You're Invited: July 2015 Artwalk: Floralscapes - Sandy Haight

Usually we call our monthly Bainbridge Island Artwalk "First Friday", but the Grand Old Fourth is testing our flexibility this year!  The town of Winslow always pulls out all the stops on the holiday, and July 3rd (a/k/a First Friday of the month this year) will be taken up with the entire downtown closed off for the annual street dance and other general merriment.  So please don't let the date switch confuse you:  our July show will actually open on the 10th this year and overlap into August.  

And what a perfect show it will be, especially for all you Bloom, flower and garden enthusiasts.  Seattle artist Sandy Haight, who also happens to be the poster artist for this year's Bainbridge in Bloom, has brought us a series of her gorgeous Floralscapes watercolors.  Also, we are pleased to introduce local Bainbridge artist Karen Chaussabel and her lovely, delicate encaustic and ink creations featuring fruits and vegetables from her Harvest of the Heart series.  Find more details on the show and these wonderful artists below, then check back soon for in-depth looks at their other pieces, with words from both on their process and philosophy:

Floralscapes

Sandy Haight

Watercolor Paintings

July 10 – August 2, 2015

Introducing

Karen Chaussabel

Harvest of the Heart Series

Artists’ Reception

Friday, July 10th, 6-8 pm

In concert:

The Julie Duke Band

We welcome Sandy Haight, the poster artist for the 2015 Bainbridge in Bloom Garden Tour and the 2016 Skagit County Tulip Festival.  For the past few years, Sandy has focused on close up views of plant life as they take the viewer into a new abstracted world, an immersion into color and design depths while retaining the realism of the bloom. She is a signature member of the Northwest Watercolor Society. 

Also introducing Bainbridge Island artist Karen Chaussabel, whose delicate encaustic and ink compositions, Harvest of the Heart, reflect experiences in nature, across continents and time, expressed through color, gesture and molten wax.  

About the Artists: 

Sandy Haight is an artist living and working in Seattle.  She majored in visual art at the University of Colorado, earning a BFA in drawing and painting.  After moving to Seattle she studied illustration at the School of Visual Concepts, and started to freelance as an illustrator.

Sandy has been focused on painting the inner landscape of flowers for the last few years.  She calls these works Floralscapes, which evolved during a transition from a career as a commercial illustrator to a discovery of herself as an artist.  Teaching watercolor to students at Bellevue College helped redirect her focus as she explored the various subjects and techniques of representational watercolor before realizing that immersing into the shapes, designs and patterns inside flowers and plant life was the subject that awakened her love of painting and gave her a chance to create a series of stunning beauty.  Showing her paintings in the Northwest Watercolor Society’s juried shows qualified her to become a signature member in 2012.  The initials NWWS now follow her signature on the Floralscapes paintings.

Sandy has been chosen as the poster artist both for the Bainbridge in Bloom garden tour on Bainbridge Island, Washington, in July 2015, and in 2016 for the Skagit County Tulip Festival, also in Washington. Sandy has roots on Bainbridge Island going back four generations:  Gazzam Lake was named for her great grandfather Warren Gazzam, who built a large house in Crystal Springs in 1905.  He started a Mosquito Fleet line, so that his wife wouldn’t have to row across Agate Pass to get their mail, among other accomplishments.  Sandy’s father, Gilbert Haight, grew up on Bainbridge, returning to retire in 1989 after an illustrious career as a chemistry professor. He and his wife Shirley lived on Manitou Park Boulevard overlooking Puget Sound. Her brother Chad Haight settled on the island after college to extend the family to four, now five and six generations.

We are pleased to introduce Karen Chaussabel of Bainbridge Island, Washington, who describes herself as “a mixed media artist in the making.”  Her experiences growing up in the French countryside greatly influenced her art, giving her a great love for and curiosity about nature. 

Her series Harvest of the Heart connotes “a harvest of experiences in nature, across continents and time, experiences felt in my heart and expressed through color, gesture and molten wax."

The Julie Duke Band, who will be tearing up the Plaza in front of the Gallery during the opening reception, delivers an edgy, unrestrained blend of Blues from the Delta to Chicago, 1920s through current. The band features the vocals of front-woman Julie Duke, the funky bass powerhouse Steve Pearce, guitarist Brian Barta, keyboard player Van Bergen and the rhythmic styling of drummer John Lester.  The boys hold down a smoldering groove behind Julie’s sultry, bluesy voice and passionately energetic stage presence. Their cover versions are choice and eclectic, including songs by Elmore James, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Koko Taylor, Freddie King and Big Mama Thornton.  They take a song, honor its origins, and then make it their own with drop-dead vocals and foot stomping, hip swaying rhythms.  The Julie Duke Band will get the staunchest of blues unbelievers tapping their toes and moving to the beat. With their entertaining stage show, expert musicianship and unique sound, The Julie Duke Band has built a wide and devoted following, drawing crowds to shows at venues as diverse as the Coyle Community Center, the Bite of Seattle, Bainbridge’s Bloedel Reserve and the Seven Cedars Casino.

Event Location:  The Island Gallery, 400 Winslow Way E., #120, Bainbridge Island, Washington.