The Bank Left Gallery and Bistro will present 16 of the Palouse Women Artists and their work starting Saturday. The show features 32 pieces, which use a wide variety of mediums.
Laurel Macdonald, president of the PWA, said women from all over the region are included in the show, and the age group ranges from women in their 20s to women in their 80s.
“It’s such an eclectic group of women,” Macdonald said. “We just want to support each other in our artistic endeavors.”
Louise Colson is a founding member of the PWA, and said the group has several goals to help women advance in the art world.
“One goal of the group is for younger women artists to be exposed to the contacts and connections older women artists have made both in the region and national level,” Colson said.
The PWA is a sub-section of a larger national group that was started in the late 1970s. PWA broke off between 10 and 12 years ago, Colson said.
Each year, the PWA goes through a process of picking a venue and a theme, then creating art they can exhibit on the Palouse, Macdonald said.
“We try to have several shows a year, and any show is open to any member of the group and anyone can become a member,” Colson said.
The Bank Left was selected as the current venue, and the theme is nature and the outdoors — but much more than just the rolling hills of the Palouse, Macdonald said. For the first time, the exhibit is juried.
“That means you have to have respect for your own art,” Colson said. “It’s a commitment of a different level.”
Valery Oydo is an artist who helped organize the exhibit and has two pieces featured in the show. This year the gallery was judged by George Ray — a former art professor at UI who taught several women in the group. Nelson Duran, the gallery owner, was also a judge.
“It’s just about living in this area,” Macdonald said. “People’s reactions are all different.”
The type of art ranges from painting and drawing to mixed media collage and ceramics.
“Just a huge variety of media will be on display,” Macdonald said. “The artwork is going to be so varied.”
Palouse has become an artsy small town where people can come, enjoy good food and poke around the antique store, Macdonald said. But the PWA does more than just make art.
The Palouse Potters Guild hosts fundraisers, which donate half of the proceeds to the local food bank and half to Oxfam international. All of the female members of the PPG are in PWA, Oydo said.
The women in PWA begin work the third Sunday in September and work through May. Summer months are taken off so the artists can concentrate on family, art and travel, Oydo said.
Out of the 70 women involved in PWA, 20 or so are able to produce art for the exhibits at a time — this allows artists to not feel pressured for time with the business of life, Macdonald said.
The exhibit will have an opening reception with the artists on Saturday from 1-3 p.m. The exhibit will run from Sept. 7 to Oct. 5., at the Bank Left Gallery in Palouse, Wash.
Alycia Rock can be reached at [email protected]