New to Whidbey Island, Gayle has found a very creative and active art culture. She is a guest artist at Penn Cove Gallery showing her contemporary jewelry collection. Her current designs focus on a combination of textures, various metals, and colorful semi-precious stones such as boulder opals from Australia, ammonite from British Columbia, tourmaline from Brazil. She begins her designs with texture plates that she creates by fusing gold and sterling silver geometric shapes to a base of sterling. Using a torch she creates reticulated silver to form a mountainous landscape pattern. She combines 24K gold and silver which has been oxidized which turns it black, for a dynamic black and gold pattern known as Keum Boo. With these textures and patterns she begins her design process.
I credit my grandfather for nurturing what has become a keen appreciation for all things wooden. My antique woodworking tools and skills were inherited from this wonderfully patient master cabinet maker.
I use many different varieties of wood: cherry, maple, walnut, cocobolo, and others with “character”, meaning figured, tigered, spalted, etc. to inspire a finely engineered and ultimately beautiful piece of furniture. I use the woodworking techniques employed during the 18th and 19th centuries. Please come into the gallery this month to touch and feel the warmth of the wood so you may experience the countless hours I have spent in a labor of love. Katy has loved creating for as long as she can remember and was fortunate enough to find her favorite outlet in oil painting at the age of 12. Much of her inspiration is found in the everyday beauty of her family and home here on Whidbey Island. While raising her two energetic young children being her main focus, she strives to paint nearly every night after they are asleep, usually listening to a favorite podcast or audiobook.
Mary Ellen’s inspiration as an artist is her passion for nature and love of metal. Living on Whidbey Island, her studio is surrounded by gardens, forests, ponds, and views of Mt. Baker. She incorporates all of this beauty into her designs.
After earning a BFA in metalsmithing from the School for American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology, she began to create jewelry, belt buckles, and boxes, incorporating nature and color into her designs. She is currently making wall pieces using gold leaf to create images on copper panels. Color is added by using her torch to create flame patinas. This technique is very unusual, technically challenging, and creatively rewarding. Please come see her work on display as the June 2024 Featured Artist at Penn Cove Gallery in Coupeville, WA. Stacey Neumiller originally hails from rural New Jersey where she grew up drawing and riding horses. After relocating to the west coast, she pursued her desire to work in the field of art by attending California State University, Chico where she earned a degree in graphic design with an emphasis on illustration. After a 30 plus year career in the field of graphic design, she now devotes her time to fine art.
For artist Stacey Neumiller, an important motive to paint lies in understanding her surroundings. “My paintings are my interpretation of the bucolic world in which I live. I’m visually compelled by color, value and quality of light. Through the process of painting, I gain deeper insight into my subject and its surroundings.” Working in oil, combining the use of brushes and palette knives, Stacey Neumiller’s paintings are a lively dance of texture, light and color. Stacey finds a great deal of inspiration from Whidbey Island’s landscape, dramatic skies, barns, and animals. “There is beauty within the everyday and ordinary that only a painting can reveal. I’m drawn to these subjects in hopes of making and sharing such discoveries.” |