David Johansson
Acrylic on repurposed formerly printed canvas.
36x24

Long time artist in the northwest since 1981 who’s residencies included Pike lace market, Fremont Market center on contemporary art Cornish university of Sound, Fairhaven college, Seward Park, studio, Don Foster of Foster, White Gallery, (responsible for private collection 89-92), producer and Musician, of experimental and world, music, and many many many more life experiences, which include Broadway market Capitol Hill purveyor of art, Fremont Market, Larson Gallery solo and group exhibits , Murals Harbor freight tools Michigan Street mural project on Harbor Freight Tools 100 foot long wall. Seattle Art museum collection, Fogue Studio and Gallery resident artist, flower, Power paintbrush, Various team building workshops, experiences donated many paintings to low income housing institute, various auctions, collections local and international.

David Johansson has also donated this Experience: Experience Art Making in the heart of Georgetown, Seattle’s oldest neighborhood. Let David Johansson’s enthusiastic creativity take you on a fun adventure which will include some wine, hors d’oeuvres, and an introduction to his patented Flower Power Paintbrush system, which will be seen on *SHARKTANK, in the near future. This is a one of a kind, making ART happen, event. 

I support the belief that art is the main cultural tether that attaches us to the here and now, to the past, and to the future.  I will do whatever I can to help promote Art. Be it locally, regionally or internationally.

Nina O'Neil
24x24x1.5
Oil on canvas

I paint predominately with oils on canvas, often incorporating line drawn with charcoal or china marker. There is a strong emphasis on design and composition within my pieces, a result of my formal education and career in graphic design.
I love to portray narratives through a cast of characters in unexpected contexts, and to create the worlds they inhabit with graphic blocks of color, something now known as Ninaland. I find intrigue in translating traditional landscapes and backgrounds into fractured geometric fields, using color to communicate temperature and mood.

Painting as a form of storytelling is my passion, and ultimately what inspires me to continue studying the masters while guarding the original style that beats within my soul.

Kimberly Balla
36 x 24 inches
Oil, metallic pigment, on panel

I am interested in experimentation in order to get patterns and textures that are unusual to me. Thinking about paint in a chemical way allows me to create these unfamiliar textures. By mixing various painting mediums I have developed a blend of liquids that chemically react with each other to create unique patterns and contours. Over the past ten years of working with my found technique; I have come to know and harness the mysterious process as my own. I use a new approach to the old medium of oil paint; I mix materials from the modern era with the timeless oils of the past. I am entrapped by my alchemical obsession with this magic-like chemical approach, which captures a natural process, freezing it in time. Continually drawn to a process that seems to touch on the endless cycle of nature and existence. The cycle of building and breaking down materials to form textures which eternally exist in the universal reality of nature and consciousness. I focus on these patterns and textures which seem oddly familiar with the intent to create an other worldly intimacy. I strive to create hypnagogic lands of ethereal figures free floating in a space which the viewer can dive into and escape the noise of everyday life. I wish for my work to create a void into a world which seems familiar yet unfamiliar, and encourages the discussion of the micro macro make-up of life and distant realities. An invitation to see the world beyond in wonder.

Sandra (S.E.) Penney
24" x 24" print size; frame size is larger
Reduction Linoleum Print on BFK Rives

Sandra (S.E.) Penney is a Pacific Northwest printmaking artist and print instructor. She draws upon her passion for mythology and science fiction, the beauty of the natural world, and autobiographical details to create images evoking spiritual states and strong emotions. Her most recent series, The Proserpina Project, explores the connection between the myth of Proserpina and the experience of modern-day sufferers of seasonal affective disorder.

“Printmaking is like solving a challenging puzzle: it requires me to focus and be present in a moment where every decision counts. It’s also all about transparency, nothing is concealed because that final image reveals every choice made along the way. I’m very inspired by Surrealism and use some of those techniques in my printmaking. There is a fluidity to the Surrealist process and a welcoming of chance and revelation. This helps open my process to mythos, memory and emotion – the three elements that drive so much of my artmaking.”

Clan MacLean Whisky Tasting

Experience Scotland’s Islands, Highlands, Lowlands, and Speyside through a carefully-curated whisky tasting. Your Scottish host will create the proper atmosphere with kilt and bagpipes. You’ll help choose your 6+ selections from different regions and cask finishes. All whiskies are single malt, single cask from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Includes appetizers and discussions of the lore and methods of whisky distilling.

Jan Koutsky
40 x 28 x 2
colored pencil

I use the emotive quality of color to create a sense of space, openness and light. I use light-fast (non-fading) colored pencils on archival museum board. Colored pencils provide the power of color while showing the mark of the artist’s hand. The museum board is mounted on two support pieces and cut to shape.

Early in life, Jan was inspired by the color field painters and knew she had found her calling. Jan uses the universal language of emotive color and the architecture of design. Her voice speaks of the natural world around us while using thousands of strokes of color. Jan taught in a college art department for over 30 years. She is an award-winning author and illustrator. Jan lives in Seattle.

Ruby Lidner
34"x60"x1.2"
Oil on canvas

Ruby Lindner has a cross-cultural soul and sensibility. A first generation American with familial and cultural roots in Germany, Ruby grew up in the mountains of Colorado. She spent her college years in Paris, and her twenties in Berlin. Ruby moved to Seattle in 1989. The artistic expression of her cross-cultural pollination makes for an eclectic aesthetic. It is punctuated with the color, rhythms and humor of the duality of her life experiences.

Ruby has been painting since the early 2000s. In early 2014, Ruby moved away from representational painting and began a focused exploration of abstract form and flow in bold colors, experimenting with spatial relationship of shapes on larger canvases. She works in both acrylic and oil paints, depending on my mood and the effect she is trying to achieve with any given painting. In both media, she uses brush work and palette-knife texturing to explore the interplay between complimentary and discordant colors. By making use of a range of contrasting color combinations, she is able to express the sometimes flowing, sometimes clumsy, rhythms of motion and emotion.

Neha Panicker
24" x 24"
Acrylic inks & paints on cotton paper. Mounted on deep birch wood panel.

Neha Panicker is an architect turned artist originally from India. Her paintings are vibrant expressions in color, form and composition. There is character and energy in the strokes and luminosity in the transparencies. Bringing the authentic self to the act of making is at the core of her work. Her artistic explorations are an active exercise in being present in the act of making. She experiments with analog visual art mediums bringing to play varying tools and body movement in mark making.

Steve Jensen
Oil on Recycled Wood
20X16

Steve Jensen has received many awards including King County Special Projects Grant, GAP Individual Artist Grant, Morris Graves Fellowship. and the Community Leadership Award from the Cornish College of the Arts. His work is found in the collections of Museum of Northwest Art, Morris Graves Museum of Art, Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, and Larson Art Gallery. He has had numerous solo gallery exhibitions including Simon Edwards Gallery, Art & Soul in Hong Kong, A New Leaf Gallery in Berkeley, Nordic Heritage Museum, and Maryhill Museum of Art

“For me, boats are meant to symbolize a voyage or journey, perhaps it is the voyage to the other side, or the journey into the unknown.”

Experience
The winning bidder of this work will also have the opportunity to bring 10 of their friends to join them for an experience at the Capitol Hill studio, gallery space, and home of celebrated local artist Steve Jensen and Vincent Lipe. Guests can expect a private studio experience of Jensen’s work as well as their extensive collection of NW artists. Wine and bites will be provided. Thanks to our generous hosts, 20 percent of any sales from the evening at the studio will be donated back to the Kirkland Arts Center. Mutually agreed upon date. Cell phone for date coordination will be provided to the winning bidder.