Freeland sculptor Lane Tompkins marks retirement with studio sale

The bronze camels, bishops and jesters Lane Tompkins has shaped over 25 years are heading to the sale table, along with his memorable portrait of his brother nicknamed Ed Head. The retirement sale turns a farewell into a last look at the work that made the Freeland sculptor a familiar part of Whidbey Island’s visual landscape.

Tompkins, 86, is offering more than 30 stone pieces in marble, limestone and alabaster during the 14th annual Freeland Art Studios Open House on Saturday, June 6, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event is free, and artists will be on hand to answer questions, explain their craft and sell work at special prices below market value.

For Tompkins, the sale is also a practical step. He has said age and health have made sculpture harder, especially as his pacemaker and back no longer cooperate with the standing, lifting and tool work the medium demands. He began carving seriously at 60, making this retirement less a conventional ending than the close of a late-blooming second career.

That career has been rooted in Freeland Art Studios, a 7,000-square-foot shared workspace in an old logging warehouse at 1660 Roberta Ave. The building houses 11 to 12 working artists in stone, bronze, metal, tile, pottery, painting and glass, and the original artists have worked there since 2004. The studio’s collaborative setup has long given stone sculptors like Tompkins a place where heavy material, specialized tools and another pair of trained hands can make the work possible.

Tompkins’ own path to sculpture began far from Whidbey. In a 2009 profile, he said he was born in Oregon, raised in Newberg and Portland, served four years in the Navy as a sonar technician, worked for Boeing and the Forest Service, and retired from the Bonneville Power Administration in 1997. After retiring from BPA, he said he discovered stone sculpture at Silver Falls State Park and joined the Northwest Stone Sculptors Association the same day.

His retirement sale also closes a chapter in the island’s broader arts history. A 2018 feature described Freeland Art Studios as a collaborative art incubator in an old lumber warehouse, and Tompkins has been part of that long-running creative ecosystem for years. For Island County, the sale is not just a clearance of inventory. It is one more chance to see a body of work that has become part of the place itself before the tools go quiet.