Unclad - The Fine Art of the Figure

Gayle, Patti, and Sue celebrate at the Wine Tasting

After 24 hours of drawing at the marathon, artists donated drawings for a silent auction held at the annual Wine Tasting event at Unclad. Hundreds of visitors attended the event and enjoyed a wonderful selection of wines provided by Stanwood’s QFC. Live music by Michael Gotz made the evening very special.

That night we raised nearly $4000 for the Amercan Cancer Society! Thank you to all who participated!

The gallery has been packed with artists drawing from live models since noon today (Friday). It’s our first 24-hour life drawing marathon and everyone is having a good time while they raise money for cancer research.

Artists Draw for Life

“We’re having a lot of fun” says Tim Taylor of Ballard. “It’s fantastic … there’s lots of energy in the room,” added Janet Hamilton of Everett.

Artists have traveled from Bellingham, Renton, Seattle, Whidbey Island, and Everett to participate in the drawing marathon. Some are experienced professionals and others are students from the local high school.

Loren Smedberg from Monroe says, “I’m here to draw and hopefully sell one of my drawings to raise money for cancer research.”

You can help support the marathon by donating to the American Cancer Society through our online donation page.

“It’s a lot more fun than walking 60 miles,” added Darlene Schmidt Burt from Seattle.

Unclad is making a big impact on the cover of the March 2009 issue of Art Access. Distributed to galleries and museums throughout the greater Puget Sound area, Art Access is a monthly publication listing art openings and events in the region. They’re available in time for Seattle’s First Thursday art walk in Pioneer Square and cover galleries from Portland to Bellingham.

This month features Sara Zin’s “Nude II” oil painting on the cover which makes a wonderful attention-grabber. Inside on the contents page you’ll find Sandy Haight’s “Knee Up” watercolor and details about the what, when, and where of the UNCLAD 2009 show in Stanwood.

You can pick up a copy at your local gallery in the Puget Sound region. Congratulations to the featured artists!

There’s a great article written by Rosanne Cohn about the UNCLAD show and our Life Drawing Marathon in the March issue of Entertainment News NW. This monthly publication is based in Bellingham, WA and covers arts and entertainment venues in Whatcom and Skagit counties. 

We’re happy to be featured this month! Check out page 25 of the March issue: http://www.ennw.info/ennwmar09.pdf

We’re very excited to announce a new event designed to raise money for the American Cancer Society: A 24-hour Life Drawing Marathon is planned for March 20-21 at Gallery by the Bay in Stanwood during the UNCLAD 2009 show.

Instead of running or walking, the participants in this marathon will DRAW for Life! We have an impressive line-up of artists who have signed on to help make the marathon a success: Tom Jensen, Liz Hamlin, Jules Anslow, Nikki Wheeler, Judy Kilian, Ned Mueller and Michael Magrath have all agreed to lead a three-hour session of drawing from a live model.

Many special events and themes are planned for the 24-hour marathon, including a candlelight session from 9 pm to midnight and a pancake breakfast for the 6 am session.

Stay tuned for more information about the life drawing marathon and how you can help us with this important cause!

A few facts and figures about this year’s show.

• The juried show features works by 105 artists from across the United States and Canada.
• Of the 105 artists in the show, half of them are new to Unclad this year!
• One of our artists lives in Denmark
• One of our artists is Italian and currently lives in Toronto
• Two of our artists are brothers

Stay tuned for more information about our artists and a preview of the show…