Rob Schouten Gallery opens Timothy Haslet exhibition in Langley

A bright underpainting gives Timothy Haslet’s landscapes a pulse that is hard to miss in a small island gallery, and that is exactly what makes his new show at Rob Schouten Gallery worth a stop in Langley right now. The exhibition, I’ve Been There!, opened with a reception Saturday during Langley’s First Saturday Art Walk and runs through June 1.

Rob Schouten Gallery and Sculpture Garden is at 101 Anthes Avenue, at the corner of First Street and Anthes Avenue, in the historic bank building that has anchored the space since the gallery was established in 2008. The gallery says it showcases more than 40 Northwest and Whidbey Island artists, while Visit Langley describes it as representing more than 30, a reminder of how central the space has become to the town’s arts economy.

Haslet’s work stands out because of how he builds it. He often starts with a neon acrylic base layer and then paints over it in oils, a process that creates bright and muted color moments in the same image. The result is not simply a landscape painted in ordinary tones; it is a landscape with an energized glow and an added sense of depth, the kind of image that can change as a viewer moves closer to the canvas.

Rob Schouten Gallery says Haslet works both in the studio and at times plein-air, and that direct observation shows in images that feel rooted in real places rather than invented scenery. Haslet has said his paintings can feel like sharing the location of a secret beach or site, a fitting description for work that suggests memory, place and discovery without forcing a single interpretation on the viewer.

The timing also gives the exhibition a built-in audience. Langley’s First Saturday Art Walk brings galleries together on the first Saturday of each month from 5 to 7 p.m., and the chamber says those openings often include wine, hors d’oeuvres and sometimes live music. In a downtown where art, tourism and local identity overlap, Haslet’s glowing landscapes add another reason for visitors to linger.

The show also fits a broader strand in Haslet’s work on Whidbey Island, where landscape painting has been shaped by local debate and by questions about what island life looks and feels like. Haslet once framed that tension with a simple question: “What would a picture of the best of both worlds look like?” That question hangs quietly over this exhibition, where familiar terrain is rendered with a light that feels anything but ordinary.