Nocturne ~ Night Scenes with Angela Bandurka & Ron Stocke

July brings us longer days and beautiful summer nights. We wanted to celebrate and explore the beauty of the evening – the alluring city lights and  and the bewitching night skies – in our upcoming exhibit ‘Nocturne ~ Night Scenes featuring Angela Bandurka & Ron Stocke’.

From Angela Bandurka:

 “I’ve been drawing to painting night scenes for a couple of years, beginning in my studio painting candles. The light is so unique when you paint in the dark – and the challenge of painting with a small lamp on my canvas and palette are exhilarating. This upcoming series of nocturnal images deal with a city at night, and looking into store windows and the peaceful solitude of the city in the evening after the shops have closed. I used resource photography for most of the paintings I’m working on this time around, which presents its own challenges. Getting to my settings before it’s fully dark, but allowing the contrast to be heightened after the sun sets. Playing with cool and warm light sources. I limited my palette, using no black but instead a mix of browns and blues for my darks which allowed me to switch between warm and cool darks easily without making my painting look heavy or muddy. I have really enjoyed painting these pieces and look forward to continuing the series.”

From Ron Stocke:

“Night scenes can be a challenge for watercolorist. Most of the time the sky is our lightest value in a painting, but when painting a nocturnal piece, your darkest values are usually in the sky. This presents a challenge of where to begin your piece. For me, it’s all about the light. Daylight can be more harsh with a single, bright light source coming from above. Night scenes can be lit by multiple sources of light in any direction, in different color temperatures, and with varied shadows. This gives me the freedom to play with lost and found edges, to create interesting and dramatic reflections, and silhouetted figures – all of which can really impact the mood of the painting. This series was exhilarating to create as it was technically challenging and at the same time allowed for some exciting artistic expression.”

Join us for a special evening of wine and hors d’oeuvres, celebrating these artists at the Nocturne Show on Saturday July 9th, 6:30-9:00pm.

 

Bliss can be found, just outside our front door!

We are thrilled to have David Varnau’s sculpture “Ananda” installed right outside of our front entrance, facing 5th Avenue! This piece began to impact the Downtown Edmonds Community from the moment that David began installing it and will continue to stop passersby on a daily basis, exuding beauty and grace. David knew that “Ananda” was destined to be public art, here, he tells her story:

“I feel honored to have had the opportunity today to install one of my recent sculptures outside the entrance to Cole Gallery in Edmonds, Washington. It was great fun talking to passersby as I set up the sculpture and anchored it to the sidewalk. The sculpture is entitled, Ananda, which means Bliss in Sanskrit. When sculpting the piece, I endeavored to create an image that portrays a female who is both centered and grounded as she stands in a variation of the yoga pose called Eka Pada Rajakapotasana, or “pigeon pose”. Why did I decide to sculpt it? Yoga poses intrigue and inspire me because they provide the opportunity for an image with very dynamic lines that create visual interest and provoke the intriguing question, “how does she do that?” Further, with the more challenging poses such as this, our eyes are struck by the sheer beauty and power of the female form.

After installing the sculpture in front of Cole Gallery, I returned the following day to photograph the piece when the afternoon sun was bathing it in sunlight. As I was doing so, I glanced down at the sidewalk at the base of the sculpture pedestal and noticed the telltale signs of dogs having peed there, marking their territory much like they might next to a fire hydrant. Ah, the hazards to which public art is exposed!”

~David Varnau

 

A New Addition to the Cole Gallery Team!

Hello! My name is Olivia Yates and I have recently joined the lovely team at Cole Gallery & Studios. My educational background is in Communication and Art History, my professional background is in marketing and my arts background is in ceramics and gallery work. By taking on the social media and marketing at Cole Gallery, I am provided with an exciting opportunity to combine my educational background, professional experience and passion for the arts.

Moving forward I will be taking on the blog here at Cole Gallery & Studios, in addition to making sure the social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest) stay not only up to date, but are engaging and representative of this incredible business, built by Denise Cole! I will also act as a liaison between the gallery and the artists, in order to portray their work, artistic process, inspiration and successes within the arts community.

I have been lucky enough to become a part of the community of Edmonds over the past year a half through my other professional role, as Marketing Director at Pur Skin Clinic. I also help out with marketing at Zinc Art + Interiors, so you might spot me there on 3rdThursday for AWE (Art Walk Edmonds), or for other specials events. I am truly passionate about helping build and promote small businesses within the community of Edmonds and feel so blessed to get the opportunity to work with such talented, driven and artistic individuals in all of my roles. I thrilled to expand my network to include the artist, patron and student communities at Cole Gallery & Studios.

Denise is encouraging me to share my experience working with ceramics and my past gallery work, so stay tuned for another blog post from me on that!

Michelle Waldele-Dick’s “Tales and Treasures” Show Gains Momentum in the Local Community!

As we celebrate Realism in the month of November, we are highlighting the art of Michelle Waldele-Dick with her new show titled “Tales and Treasures”.  Inspired by fond childhood memories of summers at Oregon’s Cape Lookout coastal town and beach, Michelle creates stories from the treasures she found as a child and her favorite places as an adult. From her garden, surrounded by flowers, birds and bugs, to her collection of antique toys, Michelle’s paintings carry joyful tales of whimsy and delight.

Describing her inspiration, Michelle states, “My paintings are a glimpse into the parts of the world that I love and am drawn to.  The antiques found in my paintings are often duplicates of things I would have found at my Grandmother’s house, or objects that help me tell some of my favorite stories, fairy tales and classic literature like Dickens. I love the illusion of reality in realism, the idea that a person can imagine themselves in the world of the painting.”

As a Bothell resident, Michelle’s show gained recognition from the Bothell/Kenmore Reporter. The local community of Edmonds has also given Michelle’s show attention, you can view the press release on the Edmonds Beacon’s website. Check out Michelle’s entire show at Cole Gallery on our website!

The Art of Paying Attention

Well known throughout the art world with her rich, luscious oils in the Russian Impressionist style, Pam Ingalls asks us to slow down and shift our attention to the beautiful from the fast pace in her new show “Paying Attention” that will run October 16 through November 17 at Cole Gallery.

Each deliberate brush stroke of Pam’s work drives the viewer to question why we crave even a moment of the slower life. There is a connection with her work on such a “take a long slow deep breath” level that reminds us why quiet corners and dappled light on hardwood floors matter. Our soul, spirit, mind, or whatever you want to call that deeper sense of ourselves needs a space to breath, to relax, to contemplate, and appreciate the small forgotten things in our mostly on-the-go lives.

So how can a painting do that for us? Sitting down with Pam Ingalls gives us a glimpse into the hope of how.

“The life of a painting has only just started after it’s painted,” Pam explains. “As people look at it on their wall, it keeps changing somehow. It changes with different light on it, as it is hung on different walls through the years, and as we see things in it we hadn’t noticed at first. The painting becomes a part of our inner world, and we project different things into the painting as we change and grow teaching us to notice a deeper, slower side of life.”

One of the largest pieces in the show, Corner Table, reflects on this very concept. At an intimate New York restaurant, Pam noticed an inviting unoccupied corner table with warm, flickering light reflecting off the white table cloth.

Slowing down allows us to recognize that on a human level we long to connect with the world around us just as we long for beauty. It’s in our DNA whether science has discovered that specific aspect of our genome or not. We all feel it from time to time. Why do we enjoy watching others embrace at the airport after being separated, or why do we never tire of awe inspiring sunsets? Beauty is never boring, and truly beautiful intimate moments are never forgotten.

Pam’s simple scenes evoke a deep and complex emotional response for the viewer. She calls on us to remember why beauty and intimacy are important in our daily lives.

You can view “Paying Attention” at Cole Gallery from October 16 through November 17 on our website. You can also meet Pam at the artist’s reception on Thursday, October 16, from 5pm-8pm at the gallery.