Art on the Street continues a project pioneered in 2016 by the Spokane Art School. Using giant easels, we engage the community in free art making on the streets of Spokane. On eight consecutive Saturday afternoons during the summer, we will stage the event at 811 W. Garland Ave., employing a different artist mentor each week. Giant 8′ easels will be set up and covered with paper. The passing public will be encouraged to draw or paint on the blank paper.

Week 3 – Ken Spiering

Saturday, July 27, 2019

11 A.M. – 2:30 P.M.

CharKole as Paintbrush The point of a black piece of CharKole can lay down a very incisive line, commanding, piercing the white of the paper of a drawing pad.  But it is the flat of the side of the stick that paints, with broad strokes, the subtleties of value change that can quickly become volumes.  Varying pressure on one end or the other of that stick when drawn across the page, creates an authoritative illusion of form suggesting the figure, an animal, and any object bathed in light against the dark.  How about that for a spiritual anecdote?

Born in Wyoming in 1950 and now residing in the rural Palouse country of eastern Washington, Ken’s life’s work has been that of a professional artist.  Since earning a bachelor’s degree in art at Gonzaga University and a MFA from the University of Idaho, Mr. Spiering’s emphasis has always been to master the design, drawing and painting of highly credible, yet contemporary images from those richest moments in nature.  He has diversified his mediums and techniques over the years to include illustrations, watercolor and oil painting, woodblock prints and etchings, carved wood, cast bronze, concrete and steel sculptures, and especially colorful and vibrant copper enamels. 

Spiering has been published in Runner’s World, American Craft, Fine Woodworking, Sports Illustrated, Sunset Magazine, and HGTV’s Homes Across America among many others.

In 50 years of making art, Ken has come to specialize in creating artwork for public spaces and private commissions, both often in significant scale.  His work can be seen from North Pole, AK to North Miami Beach, FL, including pieces in Fairbanks, Juneau, Anchorage, and Kodiak, AK; Spokane, Vancouver, Auburn, and Yakima, WA; and Great Falls MT.  He has shown work in Nishinomiya, Japan, State Capitol in Olympia WA, LaGrange GA, and has a purchase award in watercolor painting from the Plemmons Collection of Contemporary Art, Appalachian State University in Boone NC.  He is represented in at least 50 corporate collections across the country.

Art on the Street is made possible by a grant from the Spokane Arts Grant Awards (SAGA).