Art show and reception set for Sunday

Variety Show and Artist Reception

Presented by The Creative Arts Group of Sequim

When: 1-3 p.m. on Sunday, April 8,

Where: The Gallery at Fifth Avenue, 500 W. Hendrickson Road

Free admission

Contact: Nancy Hofmann at 360-582-0022 or email dnhofmann@wavecable.com

Artists of numerous mediums and age levels will present their work at the Gallery at Fifth Avenue for a variety show and artist reception.

Several artists from The Creative Arts Group of Sequim, a regular group that meets at Sequim Museum & Arts every Tuesday to practice their work, are featured in the show and reception from 1-3 p.m. on Sunday, April 8, at the Gallery at Fifth Avenue, 500 W. Hendrickson Road.

Sequim resident and participating artist Nancy Hofmann said this group evolved from another group of artists that met regularly at local churches and the Sequim library to get together and work on their crafts. After the group started losing participants, she and others continued to hold meetings and eventually found a space at Sequim Museum & Arts to keep their artist juices flowing.

Hofmann said the artwork will remain on display for the month of April and features artists who specialize in several different art forms.

“It is a variety show because we’ve got an acrylic painter, pen and ink, watercolor, markers, photography, wood turning and oils” she said.

She also said there is a range of age levels among the participating artists, from 13 going on 14-year-old Livy Budd to the most senior artist, Hofmann at 73-years-old.

“Some of us have been doing (art) for 13 years; some have been doing it for 65,” Hofmann said.

Hofmann said many of the featured artists have unique life stories and use art as a form of healing. This has been true in her own life when she got back into painting after a hiatus of 30 years and came back to art in a healing arts group when she got breast cancer in 1990.

“Art is also my refuge and my therapy,” she said.

She said she switched from painting landscapes to portraits of babies 10 years ago after many people she knew were dying and wanted something lighter to cheer her up.

“I was going to funerals every single weekend,” Hofmann said.

“I started painting babies and children and that just gave me happiness and a real escape from all these people dropping dead.”

Some of her paintings will be featured in this show, such as her red fox piece, “Crazy Eyes,” and many of her baby portraits.

Some of the other artists in the show include Livy Budd, who has been practicing art for two-thirds of her life and joined the group two years ago. She enjoys watercolor, acrylic and pastels. The second youngest artist, Hannah Wetzler, 21, is a multi-media artist who loves to explore the world around her and interpret what she sees in her own way.

The more experienced artists, such as Kali Bradford, who’s career has included 40 years working around the world as a Master Sand Sculptor and 11 years as a granted artist for the National Endowment for the Arts teaching multi-media art in schools, will show her poems and paintings.

Valerie Henschel, another senior artist, has over 45 years of experience as a photographer on the Olympic Peninsula. She will be showing her newest artistic venture of wood turning at the Fifth Avenue Gallery in Sequim.

For more information about the show, contact Nancy Hofmann at 360-582-0022 or email dnhofmann@wavecable.com.