Longtime peninsula artist prepares for open studio tours

Published 9:00 am Wednesday, November 24, 2021

The recipe for Sue Raymond is simple. “Clay is such a magic thing!”

The potter holds a doctoral degree and years of experience in the field. She loves nothing more than taking four steps outside her art gallery, cranking open the door to her studio and settling in to create whimsical characters.

She’s also eager to pass on her passion through teaching. Her mission is to encourage fledgling artists to take creative risks. She owns Bay Avenue Gallery in Ocean Park, Washington, and offers several classes throughout the year.

One weekday afternoon, Raymond’s class had officially ended, but the studio was far from empty.

In a cramped corner just inside the door, John Forder remained, hunched over a spinning potter’s wheel. The retired truck driver appeared in the zone, hands coaxing moist clay upward to become a vase.

Raymond managed to simultaneously commend the zeal with which Forder has embraced his new craft while not overtly supervising.

“It is amazing to me when the light bulb turns on,” Raymond said. “This makes me very happy — this makes me really tick.”

For her own project, Raymond used a tiny sharp blade to slice triangles of purple-brown flat clay and pinch them into inch-long clam ornaments.

“The clay really speaks to me,” Raymond said, as she poked in spherical eyes, intentionally making one larger than the other for a cheeky look.

“I love what I do so much — it makes me happy,” she said, explaining the importance of endorphins in the brain. “It is good for your mind if you can be creative. I am nicer. I sleep better.”

Learning

Raymond is 70 years old. She earned a drawing and education degree in Michigan, then taught in a one-room schoolhouse, an American Indian reservation and a school with ongoing violence issues. After 15 years teaching other subjects, she switched to art for another 20 years.

Despite rich credentials, her own education continues.

“I can learn from everybody. I love learning from other potters,” she said, alluding to the communal inevitability of the craft. That’s because big kilns — like Astoria’s dragon kiln — aren’t constantly fired up.

“Potters learned in community,” she added. “They ate together and made pots for food. Painters used to do the same until they started selling paint in tubes and they could go solo.”

‘Fun’

Sherry Bosch of Seaview frequents Bay Avenue Gallery, eager to be part of artistic community in the space.

“I think it’s just a drive people have,” she said. She explored her creativity first by tole painting, a traditional western European craft of decorated household items. “A ‘gateway drug,’” Raymond interjected, first to giggles from all around the room that became knowing nods.

Bosch has always sought creative outlets and has taken classes to broaden her skills. She prefers acrylic paints because they dry faster and are not quite as messy as oils.

“I think it’s ‘an addiction,’ because it’s not for the money, that’s for sure,” she teased when asked to explain her drive. “It’s ego. I make enough to pay for my materials. I could sit around and eat bon-bons. Painting is more fun!”

Her varied pieces in the Bay Avenue Gallery include painted beach scenes, decorated coasters and tiles and ocean-themed art drawn on synthetic Yupo paper using alcohol ink. One is titled “Watching My Pet Octopus.”

She learned to draw with alcohol ink on the peninsula. “I took a class at the library and I was hooked on it,” she said.

‘Energy’

Raymond will be taking part in the Peninsula Arts Association fall open studio tour this weekend, displaying her own art, but promoting others with equal vigor. Some 50 artists’ pieces are on display at her gallery at 1406 Bay Ave., including some expressionist acrylic landscape scenes painted by her former business partner, Bette Lu Krause, who is a co-chair of the tour.

Both women delight in the proliferation of artists on the Long Beach Peninsula. Raymond says the scenic, less populated and slower-paced area lures writers and chefs seeking a contrasting vibe from Portland or other cities.

“There is a different energy than there is in the city,” she said. “Some artists need to be away from the city and tone it down so they can be who they are meant to be.”