Artist Studio Tour Promises Demonstrations, Insights and Art for Sale
Spend this weekend exploring and discovering the variety of people who call this county their artistic home.
This weekend brings a widespread opening of doors around Jefferson County, into artists’ lairs and into the creative process. The Port Townsend Artist Studio Tour, now presented by the Raw Art Collective, invites curious people to meet scores of makers in their natural environments.
The tour, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, August 21, 22 and 23, is free except for the fuel your car consumes, so ridesharing and bicycling are good ideas. Maps to the 47 tour stops, artist bios and even a studio tour app are found at https://rawartcollective.org/welcome.
How to choose which places to visit? You might focus on a particular art form, such as ceramics or photography or painting. You could do a sampling across genres, or plan a compact tour of studios in close proximity to one another.
This year, on Saturday, August 22 only, Northwind Art School at Fort Worden State Park is bringing together 12 artists, all together inside Buildings 324 and 306 at Fort Worden State Park. They’re arriving from near and far, and include printmaker and teacher Charles Spitzack of Seattle.
“I’ll be demonstrating my woodcut printing process and will have a selection of finished work on view,” Spitzack promised, adding that he’ll have his library of books on woodcut printmaking laid out for people to peruse, so they can take a broader look at the depth and history of the age-old process. Spitzack’s next woodcut workshop at Northwind Art School is “Mokuhanga and Washi: A Working Relationship” on the weekend of October 10 and 11.
Spitzack said he finds Fort Worden to be an inspirational place, set like a jewel in Port Townsend’s arts community. Connecting with people here, he said, gives him a chance to share both the process and traditions behind the work he loves.
Other artists coming to Northwind Art School this Saturday from across the Puget Sound region include sculptor John Strohbehn, digital artist Lucia Enriquez, and painters Cezanne Alexander, Fred Videon, Leslie Newman, Tabitha Blackburn and Lily Bobek. All have exhibited their work in Northwind’s Jeanette Best Gallery in downtown Port Townsend.
Author, painter and teaching artist Meg Kaczyk will be at the school too. She’s a prolific maker, known for teaching workshops for participants at all points on the creative path. Among her Northwind classes coming up are “Pacific Northwest Abstract,” a painting workshop on Sept. 12 and 13; “Paint from Poems” on Oct. 17; “Marks, Materials and Practice” on Nov. 7 and “Art Journaling for Self Care” on Dec. 11.
This weekend’s tour also includes artists’ studios and creative spaces from Port Townsend to Chimacum to Marrowstone Island. Artists will chat about their creative practices, demonstrate their techniques and sell their original work.
Tour organizer Jen Cohen noted how the event has expanded over the past three years since the collective took it on. In 2024 the studio tour was one day long, with 40 artists participating. 2026’s three-day event encompasses more than 100 artists. The studio tour app, she added, lets visitors curate their own tour experience. At https://ptstudiotour.app, there’s a downloadable map and a portal for sharing photos and entering the raffle for prizes provided by local businesses.
Whatever you’re into, leave room for serendipity this weekend and any time you’re out looking at art. You never know what you might discover. As the tour organizers say, these three days highlight the creative lives we are living together in Jefferson County.
This column was written in collaboration with Northwind Art.
Corrections: an earlier version didn't include the second location at Fort Worden
