Langley gallery features artist duo
Published 2:14 pm Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Oil painter Gail Weir and Textile artist Carys Ann Hamer are artfully paired at Langley’s Brackenwood Gallery named “A Feast for the Eyes,” which opened Friday and extends through March 28.
Gail Weir is a painter who works in a loose style, painting images from her rural life on the Kitsap Penninsula. Ms. Weir’s paintings evoke memories of a time gone by where canned food and grazing farm animals were part of the daily scene for most people. Recently her painting, “Honey Jar and Jam,” was selected for the cover of Daniel Smith’s 2011 catalogue. The jars in the painting seem to shimmer like they are straight out of the boiling water bath. You can almost hear the tops ping. “A Feast for the Eyes” promises to be in keeping with Weir’s iconic country images that define her current style.
Weir, a graduate of the Seattle Academy of Fine Art, started drawing at an early age and was doing freelance illustrations as a teenager. Her work is shown in galleries from Vashon Island to Anacortes as well as Brackenwood Gallery in Langley.
Carys Ann Hamer’s wearable art is dyed with natural dyes and also captures a bit of nature. This textile series particularly was influenced by spring walks through forests on Whidbey Island where she now lives. Ferns and fiddleheads peeping up through the soil, piles of old leaves underfoot and spring buds were the inspiration for her lovely shawls and scarves created for this show.
Carys Ann grew up in Wales where she was surrounded by tapestries and coverlets from and early age. She has traveled extensively and lived and worked as a chemist for many years in Africa and Indonesia. These rich cultural experiences have greatly influenced her sense of color and design. Recently, Hamer visited France to study with Michele Garcia and Denise Lambert where she learned about dyeing with woad, the European Indigo, which she is now using on her silk pieces.
Brackenwood Gallery
302 First Street,
Langley, WA 98260
360-221-2978
www.brackenwoodgallery.com
