Quilcene oil painter Elizabeth “Liz” Reutlinger was over the moon when her friend and fellow artist Dennis Canty asked if she’d care to host a joint art show at the Old Alcohol Plant Inn in Port Hadlock. 

While Reutlinger’s paintings can be found at Northwind Art in Port Townsend, the upcoming event is her first formal reception since 2019. She’s particularly excited that the sale of her 12 pieces — each completed within the course of a single day in 2019 and 2020 — will benefit Bayside Housing and Services. Fifty percent of the marked price goes to Bayside, she said, and most of her work has been priced by square inch, with some exceptions due to materials.

Canty has paintings for sale in a gallery in Mexico, but it’s been two years since he had a local show, too.

It felt good, he said, to clear his studio walls and hang a show.

He won’t have to travel far for the opening, either. Canty lives about a mile away from the hotel for half of the year, painting from his Port Hadlock studio before migrating to Mexico when winter rolls around.

He’s excited about hanging 23 new paintings, all of which are in oil — a big change for Canty, who has worked predominantly in water color.

“I find oils just so exciting and much more engaging,” he said, adding how he’s always been drawn to fine art done in oils.

Canty spends a great deal of time on the water sailing, kayaking, and crabbing, or in the surrounding forest.

“I paint what I see,” he said, snapping photos from real life to take back to his studio and render in paint.

“I like gray skies,” he said, “lots of clouds.”

His selections for the show are mostly landscapes in the immediate area of Port Hadlock, although a smattering from places a little further afield will make an appearance too.

Canty usually paints true-to-life, but both artists said they have been slowly moving toward creating more abstract art.

After taking some online classes through Bainbridge Island-based Winslow Art Center with Mark Russell, who specializes in abstract landscapes, Reutlinger was ready to try something different.

Now, she has several paintings in process at once. She uses palette knives, squeegees, brushes — whatever she needs to evoke atmosphere in her work.

“I decided to slow it down,” Reutlinger said, whose normal routine had been completing a painting in a day.

She began taking painting seriously at 58, but her first painting was actually completed when she was in her early 40s. She picked up some paints and brushes and made a sweet little portrait that was good enough to surprise herself. Ultimately, she deferred to working in concrete and bronze, feeling that oil painting was “too intense and time consuming.”

Canty agrees that while working his 35-year career, there was no time to paint seriously. Although he began drawing as a child, and painted for more than two decades, he wasn’t able to focus entirely on making art until his 60s.

He said that picking up art at this stage of his life was ideal.

“It’s a good time to be a beginner,” he added.

Reutlinger offered her own advice to those looking to muster the courage to try something new.

“Take a beginning class,” she said. “Pretend like you’re in first grade and just show up and do the work.”

She mentioned the “fear factor” of being artistic, too.

“Art is our greatest teacher,” she said, adding that it shows off personal strengths and individual foibles. Setting aside past judgement, she said, will help.

“Be open to the process and materials,” Reutlinger said.