Museum invites you to add your colors to vintage Northwest art

EDMONDS — Cascadia Art Museum invites you to decorate the museum’s windows with your take on vintage woodblock prints by Northwest artists.

Coloring pages, made from curator David Martin’s favorite works by W. Corwin Chase, Waldo S. Chase and Elizabeth Colborne, are available on the museum’s website. Just go to www.cascadiaartmuseum.org and click on “Art Explorations” under the Virtual tab.

“We are just very sad that we can’t welcome anybody into our museum — and our windows are looking a little sad,” said Lauren Carroll-Bolger, development and marketing manager. “So we created a project where people can color some art that we’ve exhibited before, and we can put it up in our windows so our community artists are up on display in the museum as well.”

In 2017, the Chase brothers and Colborne’s woodblock prints were among the Washington artists and mediums featured in Martin’s book and exhibition by the same name — “Territorial Hues: The Color Print and Washington State 1920-1960.”

They were inspired by our waters, mountains, wildlife and the Coast Salish influences of our region.

“The prints were chosen because they feature Northwest nature scenes, which we thought would be fun coloring projects,” said Leigh Ann Gilmer, museum executive director.

Gilmer said the woodblock designs translated well into coloring pages.

You’ll find Elizabeth Colborne’s “An Alpine Fir in Austin Pass” and “Mount Baker,” both circa 1928. Colborne (1885-1948) was a Bellingham-based printmaker and illustrator who is most remembered for her color woodcuts. She was one of the first in the region to work in the medium.

You can also color W. Corwin Chase’s “Tak-Hoo-Ma” from 1929, as well as Waldo S. Chase’s 1944 “Rocky Point” and circa 1936 “Fawn.” Waldo (1895-1988) and Corwin (1897-1988) were born in Seattle and learned how to make color woodcuts from a manual by Frank Morley Fletcher.

These artists made their woodblock prints by carving a design into a block of wood, rolling ink onto the block, then pressing a piece of paper over the block to create the print. A different block was used for each color you see in the print.

But you don’t have to carve your own woodblocks to color in beautiful Northwest scenes.

Just download your favorite coloring page, print it out and color it before turning it in to the Cascadia Art Museum for window display. If you don’t have a printer, you may pick up the coloring pages from a kiosk near the museum.

Though the museum is closed, and will be until Snohomish County is OK’d for Phase 3 of the governor’s reopening plan, it recently launched two video series — Virtual Visits and Studio Cascadia — to keep museum visitors interested in the artwork exhibited there. A new video is posted to the museum’s website each week.

The coloring pages are in addition to that.

“In giving a nice project, we’re also trying to keep people active with art at home,” Carroll-Bolger said, “especially on a rainy day like today.”

Sara Bruestle: 425-339-3046; sbruestle@heraldnet.com; @sarabruestle.

Elizabeth Colborne also made this print of Mount Baker around 1928. The majestic volcano towers over Austin Pass.

“Rocky Point” was made by Waldo S. Chase (1895-1988) in 1944.

“Fawn” was made by Waldo S. Chase around 1936.

“Tak-Hoo-Ma” was made in 1929 by Corwin Chase (1897-1988).