Stephenson Cellars has added an art gallery with local art and handcrafted fine pottery to its Spokane Street tasting room. The “A” Gallery is curated by local artists Lila Witt Locati  and Cynthia Hatch as a rotating showcase for local art.

July’s featured artists are Corbi Copeland, Erik Andrew, Cynthia Hatch and Lila Witt Locati. The public is invited to July’s artist reception on Friday, July 15 from 6pm-9pm.

 

Corbi Copeland is a 29 year old self proclaimed Jane-of-all-trades who lives and works in the Walla Walla Valley. As a Reiki practitioner at Akasha Natural Healing Corbi enjoys helping people be more comfortable and relaxed in their bodies. As an artist she hopes to touch peoples’ hearts and spirits with her unique and whimsical mixed media creations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cynthia Hatch first took painting classes at WWCC after turning 50 and now divides her free time three ways:  her six chickens, motorcycles, and now painting.   She has found new inspiration after visiting the Picasso Exhibition in Seattle last fall and  has painted her self portrait in the Picasso style.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Erik Andrew is a self-taught artist who has eschewed formal training in favor of exploring his own rich, strange artistic world. This exploration has taken many forms: from photography, designing and building furniture, to music and songwriting, his main passions before he found painting. The spirit of jazz improvisation has informed his development as a painter; Andrew empathizes with Thelonious Monk, the jazz innovator who said that when he finished a piece, he’d step back and chuckle at what he’d done.

 

 

Gallery curator and resident artist Lila Witt Locati paints and sculps. “Impressionism was a wonderful period for experiments in color and self expression during the period Edison was inventing the light bulb.  Mary Cassatt would have been someone I would love to have had coffee with.  I am enjoying what wine can do for art here in Walla Walla.  It is becoming the NW “Sausalito, CA”.  This painting is from an old photo Norman Adams had of his grandfather, Adolph Schwartz here on Second St. in Walla Walla.”

 

 

 

 

Also sharing the tasting room space is Casa Girasol with an array of handcrafted pottery from Mexico in contemporary styling and colors.

 

Stephenson Cellars is  one of Walla Walla’s “least-known, though most interesting (wine) boutiques in town,” wrote writer Paul Gregutt in “Washington Wines & Wineries, The Essential Guide.” While winemaker Dave Stephenson has been the guiding wine influence for several local labels for more than a decade, his own label, Stephenson Cellars represents his personal winemaking vision, where he “accentuates what’s edgy” with his vineyard-driven wines. For more information and to order Dave’s wines, visit Stephenson Cellars online or at the tasting room at 15 S Spokane Street.