Washougal Art Festival returns Aug. 13

The Washougal Arts and Culture Alliance (WACA) will hold its seventh annual Washougal Art Festival from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13, at Reflection Plaza, 1703 Main Street, Washougal.

“Our past festivals have been such a success for us, our artists, and the community, (and) we are excited to host the event again,” WACA president Molly Coston said in a news release. “We are pleased to provide accessibility to original art in such a fun, festival environment.”

The event will feature work from 25 professional regional artists, showing their watercolor, acrylic, photography, glass, mixed-media, found-object, oil and other artwork.

“We had a lot of interest from regional artists wanting to be a part of the festival this year,” said WACA board member Janice Ferguson. “A jury of art professionals selected the artists who were invited to participate. We are delighted with the high caliber of art that will be on display and for sale and excited to showcase these amazing artists.”

WACA selected Dinius’ artwork for the festival poster and advertising.

“Each year our festival committee seeks out a work of art that is ‘Washougal-inspired,’ and we are thrilled that Tamara would share the beautiful piece for us to use,” said WACA board member Rene Carroll. “We love how Tamara’s piece features the power and beauty of the Washougal River.”

Dinius was inspired to create “The Swimming Hole” by visits to the Washougal River with her husband, young daughters and Jack, their Black Labrador.

“They had a special spot where they enjoyed throwing sticks for the dog and rambling over the rocks along the river,” Dinius said. “For me, the Washougal River Road during the summer is magical. The dappled sun comes through the leaves of the trees lined along the river road and I am lost in my surroundings.”

The event will also feature a raffle and silent auction for works of art donated by participating artists.

“A goal of the festival is to raise funds to bring more public art to our city,” said WACA board member Chuck Carpenter. “The raffle and silent auction help us to do that. We appreciate the generosity of our festival artists for their donations and the participation of festival attendees to purchase tickets and bid generously on these wonderful and unique items.”

WACA encourages visitors to discover works of public art by using the WACA art map (washougalarts.org/local-art/), which provides locations, artists name and the year installed for more than 50 installations around town. Maps will also be available at the festival.

Artists taking part in the 2022 Washougal Art Festival include:

• Jean Blatner (watercolor and acrylic)
• Richard Britschgi (lapidary)
• Heidi Cardoza (wildlife photography)
• Tamara Dinus (mixed media)
• Chrissie Forbes (found object robot art and oil painting)
• Suzanne Grover (pastel, watercolor and acrylic)
• Robin Guderian (mixed media, paper mache, paper clay and found items)
• Charlene Hale (fused/enameled glass)
• Christina Lee (acrylic)
• Travis Lee (mixed media on wood panel)
• Beck Lipp (wood), Toni McCarthy (jewelry)
• Diane Moeglein (fused glass)
• Sandy Moore (fabric and mixed media collage)
• Spike Palmer (oil), Liz Pike (oil)
• Kyla Rae (watercolor and ink)
• Karen Reule (sterling and fine silver jewelry)
• Soraya Runckel (acrylic, watercolor, pen and ink)
• Cyndee Starr (mixed media/pen and ink)
• Hiroko Stumpf (watercolor, acrylic, mixed media)
• Tom West (acrylic, color illustrations, painted glass plaques, self-published coloring book and stationery)
• Barbara Wright (science illustration: watercolor, ink, colored pencil, graphite, acrylic and natural objects)
• Michelle Wright (epoxy)

For more information about the festival, or to learn more about this year’s featured artists, visit washougalarts.org.