Remembering Fishtown Art and Nature on the Skagit River Story by Lorraine Wilde
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as retreats from Seattle’s bustling city life. Over the next two decades the pair came and went between Seattle and La Conner—and around the world. Anderson settled in the La Conner area permanently in the 50s. A 1953 Life Magazine article explains that they were mystics because “their work embodies a mystical feeling La Conner was once home to a rustic toward life and the uniartists’ colony, Fishtown, verse.” They combined where creatives sought the natural world of the solitude and spirithe U.S. Pacific Coast tual connection to the with the influence of wildlife, misty mornings their travels and studand broad sunsets along ies of Arabic, Japanese, the mighty Skagit River. Chinese and Buddhist From the 1960s to the art and culture, creat80s these artists built a ing an art form that beunique camaraderie—a came distinctive of the communit y—whose Northwest. style and aesthetic went La Conner already on to influence and had vacationers and shape the work of other tourists, but the presartists throughout the ence of Anderson and Pacific Northwest and Graves—and those they around the world. befriended—helped the Although Fishtown Annual photo taken of Skagit Valley Barn Shows artists in 1995. Middle row includes Bud is no more, La Conner Anderson (center in hat), Clayton James (far right in glasses), show host Lavone Newell-Reim (at local community develop a deeper appreciation for and Skagit Valley are Anderson’s right elbow), and Maggie Wilder (left of Newell-Reim). Photo by Cathy Stevens art and a greater accepstill home to a thriving tance of eccentricity. Modern Art. The fourth Mystic, Guy arts community full of talent and sophisThat openness and sophistication Anderson grew up as a friend of Graves tication that belies the small town feel. gradually fostered a new generation of in Edmonds, WA. northwest artists and attracted others In 1936 Graves and Anderson began The Four Mystics & the Northwest to La Conner, including painter and taking road trips across the country to School of Modern Art sculptor Clayton James and Barbara paint. Although Interstate 5 did not yet The “Big Four” or the Four Mystics Straker James in the 50s. Mexicanexist, the pair followed the road north of first met in the bustling 1930s Seattle art American farm worker and painter Jesus Seattle, eventually meandering through scene. They would eventually become Guillén and best-selling novelist Tom downtown La Conner. known as the founders of the Northwest Robbins (Another Roadside Attraction) Graves and Anderson rented primiSchool of modern art. followed in the early 60s. Out-of-town tive houses and cabins in La Conner
f you’re a fan of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, you might have passed through charming La Conner, WA. At first glance, you might think it’s little more than a tourist stop. But that’s where you’d be very, very wrong.
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The heartbeat of Cascadia
Painter Mark Tobey was a faculty member at Seattle’s Cornish School of the Arts. His friend and fellow painter Kenneth Callahan was curator of paintings at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) for 16 years. Morris Graves—a student of Tobey’s—won SAM’s top prize at the age of 23, helping him later sell 45 paintings at New York’s Museum of
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