PORT TOWNSEND — Phil Carrico’s prints and Beverly McNeil’s photography will be featured in April at the Port Townsend Gallery.
The Port Townsend Gallery at 715 Water St. is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday to Sunday and also by appointment.
“Carrico talks to wood and it answers. That sums up his love for printmaking which has been his passion for many years,” organizers said in a press release.
“The process is complicated and requires patience, focus, and an unexplainable desire to carve intricate patterns.”
A process
The process begins with a sketch, filled in with colored pencils. This determines the sequence as he must work from lightest to darkest.
Then, he transfers the sketch onto the block of wood and prints the lightest color in editions of 10-12 original prints. After each printing, he then carves away that color and prints the next color, some up to 15 colors.
Once completed, all that is left by the carving process eliminates any possibility of further prints from the block.
“Each print is an original work of art,” organizers said.
Carrico has a master’s of fine art in printmaking from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, where he lived for 38 years.
“His love of nature encompasses both spectacular landscapes and incredible wildlife which feeds his creativity and channels his talents,” organizers said.
McNeil presents her nature photography in “Fabulous Fungus and Likeable Lichens.”
Using a macro lens and tripod while on her hands and knees, she brings to viewers a wonderful and colorful world of fungi.
“Mushrooms and lichens are not the same,” organizers said.
Mushrooms are a fungus. Lichens are actually two organisms: a fungus and an algae, living together in a symbiotic relationship.
The algae within the lichen functions as the photosynthesizer of nutrients. Some lichens also may absorb certain mineral nutrients from rocks or soil.
Mushrooms absorb their nutrients from decaying material in wood or soil. They can be found everywhere from the Arctic to the desert and are an important food source for many mammals and birds.
McNeil said she wants to encourage people of all ages to slow down and take a closer look at the beauty right beneath our feet.
“It all awaits,” she said.
For more gallery information, call 360-379-8110 or see www.porttownsendgallery.com.
“The Avatar” is among the prints Phil Carrico will display at Port Townsend Gallery.
