Blaschke features NW landscapes
PAINTING THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST’S beautiful landscape is Ellen Blaschke’s passion — and the heart of her work is hanging at the Crawford Gallery in Deer Park
Blaschke frequently captures majestic images of Mount Spokane and Mount Rainier in her oil paintings, says gallery manager Brenda Lippert.
“In other paintings, the scenery becomes the backdrop for her depictions of the early life of the Native American people of Spokane,” Lippert says.
Sharing the gallery space with Blaschke’s canvases are the intricately carved wood objects of Ward Farka.
Farka began sharpening his carving skills about 15 years ago after retiring from the railroad.
“Carving is very relaxing,” he said. “It’s a good way to spend time and get something accomplished instead of just sitting.”
On exhibit will be Ward’s award-winning display of 31 miniature Welsh Love Spoons. Each spoon, carved in the same design, is fashioned from a different kind of wood.
Ward, a member of the Spokane Carver’s Association, “got stuck on spoons” about five years ago but also carves fish, Western boots and interlocking loops in chains.
View the work through July 22 during regular summer hours, Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and by appointment. A closing reception is scheduled for July 22 from 5 to 7 p.m.
Colville arts celebration
“Artburst,” a free festival of the arts, takes place this weekend in Colville’s Yep Kanum City Park, two blocks off Highway 395 between Hawthorne and Dominion streets.
There will be artist booths, musicians, art demonstrations, food vendors and children’s do-it-yourself art projects.
Artists will be selling pottery, jewelry, fine wood and furniture, fiber arts, watercolor and oil paintings, photography, prints, metal work, stained glass and garden art.
“To help jump-start your creative juices, local artists will demonstrate painting, printmaking and pottery,” said Jan Beardsley of Purple Birch Gallery Foundation.
Each day features a different project in the Kids Create It workshop. There will be soap sculpture on Friday, puppet making on Saturday and scratchboard art on Sunday.
In addition there will be puppet shows all day Saturday; a performance by the Woodland Theatre performers of “All I Ever Really Wanted to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, and an ongoing, interactive community mural and poem.
The free festival is open on Friday from noon to 8 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (509) 684-3178 for more information.
Neon lights up Tinman
“Odds,” a collection of “mostly” new neon sculpture by Ken Yuhasz, opens Friday at Tinman Artworks in the Garland District.
The sculptures may be new, but many are constructed from rusted or discarded objects from the past. This show includes sculptures fashioned from tricycle, automobile and household appliance pieces.
“I’ve always had a fascination with history,” says Yuhasz. “I can look at images in old photographs and be intrigued with the clothes and objects because they evoke such a sense of time and place.”
The nostalgic collection reflects Yuhasz’s desire to “preserve designs from the past by re-creating them as art,” he says. “I want people to have an appreciation of those everyday objects because we don’t have them today.”
Meet Yuhasz during the opening reception on Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. Rick Singer and Steve Simmons will provide live music.
The show is up through July 24. The gallery, 811 W. Garland Ave., is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Idaho watercolors
Paintings by 19 of Idaho’s top watercolorists are on exhibit in the Third Street Gallery in Moscow.
The “25th Annual Juried Membership Exhibition of the Idaho Watercolor Society Exhibit” includes the paintings of Kay Montgomery of Moscow and Helen Grainger Wilson of Potlatch.
Stephen Quiller, an internationally known painter who maintains a studio and gallery in Creede, Colo., near the Rio Grande River, was the exhibition judge.
Also on display at the gallery are works by members of the Idaho Watercolor Society North Above North Region.
The gallery is located in Moscow City Hall, 206 E. Third St., on the corner of Third and Washington. The show can be seen through July 23 during regular hours, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Entrée Gallery
“The Ross Hall Collection” of black-and-white photography from the 1930s and 1940s is showing throughout the summer at the Entrée Gallery at Priest Lake.
Hall, who died in 1990, documented nearly seven decades of life around Priest Lake and North Idaho. “His photographs captured the Idaho Panhandle’s landscape, history, natural beauty and heritage,” says Kathleen Martin of the Entrée Gallery.
Ross received his first national attention at age 28 for “The Forest Christening,” published by the New York Times in 1933. Subsequently his work was featured in nearly every periodical of his day.
The gallery, open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., is on Reeder Bay Road, two miles east of Nordman near Elkins Resort.