Welcome New Artist Counsel Langley

Ptarmigan Arts Gallery is delighted to introduce Counsel Langley. She works with metal as well as mixed media and enamel that includes jewelry and paintings. She is very creative using many and varied materials. She has done such an exceptional job in presenting her biography that it is shared in part below to give you an idea of her many faceted artistic work and outlook:

“I grew up among sailors and shipwrights, carpenters and foundry workers, seamstresses and sail makers—people with strong traditional skills, deep respect for materials, and connection to place—all of them poets and artists and singers of shanties. Their influence played a large part in my choice to study metalsmithing, earning my BFA from Massachusetts College of Art & Design. The rigor of metalwork enhanced a natural love for detail and surface treatment and helped to train a steady hand (not so natural).  My mixed media painting remains rooted in a metalsmith’s approach to making art, while being fueled by story, intuition, music, and awe. And, flowing the other direction, working in vitreous glass and fine metals brings my early training together with a decades long exploration in painting, drawing, and collage—with an added dose of pleasure gained from participation in ancient processes and traditions using enduring, gorgeous materials.

“My work has been widely exhibited nationally–venues including the Museum of Northwest Art, The Breath and the Clay Gallery, Roq La Rue, PUB Gallery at Peninsula College in the lower-48, and Alaskan galleries such as the International Gallery of Contemporary Art in Anchorage and The Bear Gallery in Fairbanks.  Some of my professional experience includes two decades in art education, service on the public arts commission in Port Townsend, WA, and curation in collaboration with galleries. I live and work with my family in Homer. We have been here since 2020 and we’ve run our commercial fishing operation in Alaskan waters for decades.”

Mixed Media:  “My mixed media technique incorporates acrylic paint, graphite, ink, and various found materials with my own manipulated photography (often using photographs of a work in progress, flipped, repeated, resized and printed back into the physical to use in the work), generous amounts of glitter, paper, and various found materials.”

Enamel Statement:  “Enameling is literally the fusing of two of my favorite materials, metal and glass. The rich color, depth, play of light and surfaces of enameling, as well as its ancient roots, grips my attention and provides endless possibilities. I use a wide range of enameling techniques, with a special focus on cloisonné–a process in which an image is developed by building cells defined with flat wire (I use copper and fine silver). These cells are filled with thin layers of kiln-fused glass.”

Counsel Langley has her artwork on display and all are invited to view her creative talents using metal, mixed media and enamel.  You are in for a treat!