The gallery is seeking new members in 2D and 3D medium. Download the information sheet (pdf)

As a thank you to our friends and web visitors we are offering a 10 percent discount on any item over $25 in the gallery.  Download a 10 percent off coupon  Good Dec 1-21st.

Meet the Artists Invitational Reception, Friday, December 5, 2008, 5:00 – 8:00 PM

Dorothy McCuistion Treasures features all of the Impromptu Gallery artists: Bill Colby miniatures prints, Betty Ragan photo collages, Dorothy McCuistion prints, Peter Serko and Bea Geller photos, Trinda Love paintings and hand-knit scarves, Becky Frehse paintings and LeeAnn Perry stone sculpture. Joining the members are their guests: ceramicists Dan Barnett, Jane Kelsey-Mapel and John McCuistion as well as Tacoma jewelry artisans Joni Joachims and Cheryl DeGroot.

What is art but a gift, a treasure to keep or pass along to someone you love. The Impromptu Gallery opens the month of December with a gallery full of gift-giving treasures.

Guest
Joni JoachimsFaith Hagenhofer’s one of a kind pillows offer comfort and joy.  Pieced and embroidered handmade felt is matched with exquisite silks, linens (some hand-dyed) and lush upholstery fabrics. The pillows are bright, detailed, inviting, and affordable pieces of art, whether they grace your home or are your gifts for special friends.

Remember that gorgeous, little baby slipper painting by Becky Frehse that you wanted last year? Becky will offer many small treasures such as those; oil paintings, mixed media, and drawings. All are framed or ready to present and display as they jump out of their holiday wrappings!

Bill Colby brings new work in the Rain series, Fish series and nature miniatures. There is a new Spring rain, a new Winter rain and two new small fish etchings with watercolor, perfect for appreciating our ubiquitous northwest rainfall year-round.

Leann Seaburg PerryTrinda Love, artist/designer, brings one of a kind hand-knitted, crocheted and felted purses and scarves; simple matted photographs of local scenes; packaged gift sets of her cards in various themes; and of course her lush oil paintings of various sizes.

Winter is here and LeeAnn Seaburg Perry shows off her icy and romantic “Winter Stroll”. With it is a new piece called “Inner Glow”, placed by a window the rays of the sun warms up the viewer. A peachy alabaster is the perfect stone for a sculpture called “Lady Fair”—she is lovely and restful to behold.

One of Betty Ragan’s treasures is “Hidden Window”, a black-and-white photographic print from the interior of a cathedral in Southern Germany. This image is a Baroque treasure. It contains paintings, sculpture, and the ornate and rhythmical shell and acanthus leaf motifs that are so typical of Baroque architectural decoration.

Becky Frehse Re-discover several of Dorothy McCuistion’s favorite monotype prints from Impromptu Gallery exhibits over the past year. The whimsical “Over the Rabbit Hole”, the stately “Bicycles #1: Green” and the dreamy “Reverie” are a few of the selections that are part of Treasures.

Select a treasure for your loved one at the Grand Impromptu Gallery in December and January—a gift that will continue to bring joy long after the holiday magic fades.

Bill Colby
Cosmos and Owl, Intaglio/woodcut, 1/1, 19” x 19” Cosmos Etcetera features printmaker Bill Colby; also exhibiting are member artists Becky Frehse, Faith Hagenhofer, Bea Geller, Trinda Love, Dorothy McCuistion, Betty Ragan, LeeAnn Seaburg Perry and Peter Serko.

To Bill Colby, Cosmos is everything and is immense with exhilarating color. Colby is stimulated by the vast outer space in November’s Cosmos Etcetera. Colby’s woodcut forms and block prints create sites that are beguiling, audacious and bodacious. As in nature, Cosmos is the mutual interdependence of all as the gallery artists exhibit artwork connected to each other.

Bill Colby is a master printmaker and has exhibited extensively throughout the Northwest. His art works are in many art museums, corporate and public school collections. He taught studio and art history at the University of Puget Sound for 33 years and has made his mark on printmaking in the Pacific Northwest. For five decades, Colby has described through his art form the nature spirit of water, trees, birds, rocks, hills, mountains, clouds and the ever-changing sky views.

Also during November the Impromptu Gallery artists celebrate Tacoma’s “Art at Work” month as they sketch, paint, collage, and photograph a still-life composition during their hosting times in the gallery. Final products will be displayed on Third Thursday, November 20.

Betty Ragan’s images fit nicely into the category of “etcetera”. The architectural decoration that is the basis for these images was captured in quick shots at the end of a two-week shooting expedition in San Francisco. They were the shots she least expected to use later. Photographers often find when they evaluate those unplanned quick shots, contrary to their initial impressions; the shots show the potential to be developed into interesting images.

Spirituality comes to LeeAnn Seaburg Perry’s mind when the words “Cosmos Etcetera” are spoken. Looking inward is the strong theme of these vital works. Busy Sister has a sweeping energetic presence. Yogi holds the pose that was naturally created by sand laid in a textured pattern that suggested the arms and legs. LeeAnn’s last piece is a small quiet dark green gem called Reverence.

Becky Frehse’ alchemical interests are portrayed best in her mixed media work on paper. This month we are pleased to have her eight piece series SALT on exhibit as well as two new pieces that reference the cosmos in different states of vapor and lucidity.

Photographer Peter Serko explores his tiny corner of the cosmos with a series called “Planet Chihuly”.  In vibrant images printed on metallic paper Peter reveals the often surreal night and pre-dawn world of Tacoma’s Museum of Glass and inner Thea Foss Waterway.

Four new prints by Dorothy McCuistion express the human need to create order and harmony out of the apparent chaos around us. Animals with no apparent connection to each other swim in space and overlaid with an ancient diagram of the orderly cosmos in her monotype triptych.

In examining the cosmos, large and small, Trinda Love represents the order and systems through the organic symmetry and asymmetry of floral still life impasto oil paintings.  Love captures the vitality of rich floral arrangements in thick knife painted style, which pop with vibrant color.

Also exhibiting are Faith Hagenhofer and Bea Geller.

First Place Finalist:
Donna Waidtlow for THE GREAT WHITE TRUCK
Inspired by Moby Dick and the Cordovan Sky, a painting by Trinda Love

Second Place Finalist:
Michael Magee for AT PEACE ON THE KLICKITAT
(R.I.P. Melinda)
Inspired by At Peace on the Klickitat, a photograph by Peter Serko

Third Place Finalist:
Michael Magee for AMALFI REMEMBERED
Inspired by Amalfi Remembered, a photograph by Peter Serko

Fourth Place Finalist:
Michael Magee for REMAINDERS
Inspired by Woman Off Broadway, a painting by Trinda Love

Fifth Place Finalist:
Patrice Bunge for MOUNTAIN TREES
Inspired by Mountain Trees, a woodcut by Bill Colby
Sixth Place Finalist:
Donna Waidtlow for SEPTEMBER RIVER
Inspired by September Road, a painting by Trinda Love

Seventh Place Finalist:
Brian Desmond for AT PEACE ON THE KLICKITAT
Inspired by At Peace on the Klickitat, a photo by Peter Serko
Eighth Place Finalist:
Tammy Robacker for On ‘VIEW FROM THE GOLDEN ROOMS’
Inspired by View from the Golden Rooms, a painting by Trinda Love

Ninth Place Finalist:
Jennifer Chushcoff for ENGRAVE
Inspired by Leaving This Earth, a marble sculpture by LeeAnn Seaburg Perry
Tenth Place Finalist:
Kevin Miller for AROUND THE CORNER: WOMAN OF STONE AND SNOW
Inspired by Garden Stroll, a marble sculpture by LeeAnn Seaburg Perry

Eleventh Place Finalist:
Laura L. Snyder for Snyderwoods.pdfSPRING WALK IN THE WOODS
Inspired by Walk in the Woods, and Birch, paintings by Trinda Love

Twelfth Place Finalist:
Kevin Miller for AROUND THE CORNER: WOMAN OFF BROADWAY
Inspired by Woman Off Broadway, a painting by Trinda Love

Thirteenth Place Finalist:
Brian Desmond for A WOMAN REMEMBERED
Inspired by Amalfi Remembered, a photograph by Peter Serko

Fourteenth Place Finalist:
Sammi Palmer for CALL IT HOME
Inspired by Birch, a painting by Trinda Love

Fifteenth Place Finalist:
Laura L. Snyder for WOMAN OFF BROADWAY
Inspired by Woman off Broadway, a painting by Trinda Love