Brush on the Bluff | Friends of the Bluff

What is Brush on the Bluff?

Brush on the Bluff is a free, family-friendly event that celebrates art's deep roots in nature. On May 18th, dozens of professional local artists will set up their easels on the bluff and draw inspiration from the natural beauty around them. The public is encouraged to walk the trail, meet the artists, and observe their work.

Greenplay Northwest will host several art workshops for kids at Polly Judd Park throughout the day. There will also be food vendors and non-profit info booths set up throughout the park.

After the event, the artists' completed paintings will be displayed in a gallery and auctioned off online. The proceeds of the auction support art-related community projects, Friends of the Bluff's wildfire reduction efforts, and the artists themselves.

Check out the video recap from 2023's event!

Want to Be a Part of This Year's Event?

Sponsors

If your business would like to learn more about the benefits of sponsoring this highly-popular community event on the lower South Hill, you can do so by clicking the button below.

Learn More Here

Volunteers

The event completely relies on dedicated volunteers! If you'd like to spend a portion of the event helping us out behind the scenes, please fill out the volunteer form below.

Vendors

If you run a non-profit organization, food truck, or local business and want to set up a booth at the event, please fill out the application below.

Vendors Apply Here

Event Details

Watch Artists Paint the Bluff's Scenery

Dozens of professional local artists will be spaced out along the bluff (all within half a mile of Polly Judd Park) to paint the scenery around them. Friends of the Bluff will provide maps to their locations so visitors can take a short stroll and observe the artists in action.

Community Art Project by the Botanical Alchemists

Our co-hosts, The Botanical Alchemists, will be hosting a large community art project near Polly Judd Park that all attendees are encouraged to contribute to as well as a kid's nature bracelet craft.

Art Workshops for Kids at Polly Judd

Greenplay Northwest (an outdoor early education center located at the base of the bluff) will be on hand to lead nature-themed art activities for kids of all ages all day. In the past these activities have included painting rocks, a floral bookmark craft, making flags, sidewalk chalk, nature bracelets, and more.

Food & Drinks

Feast World Kitchen brings delicious global cuisine to Spokane while supporting and empowering our former refugees and immigrants, helping to weave them into the fabric of our civic life. We will also have a snack booth for those looking for something on the lighter side.

What does this event support?

Brush on the Bluff is completely free to the public, but donations are greatly appreciated and help ensure that we're able to continue the event in the future. The proceeds of this event are split between three groups. The artists receive 50% of whatever their artwork earns during the auction. The remaining proceeds are split between the event organizers, Friends of the Bluff and The Botanical Alchemists. You can learn more about how the money will be used below.

Friends of the Bluff's Projects

Goat Grazing Events
200 goats visit the bluff to eat the dry brush and invasive species that help wildfires spread quickly.

Lop and Scatter Events
Trained volunteers remove low-hanging limbs and thin out densely forested areas.

Heavy Machinery Rentals
For some work, a chipper or other heavy-duty equipment must be rented.

The Botanical Alchemist's Projects

Sarah Edwards and Ava Barany of the Botanical Alchemists will be offering a three-part, seasonal, free-to-the-public Community Nature Art Workshop Series, seeking to engage people of all ages in Spokane. This workshop series will give participants the opportunity to explore the amazing botanical variety of beautiful Spokane and use it to create ephemeral art.

There is also something magical for the broader community in finding one of these artworks unexpectedly. It brings about a sense of awe and wonder—something so many people long for. Prior to each of the three outdoor events, Ava and Sarah will visit the park location with a team of volunteers to clean up any trash and non-nature items.

At each session, participants will create a personal artwork and then join in the creation of a large community collaborative project. Individual artworks will range in size from a few inches to a few feet, while the collaborative projects will reach 7-10 feet across. The works will then be left for the public to discover in their wanderings. A gallery show documenting the workshops, artwork, and the public’s role in creating the pieces will culminate the series.

Learn more and donate directly to their project by clicking the button below.

Visit GoFundMe

This Year's Artists

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Melissa Isaacson Dingfield

From the time I learned they existed, I wanted to be a professional artist. I graduated with a BA in Studio Art in 2000, but life had other plans for me, including a wonderful family life. Nearly 20 years later I began painting again, first in gouache and then more recently in oil. As a rather new transplant to Spokane I am actively finding ways to build connections in the local art community. My art focuses on storytelling, with a painting style that is more structured than impressionist art but more painterly than realism. To me, success in a painting happens when others share their own stories of a place after viewing the piece. The artwork then transcends my own experience and is something we experience together.

Oriana Sage

Oriana Sage is a visual artist who specializes in ink drawings and vibrant oil paintings that celebrate the intricacies and wildness of nature while simultaneously seeking to illuminate the deep and unseen treasures of the soul. She is fascinated by the interactions of light bursting through shadow, the two-dimensional emerging into animated form, and color conveying feeling and vitality. Some of Oriana's favorite conceptual themes are resistance and surrender, death as an avenue to life, and the small and mundane being a metaphor for the transcendent.

Andrea Parrish

For as long as I remember, I haven’t had a “mind’s eye.” Called aphantasia, it means I am unable to visualize anything in my mind. Instead, I take pictures of everything. However, when hand surgery meant that holding my beloved SLR camera for long periods of time wasn’t a possibility, a friend challenged me to pick up a paintbrush instead. What has emerged - planets, space, and and alien landscapes - has become an adventure into what my mind’s eye might have created for me, if it could.

Instagram @tinytall

LR Montgomery

LR Montgomery creates original oil, impressionistic landscapes paintings of places people love in the Northwest. His paintings bring the ambiance and memories of your outdoor experiences into homes, work places and recreational abodes. LR Montgomery’s works are found in the collections of corporations, private individuals, environmental groups, medical centers, museums, and educational institutions throughout the USA, Europe, Russia, China, Mexico, Canada, Africa and Japan. He is a bit of a rascal.

Aimee Croteau

Aimee Croteau is a colored pencil artist and graduate from the Studio Art program at Eastern Washington University. She derives much of her inspiration from nature and loves to draw animals. She often uses an airbrush to paint her backgrounds, giving her drawings a softer feel.

Melissa Scott Lewis

Melissa Scott Lewis grew up in Spirit Lake, Idaho and now resides in Greenacres, Washington with her husband and 2 year old son. Since she could hold a crayon, Melissa has been creating her masterpieces. The passion for art and creating something with her own mind and hands never diminished. Today she creates beautiful watercolor landscapes and paintings of nature. Inspired by the beautiful Pacific Northeast and her travels. Her work brings on a sense of calm and tranquility that she feels when exploring or simply existing in her surroundings.

Stacie Boyer

Stacie Boyer is a mixed media and mural artist with a focus on public art installations. She also creates sculptures in various mediums and has her own traveling paint party business called Perennial Thrift.

Kelley Hudson

Kelley “Kel” Hudson is an artist and photographer living and working in Spokane, Washington and Copenhagen, Denmark. Kel began life as a painter and evolved into a world-renowned artist with her photos and paintings being published and shown in the Netherlands, India, Poland, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Sweden and Norway. A citizen of the world, Kel has made her home in many places but none so far like Spokane, the community that granted her substantial funding to create “The Spokane Coloring Book.” This locally produced, self-published coloring book is filled with 30 hand drawn images and is completely funded by the citizens of Spokane.

Jaisy Hanlon

A native of the Pacific Northwest, I am inspired by all things animal and botanical. I like to create romanticized environments that showcase nature’s creatures. My work includes mixed media and installation works for museums in Hawaii, New York, California, Colorado and Washington.

Jorden Heidal

I am a self taught visual artist currently based in Spokane, WA. My work primarily focuses on bold abstract designs using bright colors with acrylic paint, pastels, spray paint, and paint pens. I’m here to tell a story. Each color, each design, and each brush stroke are an expression of my emotion and feeling. Often depicting my personal journey, I aim to make each piece its own experience for both myself and my audience. My work is heavily inspired by the world and nature I surround myself with.

Cinda Rodgers

Cinda Rodgers has called Spokane her home for over 28 years but was born and raised on a ranch in Southern Oregon. She works fulltime but in her free time Cinda is creating a new life with her art. Watercolors have been a favorite since she was 16, but during the pandemic she discovered a new medium by incorporating ink illustrations into her artwork. Cinda took the challenge to broaden her artistic approach to relieve the stress of 2020 and has been working with the medium ever since. She tries to look at nature and the world around her and bring her own unique style to each piece and share her positivity with others.

Jimmie Allen

I fell in love with painting 4 years ago and consider myself an amateur enthusiast. Painting began at a time in my life when I realized the need to heal from some traumatic events in my past. Art has been an avenue for self healing. I utilize acrylics mostly with mixed media, watercolor, pen, and pencil. Creating each paintings unique color pallet is my favorite aspect of painting.

Wakan Zion Burrows

Brandy Seistrup

The work of Spokane-based artist, Brandy Seistrup of Opal Fox Fine Art, is known for its bold yet calming use of color. It's her connection to the natural world that inspires the work. Movement that mimics the unpredictable lines found in nature; lines that are never straightforward; movement that can't be controlled. Reminding us to let go, trust how we feel, and see the beauty in the abstract.

Velda Wilson

Granite Falls, Washington in 2000 saw our small town get flushed with excitement by incorporating a fund raiser into our yearly Art in the Park event...for public toilets in our little park. Operating under the moniker Raedrele, my contribution was "Flowers seated beneath the heart of the Mountains", we even made it into Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Working in multiple mediums saw me as an Arts and Craft Teacher, for all ages, skills and disabilities and a member of the Greater Marysville Artists Guild, garnering commissions locally, nationwide and in other countries. The Leakey Foundation holds a copy of my work, "Lucy", created at the Seattle Science Center during the exhibit, having been the only Artist on the North American Tour permitted to do so.

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Katey Mandley

I love painting and the magical experience of making art. I often feel like I am in the eye of a hurricane while creating. As someone who has enjoyed trail running on the Bluff, I hope that my painting will be an iconic image to enjoy.

Nikki Gamon

Nikki Gamon is a self-taught mixed media artist and eastern Washington native. She delights in color and loves to paint whimsical adventures. Nikki works primarily in acrylics and watercolors, mixing in many different mark-making tools. Previously a quilt artist, Nikki played with mixed media painting for years before committing to developing her skills and style during the pandemic. She now has a daily painting practice (assisted by her studio cats, Bobby and Sark) and sells her work on Etsy.

Rui Xue

My name is Rui (Ray) Xue. I am an accomplished oil painter who specializes in portraits, landscapes and animals. My work emphasizes realism. I have done some great custom pieces for individuals, as well as, for local businesses. My intention is to memorialize precious moments of peoples’ lives with a media that is more substantial than a photo. I also help businesses in the community strengthen their brand with custom statement pieces.

Love of both nature and family has been the main inspiration for my art. I reside in Spokane, Washington, where I make the daily walk to my studio. My work is showcased at local galleries and businesses. In 2022, I placed 2nd at the Lilac Festival Art Show, and took the Bronze Award for the Camelback Gallery’s International “Paint My Pet” and “Figure” competitions.

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Nicole Potter

I am a stained glass artist, using the traditional Tiffany methods to create glass art with a funky, modern twist. I work heavily with salvaged, scrap, and reclaimed glass to turn what is broken into something beautiful. I am a trash artist: a lover of broken things, someone who cherishes the discarded, the forgotten, the irregular, and the imperfect. I am here to gather up the broken bits, clean them off, and piece them into beauty. Each piece of art that I make is about moving from brokenness into wholeness.

My work is light and often whimsical, and it doesn’t hesitate to poke fun at itself. I’m inspired by the patterns found in nature (like Fibonacci spirals, honeycombs, and morel mushrooms), and enjoy making representations of them in glass. While much of my inspiration is from the loveliness of the natural world around us, I also delve into pop culture themes, exploring the dichotomy of representing silly objects (like dumpster fires and pizza slices) in such a rigid and traditionally serious media of stained glass.

Maggie Schmidt

Maggie Schmidt is an intuitive artist who works in a multitude of mediums, but favors acrylic on canvas. Her creations are often bright and surreal imagery. Her work has been featured at Elliot's Urban Kitchen, and you can find a mural she painted inside Kismet.

Jennifer Griffith

I am an artist, educator, and lifelong learner. My art practice addresses the deep structures of unity on earth between all living things. For me, the making of art is not only a practice, but also a service: a deconstruction of current knowledge systems and Indigenous Knowledge Systems sustaining and protecting. Thus, I seek to question the prioritization of alternate imaginative realms that have been suppressed, conquered, and rendered voiceless through the hierarchical preference for the rational and thoughtless advancement resisting proven sustainable systems

Steffany Latronica

I am a human being that stands in awe of creation. Watching life grow and develop from darkness to light never ceases to fascinate me. So as an artist I seek to reflect the beauty that emerges from the challenges in life. And to create art that speaks a message of Light.

https://www.facebook.com/steffany.latronicajones?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Instagram: @promiseharmony_art

Maeve Griffith

Hi! My name is Maeve Griffith. I'm a former USAF officer and retired Spokane fire captain.

I love to paint, write and perform. I guess the one thing all of these activities have in common is my longing to tell you a story. All are a collaboration with you, the viewer, the readier, the audience member, in this storytelling.

Jennifer Batey

Growing up in a small town in idaho, I was always in love with art, reading about art, researching art, and making art. However, I wasn't exposed to art as we are today. So I bought artbooks. Any artist that I came across, whether I liked them or not, I read about them. I'd like to say, I was a prolific teen artist selling my art at local fairs and getting commissions to create murals. I was so busy making art and doing exactly what I wanted, that I never considered going to art school. I have regrets about that, but honestly would be doing the same thing today even with a degree. In my twenties I backpacked across europe. I went to every museum and cathedral, drawing everywhere I went. Murals and art were everywhere. This experience has stayed with me, it was inspiration for a lifetime. Standing underneath Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling, I knew I wanted to make art for the rest of my life. Thrity years later, I am still making art! I have painted in private homes, and businesses, and in public spaces all across the Pacific Northwest. A milestone is having painted for a local pediatric group for over twenty years, painting over 60 murals in three different cities. I take great joy in knowing that my artwork has brought comfort to all those children who have seen my walls.

Rena Martin

I am a retired Army combat medic who works through many of my trauma experiences through my art. I am also the mother of 3 awesome kids and have been married to my best friend for 23 years. My favorite mediums are printmaking mixed media and painting canvases. I was born and raised in South Carolina and being in the military have lived in countless places around the country. I draw a lot of my inspiration from these varied locations and have loved getting to know the Palouse area since moving here in 2020.

Facebook.com/renamartinstudios

instagram.com/rena_martin_studios/

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