The Port Ludlow Artists’ League's March Artist of the Month is photographer Gary Settle.

An eclectic collection of his work, both photography and painting, is displayed this month in the lobby of Sound Community Bank on Oak Bay Road, including a selection of black-and-white photojournalism prints from the '60s and '70s, along with recent works.

Also in the show are some of paintings he's done in the past year. Painting is a new artistic avenue he’s tentatively exploring “to better appreciate how hard it is to do, after seeing all the great work his fellow Artists’ League members have been creating,” he said.

Settle enjoyed a 45-year career in photojournalism at several newspapers, including the Chicago Daily News and The New York Times. He was named the National Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 1968 and 1970. His subjects included Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Johnson, and Reagan, with other notable figures that included Frank Sinatra, Liberace, Rosalind Russell, William Holden, Lauren Bacall, Louis Armstrong, and Ernie Banks.

In 1979, he began as assistant managing editor/graphics at the Seattle Times, where he was responsible for supervising the photography and art departments, and the overall design of the newspaper. “Hardest job I ever had,” he said. He retired from there 20 years later.

Meet Settle at the Second Wednesday reception, 4-5 p.m., March 11 at Sound Community Bank, Oak Bay Road, Port Ludlow, and 5-6 p.m. in the League Art Gallery next door.