NOTE: “Today” and “tonight” represent Friday, July 19; Saturday is July 20; Sunday is July 21.
SEQUIM — Starting today, at 18 studios across and beyond Sequim, the art-curious are invited in for conversation.
The seventh annual Sequim Arts Studio Tour gives everyone a chance to meet the people behind the art, said Susan Martin Spar, a classical painter who will open her Pine Hill Studio this weekend.
The tour, presented free by the nonprofit Sequim Arts organization, is a showcase of art and media around the Dungeness Valley.
Artists working in rusty metal, watercolors, found objects, glass and light — as in photography — are on the circuit. Their studios and display spaces will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. today and Saturday and from
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, and many will give demonstrations and offer their art for sale throughout the three days.
Visitors to Spar’s place can see how a painting is created, and find out about art classes, the artist promised.
“I’m always working in the middle of [the tour],” she added. “Anybody hanging out can see my process.”
Spar is among 32 participating artists; maps to their lairs are available at Colors of Sequim, the art supply store at 139 W. Washington St., and at the Sequim Visitor Information Center, 1192 E. Washington St. Information also awaits at www.SequimStudioTour.org.
“I like that the community gets to see what I’m up to,” said Janine Hegy, whose stone-carving and sculpting studio is between Sequim and Port Angeles.
Seeing an artist at work, Hegy said, is “an adventure.” She’ll demonstrate her carving process, which she does with tools such as a carbide chisel.
“I sit at a bench like an old craftsman,” she said.
Photographer Marilynn Evans, a newcomer to the tour, will display images created using Photoshop Elements, including a slide show of photos taken in Monument Valley on the Arizona-Utah border. She’ll set up a display too of before- and after-Photoshop images.
“Friends said, ‘You’ve got to let other people in on this,’” Evans said of her photography, much of which is born of travels through the American Southwest.
Here’s the lineup of artists and studios, in or near Sequim unless otherwise noted.
■ Janine Hegy, 501 Atterberry Road
■ George Zien, 596 Parrish Road
■ Pam Clayton, 723 Taylor Cutoff Road
■ Patricia Gordon and Richard O’Connor, 346 Glenn’s Valley Road
■ Susan Gansert Shaw, Lynne Armstrong, Mary Franchini, Ed Crumley and Brian Buntain, 505 E. Silberhorn Road
■ Roberta Cooper, 241 Serpentine Ave., Dungeness
■ Catherine Mix, Beth Ford, Paulette Hill, Pat Starr and Rocky Fankhouser at The Cutting Garden, 303 Dahlia Llama Lane, Dungeness
■ Marilynn Evans, 65 Snowberry Lane, Dungeness
■ Janet and LeRoy Beers and Jim Gift, 323 Towne Road, Dungeness
■ Kali Bradford, Adagio Bean & Leaf, 981 E. Washington St.
■ Deborah Sterk, 501 E. Fir St.
■ Pam Walker and Liz Harper, 228 W. Bell St.
■ Iris Edey, 311 N. Blake Ave.
■ Susan Martin Spar, 72 Derrick Road, Port Angeles
■ Steve Portner, 845 Shore Road, Port Angeles
■ Renee Mullikin and Jean Wyatt, 73 Idea Place, Carlsborg
■ Charlotte Watts, 350 Chicken Coop Hollow Road, Blyn
■ John McBride, 112 Raintree Lane, Blyn