By Luisa Loi
La Conner Community News
From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on July 18 and 19, community members can once again embark on a little journey to get to know some of the creative minds who make Skagit County the beloved arts destination it is today.
Whether you plan to binge-visit all the 11 studios in the La Conner, Swinomish and Mount Vernon areas or only have time to walk to a few, the Skagit Valley Studio Tour features art for all tastes, offering visitors plenty of opportunities to take home their favorite pieces and learn a thing or two from artists in their natural habitats.
This free self-guided tour started over two decades ago and was run by the Skagit Artists Together. In 2025, as the organization was dissolving, a group of three artists and an art business owner teamed up to carry on the tradition, which in the year since has grown from 11 to 20 artists — seasoned photographers, ceramists, mosaic glass artists, painters, book illustrators and mixed media artists with many stories to tell.
The La Conner zip code features six studios and 12 artists, including co-organizer Sarah Dalton, who will be showcasing a mix of photographs, ceramics, paintings and mixed-media pieces inspired by birds, old things and faces, and her inner solitude.
Dalton — who is also a member of the La Conner Arts Commission — said some of the artists are donating old pieces to raise funds for scholarships allowing low-income children to attend the Lincoln Theatre’s Summer Camp.
She can be found in the studio at 15676 Snee Oosh Road, on the Swinomish Reservation, where she will share the space with Charlene Hall, an artist from the Anacortes area and a second-time participant in the tour.
Hall’s artistic journey began about 40 years ago as she worked as a scenic artist and set designer, mainly for the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Today, she expresses her emotions through watercolor and gouache paintings, mostly painting outside with a group of plein aire artists, or by herself in her home studio. Her art is inspired by the forests, sea and farmland in Skagit County.
In the same studio, Mount Vernon artist Margaret Horak will showcase her colorful watercolor paintings inspired by the world around her.
Her art has been featured in various event posters and on the stage of the Pacific Northwest Opera. Her favorite piece to be featured in her sixth tour appearance is “The House on Stilts in Belize,” an homage to a colorful home she saw while touring the Central American country.
In his studio at 306 Morris St. in La Conner, photographer and outdoors adventurer Andy Porter will show his collection of photos capturing natural landscapes and the night sky.
Porter, who has over 20 years of experience and is being featured on the tour for the third time, said he is inspired by bright colors, shadows, flowers, mountains and the Milky Way.
“I hope that visiting my studio motivates people to get out there and experience the wonder for themselves,” he wrote in an email to La Conner Community News.
The love for the outdoors can also be seen in the works of Nicolette Harrington, a La Conner artist and a member of the Arts Commission. For her fourth year in the tour, visitors will see paintings, weaving art and printed cards in her studio located at 513 Myrtle Street in La Conner.
Christie Houston and Lloyd Houston — both of whom were featured in the earliest studio tours — will share a studio at 9594 Flagstaff Lane on the Swinomish Reservation..
Christie, who lives in La Conner, is a mixed media artist who likes to create with paper, dyes and textiles, finding inspiration through the process of making art. Sometimes, she wrote in an email, a single word is all it takes to spark her creativity.
Her favorite piece, a collagraph titled “Tulipia” that depicts orange tulips, will be available for viewing at the tour, where she said visitors can find plenty of unique and affordable art pieces to take home.
Roberta Gregory, who lives in Shelter Bay, is a published writer, book illustrator and comic artist who has enjoyed drawing pretty animals since she was a little girl.
“It was such a revelation as a child to know I could draw individuals or animals and “bring them to life” in a way,” she wrote in an email.
After experiencing some health issues, she is now feeling inspired again and looks forward to joining the tour for the first time.
Her studio will showcase samples of her comic book stories, copies of an illustrated book that narrate her travels with her late partner (who was also a writer), and many animal drawings.
Gregory will share the studio at 54 Sauk Place on Shelter Bay with artist Lisa Bade, another life-long artist, who participated in the 2023 and 2024 studio tours.
Bade has worked as a teaching artist and community art facilitator, and enjoys drawing, painting and building giant parade puppets. Her art is a continuous experimentation, inspired by nature, poetry and stories, as well as qualities like vulnerability, kindness and selflessness.
Bade and other participating creators expressed hope that the tour will infect visitors with the art bug.
“I hope people think, ‘I want to try that!’ and go away and start a project, start to draw or build something,” she wrote. “I hope visitors to my studio take permission to make art themselves.”
To find all the studios featured in the tour, check out the interactive map at skagitvalleystudiotour.com/new-page
Luisa Loi is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
