See premier Northwest sculptors’ work at Camano Island gallery

CAMANO ISLAND — The Matzke Fine Art Gallery & Sculpture Park is showcasing some of the region’s best sculptors.

The gallery’s “Sculpture Northwest Show” features the works of 15 Northwest sculptors who work in metal, glass, wood and stone, among other mediums.

“I’m collaborating with a group called Sculpture Northwest, and they have associate members who are all regional artists,” gallery owner Karla Matzke said. “With the exception of a couple of artists, these are sculptors I’ve been showing for years.”

Featured in the exhibit March 12 through April 23 are Francie Allen, Penelope Crittenden, Jyoti Duwadi, Dan Freeman, Robert Gigliotti, Dave Haslett, Richard Hestekind, Josh Henrie, Wayne Kangas, Aaron Loveitt, Richard Nash, Tracy Powell, Sue Taves, Lane Tompkins and Lloyd Whannell. Each artist has two to four works on display.

The exhibition also features four Northwest painters — Nash, Anne Martin McCool, Kathleen Secrest and Marjorie Thompson — whose work complements the sculptures on display.

Aaron Loveitt, 41, of Bow, works mostly with metal. He has been sculpting with a blacksmithing approach for 20 years. He has a minimalist style that is influenced by nature in both form and design.

Loveitt graduated from Alfred Univerisity in Alfred, New York, with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, focusing on glass and metalwork. He launched his business, Canopy Art & Iron, formerly Altility Art Studio, in 2005.

His sculpture titled “Fell” — it’s a “showstopper,” according to Matzke — is a replica of an old-growth Western red cedar stump he found on Blanchard Mountain near his studio. It’s 91 inches long, 78 inches wide and 24 inches tall. The salvaged-steel sculpture is part of his “Relics” series.

“My goal as an artist is to generate subtle perspectives about our human place within the world around us,” Loveitt said. “I aim to create sculpture that speaks both to our interconnected nature with the natural world, as well as our tendency to manipulate and impact it as a resource.”

Tracy Powell, 75, of La Conner, is most known for “The Maiden of Deception Pass,” a Samish story pole installed in 1985 at Deception Pass State Park. It tells the legend of Ko-Kwal-Alwoot, who fell in love with a man from the sea.

A member of the Northwest Stone Sculptors Association and the La Conner Art Commission, Powell specializes in stone carvings: marble, granite, basalt, limestone, alabaster and jade. His figurative work tells a story — he considers himself a “stone bard.”

His favorite sculpture in the “Sculpture Northwest Show” is one of a trumpeter swan carved out of marble. It is titled “Swan.” He was inspired by the swans that migrate through Snohomish and Skagit counties at this time of year.

“When I carve these birds out of marble, I try to make them smooth and clean,” Powell said, who said he’s a carver because he had too much fun as Boy Scout with a pocket knife. “They’re not very complicated forms, but I think what I’m after is elegance — the least possible work to make the simplest possible statement.”

Powell, owner of Powell Studios, also has made about 200 doves — and counting. He donates some of the proceeds in the name of peace and nuclear disarmament, including to the American Friends Service Committee, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Washington Coalition Against Nuclear Weapons, World Beyond War.

In addition to Camano Island, Powell also has sculptures installed in Mount Vernon, the San Juan Islands, La Conner, Bellingham and Anacortes.

This is the third time Matzke, a sculptor and painter herself, has hosted the “Sculpture Northwest Show” since founding the gallery and sculpture park 12 years ago.

“I have one of the biggest galleries north of Everett — it’s 3,000 square feet, plus the 10-acre park,” she said. “There are over 150 sculptures in the park.”

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

If you go

The third annual “Sculpture Northwest Show,” featuring the work of some of the region’s best sculptors, is showing 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday — or Monday through Thursday by appointment — March 12 through April 23 at the Matzke Fine Art Gallery and Sculpture Park, 2345 Blanche Way, Camano Island. Call 360-387-2759 or go to www.matzkefineart.com for more information.