Arts Walk: Daniel G. Bernstein

Arts Walk Pick 2018 by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Daniel G. Bernstein’s photography covers the land, animals, people, and important events in and around Olympia and the greater Pacific Northwest. He documented the multiple marriages that took place in the Capitol Rotunda in 2012 when marriage equality first became law. You name it, and …

Read more

Arts Walk: Diana Fairbanks

Arts Walk Pick 2018 by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Art lovers should have little trouble finding Diana Fairbanks’ paintings, as she is showing in multiple venues in this spring’s Arts Walk. Fairbanks is well-known locally for her paintings of iconic regional scenes, including a giant donut floating down the Deschutes River recently shown at …

Read more

Arts Walk: Mia Schulte

Arts Walk Pick 2018 by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Mia Schulte creates brightly colored abstract paintings inspired by landscapes — many of which call to mind the majesty of mountain ranges, sea and sky — using mixed media including acrylics, charcoal, pastel, inks and watercolor. Schulte was born in Turkey and grew up in …

Read more

Award-Winning Artists at SPSCC Invitational Exhibition

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS An invitational exhibition is something new and exciting for the gallery at South Puget Sound Community College. Juror Amy McBride invited 10 award-winning artists from the 2017 Southwest Washington Juried Exhibition to display their best works. A few examples from the 10 artists are very intriguing. Hart James, for …

Read more

VISUAL ART REVIEW: CJ Swanson paintings at Batdorf and Bronson

VISUAL ART REVIEW by Alec Clayton FOR OLY ARTS Years ago, CJ Swanson and her husband, the painter David Noah Giles, opened the now defunct Art on Center Gallery in Tacoma. Back then, her paintings were reminiscent of Sonia Delaunay’s work — a kind of soft and decorative cubism with circles and interlocking, almost kaleidoscopic or …

Read more

Visual Art Review: The Personal is Political

Visual Art Review: the annual postcard show at South Puget Sound Community College ART REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS You’ll find the good, the bad and the you-gotta-be-kidding-me at the annual postcard exhibition at South Puget Sound Community College. There are professional artists in the show, including many of Olympia’s best, and there …

Read more

Visual Art Review: Jennifer Lauer at All Sorts Gallery

Visual Art Review by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Jennifer Lauer’s Color and Light at All Sorts Gallery is a little gem of a show of still life and landscape painting in a classical modernist tradition. Lauer lays on lush layers of paint reminiscent of Wayne Thiebaud, with colors such as seen in Wolf Kahn’s …

Read more

Kathy Gore-Fuss: At Home in Nature

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS For nearly four decades, the art of Olympia artist Kathy Gore-Fuss has moved through a fascinating metamorphosis from multi-media, surrealistic, abstract and symbolic to paintings that are as traditional as naturalism en plein air landscapes. Her gradual shift has not removed the indelible and unique signature look of her …

Read more

Jeffree Stewart’s Breath and Bone Songs

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Jeffree Stewart has been making art in the Olympia area since the 1970s. Just off a month-long solo show at the Pierce College Steilacoom Fine Art Gallery, he is now showing a group of some 10 to 15 paintings at Allsorts Gallery in Olympia. Stewart is nothing if not …

Read more

REVIEW: Susan Christian’s Long Journey

VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Susan Christian’s paintings at Stable Studios are the real deal. They are painting as painting is meant to be: simple, straight forward, unpretentious and with no trickery whatsoever. Some might see the cut-off figures, oddly elongated formats and mysterious scenes as gimmickry, but they’re not; they …

Read more

Skip to content