a membership. Hours go until 8 p.m. on Thursdays. The museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. The new book “A Fluid Tradition” is available for sale in the museum gift shop. More information is at cascadiaartmuseum.org.
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