Fresh Paint featured artist paints backward on glass

Look for Evan Peterson, the 2016 Fresh Paint poster artist, along the Everett waterfront Saturday and Sunday during the annual festival of artists at work.

Like many others at Fresh Paint, Peterson, 35, will demonstrate his art while he visits with festival-goers.

The Shoreline artist — whose biggest fan, his dad, Justin Peterson, lives in Mukilteo — has made a name for himself in the region. He is perhaps best known for his paintings on glass — recycled old windows to be exact.

The 2016 Fresh Paint poster, “Fresh Fish,” is Peterson’s painting on glass of colorful fish swimming in Puget Sound with a seagull floating on top.

Evan’s mother, Kori Williams, predicted her boy eventually would become a drummer or a painter.

“And now I’m both,” he said with a grin.

However, when Evan and his wife, April Peterson, first met in Newport, Oregon, she didn’t know he was an artist. At the time he was painting houses, which probably helped him develop a steady hand with a brush.

“But I didn’t know he could draw even a cat,” she said. “Now our house is filled with his art.”

His figurative work — which focuses on birds and fish, with occasional wild and domesticated animals, old vehicles and rural scenes — has been shown in galleries in Everett, Seattle, Newport, Portland and San Francisco. He uses intricate details in a loose style to reveal expressive images.

In Newport, Peterson was mentored by the late American Indian artist Rick Bartow, who achieved renown throughout the West. Bartow’s cedar sculptures “We Were Always Here” were commissioned by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and sit on the Northwest corner of the museum overlooking the National Mall.

“Bartow challenged me to explore my artistic skills,” Peterson said. “And he encouraged me when I started working on glass about eight years ago.”

There’s a learning curve when one sets out to paint in reverse on the back side of glass.

“Bartow taught me to have a thick skin, but to be critical of myself,” he said.

Peterson first puts down a solid shape on the glass, sometimes with the help of a stencil he has created. From there he paints the highlights, details and shadows, followed by layers of background paint.

“With traditional painting, such as oil on canvas, you start with the background and finish with the details. And one might have to paint over a mistake,” Peterson said. “But with glass one would literally have to take the paint off to fix a mistake. In the end, though, the image on glass just pops. Nothing looks like a glass painting.”

Peterson’s tool kit includes water, watercolor powder, transparent paints, brushes, spray paint cans, razors, stencils, metal netting and his fingers.

“I started with finger painting on glass, and now I use a number of things to create the textures in my paintings. Texture is everything when you are working on glass, you want to pull out that 3-D view.”

When he’s done, Peterson signs the painting backward and forward.

“I hope people will come out to Fresh Paint to see what I do and get to know more about it,” he said. “I am adamant about working during the festival. That’s the cool thing about it.”

If you go

Fresh Paint: Festival of Artists at Work, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 20 and 21, Port of Everett Marina Promenade, 1700 W. Marine View Drive, Everett. Free. More at www.schack.org.

Stroll along the marina to check out the festival’s 140 featured artists, who work in fiber, jewelry, pottery, wood carving, glass blowing, photography, painting and other media.

The festival’s popular mobile hot shop for glassblowing will be run by Dan and Joi LaChaussee. Also, the Quilceda Carvers will offer a new woodcarving demonstration station. And a new demonstration area for pottery will be run by the NW Clay Club, a loosely knit social group of clay artists from the Snohomish area. Demonstrations will include the throwing of a 5-foot pot.

Performers on the Fresh Paint stages include The Winterlings, The Ginger UPs, Jess Lambert and Glen Cunningham.