Vashon Island Visual Artists will hold its Spring Studio Tour, featuring 43 art studios and galleries, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, May 3-4 and 10-11.
For an interactive map showing the studios and exhibits by more than 140 participating artists and craftspeople, visit vivartists.org. Tour locations are tucked away throughout the island, from the town center to outlying farms and shores.
A new addition this year is the VIVA Tour Info Center and Gallery, located at 17816 Vashon Hwy SW and staffed by docents include noted island artists Brian Fisher, Lynn McClain, Ilse Reimnitz and Marla Smith. The center offers tour brochures, public restrooms, a mobile phone charging station, and a display of four island artists.
Brochures will also be mailed to each home on Vashon and can also be picked up at many local businesses.
Dig Deep Gardens
“Facing Island Anchors: Portraits of Vashon Business Owners,” a new portrait show by oil painter Pam Ingalls, will open from 6-8 p.m on May 2, at Dig Deep Gardens’ Greenhouse Gallery. At the reception, guitarist Daryl Redeker will serenade gallery-goers. The exhibit will also be open during the VIVA Art Studio Tour — May 3-4 and 10-11, on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“Businesses these days are so important to support,” said Ingalls. “And running an island business is definitely a labor of love. I wanted to honor these islanders — who work hard to keep our community alive. Some of the people I painted I knew well, and some were people I had never met, even though I’d been in their stores many times through the years. I’m hoping the show will help them know how much islanders appreciate them.”
This oil painting, by Rose Belknap, is included in an exhibit of work by Vashon Island Visual Artists members at Vashon Center for the Arts. (Courtesy image)
Swiftwater Gallery
During May’s First Friday gallery cruise, Swiftwater Gallery artist and painter Jeff Good will perform a live, on-camera painting demo in the gallery starting at 6 p.m., filmed by Voice of Vashon. Works by more of the gallery’s 50-plus artists will also be on exhibit that evening and during the gallery’s regular hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. The gallery is located at 17600 Vashon Hwy SW, in Vashon’s town center.
Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union
PSCCU will display a collaborative art project by Vashon High School students working in photography and other artistic mediums this May and June.
Island photographer and film instructor Jasper Merrill and art teacher Harper Howard have worked with the students to create photos for other art students to manipulate and remix.
The art will be hung May 1 and viewable until the beginning of July at PSCCU from 9 a.m-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays. The credit union is at 9928 SW Bank Road.
VALISE Gallery
VALISE is participating in Vashon Island Visual Artists’ studio art tour, featuring the acrylic paintings, colored pencil drawings and wood sculptures of Pascale Judet and the encaustic, oil, and acrylic paintings of Jiji Saunders. Gallery artists will share more than 100 of their artworks and offer demonstrations. Families are invited to join in with a children’s art table and dogs are welcome.
VALISE will also be open 1-9 p.m. for First Friday, May 2, and from 10-4 p.m. for both weekends of the Spring tour. The gallery’s regular business hours are 1-6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays in May.
Vashon Center for the Arts
VCA will present Vashon Island Visual Artists’ 8th Annual Member Show in its gallery during the month of May. This year’s theme for the show, “Our Island, Our Home,” celebrates the deep connections that define a collective sense of belonging on Vashon Island.
In this exhibition, Vashon artists explore the meaning of home through relationships — with family, friends, community and the land. According to VCA gallery director Lynann Politte, the show “reflects the close-knit spirit of island life and what it means to live, nurture and share the place we love.”
The show is juried and curated by VIVA and exclusively features VIVA members. It has an opening reception from 5-8 p.m. on Friday, May 2.
In VCA’s gift shop, Eric Heffelfinger’s spring collection of fine jewelry will be on display. This season’s line features handcrafted gold and silver pieces adorned with precious and semi-precious stones.
This sculpture by Charlotte Masi is part of an exhibit of work by Vashon Island Visual Artists members at Vashon Center for the Arts. (Courtesy image)
PSCCU will display a collaborative art project, including these pieces, by Vashon High School photography and art students this May and June. (Courtesy images)
“Summer of High Expectations no. 1,” by Jiji Saunders, will be on view at VALISE. (Courtesy image)
This portrait of Mo, from Den of Pin, is included in an exhibition of oil paintings by Pam Ingalls, showing at Dig Deep Gardens’ Greenhouse Gallery. (Courtesy image)
