Five local artists, five different mediums

Story and photos by Taylor Nichols

Even for lifelong residents of Blaine and Birch Bay, the beauty of a sunset over Drayton Harbor can still take their breath away. That natural beauty could be what draws artists to the area, or it could be what inspires the community to create. Many residents use their mind’s eye to share a little piece of themselves with the community. Here’s a look at some Blaine, Birch Bay and Semiahmoo artists behind the artwork in stores and galleries in the area.

If you’re from the area, you might recognize Sharon Swanson’s glass pendants, charms and night lights from gift shops in Whatcom County, like the Semiahmoo marina store. She also sells her artwork in shops all over the country. Her pieces were even stocked in a hospital gift shop in Israel for a time.

Swanson has always loved to create, and began working with stained glass 20 years ago.

“I was always the creative one in the family,” she said.

She made art on the side, showcasing her work in galleries while working in finance and graphic design at Visiting Nurse Personal Services. It wasn’t until about 10 years ago she took the plunge and quit her day job to focus on developing her personal business. Now, she uses stained glass techniques and melted marble and glass to create the art that fills her workshop. Her experience working with graphics comes in handy, too. She designs images around colorful inspirational sayings to incorporate into her work.

Although she no longer works with stained glass, she uses similar techniques to create jewelry and other pieces for her online and gift shop sales. Swanson said her Etsy shop, Pretty Picture Gifts, was in the top one percent for sales in active Etsy shops last month. Her work can be found at https://etsy.me/2B3AK5S.

For Birch Bay-based watercolorist Dan Sanford, painting is his tribute to pure joy. While some artists may paint to express anger or sadness, Sanford said he prefers to commemorate the scenery of things he has truly enjoyed.

Even as a kid, Sanford had a knack for art. His father was an architect, and employed Sanford as a teenager to help him draft and color plans for buildings. The experience stuck with him. Now, he loves to paint detailed landscapes, which incorporate architecture like the vibrant blue domes in Santorini, Greece with the city sprawling behind them, or the tall spires of Edinburgh’s skyline in Scotland. He still has his father’s T-square, a long stick similar to a ruler that he uses to sketch out the buildings before he paints.

He spent many years as a professor of international studies and commerce with a focus on East Asia, he said. He lived in Taiwan for a year and has traveled to China, Japan, Korea and other Asian countries many times throughout his career.

As a result, Sanford’s artistic style has some subtle Asian influences. Few of his paintings have people in them, he said, a nod to the traditional Chinese style focusing on landscapes.

“They didn’t want the human figure to be disrupting the natural beauty,” he said.

He also incorporates traditional Chines–e style in his work through color and shading.

“Chinese art is a study in contrasting darks and lights and so I try really hard to go back and forth between dark and light,” he said. “[It’s] almost like a puzzle or like a story being told from one section to another through the picture.”

Sanford’s work is often displayed at the Jansen Arts Center. Keep your eyes peeled for his signature on the bottom corner of the painting. He signs each of them with his Chinese and English names as a tribute to the influence Asian culture has on his life and art.

Thirteen years ago, Bob McDermott was working on a major project. He had been commissioned to cast in bronze the three figures nestled in the heart of downtown Blaine, overlooking Drayton Harbor. The statue was unveiled in 2006, and for the first time the public saw The Vigil, the family who will wait for generation after generation of fishermen to come home.

For McDermott, the joy in sculpting lies in the unique intersection between creating and solving a problem.

“I’m happiest when I have a problem that I haven’t quite figured out yet,” he said. This is where his formal training comes in. McDermott was an electronic technician in the Navy, and then got a job inspecting aircraft with North American Aviation. He studied industrial technology in the 1980s as well. He uses his technical knowledge to figure out the logistics of how to make the statue structurally sound.

It wasn’t until after he retired that he began to pursue art, getting a degree in fine arts at Western Washington University and then attending Scottsdale Artists’ School, where he learned to sculpt about 30 years ago. 

His love of sculptures comes from reading history books as a kid, and after careers in the Navy, North American Aviation and the Hanford Nuclear Site, he decided to devote his time to art.

His bronze sculptures can be found all over Whatcom County, including the Dirty Dan Harris and JJ Donovan sculptures in

Fairhaven.

McDermott is currently working on a statue of Henry Jansen, who was known for starting the Lynden-based transport companies and for his philanthropy in north Whatcom County. Although plans aren’t finalized, the statue will likely go near the Northwest Washington Fairgrounds in Lynden.

Once he finishes the pieces he has lined up, he says he’ll focus on another medium. He’s recently begun writing memoir-style short stories.

Creative inspiration can strike at any moment. It may be the sight of a beautiful sunset, or the stark contrast between the moon and the night sky. For Semiahmoo painter Georgia Donovan, it’s wordplay. She often has an idea for a title of a painting before she even picks up the brush. One of her most popular paintings, “Cocktails at the Crow Bar” depicts one of her favorite subjects, crows, drinking cocktails – a play on the word “crowbar.”

“I don’t do many pretty pictures,” she said. “They’re more whimsical, or they’ve got a kick to the title.” She loves to paint animals, and does around 15 to 20 personalized pet portraits per year. The portraits have found homes all over the world, including Ontario, Canada and Japan.

Donovan began painting 20 years ago.  Now that she’s retired, she can finally devote more time to painting, she said.

“It’s the most relaxing thing I can do,” she said. “Sometimes I even wonder how can I like doing something so simple, so much.”

Aside from words and phrases, Donovan is inspired by color. She looks for unique and interesting color combinations and then builds her piece around those shades.

She mostly paints with acrylics but began incorporating mixed media into her artwork a couple of years ago. She likes to use colorful origami paper in her paintings to add texture and depth and incorporate it into the background of the piece.

She’s spent the last four months preparing for the holiday season, painting dozens of smaller pieces featuring animals like butterflies, cats and flamingos on wood that can be bought as gifts. This month she’ll showcase her work at the annual Holiday Festival of the Arts hosted by Allied Arts, and the holiday boutique at the upcoming Christmas luncheon with the Semiahmoo Women’s Club.

From Renaissance murals to superhero statues, Blaine-based artist Brian Major has done it all.

Major spent his childhood at a private art school in New Hampshire. Through his training he met and created with people from all walks of life, which

he said led him to be very open-minded – a trait that allows him to experiment creatively in a way that close-minded artists can’t.

“Without art, I would be nothing,” Major said. His wife, Diane Major, added, “it’s who he is.”

Major spent many years painting Renaissance and Baroque-style pieces before branching out to express his creativity in a different way. He’s created art in a variety of styles, including 3D art incorporating circles and wall murals. He’s painted more than 1000 original works.

He’s done a number of chalk art pieces for events in the Seattle and Bellevue area, including a mural of Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus.”

“My hands were bleeding by the end of the day,” he said.

After decades of painting, Major wanted a new challenge.

“I’ve always been very driven,” he said. “My challenge is what’s the next level? What’s the next goal?”

This year he turned his creative eye to something that couples his passion for art and his love of science fiction and comic books. He’s been sculpting detailed figures of superheroes and villains.

He’s creating them both for fun and by request for the devoted comic fans of the world. Examples of his work, including paintings and sculptures, can be found at majorarts.com.