Port Townsend Gallery, Gallery 9 on art walk

May 30, 2023

Gary Rainwater’s Lions are among the art on display at Gallery 9.

PORT TOWNSEND — Among the galleries open for the Saturday Art Walk in Port Townsend will be Port Townsend Gallery and Gallery 9.

Port Townsend Gallery is featuring Maegan Sale Kennedy and Rebekah Cardorette in August. The artists will be available at the gallery, at 715 Water St., from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. Light refreshments will be served.

The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Cadorette has been showing her work at the Port Townsend Gallery since 2013. This month she is exhibiting the Japanese folk art of Temari.

Historically, Temari were constructed from recycled materials (remnants of old kimonos) that were wadded up to form a ball, then wrapped with strips of fabric. As time passed, it became an art form, and the functional stitching became more and more decorative and detailed, until the balls displayed intricate embroidery.

Cadorette saw many Temari while living in Japan as a teenager, but it wasn’t until 2012 that she became fascinated with them and began her study of the art form.

Having already been awarded Levels 1 and 2, she is currently working toward certification at Level 3 proficiency by the Japanese Temari Association.

Cadorette’s Temari are made with loom leftovers and are comprised of 95 percent recycled and repurposed materials.

Color, contrast and the use of lines and shapes define Kennedy’s work, which is best described as mixed media graphics.

A Port Townsend Gallery member since 2022, Kennedy believes that the best part of art is that her creations are symbiotic with her thoughts, feelings, and moods at the time the pieces are created.

Faces fascinate her and are her preferred subject matter. She begins with a pencil sketch, then outlines it in archival ink. Once layers of color are added, she outlines in black once more. She also uses watercolor brush pens, water-soluble colored pencils, chalk and acrylic paint.

Kennedy began drawing in ink while attaining her bachelor’s in photojournalism, which aids in her composition.

Originally from Ohio, she moved to Port Townsend in 2013.

For more about Port Townsend Gallery, phone 360-379-8110 or visit www.porttownsendgallery.com.

At Gallery 9, the featured artists for August are Gary Rainwater and Sarah Fitch.

The gallery at 1012 Water St. is a co-operative of local artists. It has new hours; they are from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Mondays.

Rainwater is a self-taught artist working primarily with oil paints and also with wood carvings.

His love of painting began while in high school. Then, he said, he was side-tracked by life. In his 22 years as a Los Angeles firefighter, he worked everywhere from ambulances to fire boats.

After rebuilding his Danish fishing boat S.V. Ladyhawk, and sailing back to the Pacific Northwest with his wife Barbara, Rainwater reconnected with his oil paints. Many of his paintings capture the relationships of people to their environment in rustic settings. His also paints from diverse interests that include boats, nature, and animals.

Inside the gallery is a large slab of giant coastal redwood, perhaps 1,000 years old, that Rainwater has rubbed and polished until it looks like a flame.

Ninety percent of the big trees are gone, he has said sadly.

“There are too many people,” he said. “The petri dish is overflowing. Profit and politics mean nothing on a dead planet.”

Fitch is a self-taught artist making bas relief stoneware ceramic tiles and sculptures. Her work is described as earthy folk art with a whimsical and spiritual nature.

Her enchantment with ravens is why she named her workspace the Rolling Raven Studio.

“My studio is in the woods where nature’s wildness still exists. I need the quiet and the wild in my creative space. For me art is a meditative practice that helps in clearing mental clutter and maintaining a hold on sanity in this capricious world.”

Her goal is to create a sense of liveliness, character and expression in her animal-themed works.

Each of the highly detailed tiles is created one at a time and are not at all like mass-produced commercial tiles. They are stoneware fired to 2200 degrees Fahrenheit, which make them more durable then raku or terra cotta.

For more about Gallery 9, seehttps://gallery-9.com.

Maegan Sale Kennedy’s emphasizes faces in her work shown at Port Townsend gallery.