Beautiful things come on small canvases
Christmas tradition means more than pretty lights, fancy wreathes and red and green everything to Garry and Karen Davis. It means porcelain women, blue and green glaciers and wooden heads that resemble Boris Karloff. It means bronze horses the size of a coffee mug and speckled granite hands.
The Davises drive all the way from Tekoa to Coeur d’Alene the first Friday of December for the opening of the Art Spirit Gallery’s small works exhibit. The annual show draws so many people to the spacious gallery on Sherman Avenue that it’s easy to assume that the entertainment behind the thick wooden doors is live.
“We wouldn’t miss it,” Garry says. “There’s an exquisite selection and a type of art for everybody.”
Gallery owner Steve Gibbs started the small works show five years ago to bring artwork into an affordable range for more people during the holiday season. He limited the size of each work to 12 inches.
“It’s grown each year,” Steve says, smiling. “I expect a packed house.”
Steve opened Art Spirit 10 years ago in a small downtown house remodeled into a gallery. Space was at a premium. Each month, he dedicated one room to a selected artist and sprinkled a few works by other artists throughout the rest of the house. By limiting the size of December’s artworks to 12 inches each, Steve could invite more artists to share the gallery space. He limited how many pieces each artist could exhibit.
Last year, Art Spirit moved and space was less of a challenge. But Steve knew better than to drop the small works show the public had embraced. The exhibit brought some of the region’s finest artists into a middle-class price range. Steve didn’t change the December show. Instead, he invited more artists.
For some of those artists, the size restriction was a challenge. Work on a small scale isn’t necessarily quicker or easier than it is on a large scale.
“I struggle with it,” says Mel McCuddin, an artist from the Spokane Valley. He paints recognizable figures as if he views them through an oddly shaped lens. “I can’t use my arm gestures. I work with my fingers instead of my arms. A couple feet square is usually my smallest, but I can’t say no to Steve.”
Mel is not alone, which is one of the greatest perks of the small works show. It includes the works of artists, such as Harrison’s George Carlson and Mead’s Harold Balazs, whose artworks are treasured throughout the world. Most artists mingle with the crowd at the exhibit’s opening.
“You get to meet the people who mentally derive the work and put it together,” Garry says. “You don’t have to become best friends, but it makes a difference. That’s half the piece of art to me.”
The 34 artists showcased this year offer everything from traditional impressionist-style oil paintings to free-standing wooden heads to abstract landscapes that spark the imagination. Sister Paula Turnbull, an artist and teacher at Spokane’s Holy Names Convent, is exhibiting her $600 copper-wire sculpture of Persephone emerging from the underworld to start spring and six months of kind weather.
Spirit Lake’s Don Ealy is showing several impressionist-style beach scenes in the $700 range. Coeur d’Alene artist Patti Sgrecci created a wood-relief sculpture that suggests a letter in an Asian language. Her work ranges from $200 to $350.
Half the work Harold Balazs is exhibiting already is sold. The Davises bought two of his four multi-media relief sculptures, abstract metal squares enhanced with enamel. The four are part of a series of possibly 100 Harold is designing for an exhibit next year. Each piece costs $250.
Art Spirit’s monthly exhibit openings spawned a downtown art walk through six other art galleries this year. December is no exception, and other downtown stores and restaurants join in the celebration. Savvy shoppers will start at Erlendson Art Glass, 116 E. Lakeside, and head east to the Frame of Mind Gallery, then over to Sherman Avenue to the Painter’s Chair, Art Spirit, Angel Gallery and Devin Galleries.
Sprinkled along the way are gourmet coffee bistros, jewelry and antique stores and plenty of restaurants.
“I’ll have to have extra help here to keep up,” Steve says. “Three-quarters of our sales are local, not to tourists, and a lot of those people are at this show every year.”
A good tradition to add to the list.