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The Year 2012 in Review |
Happy New Year to All Our Friends |
Fireweed
Gallery will close on Jan 8 |
The exhibit opens with a reception on Friday, February 3rd, from 4pm to 7pm, and will remain in the main gallery through February 29th. |
![]() copper jewelry by Mary Huff |
Mary hammers and etches sterling silver and copper metals and combines them with the moody bluesy gemstones of labradorite, moonstone and aquamarine. She then takes it a step further and mixes in the natural materials of wood, bone, and shell, resulting in jewelry that is earthy and organic--uniquely Mary and entirely wearable. |
"I feel as if I have just launched myself off a springboard into an endless
world of creativity. Recently I began to work with wire, then etching and
soldering, cold connections and forging. My head is spinning with ideas to
combine metals with the stringing and beading I have been doing for years.
The rising price of sterling silver led me to experiment with copper. My
favorite materials are sterling silver, copper, and the moody, bluesy
gemstones: labradorite, moonstone, and aquamarine. Mixing them with
natural materials like wood, bone, and shell results in earthy and organic
creations. I am not a perfectionist. "Etching on Copper: Etching adds texture and detailed images to metal. It is addicting. Like most processes there are many different ways to go about it. Here is my method: I stamp or draw images onto a sheet of copper. The stamped image will resist the etchant. I protect the sides and back from the etchant and then suspe And the metal upside down in the ferric chloride like little boats. Then after about a ½ hour they go into an ammonia/water bath. I cut the pieces out with my jewelers saw, sand and form. I also patina most pieces in liver-of-sulfur and then tumble to polish and work harden. I don't polish to a high shine because I like the moody dark shadows."
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March 2nd to April 3rd in the main gallery A Pilgrim's Journey photographs and mixed
media art |
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Christina
recently walked the ancient Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail in
northern Spain, a trail that begins in the the town of St. Jean Pied
de Port in the French Pyrenees and ends 500 miles later in Santiago,
Spain. A Pilgrim's Journey will highlight Christina's adventures on the Camino, from the beautiful landscapes she walked through to the fellow pilgrims she met along the way to time spent with locals, to animal encounters, and more... Christina is a featured artist at Fireweed Gallery. |
April 6th to May 1st in the main gallery Fireweed Gallery presents |
![]() "Event Horizon" | ![]() "La Paz de La Palomas" |
"When I returned to art after retirement, I began by painting with watercolors. However, I found that everything I painted was intensely colorful, so I tried acrylics, and am able to get that intensity and layering of color I want to express. Flowers of all kinds have always touched my soul in a very positive way, and I want others' to find that uplifting feeling through my art. I particularly enjoy the large format, since painting something large engages my whole body. I dance the picture as I paint the piece." |
May 2012Fireweed Gallery presents two exhibits this month. In the main
exhibits
gallery, members of the Kachemak Bay Watercolor Society present
their
"Annual Spring Show" of new work. Along with harbor scenes,
landscapes
and floral images is an ever popular group collaborative painting.
In
the collaborative, an image is pieced into segments and each segment
is
painted by a different member. The pieces are then reassembled to make
one
painting. The Spring Show opens with a reception on Friday, May
4,
5-7pm.   A Spring Show entry by KBWS member, Donna Martin: |
![]() "Gone Forever" "These two old boats, the 'Spanky Paine' and the 'Honcho' were hauled out of the Homer Harbor in 2011 and cut up for scrap metal. I thought they were picturesque and wanted to remember them in a painting. |
"I paint because of the way it makes me feel--totally absorbed in the interaction of watercolor and paper--totally disconnected from all the problems of the outside world. If I create a work that's pleasing to others, it's a bonus! |
"My favorite subjects are the wild landscapes of Alaska, where I've lived
since 1976. Capturing thier magnificent beauty on paper is a challenge
that keeps me striving to improve."Also held over from the April exhibit is a selection from "Soul Expose', large scale floral images by Lou Anne Person. These acrylic paintings are bold and colorful, a feast for the eye. |
June 2012
Fireweed Gallery presents Through a Glass Lightly, a compilation of
photographs taken from Alaska to Paris and parts in-between |
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"These vignettes of my wanderings are moments in time that came to me as poetical surprises along the way".
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Raised in cannery villages in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska, Rosemary first seriously studied art at the Univ of Alaska and in 1982 left for Brooklyn, New York and Pratt Institute where she obtained her master's in art.She remained in New York for another 5 years where she continued painting, photographing and exhibiting her work. She had a solo exhibit at the Kendall Gallery in New York and was chosen from a field of 5,000 as one of 26 artists in a national juried competition "New American Talent". Among her other accomplishments, Rosemary received a month
fellowship to YADDO, a prestigious writers'/artists' retreat in upstate
New York and since being back in Alaska, she has had many one-person
shows throughout the state, including a solo exhibit at the Anchorage
Museum. |
Whether
sketching to the frenetic pulse of Brazilian guitar
music or to the cries of gulls along the beaches of Kachemak Bay, sounds
create the
cadence. A sketchbook is MaryBee's constant companion and she has been laying line and watercolor into her field journals for many years--come take a peak! Exhibit opens with a reception on Friday, July 6th, 5pm to 7pm and remains in the gallery through the month. |
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"A visual story about Homer, Alaska.
The unique design of every boat (and fish) motivates me to draw the beautiful,
graceful lines. The curves in the hull as it meets the water, the myriad of
lines in the rigging, and the working people on the docks come together for me
into energetic compositions.
The colors I see in the buoys, the nets, the fish and the boats dancing on the
every changing water keep me coming back to draw another day. So, during the
month of August special for the Gallery, I am drawing a boat a day. That
drawing will be in the gallery the next day," Exhibit opens with a reception on Friday, August 3rd, 5pm to 7pm and remains in the gallery through the month. |
![]() ---I used oil based paint to paint this on unstretched canvas. The water color in the river that runs next to the boardwalk matches the white chalkiness of a glacier fed river. But the subject is caught fish. Unlike most of my other work, I tried to show these fish as close to realism as I could.--- |
"This winter, I spent a lot of time sorting through piles of my old artwork:
images I'd drawn as a child, paintings from high school, prints from college. I
was struck by how free it was, tapped directly from my imagination. In recent
years, I've been working almost exclusively from things I see and photograph. I
enjoy creating paintings this way, but in the blank whiteness of winter, it
felt limited. I needed a new challenge and I wanted to get back in step with my
creativity. I asked myself: if I took away the photographs, what would I paint? "Home Language is the result of that exploration. When I start a new painting, I begin with color or a repeated pattern and then respond to my materials by layering paint, crayon, charcoal and clear mediums. Eventually, images surface. I see the images that emerge: fish, bones, house, scales, nest, and egg, as icons. They function as a symbolic language. Each one feels very personal, but they are not exclusive symbols. I like the fact that a nest, a house, an egg are rich, universal concepts, open to metaphor and interpretation. I think of Home Language as a conversation in my natural language: picture-making." Exhibit opens with a reception on Friday, September 7th, 5pm to 7pm and remains in the gallery until Tusday, October 2nd. |
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In between life's activities and daily emotional dramas Caren
makes time to paint. In her work she strives to communicate what she
sees--the beauty of land and sea, the unpredictability of water and
Alaska's natural environment through the seasons, her goal, to
communicate the beauty of this every changing world in paint Alaskan Watercolor Paintings is the result of that exploration.
After moving to Seldovia Alaska, Caren learned she could
paint. She joined a group of friends and painted every week for years. Caren's exhibit opens with a reception on Friday, October 5, 5-7pm. |
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Fireweed Gallery is "Mixin' It Up" with well known local watercolor artist,
Michael Murray. Michael selected the title because (he says) the art work he's featuring has no specific visual theme and includes a variety of subjects. One thing they all have in common is that they almost always tell a story. And...he has he has a litle more "mixin it up " to do by bringing a few of his friends along with their ukuleles to provide some hand-clapping entertainment at the opening reception. The reception is from 5pm to 7pm, Friday, November 2nd. Michael's exhibit will remain in the gallery until December 5th. |
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