South Kitsap Artists continue tradition at the Sidney

Published 4:00 pm Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Looking for a little artist-to-artist communication, collaboration or perhaps just a touch of inspiration?

A trip to Port Orchard’s Sidney Art Gallery this month may provide the gateway to just the forum as it hosts its annual show for the South Kitsap Artists Association. The October show is the latest installment of a tradition dating back nearly two decades, while the SKAA’s heritage spans all the way back to the summer of 1960.

Ask 85-year-old SKAA member Melba Moran, she was there.

She still attends the meetings at 6 p.m. every fourth Monday at Cedar Heights Junior High — 2220 Pottery Ave in Port Orchard — and she’ll be showing a few of her animal-laden pastel paintings in the Sidney show.

“I wouldn’t say that it’s changed much,” Moran said, thinking over the colorful 47-year history of the SK artists guild. “A lot of it is the camaraderie of being together and painting with everyone. I like that ‘get together’ part of it most.”

While the community air of the fluctuating 50-member group is the genesis and backbone of the organization, the spirit SKAA is also in education. Nearly each meeting features a demonstration or workshop from an established local artist in the area of their expertise, said president Loretta Anderson.

In the beginning, back in Moran’s era, SKAA hosted artists like Tacoma watercolorist Betty Mears and oil painters Alice Shelton and Marshall Johnson. Recently they’ve featured the likes of Bremerton acrylics master and gallery owner Don Wesley and next month watercolorist Suzy Short will be coming to visit.

“At our last meeting we had a fellow who told us about attitude in presenting your art work,” Anderson said of local arts agent Russ Camerer. “We learn these things from the demonstrations and from talking with each other.”

Anderson said she joined the group after moving to Port Orchard in 1999, looking for an avenue to both hone her craft and also help get her work “out there.” Seven years later, she’s found both, with a bit more of the former.

Moran on the other hand had always had a passion for painting — growing up in a house full of fumes from an artistic mother and canvas-coloring aunts — but never in any professional or profitable sense. She said she joined the SKAA and has stayed a member all these years because of the experience it offers.

“It’s what I love to do and that’s why I am going to do it for the rest of my life,” Moran said.

“Most of us are just laid-back,” Anderson added. “It’s something between a hobby and making a little extra money … a lot of the meetings and get-togethers we have are because we find affinity for each other.”

And there is always room for more, she added.

If you are a South Kitsap artist interested in joining, there’s no Web site to visit or phone number to call, just drop by on one of their monthly meetings at CHJH, or meet up with them at the Sidney this month.

There is an artist reception, featuring members of the SKAA, for the annual show at the Sidney slated for 1-4 p.m. Oct. 7.

“We’ve had an association with the Sidney gallery for a considerable amount of time, many of our members are also members of the Sidney Gallery,” Anderson said. “It’s sort of a mutual admiration relationship.”

The Sidney continues to host the annual SKAA show because it offers viewers a variety of work and talent while it gives the organization a chance for a bit of competition and anticipation.

One can expect to see quite the variety of landscapes, florals, animals, portraiture and more across mediums spanning from impressionistic oils and acrylics to pastels all the way to super-realist colored pencils — like those of member Christy Camerer.

Camerer takes the landscape portrait theme which many artists share to her own degree with deft colored pencil work, striving to rival digital photography. It’s impressive to see the work she does in creating reflections with pencil, and also interesting to see those works matched with photographs at her Web site www.bluewaterartworks.com.

Dianne Gardner, another SKAA artist, brings another more traditional version of the landscape/portrait feeling with her impressionistic realism.

Working in oils, oftentimes en plein air — painting outside — she features everything from the Nisqually River to a full-bodied portrait of a ballerina. Her work can be seen online at www.gardnersart.com.

And there is so much more.

Check in with the SKAA at the Sidney in October to see for yourself.

The Sidney Art Gallery is located at 202 Sidney Ave. in Port Orchard. It’s hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1-4 p.m. Sundays. Info: www.sidneymuseumandarts.com or call (360) 876-3693.