We are accepting submissions for our 8th Annual Customer Art Contest here at DANIEL SMITH, and we have a $1,500 DANIEL SMITH Gift Certificate for the Grand Prize Winner!

Second Place: $1000 Daniel Smith Gift Certificate

Third Place: $500 Daniel Smith Gift Certificate

 

For more information on our 8th Annual Customer Art Contest and how to apply please *click* on this link

 

You can see our most recent winners for our 7th Annual Customer Art Contest here and on the last page of our DANIEL SMITH 2009 – 2010 Reference Catalog.

 

 

Soooo, what would YOU do with one of those Gift Certificates? 

 

 

The event will be from 6pm to 9pm at the Gage Academy of Art in the Steele Gallery, throughout the school hallways, and in the studios.  There will be a special “Vernissage” (”a reception at a gallery for an artist whose show is about to open to the public”) from 5pm to 6pm with Fine Wine for $50, please “Contact Katie Mosehauer at 206-323-4243 x16 for details”.

 

Rock Hushka, Tacoma Art Museum, Curator of Contemporary and Northwest Art will be Guest juror.  There will 7 categories: Beginner, Abstract, Figure, Portrait, Landscape, Sculpture, Still Life, and “Best in Show“.  A “People’s Choice Award” will be voted on that evening by everyone attending.  The Award Ceremony will be at 7:30pm for the announcement of the winning Artwork.

 

This year will be the first time that some of the work will be offered for sale.  This will be a One-Night-Gallery opportunity to add some Original Art priced between $100 and $1,000 with 50% to help support Gage Academy.  Besides the student artwork submitted for the “Best of Gage“, there will be additional student artwork and instructor artwork on display through out the school, some of which will also be for sale.

 

Should be a fun evening, I’ll be there!

 

 

~Deborah Burns 

Mother’s Day Weekend was also the Fifth Annual Kirkland Artist Studio Tour and I came with John Cogley, owner of DANIEL SMITH Artists’ Materials, to visit the studios on the tour. We were able to visit the studios of Ann Fiser and Robert Fiser, Elizabeth Kincaid, Chris Sharp and Layla Jacobson before fatigue from the Camano Island Studio Tour the day before set in and cut short our itinerary for the day.

When visiting each of the studios, John brought some DANIEL SMITH Art Supply goodies to give to the artists we visited, in the form of a fist full of tubes of DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors!

A group of us from DANIEL SMITH car pooled with John Cogley (owner of DANIEL SMITH): Tina Leader (Human Resources Director), Jaren Balzer (Information Systems Manager), KT (Bellevue Store Manager) and Deborah Burns (me, the DANIEL SMITH Blogger!).

We left Seattle Saturday morning with John driving, for Camano Island and were able to visit 17 of the 32 studios and galleries before the end of the day. Because I was not the navigator (Jaren was our “navigator extraordinaire”) I may have lost count of how many places we went to and may have missed noting a few, my apologies if I missed you. Actually, I think is was probably very challenging focusing on the driving (John) and navigation (Jaren) considering all the laughing and fun we were having in vechicle!

While making our rounds of the Tour, we ran into others from DANIEL SMITH: Thom Wright (Purchasing Manager), Connie Cagley (Marketing Specialist, Society Relations) with her husband Guy, and Charlene Vogt (Catalog Sales Manager) who was also hosting a party (yummy meatballs and more!) at a friends cabin on the Island.

The studios and galleries showed a wide range of art work among them: Watercolor, Oil, Acrylic, Glass, Ceramic, Metal, Photography, and Jewelry. I took some photos of the work spaces of a few of the artists, unfortunately once I got home to review and label the photos I realized that I did not take nearly as many photos as it felt like, next year I will have to focus on taking more.

We visited: #27) Seagrass Gallery , #1) Bob Paczkowski Studio , #2) Rainchild Metal Works: Ben Rainchild , #5) Dan Bergsma Art Glass: Dan Bergsma #6) John Muhler Studio: John D. Muhler, Debbi Rhodes , #7) Jack Dorsey Studio: Jack Dorsey, Ann Cory , #8) Jack Gunter Art and Design Studio , #9) Janet Mitchell Studio , #10) Old Mabana Schoolhouse: Linda Demetre , #11) Betty , #12) Diane Hill Studio: Diane Hill, Jeanine Borree, Sue Uhrich , #13) Lee Beitz , #14) Matzke Fine Art Gallery , #15) Kathy Hastings Studio: Kathy Hastings, Marguerite Goff , #16) Thompson Art Studio: Susan Thompson Cohen , #17) Rays Through Art Glass: Ray Fossum , and #18) Camano Island Pottery: Roger Cocke .Dorotik

Some of the studios had breathtaking views of the Puget Sound, which of course made us each wonder how challenging it must be to focus on painting when there is a spectacular view outside the window!

Camano Island is such a beautiful location and having the opportunity to drive around the Island and see so much art was a wonderful way to spend the day. A few of us could not resist and went home with some original artwork and prints of original work…

…have to do our part to help support the Artists!

# 1: 2008 Poster for Camano Island Studio Tour by John Muhler.

# 2: Diane Hill Studio entrance.

# 3: Jeanine Borree and paintings at Diane Hill Studio

# 4: John Muhler Studio entrance, sculpture by Debbi Rhodes

# 5: Jack Gunter Studio entrance.

# 6: Diane Hill’s workspace with Sound View!