PORT TOWNSEND — The grand re-opening of the Grover Gallery will be at noon Saturday with a reception during the First Saturday Art Walk from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The Grover Gallery will be among a variety of venues open late on Saturday for the November art walk.
Four Port Townsend-based artists have teamed up and taken over the lease on the Grover Gallery, 236 Taylor St.
The gallery space, which will retain the name, will now be run by Max Grover (who is the gallery’s namesake), Julie Read, Larry Crockett and Tracy Grisman.
The first show is a benefit for the Humane Society of Jefferson County and features paintings of pets and critters. Ten percent of gallery and class sales in November will be donated to the humane society.
The motto for the gallery is “Fun art for the serious mind,” and the four painters are keen to stick to this idea as they create work for the walls and also invite other artists in to show their work, Read said in a press release.
Read will offer beginning painting classes for adults in the Grover Gallery. This will include her popular “Pizza & Paint” nights.
For more information, see https://www.thegrovergallery.com.
Aurora Loop
Aurora Loop Gallery will open a two-person show on Saturday.
The opening reception will be from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the gallery at 971 Aurora Loop.
Port Townsend artists Kim Kopp and Suzanne Lamon share a love of art, horses and story. Drawing has been Kopp’s focus the past three years. Lamon has explored a personal iconography of place in a series of large oil paintings.
This two-person exhibit at the Aurora Loop Gallery in Port Townsend will show a long, floating scroll and drawings by Kopp, and several of Lamon’s monumental paintings.
It will run from Saturday to Nov. 26. Regular gallery hours are from noon to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.
For more information, call 773-227-6757, email auroraloopgallery@gmail.com or see www.aurora loopgallery.com.
Gallery 9
Judith Komishane’s jewelry and Janice Pastor’s paintings are featured this month at Gallery 9, 1012 Water St. Both artists plan to be in the gallery during the art walk from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Komishane has been making jewelry for more than 15 years. She finds a variety of materials for her necklaces, bracelets and earrings combing through antique shops among other places in her travels.
“I strive to make a wide variety of styles, colors and price range to suit different people,” she said.
Having made more than 800 pieces of jewelry with no two alike, Komishane still enjoys finding unusual pendants to use in her beaded jewelry.
“Lately I have rediscovered old pendants acquired early on and had put aside,” she said. “In the past, I had made many ethnic pieces and my next focus will be in that direction.”
Pastor explores the intersection of light and shadow in her paintings.
She grew up in a small Ohio town that allowed her to mingle with the colors and textures of the countryside that have inspired her style of art to this day, she said. Being a military wife had her moving around the country, and this allowed her to be exposed to the differing materials and techniques.
Pastor has studied under John Heath in Marquette, Mich., and attended classwork at the Parson School of Design in New York City.
Her work is on exhibit now at a juried show in Aljoya, Mercer Island, through Feb. 11. She will then be moving on to another juried show at University House in Issaquah from Jan. 22 through April 21.
A new member of the North Olympic Artists Cooperative at Gallery-9 in Port Townsend, she also has her own studio.
For more information, see www.gallery-9.com.
Port Townsend Gallery
Nancy Pascoe, a Sashiko artist and bag maker, and Diane Holmes, a self-taught watercolorist, are the featured artists at Port Townsend Gallery.
The artists will be on hand at the gallery at 715 Water St. during Saturday’s art walk. Light refreshments will be served.
Pascoe has been greatly influenced by Japanese art and culture and draws from the concepts of Japanese joinery, wood block prints and garden design in the creation of Sashiko, an ancient form of Japanese embroidery.
After many years of practicing Sashiko, she said she was fortunate to participate in a month-long artist residency in Kyoto last fall, learning directly from a well-respected teacher.
Many of her pieces are based on traditional and modern Japanese bags. Each piece is conceived as a three-dimensional, functional object to be enjoyed from all angles.
The exterior are Japanese cottons, collected over many years. Much care is given to the selection of the lining fabrics, which reflect some aspect of the exterior or are meant as a surprise. Traditional Sashiko patterns are incorporated as a key feature and are chosen to enhance each piece.
Holmes said she is inspired by the Greater Northwest. She added that she especially loves working the “wet on wet” technique with watercolors; using lots of water on paper and watching how the watercolors flow is fascinating to her.
She said she is interested in the different reactions people have from looking at the same paintings; that is why she likes to mix it up a bit by putting in an extra elephant, giving a bird a mischievous look, or putting a boat off to one side of a painting.
One of the things she learned about herself recently is that, after falling and hurting her right arm, she can paint with her left.
The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily and by appointment.
For more information, phone 360- 379-8110 or see www.porttownsendgallery.com.
Museum
The Jefferson Museum of Art and History, 540 Water St., is open with free admission the first Saturday of each month.
Hours are from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
