by Alec Clayton
The South Sound Studio Tour is a free self-guided tour of artists’ studios throughout Olympia, Tumwater and Lacey with more than 75 artists in more than 25 studios where you can see their recent work and talk to them about their art.
Here are four artist studios not to be missed:
Joe Batt
Joe Batt is an artist and educator. He teaches at South Puget Sound Community College. Batt has shown his ceramics and mixed media works nationally and internationally. His colorful and narrative figures delve into innocence, endurance, and our ongoing relationship with the natural world. The forms are hand-built with stoneware. Colored pencil is added after the firing. Sometimes there is a smoke-firing step before the color is added.
Batt’s studio is in the garage behind his home in West Olympia, surrounded by his wife Rae’s amazing flower garden. Rae Salazar owns and operates Capitol Florist in downtown Olympia. Most visitors to the studio park on 6th Avenue and walk through the yard to the studio. There is also a driveway in back for convenient access. The address is 1511 6th Ave. SW, Olympia.
Batt’s sculpted and painted animals — hares, bears, elephants and more, have a cartoonish, anthropomorphic look that can be seen as cute and cuddly or ominous and otherworldly.
Also at Joe Batt’s studio will be paintings by Liza Brenner and ceramics by Crisha Yantis, colleagues of Batt, both of whom teach in the Art Department at SPSCC.
Kathy Gore Fuss and Randi Parkhurst
Who tramples into deep woods lugging an easel and paint box to set up shop among the trees and paint the beauty of our Pacific Northwest the way Monet and Renoir and Van Gough painted the French landscape almost 200 years ago? Kathy Gore Fuss, that’s who, an artist who has taught for years and whose work can be found in many public and private collections.
When not out in the woods, Gore Fuss can be found in her garage studio at her home in East Olympia where she also paints and teaches private lessons, just around the corner from the San Francisco Street Bakery at 1302 Pioneer Ave. NE. Olympia.
She is showing a collection of paintings and drawings from her plein air work in her favorite forests and gardens. Images will include her gorgeous walnut ink paintings from locations on Whidbey Island, the Nisqually Delta and Squaxin Park. Enjoy her humor with some local wildlife making appearances with a twist.
After viewing her art and visiting with her, you can step out the back door of her studio into her backyard where, in another small building, Randi Parkhurst maintains her own art studio.
Susan Aurand
Well known as an artist and teacher, Susan Aurand taught art at The Evergreen State College from 1974 to 2012 when she retired as faculty emerita. She describes her work as being strongly influenced by her passion for nature and her philosophical inquiry into concepts of nature and reality. Her artworks are in numerous public and private collections, including the Seattle Public Works Collection, the ArtsWa Public Works Collection, the City of Olympia Portable Works Collection, the University of Washington Book Arts collection and BIMA Cynthia Spears Book Collection, among others. She is greatly admired for her often hyper-realistic paintings of the natural world and all its inhabitants, both human and animal, and her constructions that often combine painting and sculpture.
“I’ll be showing both paintings and some fun new small sculptures that deal with ecological concerns,” Aurand says. “Also showing at my studio/house are two talented photographers, both new to the tour: Bob Haft (former art faculty at TESC) and Hakan Axelsson. We have very few photographers on the tour, and both of these are excellent with interesting ideas going on in their works.
The address is 2317 Peach Ave. NW, Olympia.
Teri Bevelacqua
“I have been deep diving into collage recently and will be sharing some of those during the studio tour,” say Teri Bevelacqua. “Also I’ll have current encaustic and acrylic work out. I’ll have the encaustic on as before and engage folks in those educational discussions. Depending on weather, I will set up a collage table outside for anyone who wants to play.” Her studio is nestled in a garden on Olympia’s East Side near Puget Street.
Bevelacqua’s art is rooted in collage. Whether painting with encaustic, acrylic, drawing or sculpting there is a collage component. Her art is layered, full of movement. and her sense of composition in chaos is striking.
“Themes arise around current events, the push and pull between the urge to be safe in the beauty of nature vs the chaos of being a human on this planet and dismay at the choices being made by humans.”
For this year’s studio tour, she will host fellow artists Faith Hagenhoffer and Parker McCreedy. “I am sure Parker will be plein air painting (oil painting) as last year,” Bevelacqua speculates. “I assume Faith will be sharing all of her earth/plant-based dying processes and work from that. Additionally, I have a couple of other artists who will be here making art and interacting with folks. And I will have a bathroom. Find these artists at 1820 Rose St NE, Olympia.
Maps to most studios will be available to pick up at all studios or can be found on the Studio Tour website.
WHAT:
South Sound Studio Tour
WHEN:
11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, May 17-18
WHERE:
Various locations in Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater
How Much:
Free
Learn More:
https://www.southsoundstudiotour.org/