Throughout the month of February, Bainbridge Arts & Crafts will showcase paintings by George W. Dennis (1905-1982), a longtime islander and an outspoken art advocate.

Dennis’ wife  Pauline (aka Pauli) Dennis, was a founding member of BAC. The middle section of the downtown Winslow gallery is named in her honor.

BAC will use the proceeds from the sales of his works during this special exhibition to establish a scholarship fund in honor of George and Pauline Dennis.

According to BAC, “Although George made his career as an engineer, he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in fine art, and fine art was where his heart was. In fact, he and Pauli met in an art class during their junior year at Washington State University (then Washington State College) and married in 1928.”

Painting was a lifelong love for Dennis, and the earliest watercolor in the exhibition is dated 1928.

“As a fire lookout for the U.S. Forest Service, as a photographer for a local newspaper, as a miner, and even when he was stationed on Okinawa with the Army Corps of Engineers, George had his watercolors with him,” the BAC event description reads. “And he painted on any surface that he could find. One of the pictures in the exhibition is a landscape painted on a piece of a cardboard box from Norway. Another one of his surfaces in the show has landscapes painted on both sides.”

There will be a special reception at 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6, prior to our First Friday Artist reception, in honor of this exhibition.