In the San Juan Islands’ Sculpture Park, one-year-old Taj Howe stretches to touch “Palm Tango,” a stainless steel sculpture masterminded by sculptor Anthony Howe. Photograph by Michael Melford

 

San Juan Islands Links

In print we take you on a whale watching jaunt and visits to local hot spots. Here an expert shares shopping secrets.

Orcas Island Pottery (366 Old Pottery Road, outside Eastsound; +1 360 376 2813), founded in 1945, inaugurated the retail art trade. Today’s operators are third-generation descendants of the second owner, Julia Crandall, who bought it in 1953. The pottery here is funky and uncomplicated.

Dazzling pottery, paintings, and metalworks are abundant in the San Juan Islands. At Syd Exton's Orcas Island Pottery, these intricately designed bowls sell from U.S. $55 to $125. Photograph by Michael Melford

Crow Valley Pottery (Horseshoe Highway, across from Orcas Island Golf Course; +1 360 376 4260) is a craft-and gift-filled gallery on the main highway, with fairly sophisticated (and pricey) work that is often quite elegant.

Anthony Howe’s astonishing metalworks shift and whirl in the wind at his gallery located just outside Eastsound. Call for an appointment at +1 360 376 2945.

Artworks is a cooperative gallery in the Olga Café building (at the end of Olga Road; +1 360 376 4408). Its offerings range from remarkable, and remarkably expensive (fireplace tools for U.S. $5,000!), forgeworks to homespun oven mitts. If you can’t afford the art, try a heady bowl of soup at the savory café.

Friday Harbor’s Waterworks (Spring Street at Argyle; +1 360 378 3060) is the most upscale gallery in the islands, offering superlative, international-class paintings; you’ll have to call your financial planner before you buy anything here. But it’s great for acquisitive dreaming.

Down the street, Island Studios (270 Spring Street; +1 360 378 6550) offers down-home and down-priced crafts and arts, ranging from fine art to jewelry to stained glass, all by local artists.

Just above the waterfront, Arctic Raven Gallery (One Front Street; +1 360 378 3433) has a generous selection of art by Northwest Coast natives. It’s all expensive, and virtually none of it’s from the San Juans.

—Eric Lucas

Eric Lucas lives in a meadow on Vashon Island, outside Seattle, Washington. He is the author of Hidden British Columbia and co-author of Hidden Washington.