Vashon Island Visual Artists’ annual Holiday Studio Tour began last weekend and will continue again on Saturday and Sunday, boasting 44 studios and galleries representing more than 150 island artists on the tour.

Where to begin, or where to end if you already began following the map to studio stops last week? And where to return, even if you went last weekend?

Well, I suggest visiting the talented artists inhabiting studios at the Beall Greenhouses, a King County historical site that over 109 years became the home to the nation’s largest grower of roses and orchids, The Harrington-Beall Greenhouse Company.

The company was established in 1888 and closed in 1989 when its operations moved to Bogata, Colombia, but reminders of the once-thriving enterprise still have a ghostly presence on the site, as if to whisper wistful truths about the fleeting nature of so many human endeavors.

The property is now privately owned, but for many years now, artists have occupied studios on the site. It is their work, now, that blooms at the Beall Greenhouses.

This year’s Studio Tour stops at the Greenhouses include Stray Cat Wood Works, Quartermaster Press, and Jennifer Hawke Studios.

Quartermaster Press boasts etchings, linocuts, monoprints, collages and cards by Lisa Guy and Christina Nichols, celebrating nature: mushrooms, flowers, trees, birds and blue skies and water are their subjects, masterfully rendered.

At Stray Cat Wood Works, islander Will Dacus offers stunning hand-turned vessels in wood — each designed to capture the unique swirls, stripes, nooks and crannies of the wood.

I found myself lingering longest at Jennifer Hawke Studios, lost in wonder at all I experienced there.

Hawke, an artist of wide-ranging skills and deep sensitivities, has in recent years been seen on Vashon with her partner in art-making, Mary McGinnis, chalking ceremonial works of great beauty — “Flower of Life” sacred geometry patterns that suddenly appear and then fade in local intersections and parking lots. Hawke and McGinnis have created these intricate circles for celebrations including Islewilde, First Fridays, Pride Week, and other occasions.

Hawke’s studio, nestled amid the entropic and haunted remains of other still-standing but skeletal Beall greenhouses, is a rambling and evocative warren of rooms she has lovingly reclaimed and refurbished throughout her eight years in residence there.

The studio is stuffed with curios, old books, ephemera, a vintage popcorn maker, and a working woodstove that fills the rooms with warmth.

There, visitors can find Hawke’s beautiful holiday wreaths, fashioned from flowers, ferns and branches collected from her own and others’ gardens, assemblages that breathe new meaning into contemplative found objects, and her meticulous prints and watercolors — many painted on found maps she has delicately patterned with flowering geometry. Brilliantly rendered hummingbirds, octopuses, kingfishers, herons, and harbor seals dwell where the lines of the sacred geometry meet the map.

Hawke has invited three other artists who create remarkable work to show their work in her studio, as well.

McGinnis is there, of course, with a collection of fantastical sculptural works depicting otherworldly mushrooms that — wait for it — light up with the click of a secret switch.

Rachel LordKenaga’s vibrant, color-slashed paintings fill another room. They include works of portraiture; canvases probing the mysteries of a tarot deck, and other more abstract works where color becomes the whole story.

Monica Gripman rounds out the circle, with beautifully crafted ceramics, made to hold moss, sedum and other succulents. Some of Gripman’s older works are also on display: Look up, and you’ll see whimsical felted ballerina mice made with German glass eyes, local sheep’s wool, vintage trim, silk satin and ribbon, and horsehair. They conjure magic, as does everything else about Hawke’s studio and the work that is offered there.

Find Stray Cat Wood Works, Quartermaster Press, and Jennifer Hawke Studios at 18531 Beall Rd. For more information and an interactive studio tour map, visit vivartists.com.

(Left to right) Artists Monica Gripman, Rachel LordKenaga, Mary McGinnis (with studio dog Mitsi on her lap) and Jennifer Hawke, at Hawke’s studio. (Tom Hughes photo)

Mary McGinnis, with her magical artwork depicting mushrooms. (Elizabeth Shepherd photo)

Monica Gripman’s felted ballerina mice dance above her ceramic sculptures made to hold moss and succulents. (Tom Hughes photo)

Monica Gripman’s felted ballerina mice dance above her ceramic sculptures made to hold moss and succulents. (Tom Hughes photo)

Rachel LordKenaga’s portrait of a stern man looks down on her smiling face during the studio tour. (Tom Hughes photo)

Lisa Guy (left) and Christina Nichols, at Quartermaster Press. (Tom Hughes photo)