Spotlight falls on Sandpoint

Anyone looking for a reason to get outdoors and enjoy the warm weather has lots of choices this weekend with street fairs, art walks and craft festivals.

Sandpoint is jumping with the Festival at Sandpoint concerts, ongoing, self-guided downtown Art Walk and the 34th annual Arts and Crafts Fair.

Once again a small community of 110 arts and crafts booths will set up for the weekend at City Beach.

Booths will be open on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Artists will be selling an assortment of paintings, photography, pottery, fiber, jewelry, glass, hammocks, lanterns, woodwork, metal, music boxes and custom furniture.

Returning for his third year is Derek Schmid of Dry Creek Studios, who specializes in artistic screen doors along with custom outdoor benches and small walking bridges.

“This year we’re bringing an Oriental-style, vertical-grain Douglas fir bench,” says the Sandpoint artisan. “Simplicity and elegance, they share the same world with me.”

Young artists will also have a chance to create objects including paintings and sculpture.

Food offerings will include fresh citrus drinks, ice cream, wraps and salads by FC Weskil and Greek items from Azar’s Restaurant of Spokane.

Hourly entertainment begins at 9 a.m. Saturday with Sandpoint Violin Academy, Steve Pike, Beth Pederson, Backbeat Drums, Muskrat Ramblers, Monarch Mountain Band, Easy Pickin’s and Sisters of Selket Belly Dancers.

On Sunday, music continues with Tim Platt at 9 a.m., followed by Spirit Sound Monarch Mountain Band, Backbeat Drums, 2 for 2, Folk Remedy, and Natalie Miller and the Jazz Brats.

All proceeds from this fundraising event, organized by the Pend Oreille Arts Council, help with year-round visual and performing arts activities and educational programs in the Sandpoint area.

Garland ‘Street Fair’

Garland Avenue in North Spokane closes off from Monroe to Wall streets on Saturday for the fourth annual Garland Arts and Music Festival.

From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., the heart of the Garland District will pulsate with live bands, local artists, children’s arts and games, food, drink and merchant booths.

The dozen artists’ booths lining the south side of Garland Avenue will include paintings by Victoria Brace and Richard Kapugi; jewelry by Sue Chism, Tamara Hartman, John Lepper and Sandy Mooney; pottery by Sean Moss and Sarah Vanhalder; lampworked glass by Josh Turner; stained glass, felted baskets and jewelry by Sandra Barrington; handmade purses by Diana Fernandez; and humorous greeting cards by Erin Nelson.

Art demonstrations run hourly beginning at 11 a.m. with Lou Carver and Ginger Keogh doing mosaic garden gazing balls, followed by acrylic painting by Ric Gendron; fiber stitch painting by Judy Patterson; clay wheel throwing by Sarah Vanhalder; raku fired pottery by Sean Moss; and stained glass by Sondra Barrington.

Throughout the day there will be live music on two stages.

Performances on the Garland Theatre Stage kick off at 11 a.m. with Free Range Robots, followed by Lindell Reason, Blue Ribbon Tea Company, Working Spliffs, Sammy Eubanks and Burns Like Hellfire.

Music begins on the Discovery Shop Stage at noon with Calico, followed by Vaudeville, Dead Man’s Pants, William Brasch and Sidetrack.

The street fair also includes two free children’s art and games areas.

Coeur d’Alene Art Walk

Downtown Coeur d’Alene is having its monthly art walk on Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. with galleries and downtown businesses saluting the visual arts.

The featured gallery for August is the Art Spirit Gallery, which is showing 11 incredibly complex, painted wood relief sculptures by Robert Grimes of Spokane.

Grimes, who couldn’t decide if he wanted to be a sculptor or a painter, creates bas-relief sculptures that frequently contain hundreds of intricately cut, precisely fit pieces that produce a physical illusion of space and depth. They often take months to finish.

“Master of Ceremonies” incorporates 35 diamonds and hundreds of pinheads that reference a Milky Way star field in night’s sky. Each diamond is in a custom setting made by Grimes’ son and meticulously mounted in the wooden background.

Meet Grimes at the gallery, 415 Sherman Ave., on Friday during the art walk and listen to him talk about his work on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the gallery.

Explore the other new shows at the following galleries:

• Angel Gallery of Fine Art & Antiques, 423 Sherman Ave.: Colorful, high-energy, multimedia artwork by Charleen Martin.

• Coeur d’Alene Galleries, Coeur d’Alene Resort Lobby: “Fishing in the Northwest,” oils and etchings by a variety of artists including Brett Smith and Hans Kleiber.

• Devin Galleries, 507 Sherman Ave.: “Mitakuye Oyasin (We Are All Related),” paintings by J. Nelson.

• Eclectic Artisans Gallery, 211 Coeur d’Alene Ave. No. 101: Works by Maxien Marcy along with handcrafted items, oils, acrylics, water colors, photography and ceramics.

• Erlendson Art Glass, 116 E. Lakeside Ave.: Handblown, fluted glass vessels by Spencer Erlendson and other Northwest glass artists.

• Frame of Mind Gallery and Framing, 119 N. Second St.: Raku pottery by Bill Meehan and paintings by Carrie Stuart Parks, Carl Funseth, Barbara Peretti, Jim Carkhuff and Nona Hengen.

• Northwest Artists, 217 Sherman Ave.: Wood and metal pieces by Vern Judkins, photographs by Alison Meyer and works by Linda Shardine.

• The Painter’s Chair Fine Art Gallery, 223 Sherman Ave.: Works by owner/painter Stephen Shortridge and sculptor Dorothy Fowler. Live music.

• Summer’s Glass, 211 Sherman Ave.: Colorful, fused glass fish by Clark and Cindy Summers. Free fused glass workshop.

• Texture, 107 N. Second Ave.: Acrylic paintings, sculpted jewelry, painted glassware, handmade clothing, specialty costumes, throws and sweaters.

• “Fountains of Wishes” public art project, along Sherman Avenue downtown.

Additional venues on Sherman Avenue displaying artwork include All Things Irish, Boucle’s Yarn, Casa Savie, Coeur d’Alene Symphony Orchestra and Art Association, Figpickels Toy Emporium, Poppy, Sweetpea Home Interiors, Tiffany Blue and Worthington’s Fine Antiques.

Downtown restaurants featuring art include Barrel Room No. 6, Bella Rosa, Brix, The Beacon, Cafe Doma, Crickets Steakhouse, Pita Pit, Toro Viejo and The Wine Cellar.

Lorinda Knight Gallery

“Seam: A Family Geography,” a two-woman show with ceramic objects by Mardis Nenno and sculpted pieces by Bobby T. Tilton, opens Friday in the Lorinda Knight Gallery in Spokane.

The artists share “a connection to family and place in Montana,” says gallery owner Lorinda Knight in a news release.

“Both women come from a long line of matriarchs who crafted garments and linens as part of their daily lives,” says Knight. “Sewing vocabulary, processes and tools became a point of departure for this exhibit.”

Nenno of Spokane says in the release: “I am using sewing and stitching as a metaphor for how our lives are seamed together and how we are bound to a certain history of people and place.”

Tilton creates garments from a “skin” she makes by fusing dress pattern paper to plastic sheeting. The resulting fabric resembles a very thin rawhide.

“I have used scale and distortion to represent my perceptions of family relationships,” says Tilton in the release.

Meet the artists on Friday from 6 to 8 p.m., with live music by Beth Lo, David Horgan and Will Tilton. The work is up through September at the gallery, 523 W. Sprague Ave.

Old Hotel Gallery

Longtime Othello, Wash., stained-glass artist Jennie Fought is showing a variety of mixed media works during August at the Old Hotel Art Gallery in Othello.

In addition to stained glass, the show includes jewelry and hand-painted glassware and furniture.

The gallery, 33 E. Larch St., is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.