First Friday events

Holiday shoppers looking to buy art for gifts will have a wide selection at December’s First Friday shows.

Artist Emma Teal Laukitis, founder with her sister Claire Laukitis of Salmon Sisters, has a show at Grace Ridge Brewery of her popular, sea-themed work. Bunnell Street Arts Center brings back its 10 x 10 show, where all work has to be no larger than 10 inches squared.

Popular Alaska artist Barbara Lavallee will sign and personalize books, watercolor prints and calendars at Art Shop Gallery. She also shows three new watercolor originals.

In a new venue this month at the Law Offices of Charles Evans, Kathryn Joyce will show her holiday watercolors, ready to hang and display. Proceeds benefit Skates for SPARC, a fundraiser to buy roller skates for SPARC’s roller-skating rink.

Get a jump on Friday art shows with an opening at 5 p.m. today at the Kachemak Bay Campus. Students in this semester’s art classes will show their work.

Cap off the First Friday downtown gallery tours with a trip out East End Road to the Dean Family Gallery at their farm on Waterman Road near Mile 5 East End Road. The Deans display sculptures, carved wood panels and metal prints in their new studio.

While east of town, visit The Shop for an opening of new art by Cynthia Morelli and works by studio artists Lorri Davis and Julianne Tomich.

Don’t miss other shows by painter Diane Spence-Chorman at Fireweed Gallery and sculptures by Jean Steele at Ptarmigan Arts.

Art Shop Gallery

202 W. Pioneer Ave.

New watercolor originals, paintings by Barbara Lavallee

5-7:30 p.m., First Friday

Longtime Alaska artist Barbara Lavallee shows three new watercolor originals and her 2019 calendar. She also is happy to personalize prints, books and calendars. Lavallee has been painting in Alaska since the early 1970s.

“I am people-oriented and family-oriented, and I want to paint the best of people,” she writes of her work. “Perhaps that’s idealistic, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing. It’s the way I look at life. I want to present my subjects with dignity and humor and fun and happiness.”

Bunnell Street Arts Center

106 W. Bunnell Ave.

10 x 10 members show, works by various artists

5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception; 6 p.m., artist talk

The 10 x 10 members show features 83 works by 43 Bunnell member artists at 10-by-10 inches in 2D or 10-by-10-by-10 inches in a 3D format. The show celebrates collecting with works priced to sell from $100 to $300 each. Prices on some works may drop Dec. 14. Work may be picked up for holiday gifts on Dec. 17.

Dean Family Gallery

Waterman Road off Mile 5 East End Road

New work, art by Ranja, Jeff and M’fanwy Dean

5-7:30 p.m., First Friday

Visit the newly renovated gallery space at Dean Family Farm and Art Studios with its freestanding, redwood timber frame walls. Along with Ranja’s and Jeff Dean’s bronzes, Jeff Dean’s large wall sculptures, and M’fanwy Dean’s carved panels, the show features a new line of Creative Edge Metal Prints made in the same shape as Jeff’s engraved steel and wood wall art.

Fireweed Gallery

475 E. Pioneer Ave.

Home Works, oil paintings by Dianne Spence-Chorman

5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception

“Homer Works: A Collection of Local Views,” an exhibit of oil paintings by Dianne Spence-Chorman, shows paintings for the people in Homer, the people who call the Kenai Peninsula home. When viewing this show, she said she hopes the viewer might sense a flash of recall, an imperfect memory that’s almost, but not quite identifiable — colors, seasons, native flora, something that reminds us of our local landscape and perhaps causes us to take notice once again. Through her artwork, Spence-Chorman said she wants to better understand Sydney Lawrence’s layered shapes and values, Claude Monet’s impressionist brush strokes and interplay of color, and Jim Buncak’s attention to edges, spontaneous color blending, and contagious enthusiasm.

Grace Ridge Brewery

3388 B. Street off Ocean Drive

New work by Emma Teal Laukitis

5-7:30 p.m., First Friday

With her sister, Claire Laukitis, artist and entrepreneur Emma Teal Laukitis founded Salmon Sisters, a seafood company and clothing brand inspired by their coastal heritage. Emma was raised in western Alaska, on a remote homestead called Stonewall Place. Her family moved seasonally between the Aleutians and Homer, so that Emma and her sister could attend school during the winter. Though she left Alaska to study English and art at Williams College in Massachusetts and in Italy, the sea sang her home each summer to fish with her family. Emma graduated from the University of Washington’s master’s program in design this year. Her work as a designer and artist continues to tell stories of the sea, exploring the intersection between culture and the environment. Also for First Friday, Kachemak Heritage Land Trust does a short presentation

Kachemak Bay Campus

533 E Pioneer Ave.

Student Art Showcase, art by various artists

5-6:30 p.m., Thursday Reception

The Kachemak Bay Campus of Kenai Peninsula College presents its Student Art Showcase featuring student work from this semester’s Ceramics, Drawing and Painting classes taught by artists Asia Freeman, David Pettibone and Maygen Janetta-Lotscher.

Law Offices of Charles Evans

165 E. Bunnell Ave.

Holiday watercolor, art by Kathryn Joyce

4:30-7:30 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception; 6 p.m., artist talk

Award-winning artist Kathryn Joyce shows holiday art. “She has been our serious, no-nonsense work colleague and surprises us with the whimsical characters who spring from her paint brush,” her coworkers say of Joyce’s art. Gift prints of her watercolors are ready to hang and display. All sale proceeds go to buy “Skates for SPARC” courtesy of Charles Evans and Keri-Ann Baker.

Ptarmigan Arts Back Room Gallery

471 E. Pioneer Ave.

Galactic Adventures and Other Marvels, by Jean Steeler5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception

Jean Steele, a longtime Alaska artist and member of Ptarmigan Arts, shows her copper jewelry and worked sheet copper. Her show includes small copper sculptures and copper wall hangings plus a series of paintings. A subtitle for this show could be “Feathers in Copper and Paint,” but she has a couple of surprises in store, too.

The Shop: Kachemak Bay Art Space

60388 Bear Creek Court

Reflections: The Way Forward, by Cynthia Morelli

7-9 p.m., First Friday Reception

Artist Cynthia Morelli shows her new ceramic art and other work. The opening also includes live music and refreshments and work by studio artists Lorri Davis and Julianne Tomich. Learn about upcoming winter classes, including drawing, painting, natural dyeing, collage, mosaic, leather working, textiles and more. The Shop also offers workshops for young artists, ages 6-18, in drawing, painting, sculpture and portfolio development through the Connections homeschool program.

Reach Michael Armstrong at marmstrong@homernews.com.

Emma Teal Laukitis

A design by Emma Teal Laukitis, part of her show on display at Grace Ridge Brewery in Homer, Alaska, for December 2018. (Photo provided)

A design by Emma Teal Laukitis, part of her show on display at Grace Ridge Brewery in Homer, Alaska, for December 2018. (Photo provided)

Art by Jean Steele from her show at Ptarmigan Arts in Homer, Alaska, for December 2018. (Photo provided)

A painting by Jean Steele from her show at Ptarmigan Arts in Homer, Alaska, for December 2018. (Photo provided)

Art by Barbara Lavalee from her show at Art Shop Gallery in Homer, Alaska, for December 2018. (Photo provided)

One of Jeff’s Creative Edge Metal prints, right, beside the original wall sculpture. (Photo provided)

One of Diane Spence-Chorman’s paintings on display at Fireweed Gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photo provided)

Cynthia Morelli’s “Edge Drift 3.5,” one of her works in dispaly at The Shop for First Friday, Dec. 7, 2018, at the Kachemak City, Alaska, gallery. (Photo provided)