Bolstad shows her work at Prima Bistro
Local painter Karin Bolstad displays her show of mixed-media acrylic paintings, “The New Normal: Chapters,” at Prima Bistro in Langley through December.
Bolstad said her artwork is figurative, and that vintage photos and postcards of people are used as models for her work. She then embellishes the paintings with paper, textiles, vintage jewelry and various kinds of ephemera. Each painting tells a story.
In this most recent group of paintings, women and reading are the theme, with an underlying personal theme of the stages (or “chapters”) of how the artist deals with overcoming personal challenges, namely the death of her father.
Prima Bistro is at 201½ First St. Visit www.primabistro.com.
Artworks Gallery has Maggie Lancaster
Fiber artist Maggie Lancaster is featured at Artworks Gallery at Greenbank Farm through October.
Lancaster specializes in original silk paintings and hand-crafted, braided rugs. Her newest series of luxurious silk banners feature stylized animal designs that are a nod toward native Northwest motifs.
For more information, visit www.artworkswhidbey.com or call 222-3010.
Raven Rocks Gallery presents textiles, oils
“The Fabric of Imagination” features the work of Anne Niles Davenport and Richard Engstrom at Raven Rocks Gallery at Greenbank Farm through Nov. 2.
Engstrom uses acrylic paint to build images that invite the viewer into a rich world of light, texture and imagery. Soft landscapes, rivers of light and inviting structures welcome the viewer.
During her 30-year career as a weaver, Davenport has refined her skills, and creates fabrics that are unique and personal. She uses large computer-assisted production looms, which utilize specialized software to integrate her complex patterns into the textiles.
Join both artists and artist-owners Mary Jo Oxreider and Windwalker Taibi for an opening reception during the First Friday Artwalk and Wine Tasting from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7.
For information, call 222-0102, or visit www.ravenrocksgallery.com.
October at MUSEO brings paint, glass
MUSEO in downtown Langley features new oil paintings by local artist David Gignac through Oct. 31. Also, Alicia Lomne will be exhibiting glass works in pate de verre. Her inspiration for these new works has been a life-long love of honey bees, their lives and their world of pollen and seeds.
Call 221-7737 or visit www.museo.cc for more information.
Whiteman’s art is at the Cellar Room
Taste for Wine’s “Cellar Room” gallery in the Bayview Cash Store features the watercolor and acrylic paintings of Gaylen Whiteman through October. The gallery will hold a Sunday Art Afternoon from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9 with an artists reception and live music with guitarist Quinn Fitzpatrick.
Whiteman shows regularly at Artworks Gallery in Greenbank and has shown at juried shows both on and off the island.
She creates scenes of children, wildlife flora and fauna and landscapes.
Taste for Wine features the wines of Spoiled Dog Winery and Blooms Winery. The tasting room is open Thursdays through Mondays.
Fitzpatrick will also play at Taste for Wine from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 22 and singer/songwriter Eleanor Fye will perform from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30.
For more information, visit www.tasteforwinewhidbey.com or call 321-0515.
Mixed-media art at Whidbey Art Gallery
Mixed-media artist Shirley Ashenbrenner is Whidbey Art Gallery’s featured artist through October in Langley.
Ashenbrenner’s abstract work ranges from paintings in oil, acrylic, mixed-media and encaustics to assemblage.
Ashenbrenner chose mixed-media pieces for the current show that reflect her passion for color and her bold artistic approach. Most of her pieces are completed through a process using cardboard, papers, found objects and various other materials to build a rough collage surface on the canvas.
For more info, call the gallery at 221-7675 or visit www.whidbeyartists.com.
Brackenwood Gallery presents trio of artists
Brackenwood Gallery in downtown Langley presents a group show titled “What is Art?” through Oct. 31.
Robbie Cribbs, Sharon Shoemaker and Michel Tsouris asked themselves and others “What is Art?” for the past year. They captured their discoveries in video, photography, drawings and etchings. Small video screens will play their various videos throughout the gallery.
Cribbs is a sound guy. He “sees” the world through sound so when he began asking himself that ubiquitous question he started by composing music. He then created animations to accompany the music, demonstrating how art begins, progresses and finally blossoms into a finished product — in this case an animated video. Photos of his original artwork will be for sale along with his video.
Shoemaker uses a meditative process in order to “see” the natural world differently and capture those images on film. All the photographs were done in the camera, not the computer. As an experimental photographer, these several images were created using 70 mm film (Imax film).
Shoemaker scratched, drew and painted onto the film, then reshot the images with a digital camera so they could be printed on her computer for a new result.
Tsouris stepped out of her visual artist zone for this project and became a videographer for this project. Tsouris kept a journal of the questions she posed in interviews to 100 people as she drove cross-country during the past year. She made drawings and collected them into a book with the motivation to find meaning in her art and in life.
Visit www.brackenwoodgallery.com for more information.
UUCWI Gallery of Art shows photos
Photographer Michelle Schmidtke is featured at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Whidbey Island Gallery of Art through October.
Cultural images from Schmidtke’s travels in Thailand, Bhutan and Peru are captured in vivid color. Schmidtke willingly carried an extra eight pounds of photographic equipment in a backpack up a steep mountain trail or on horseback for a shot. Through her photography, she advocates an improved relationship with the natural world.
UUCWI is at 20103 Highway 525, two miles north of Freeland on the left side of the highway. The Gallery of Art is open during congregational events and by special arrangement.
