BAILEY’S CORNER — The place reminds one of ice-cold Cokes in the bottle, penny candy and bare feet on the front porch.
Bailey’s Corner Store is a bustling convenience store busy with drive-by bikers, neighborhood regulars and island vacationers. But the newest feature to the circa 1852 buildings, that sit at the corner of Cultus Bay and Jewett roads in Clinton, is the gallery of studio artists who call themselves “Artists in Action.” They work out of the store’s former auto shop.
It’s the Saturday Art Show at Bailey’s Corner and store owners Adam and Amber Jackson are happy to have them. As new owners of the store that was previously owned by Adam Jackson’s family, the gallery is just one feature on a list of ideas for the future, which also includes a barbecue hutch and brewhouse.
The Saturday Art Show, too, has its own plans to grow.
Artist and gallery organizer Susan Jensen said the number of artists who have joined the every Saturday art show and demonstration has grown with each week since it began in April, going from four to 11 artists in two months.
“We’re really starting to look like a gallery,” Jensen said.
“We’re learning how to show, how to set up, how to hang. We talk about art and let people know about it,” she added. “And the people who say, ‘I’ve always wanted to do art,’ can come here and try it.”
There is very little risk in taking the plunge to show artwork at the Saturday Art Show since there are no fees, no commissions and no commitment necessary to come every week.
“The only requirement is that the artists have to stay and show their own work and bring something to demo,” Jensen said, as she sat busily drawing with pastels at her table, which also displayed her moonsnail sculptures, folded books and encaustics.
“It’s been a great way to learn to hang and display and sell our art, too, for those of us who are new to this.”
It’s also an attractive alternative to the studio tours which can become too expensive for some artists. A walk around the place revealed a wide variety of artisans.
“I’ve been priced out of the Whidbey Open Studio Tour,” said Steve Marts, a Greenbank photographer and computer-savvy manipulator of photographs.
“This was the first year I had to drop out. I really enjoyed it, but I just couldn’t afford it,” he said.
So Marts has turned his focus to regional artwalks, such as those in Kirkland and Renton, and to the Saturday Art Show at Bailey’s Corner.
Helping out on the display front is Langley United Methodist Church, which donated the panels and pedestals on which to hang and show the art. Another donor provided three glass cases with lights.
But the show would not be possible without the generosity of glassblower, metalsmith and sculptor Paul Petersen, who has been housed in the Bailey’s Corner Store garage for more than a year.
Petersen sells his work at the Pike Place Market and uses the space as his production studio. Petersen welcomed the Saturday Art Show artists to share his space. He calls himself a sort of farmer whose goal is to make art grow. He blows his glass in the center of the garage, surrounded by the other artists.
“I like being an open door for the arts,” Petersen said.
“I like to let people have a window into what I have; into this world of creating. And I like that all this art here is inspired by everybody who is showing,” he added.
With the artists changing each week, the art runs the gamut and visitors might stumble upon demonstrations in glassblowing, sketching, folded book art, jewelry making, encaustics, weaving, painting in oil, pastel or watercolor, or any number of other mediums while passing through Bailey’s Corner.
Jewelry maker and lapidary Mark Reader had never shown his work before. He found out about the show through the South Whidbey Record and decided to go for it. Brenda Martin, too, said she might as well give it a try, and sat quietly making driftwood and sea shell sculptures at her small table.
Watercolor artist Judy Nygers is fairly new to the island and said she needed a place to show her art and was happy to find the place.
“It’s the perfect venue — friendly, accessible, and the perfect place for someone like me to get a start; an entrée into the artist’s community which is all new to me,” Nygers said.
Barbara Mearing calls herself a “retirement painter” and said the venue works for her smaller, budget-friendly paintings.
“It’s also nice to sit here with other artists and paint,” she said.
Tom Trimbath sat happily in one back corner of the garage, surrounded by his photographs and his island photographic book series, “Twelve Months at Cultus Bay,” “Twelve Months at Admiralty Head” and “Twelve Months at Deception Pass.”
Trimbath helped to organize the gallery along with Petersen and Jensen, and said his ulterior motive was to do something in his own neighborhood.
“I used to get my car worked on here and now I don’t ‘cause it’s an arts studio,” Trimbath said with some satisfaction.
“And there’s room to grow,” he added.
The final artist visited was encaustic, photography and mixed-media artist Kim Tinuviel, who was busy demonstrating how to create an encaustic mixed-media painting. Her work on display included a variety of non-traditional work — prints on stone or copper and photos mixed with encaustic.
“For me, it’s about showing, not selling,” Tinuviel said of the Saturday Art Show.
“It’s interesting to watch what people are drawn to. I’m interested in what other people respond to and in coming up with a new expression,” she said.
“I’ve finally got brave enough to express myself.”
Jensen likes to use the tag line: “We’re worth the trip,” when encouraging folks to take the drive out to Bailey’s Corner.
“Many longtime residents have never visited this part of the island, which is rather isolated and has its own beauty and a view of Cultus Bay, Admiralty Inlet and the Olympic Mountains just around the corner. It’s a lovely way to spend a Saturday — talking and creating and browsing and buying art,” she said.
The Saturday Art Show at Bailey’s Corner is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every weekend.
Email sujensen@whidbey.com for more information.
