The 17th Rock River
Studio Tour through Williamsville, South Newfane and Newfane, Vt., is
slated for Saturday and Sunday, 18 and 19 July, 10 AM to 6 PM.
This year, fifteen artists will open their homes, studios and grounds
to visitors. A few nuggets from this year's tour:
- Photographer Christine Triebert will offer on-the-spot portrait sessions
for tour-goers. Visitors to her studio can watch the shooting process
in action, and participants will receive proofs in their e-mail inbox
after the tour. Custom prints will be made on request.
- Leonard Ragouzeos will show a new series of portrait sketches and
tool drawings in ink and will demonstrate his signature technique – using
India ink on synthetic paper to create dappled, abstract surfaces that
come together as images from a distance.
- Roger Sandes will introduce new work for children from a series developed
with the New Editions online gallery, which promotes “Art from
the Start” for kids.
- Raku artist Richard Foye will demonstrate his hands-on glazing techniques – lots
of fire and smoke for the whole family to enjoy.
- Painter Susan Jarvis will unveil Bestiary, a new series
of conceptual works including images from medieval and Renaissance
bestiaries; this is the first time pieces from her new series can be
seen on the tour.
- Lauri Richardson's memorial installation, Flags of Freedom, Costs
of War, will be on the Newfane Common for the month of July,
with more than 4000 handmade flags – one for each American
fatality in Iraq. (Visitors to Richardson's mosaic studio are welcome
to paint a flag to add to the memorial.)
- Naturalist painter Caryn King will return to the tour this year with
new, strikingly colorful bird paintings, which sing to the viewer from
found wood and other surfaces.
South Newfane, Vt. – “There is a gold vein
running through Vermont,” read a short item in the New York Times
on Sept. 5, 1873. The Times quoted the Rutland Herald's claim that “the
gold interest of Vermont will yet form an important source of revenue
to our state.”
More than 130 years later, that elusive gold vein has never been found.
Lucky, perhaps: with few natural resources to exploit on a massive scale,
Vermont remains one of the most pristine states in the U.S. So even though
gold-panning hobbyists will still plunk themselves down in the Rock River
for a muddy weekend of collecting gold flakes, travelers and residents
alike more commonly enjoy a sparkling sunset from a kayak or from a picnic
blanket on the shore.
But at least one rich resource runs deep and wide throughout Vermont,
and particularly along the gold-flecked Rock River: the arts.
In part perhaps because of the green, unspoiled landscape, Vermont seems
to attract creative people and encourage creative impulses. You
won't have to sit in the muck for hours on end and strain your eyes for
a precious flake of this glittering beauty, because it's readily available
in towns and cities and throughout the countryside – including
at the Rock River Artists Open Studio Tour.
And while you also won't get the challenge of the often fruitless search
for gold, selecting which studios to visit from among the variety of
media, styles and subject matter is its own adventure. Whether you prefer
painting or pottery, collage or sculpture, fiber arts or photography – or
something else entirely – the tour includes something for you to
enjoy.
“I recently revisited most of the studios while giving a journalist
a guided tour,” said painter and tour coordinator Roger Sandes. “He
was delighted by the quality, the variety and the ease with which each
artist presented his or her work. And I, who have seen these artists
and their work often, was inspired anew. What a great group to be a part
of.”
Beginning at the historic Old Schoolhouse building in South Newfane, tour-goers
can pick up a map and view samples of each artist's work before setting
out. Mid-tour lunch options in the area include the famous Ken's Hot Dogs
and the newly opened Newfane Café and Creamery. Light refreshments
are offered at many stops along the tour as well.
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