Art and music take over downtown Whitefish

Whitefish Gallery Nights continues Thursday, Sept. 7, from 6 to 9 p.m. in downtown Whitefish. This year’s event features 11 galleries and dozens of local artists.

Gallery Nights take place on the first Thursday of every month through Oct. 5. The evenings offer the community an opportunity to go out on the town and enjoy special guest artist features and presentations, entertainment, food, drinks and art deals and promotions.

Gallery Nights are free and open to art lovers of all ages, though parents are encouraged to be mindful of small children in galleries featuring breakable pieces.

Maps and gallery guides are available at all participating locations. For more information, visit https://whitefishgallerynights.org.

Highlights and featured artists for tonight’s event:

The Purple Pomegranate, a fine craft specialty store, is featuring work by part-time Whitefish resident Debbie Cooper during the month of September. Cooper has been creating and painting for nearly 30 years. Her love of Belize encouraged her to begin painting in the Caribbean primitive form with her main subject being Garifuna women.

Cooper’s colorful work now includes other subjects such as horses, trout, moose and owls. Caribbean art is a hybrid of cultures reflecting the cultural mix that the Atlantic trade of sugar, spices and slaves provoked. It is characterized by a tendency to overall patterning, a varied and integrated use of color, and the flatness of forms reminiscent of textile design.

Cooper has been actively involved with many community projects, including founding and directing The Caye Caulker Humane Society and Animal Clinic. Her work has also been included on billboards for Coca Cola and Belikin Belize beer bottle labels.

The opening reception will be held during Whitefish Gallery Night. Cooper’s work will be displayed during the opening and throughout the month of September.

The Purple Pomegranate, located in downtown Whitefish, features handcrafted artware from artists across the United States. Representing more than 150 American artists, the store’s eclectic offerings include jewelry, ceramics, musical instruments, turned wood, glass art, fiber art, prints and paintings.

Whitefish Pottery and Stillwater Gallery are proud to present “DotBow,” an exhibition of new work by Emily Free Wilson. Wilson has been running Free Ceramics with her husband Matt Wilson for more than 10 years; people may recognize their work as one of Whitefish Pottery’s consignment artists. Wilson’s designs are playful and colorful, inspired by Christmas lights, raindrops, river rocks and fireworks. Each of Wilson’s pots has a personality of its own. The opening reception will be held in conjunction with Whitefish Gallery Night; show will run through the month of September.

The Dick Idol Signature Gallery will be featuring master artist Paul Dykman during the Gallery Night event. Stop by and get to know Dykman and see his latest body of work. The gallery will also have live music from Nick and Rebecca Spear, along with snacks and refreshments. Wild Wings Recovery will be out front of the gallery with their newly rehabilitated raptors.

Dykman is an artist that can best be described as classically trained with the talent and ability to capture feeling. His use of light and his mastery of palette knife work make him one of the gallery’s most popular artists.

Dykman was raised in a family of professional artists in South Africa and in keeping with the Dykman tradition, he was encouraged to draw and paint from an early age. He learned his art techniques from both his father and grandfather, some of South Africa’s most prominent artists in their time. At age 13, he sold one of his first paintings at a joint exhibition with his father at the Royal Agricultural Show in South Africa.

In 1995, he and his family moved to the United States to further his artistic exposure. Dykman has made Montana his home for the past several years.

Dykman’s works have been included in the C.M. Russell Art Auction since 2006. He has been part of the Western Art week in Great Falls since 2007 with a room at the Heritage Inn “Out West Art Show” and sale.

White Apple Gallery will be debuting a show of nine new pieces by artist Robert Royhl during Whitefish Gallery Nights. The artist will be in attendance for the opening.

Royhl is a painter who has been living and working in Bozeman for the past 27 years. Born in 1949 in New York City, he grew up in Tucson, Arizona and has lived and traveled all over the West.

Widely exhibited since the early 1970s, he has shown his work in numerous galleries and museums in California, Arizona, Japan and Montana, and is currently represented by the Davis Dominguez Gallery in Tucson and White Apple Gallery in Whitefish. Royhl is also the distinguished Emeritus Professor of Art at Montana State University.

White Apple will also debut drawings from Whitefish native Alan Satterlee on the same night. Fresh off his show in Bigfork, Satterlee brings whimsical detail and vibrantly colored pen and ink drawings to life and will also be in attendance. Lastly, John Rawlings, Emeritus Professor and master sculpture, is debuting a series of mythological-based drawings. Rawlings will also be present at the opening, so it should be a wonderful evening of art and conservation.

The Walking Man Frame Shop and Gallery is featuring Judy Cockrell’s colorful and eclectic artwork in an exhibit called “Mostly Fish,” opening at the Gallery Nights event. Fine art, refreshments and live music provided by Lee Zimmerman will highlight the night.

Going to the Sun Gallery is proud to present three top women artists during Gallery Nights: Diane Whitehead from Ovando, Western color and wildlife; Virginie Baude from Tetonia, Wyoming, wolf paintings in oil; and Patricia Griffin from Pennsylvania, oils in color and black and white.

Stephen Isley Jewelry will feature artist Mya Bessette.

Bessette grew up on the shores of the Pacific Ocean in Homer, Alaska and now paints from her home studio in Bigfork, where she resides with her husband, Cody, two kids, Nevi and Lex, and their golden lab Zuma.

Bessette is a collector of moments, vistas, unique color combinations and precious memories. She transforms these elements into aesthetic stories, working primarily in acrylic, watercolor, gold leaf, and mixed media. Being self-taught, Mya is constantly observing and learning new techniques, about new mediums and fresh approaches to mixed-media painting.

Her work ranges from impressionist landscapes to gestural and fluid abstracts, and will be on display through September.

The final Whitefish Gallery Nights event of the season will be Thursday, Oct. 5, from 6 to 9 p.m.

Galleries and artists are invited to submit featured work and details to ThisWeek@dailyinterlake.com.