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School’s out, but art classes are in on the Coast

June 12, 2019

Lori Tobias

Coast, Culture, Family, News

School’s out, but here on the Coast, classes are just beginning, and they’re not just for kids.

*Mary Ann Gantenbein will teach a class for adults on collage during the Cannon Beach Summer Art Camp.*

The Cannon Beach Arts Association has opened registration for its 17^th Annual Art Camp, July 8-12. Five-day classes for the younger set include yoga (ages 4-12), 3D mask-making (8-12) and for the really wee ones — ages 3-5 — “Mini Makers.” The brochure describes the class as a “happy happening” for young and aspiring artists, who will draw, paint, create collages, and just plain play.

Adult Art Camp offers three classes including “Watercolor by the Sea,” an introductory class in which artists will create a watercolor inspired by Cannon Beach and learn tips and tricks about painting with watercolors. It’s open to all levels, but designed for beginners.

Among classes at Sitka Center for the Arts is an August workshop on the “Art of the Letter. " Besides creating illustrated envelopes, the class will explore how letter-writing can survive in the digital age. — Among classes at Sitka Center for the Arts is an August workshop on the “Art of the Letter. ” Besides creating illustrated envelopes, the class will explore how letter-writing can survive in the digital age.

THE SITKA CENTER FOR THE ARTS is also gearing up for summer workshops — many are already full, but wait lists are available. Those still open include “Color Confidence for Artists,” a class for anyone working in any medium. Instructor Cynthia Herron will demonstrate mixing and matching paint, discuss color schemes for a variety of media, and talk about color as it is found in nature around the Sitka campus near Otis. In “Photography and Place,” students will examine the “potential of photographic practice to address contemporary issues of land use and environmental concepts.” And in “Mining Your Life for Laughs,” teacher Robert Balmer will take a look at “how humor writers turn the painful, the absurd, the odd, the embarrassing, the memorable,” into something to laugh about. Who couldn’t use that?

THE MANZANITA WRITERS’ SERIES is hosting a Writing Lab on June 22 at the Hoffman Center for the Arts and a three-day Beach Writing Retreat July 7-9 with Jennifer Lauck. Lauck is the author of New York Times bestselling memoir Blackbird and several other memoirs.

IN NEWPORT, THE OREGON COAST COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS will present three visual art camps during July for youth ages 6 to 14 at the Newport Visual Arts Center. Each camp engages young artists to explore hands-on art-making through activities including sketching and watercolor painting, sculpture, and bookmaking. Each camp is designed for particular age groups, and camp fees include all materials, snacks, and a customized art camp T-shirt.

Also in Newport, the Oregon Coast Aquarium opens its newest art exhibit, “Thanks Be to the Sea” on Saturday, June 15, with local artist Duncan Berry. Berry will be offering demonstrations of gyotaku, the Japanese folk-art of fish printing, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Duncan Berry hand-printed this 18-by-18-inch gyotaka – or fish rubbing – directly from the octopus. He will demonstrate his work, in conjunction with an exhibit at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, in two sessions on Saturday, June 15.

“The prints tell a story of the remarkable seascapes of the northern Oregon Coast and the beautiful and varied creatures that inhabit the Pacific,” according to a press release. “The featured animals range from a 37-pound Chinook salmon and the pectoral fin of a gray whale, to lantern and viper fish from 3,000 feet underwater.”

This story is supported in part by a grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust, investing in Oregon’s arts, humanities and heritage, and the Lincoln County Cultural Coalition.

Lori Tobias

Lori Tobias is a journalist of many years, and was a staff writer for The Oregonian for more than a decade, and a columnist and features writer for the Rocky Mountain News. Her memoir “Storm Beat – A Journalist Reports from the Oregon Coast” was published in 2020 by Oregon State University press. She is also the author of the novel Wander, winner of the 2017 Nancy Pearl Book Award for literary fiction and a finalist for the 2017 International Book Awards for new fiction. She lives on the Oregon Coast with her husband Chan and rescue pups Luna and Monkey.