The 16th Rock River
Studio Tour through Williamsville, South Newfane and Newfane, Vt., is
slated for Saturday and Sunday, 19 and 20 July, 10 AM to 6 PM.
People are vacationing closer to home this year – and
the 16th Rock River Studio Tour offers a quintessential Vermont summer
getaway. The tour begins
at the Old Schoolhouse in South Newfane, Vt., where tour-goers can view
samples of each artist's work, sign up for a raffle and grab a tour map
before setting out.
Anyone who has done Rock River knows the tour is different every time,
and many folks regularly plan their summer travels around the July event.
After all these years, something keeps bringing them back.
For some, it is the scenery. The breathtaking art produced in this valley
burgeons in the fertile fields of a sublime landscape. Within minutes
of beginning the tour, one may see a sunny pasture overcome with daylilies,
a cool forest fragrant with fallen hemlock needles, a 200-year-old barn
still in use on a family farm, a dirt road that winds up a steep slope
through a quaint old wood, and a covered bridge that crosses a chattery,
shimmering river. It's worth coming to Rock River just for the chance
to take the many roads less traveled by.
Others arrive from afar to catch up with favorite artists who have become
old friends.
But for most visitors, the draw of Rock River is the unique alchemy
that results when you have 15 world-class artists showing their work
within a 12-mile radius. When these artists open their homes, gardens
and studios to the public for the weekend, the experience is comfortably
intimate. Though this is a tour, participants are not treated like tourists:
everyone is invited in as a back-door neighbor. And while the tour includes
many artists whose works regularly appear in big-name galleries and museum
collections, that is not the point here. A museum visit resembles Rock
River the way a display of stuffed lions resembles a safari. The art
in its native habitat, much of it in progress, still pulses with the
ideas, emotions and other mysterious forces that originally called it
into being.
At Rock River, there is something for everyone,
from the practical to the philosophical, from the whimsical to the
political – all of
it, of course, beautiful. Tour-goers move at their own pace, savoring
old favorites, seeking new discoveries, or setting the map aside and
taking an old-fashioned country ramble.
This year's tour will feature several demonstrations – a favorite
for all ages – including raku-fired pottery with Richard Foye,
metallurgy with Rich Gillis and printmaking with Kim Hartman Colligan.
Colligan, who creates luminously expressive, multilayered prints in her
mountaintop studio, often offers a hands-on printmaking activity for
kids.
Those seeking true art that can be put to practical
use may enjoy a visit to Matthew Tell, whose show-space shimmers with
wood- and gas-fired stoneware for the home and garden. Fine cabinetmaker
Robert Cramp creates antique reproductions for the home. At Dan DeWalt's
woodworking studio this year, the artist will unveil an “Ode to the Williamsville
Hall Piano,” sculpted from pieces of the Emerson Square Grand that
graced the Hall for as long as anyone alive can remember. DeWalt will
also open the gardens at his secluded locale, and give away perennials
during the tour.
For those who are redecorating or just need to spruce up a room, the
home of Roger Sandes and Mary Welsh is a wonderful choice. Joyously colorful
paintings and paper cuts by Sandes combine elements of folk art with
references to Matisse and Picasso, while Welsh's dreamlike collages seem
to change their edges and permeability while one watches. Their home,
stunningly appointed with the couple's own work, demonstrates that even
emotionally powerful art can define a space in a comforting, homey way.
The home of photographer Christine Triebert is similarly inviting.
Visitors may choose to see all this, and then find that they have barely
skimmed the surface of Rock River.
Several mid-tour lunch options are available for
tour-goers this year, including the Newfane Café and Creamery
(a deli and gelato shop in Newfane Village) and the classic Captain
Ken's Hot Dogs (on Route 30 at Williamsville Rd.). Home-baked goods,
beverages and other light refreshments will also be available from
11 to 5 Saturday and 11 to 4 Sunday at the Williamsville Hall, on Dover
Road next to the old pink church. |
