Timothy Haslet’s painting “Deception Pass for Folkwood” is the featured artwork for the 2023 Festival Poster! Here are some thoughts he shared about this painting process.

This is a view from my favorite hike around Deception Pass: the Lighthouse Trail. When I seriously began my artistic pursuit about ten years ago, I painted this view with a secondary color scheme (green-orange-purple). I returned to this same point after ten years to create another painting, and it was a marvel to see all aspects of the lifecycle of the vegetation depicted (some trees larger, some diseased) and to also see and remember all that had remained the same. I very much enjoy the challenge of painting the structure of buildings and rocks, and have a great affinity toward our native plants.

This is my third painting of this scene in the last year, using a new technique that I have developed over the last six months: an initial layer of fluorescent acrylic, followed by layers of my familiar oil paint. I began using acrylic as a base layer out of necessity during “en plein air” painting competitions, as I prefer to work with a colored ground and needed it to dry fast. After a time, I playfully asked myself, “how bright can I go?” and gave neon colors a try. The brilliant (pun intended) aspect about working with these brightest of colors is how they glow from underneath the layers, and even onto the inside frame of the finished piece. These intense initial colors are “tamed” in a sense by neutral and soft complimentary colors in a way that adds nuance and depth to a piece. And then, of course, I’ll add my signature angles and blurred edges to create movement within the piece. More than one viewer has seriously asked me if the paintings are backlit in some manner.

Colors for this piece began with fluorescent blue acrylic followed by deep Prussian blue oil paint, and then the buttery yellows, violet and greens and rusty transparent iron oxide followed lastly by cheerful true yellow highlights. Natasha Renner of FolkWood Co commissioned this piece, and I believe it compliments the beautiful wood grains, deft lines and minimalist strength of her aesthetic.

-Timothy Haslet