PORT TOWNSEND — Gallery 9 is featuring Susan Martin Spar’s oil paintings and Judith Komishane’s jewelry this month.
Gallery-9 is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. six days a week (closed on Tuesdays) at 1012 Water St. Masks are optional.
It will be open for tonight’s gallery walk from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Spar is expected to be at the gallery.
Spar is a classically trained artist who studied at Georgetown Atelier in Seattle and graduated in 2012. Her earlier training included a degree from FIT in New York as well as various workshops and classes from well-known artists, organizers said.
Spar’s art consists of landscapes, figures and detailed still life paintings and is in the permanent collections of both the Millard Sheets Foundation and the Corona Heritage Park Foundation as well as private collections throughout the US, Australia and the far East.
This month, she is introducing new work. “Of Wind and Fire” is a large rendition of a horse rearing. Another piece, “Spirited”, is also a large horse painting that features a running horse which appears to be emerging out of mist.
“Horses were my first subject when I was only 12 years old,” Spar said.
“Like many young girls, I was entranced by them. I rode them whenever I could and dreamed of owning one some day.
“While my love of the creatures endured, my subject matter went in another direction, and I only came back to painting them recently,” Spar continued.
“I think it took the years of training and painting experience before I felt ready to capture the subject the way I felt it should be painted.”
Also new is a three-panel room divider of five large egrets perched on magnolia branches.
“I had these three tall, narrow panels and some antique clawed piano stool feet and I thought, ‘why not?” she said.
Komishane has been making jewelry for over 15 years. She finds a wide variety of materials for her necklaces, bracelets and earrings combing through antique shops among other places in her travels.
She said she enjoys finding new ways to combine the materials so that each piece is unique.
“I strive to make a wide variety of styles, colors, and price range to suit different people, and because I like variety,” Komishane said.
“I love that my jewelry has found a home in many different places. One necklace went to a New York theater producer’s niece, one to a gallery owner for herself and another went with its owner to a meeting with Hillary Clinton.
“I especially like making custom pieces — it was fun to do one that included birthstones of the client’s three children, another that combined stones from old family jewelry to make a new piece.”
For more information, see www.gallery-9.com.
Judith Komishane aims to make every piece of jewelry unique.
