The Masters Atelier presents third annual art show

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Leader News Staff
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The Masters Atelier will host “Shadow and Light: Get Real” — its third annual art show — at Elevated Ice Cream through June 30. 

The show highlights recent work by master artist and teacher Nancy Lucas Williams, her students, and friends, since the school moved to its new location at No. 17 in the Port Townsend Post Office.

The exhibition opens with a special reception on the patio at Elevated Ice Cream with a meet-the-artists event from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 4.

Williams said her students, age 10 through 19, have been studying from life the effects of natural light and shadow on real plaster geometric shapes to train their eyes to render three-dimensional forms onto a two-dimensional picture plane just like the Old Masters. It’s a first step to becoming an accomplished realist painter.

Williams moved her Atelier (the French word for studio) to the second floor of the post office in 2020 for the ideal 18-foot north light windows that allow artists the luxury of painting from life by consistent natural light all day long. 

The move was made with the hopes of enrolling new students when the pandemic was over, Williams explained. And in the fall of 2021, she took on three new students part-time to learn the basics of drawing from life; Aidan Pabloff (13), Aidan Henson (19), and Kanyon Kjosen (10). All will have work in the show. 

“My school is called The Masters Atelier, which is named for the type of instruction offered in former times when a small number of artists apprenticed with a Master artist in her/his studio to learn the craft of picture making,” Williams explained.

“The type of instruction is Classical Realism, a four-year full-time program modeled after the methods of the 19th century French Academy, to train artists in classical methods of drawing and painting,” she added.

“Shadow and Light: Get Real” also includes three artist friends from Port Townsend: Simon Del Valle, Lisa Whitwell, and Burl Norville.

“Many artists in Port Townsend have limited venues to show their work. I chose them based on their diverse mediums and message which lend themselves to the inclusiveness of an ice cream parlor,” Williams noted. 

“Plus the variety of colors and patterns remind me of yummy kinds of ice cream. There will be scores of paintings in the show with a flavor and taste for everyone,” she added.

Del Valle is a man of passionate poetry pecked into wood. About his wooden poems, he said: “Light shines on the surface to expose the shadow words cloaked in social graces woodpecked into old growth so ceremonially we can hardly even see the reason so many a sound could never even be enough of what someone like us would call loud.”

Whitwell’s recent portraiture depicts diverse feelings and faces.

By the numbers, she explained: “1. Everything is an experiment. 2. Paint, canvas and color say the things we don’t have words for. 3. Nothing is a failure, unless you refuse to learn from it.”

Norville’s new works around the theme of shadow and light. 

For Saturday’s show opening, Williams also noted there will be free buffalo rides for the first 10 children who come to meet the artists.

For more information on The Masters Atelier, go to themastersltelier.com.