LANGLEY — The Rob Schouten Gallery wants to help brighten your winter with its February show.
The gallery’s “Color to Drive Away the Winter Blues” exhibition features about 20 Northwest artists who play with color and light in their work in an array of mediums, including glass, jewelry, sculpture, paintings, woodworking, ceramics and fiber art.
“As we continue the rainy and dark days of winter, we felt it was time to bring some fresh color and light to the equation,” said Rob Schouten, the namesake of the gallery. “Our talented gallery artists have responded by bringing in some of their most exquisite original pieces, which we are delighted to display.”
Featured in the exhibit Feb. 1-28 are Robert Adamson, Alfredo Arreguín, Anne Belov, Kathleen Frugé Brown, Buffy Cribbs, Fritz Driesbach, Georgia Gerber, Cary Loopuyt Jurriaans, Jacob Kohn, Dan and Joi LaChaussee, Mary Ellen O’Connor, Dale Reiger, Teresa Saia, Sara Saltee, Rob Schouten, Sharon Spencer, Frances Wood and James Tennison. Each artist will have one or two works on display.
Dan and Joi LaChaussee are a glassblowing husband-and-wife team from Langley. They met while taking glassblowing classes at the Pratt Fine Art Center in Seattle. They loved working with glass so much that they built a hot shop on their property in 1988.
Together, the LaChaussees make a variety of glass art, ranging from bowls and lamps, to vases and sculptures. Some of their pieces are so technical that they have their son, Aaron LaChaussee, also a glassblower, help them out. All three of them have been working on a series of heads — complete with eyes, noses and ears all in glass.
“It’s not a solo act,” Dan LaChaussee said. “All glass blowing on our level is teamwork. It’s very difficult to do by yourself.”
Sharon Spencer, of Greenbank, adds character to each of her sculptures with patination. She works mostly in bronze, but also in stone, clay and tooling board. A self-taught artist, Spencer has been sculpting abstract, figurative and ceremonial forms since 1975.
“Patina is the main thing for my sculptures,” Spencer said. “I could make it bland, put no coloring on it, but I want it to represent the piece. I want it to have color. I don’t do anything that’s just plain. I think color is important.”
Spencer has been suffering from artist’s block since COVID-19 hit. She is hopeful that visits to her studio and strolls on the trails at Greenbank Farm with her dog will inspire her to get back to sculpting.
Langley’s James Tennison has been painting in oil and watercolor for about 40 years. Right now, he’s working on a series featuring the landmarks of his hometown. His style is representational — he enjoys the challenge of replicating what he sees in a photograph. He paints in his studio at the South Whidbey Community Center.
“I do like authenticity,” he said. “I really enjoy capturing the feeling of light and shadows — and all the colors you see within the shadows and reflected in the light when you really look.”
After studying fine arts at the University of Texas at Arlington, Tennison continued his training at the ArtCenter College of Design in California. He started out as an illustrator, but later transitioned into painting portraits and what he calls “gallery work.”
This is the second time owners Rob and Victory Schouten have titled their mid-winter show “Color to Drive Away the Winter Blues” since founding the gallery in 2008.
“In stressful times, like we’ve all been through within this last year with COVID and the election cycle, some color and some brightness can uplift our spirits,” Schouten said. “We hope the art show will help contribute to a more positive experience.”
Sara Bruestle: 425-339-3046; sbruestle@heraldnet.com; @sarabruestle.
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