Peonies featured at new shows for First Friday

With the Homer Peony Festival this month, flowers abound in shows for July. At Fireweed Gallery, peony farmer and painter Gerri Martin shows her vivid oil paintings. At Grace Ridge Brewing, artist Britni Siekaniec’s peony painting is displayed not just on the walls, but also on the label for Grace Ridge’s Imperial White beer made just for the peony festival. Sharing the gallery space at the brewery, artist Jennifer DePesa also shows art inspired by the flora and fauna of Alaska.

Returning this month for First Friday is the Dean Family, with new work at their Creative Fires Studio on Waterman Road off East End Road. They show new work in sculpture, prints and carved panels.

Indigenous artist Linda Infante Lyons shows her icon imagery in which she aspires to “recover and elevate the beliefs of Alaska Native people as equal to those of the Western world.” See her exhibit at Bunnell Street Arts Center.

At the Homer Council on the Arts, Tim Troll shows paintings of the landscapes of Bristol Bay and Southwest Alaska. Other new work includes jewelry by Jessie Snyder at the Art Shop Gallery and wildlife paintings by Turea “Midge” Grice at Ptarmigan Arts.

Art Shop Gallery

202 W. Pioneer Ave.

Here & There, jewelry by Jessie Snyder

5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception

Artist Jessie Snyder’s “Here & There” is a collection of jewelry made using Alaska sand NS glacier silt, blended with gemstones, shells and other minerals. Of her work, she writes, “My family and I travel around Alaska to collect the sand/silt — by all modes of transportation! Together we paddled a canoe to Portage Glacier beach, flew to Kodiak Island and hiked to many other rivers and glaciers!”

For the show, she makes jewelry with Alaska gold flakes and nuggets, blended with sand from Homer. These unique pieces will only be made for the First Friday event. There will be rings and necklaces made with the gold, Homer sand and Fool’s Gold, too. She also will show hand stamped rings with mountains, waves and our humpback whales, puffins and otters.

Bunnell Street Arts Center

106 W. Bunnell Ave.

New work by Linda Infante Lyons

5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception, with 6 p.m. artist talk. Facemasks required, with capacity limited to 50%.

“The intention of my work is to create contemporary Indigenous icon imagery, recover and elevate the beliefs of Alaska Native people as equal to those of the Western world,” Anchorage artist Linda Infante Lyons writes of her work. “My paintings of Alaska landscapes and other subjects such as seals and ice represent the connection to the environment of the subjects in these portraits.”

She writes that during the COVID-19 pandemic, she thought of places visited long ago, such as Costa Rica, the Galapagos Islands and Chile, and that her recent work reflects those places.

“Having witnessed the pain and suffering of the most vulnerable in 2020, my work may suggest the warm embrace of refuge and care,” she writes. “In all my paintings, I invite the observer to quiet the mind and consider the belief that all things, living and inanimate are instilled the light of divine energy.”

Creative Fires Studio and Dean Gallery

40374 Waterman Rd.

New work by Jeff, Ranja and M’fanwy Dean

5-7 p.m. First Friday Opening Reception

The Dean Gallery will be open for First Friday in July and features new works by Jeff, Ranja and M’fanwy Dean. The show includes Jeff Dean’s 3-foot by 6-foot heat-colored steel engraving, ‘The Way of the Mammoth,” Ranja Dean’s new giclee prints of her “Magical Moment” graphite drawing, and M’fanwy Dean’s new carved panel, ‘The White Whale.”

Facemasks are required in the gallery.

Fireweed Gallery

475 E. Pioneer Ave.

Peonies: Alaska’s Floral Gems, oil paintings by Gerri Martin

5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception

Fireweed Gallery presents “Peonies: Alaska’s Floral Gems,” oil paintings by peony farmer and Homer artist Gerri Martin. With the Homer Peony Festival happening in July, and a large peony farming industry in the area, July is the perfect time to show Martin’s peony paintings. Gerri and Sean Martin have been growing peonies at their Diamond Ridge land for eight years. For Martin, peonies are fun to paint, and in the off season between fishing and farming, she paints. Painting recreates the pleasure in the long dark winter months when she can no longer smell or see peonies in her home.

Grace Ridge Brewery

3388 B. Street off Ocean Drive

New work by Britni Siekaniec and Jennifer DePesa

5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception

Grace Ridge Brewing shows two artists this month, Britni Siekaniec and Jennifer DePesa. Siekaniec’s peony painting will be on the label for the Imperial White beer made especially for the 2021 Homer Peony Festival. This beer will go on sale July 2 for First Friday. Her oil paintings are primarily composed of Alaska wildlife as subjects, as well as peonies, in impasto and alla prima styles.

Jen DePesa lives in Anchor Point and works in Homer. She paints in different mediums, and focuses on flora, fauna, land and seascapes. Vibrant colors are also a focus of her work, interpreting the natural world in saturated hues and shades. A student of art for over 20 years, DePesa also loves to experiment with new mediums. One recent example of this is painting with pigments she creates using natural materials found locally, such as seashells, clay and ash.

Homer Council on the Arts

355 W. Pioneer Ave.

Waters of Bristol Bay, paintings by Tim Troll

5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception

Tim Troll’s “Waters of Bristol Bay” is inspired by and depicts his 21-year vocation in land and water conservation efforts through the Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust that he helped found in 2000. Since its inception, the Land Trust has helped secure conservation easements on nearly 37,000 acres of salmon habitat and water level reservations for fish in five major river systems.

Troll writes, “While not an avid practitioner of either, I have both commercial and sport fished in the waters of Bristol Bay, and, when I lived in Dillingham, enjoyed subsistence fishing on the Nushagak River with my family. The work I do as an artist is largely influenced by my work in conservation and my unexplainable fascination with the history and cultures of Southwest Alaska. … It is easy to become enamored of Bristol Bay with its rich history, vast landscapes, long sunsets, clean waters, abundant wildlife and ancient indigenous cultures. These paintings are but one expression of my good fortune to have been granted the opportunity to experience this country and share it with my then young family. My deepest hope is that the images portrayed in these paintings never become a record of something lost.”

All proceeds will go to the Pedro Bay Rivers Conservation Project of the Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust.

Ptarmigan Arts Back Room Gallery

471 E. Pioneer Ave.

New work by Turea “Midge” Grice

5-8 p.m. First Friday Opening Reception

Turea “Midge” Grice shows her work in a pop-up show from 10 a.m to 8 p.m. Friday, with a reception from 5-8 p.m., and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. She is a self taught artist who specializes in wildlife, pet portraits and children’s portraits.

Of her work, she writes, “I attribute my love for wildlife from my growing up in North West Montana amidst Flathead Lake and Glacier National Park, and living 25 years in Alaska. I was able to dabble with my grandfather’s pastels as a child and now that I have retired am able to put more time into my art. Nature has given us so much beauty. How can I not enjoy putting it on paper?”

Pratt Museum & Park

3779 Bartlett St.

4-6 p.m, First Friday reception

Enjoy the live music outside, weather permitting. Refreshments and light snacks are provided. Explore the museum for free and get a first glance at its most current special exhibit. Summer is in full swing and the peonies are in full bloom. The peony festival begins on July 9. Kick it off with the Pratt with yard games, including bocce ball, corn hole and croquet to get you in the Fourth of July spirit.

M’fanwy Dean’s new carved panel, “The White Whale,” is on exhibit Friday, July 2, 2021, at the Dean Gallery near Homer, Alaska. (Photo provided)

Tim Troll’s painting, “Kulik Spires: Wood River Lakes,” is part of his show at the Homer Council on the Arts opening Friday, July 2, 2021, at the gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photo provided)

Tim Troll’s painting, “Flat Island: Lake Iliamna,” is part of his show at the Homer Council on the Arts opening Friday, July 2, 2021, at the gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photo provided)

Linda Infante-Lyons’ “Camo” is part of her exhibit opening Friday, July 2, 2021, at Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer, Alaska. (Photo provided)

Jessie Snyder’s rings are part of her jewelry exhibit opening Friday, July 2, 2021, at the Art Shop Gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photo provided)

This painting is from Gerri Martin’s exhibit, “Peonies: Alaska’s Floral Gems,” opening Friday, July 2, 2021, at Fireweed Gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photo provided)

Turea “Midge” Grice’s art is shown in her pop-up exhibit at Ptarmigan Arts showing Friday, July 2, and Saturday, July 3, at Ptarmigan Arts Gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photo provided)

Brtini Siekaniec’s peony painting is part of an exhibit opening Friday, July 2, 2021, at Grace Ridge Brewing in Homer, Alaska. It also will be on the label for Grace Ridge’s Imperial White beer made especially for the 2021 Homer Peony Festival.(Photo provided)