Winter wanderland
Pull on those snow boots and head out to the Visual Arts Tour, wintertime version.
The self-guided tour, staged in February and October, makes it easy for people to roam through more than two dozen art galleries, museums and exhibit spaces, all on one colorful evening.
If past experience is any indication, downtown Spokane will be alive Friday night with art-seekers, undeterred by snow.
“We have found that people are going stir-crazy by February,” said Lorinda Knight, gallery owner and one of the tour organizers. “So even when it’s bad weather, we always get good crowds.”
The tour is centered in, but not restricted to, downtown. Here are a few selected stops along the way:
The Tinman Gallery, W. 811 Garland Ave – Friday is a big night for the Tinman, because it will be celebrating its fifth birthday and doing so in style, with a reception for artist Val Pate.
Pate’s show, “Living in a Boy’s Adventure Tale,” is like an oil-painting tour of the mountain landscapes he has visited in Wales, Scotland, Alaska and here in Washington. He’s a mountaineer as well as artist.
Tinman owner Sue Bradley said you can “feel the fog on your face, the cold through your clothes or the sun on your neck.”
All that, and birthday cake, too.
Raw Space, 402 W. Main Ave. (the second level of Auntie’s Bookstore) – This is the Visual Arts Tour’s most diverse showcase, a place where more than 85 regional artists have applied for space (on a non-juried basis) to display their works. Nobody knows exactly what it will look like until the artists arrive and the doors open.
Artisans’ Wares, 1009 W. First Ave. – Well-known local photographer and painter Gay Waldman will unveil “Gay Waldman: A Special Blend,” new works which blend abstract photo images and abstract acrylic paintings.
Saranac Art Projects, 25 W. Main Ave. – Wes Mills, who has worked with drawing for 25 years, has curated an exhibit titled “The Essence of Touch: Works on Paper by Various Artists from the Collection of Wes Mills.”
The exhibit features works by more than a dozen artists, many of them widely collected, which “explore the sense of touch required to make a drawing.”
Lorinda Knight Gallery, 523 W. Sprague Ave. – Helena artist Richard Notkin is known for his ceramics, yet in “Richard Notkin: Teapots, Tiles and Prints” he will also unveil his prints.
His work is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum of London.
Another Helena artist, Phoebe Toland, will exhibit her abstract paintings and sculptures.
Kress Gallery, River Park Square, Level 3, 808 W. Main Ave. – “Kathleen Cavender: Allora” is the title of this new exhibit by the well-known area artist.
“Allora” means roughly “so, then” in Italian, and the exhibit reflects on her travels to Italy.