WILLIAMSVILLE — For art enthusiasts and lovers of the lush Vermont summer landscape, the Rock River Open Studio Tour will provide an abundance of both.
On the weekend of July 16-17, 18 artists living along the Rock River in the West River Valley will continue the annual tradition of welcoming visitors into their homes to experience their artwork in the settings that inspired it.
The tour was conceived by a core group of local artists who wanted to harness the artistic talent and natural beauty of the Rock River basin into one unique, self-guided tour.
“The vision was to bring life into the village, and it was a way for the artists to get together to offer their art to the public,” said Carol Ross.
Ross and her partner, photographer Christine Triebert, rallied artists in Newfane, South Newfane, and Williamsville to create the tour 19 years ago.
“It really has grown... It's been wonderful, I think all of us would say. It gives us a presence locally, and more importantly, people come from all over,” said collagist Mary Welsh, who was also very involved with establishing the tour along with her husband and fellow artist Roger Sandes.
The tour “helps people to see the beauty of the place that we live in, and how it influences the work that we do,” said Triebert. “My work is definitely inspired by the organic nature around me.”
Deidre Scherer, a Williamsville artist, describes the drive along the rural dirt roads between stops as a way for visitors to “clear their palette” before taking in the next artist's work.
“As you approach another work, you get a whole separate way of seeing,” she said. “Art, and the wonderful nature of Vermont, gives you the breaks and the shifts.”
The artists describe the at-home settings of the tour as much more meaningful than the impersonality of a gallery or a museum.
“To have that response come to you is magical - it's a two-way street. I feel that people are giving as much as they are asking. It's a nice exchange, having another set of eyes on the work and having the availability of the feedback,” said Scherer.
As in past years, the tour will start at the historic Old Schoolhouse in South Newfane, where visitors can see samples of the 18 artists' work before visiting the artists' homes and studios.
The wide variety of accomplished and celebrated artists include painters, sculptors, and furniture makers. These artists include sculptor Rich Gillis, painter Leonard Ragouzeos, and Richard Foye, who creates a type of pottery - raku - that was practiced in Egypt and Japan thousands of years ago.
Scherer has been involved with the Rock River Open Studio Tour for the past decade, though she has been making art her entire life.
“I talked late - I was three years old - so I was always expressing myself in other ways,” said Scherer.
Although Scherer started her artistic career painting and drawing, and looks to certain painters as inspiration, her current medium of choice is “thread on layered fabric.”
Her beautiful, intricately crafted creations of fabric and thread capture every shadow and crease on a person's face; every blemish on a pear in a still life. Scherer said she was led to using this unique medium in an unusual way.
“My kids led me there,” she said. “I was making a book out of fabric for my eldest daughter, and I got caught up in the possibilities.”
Now, Scherer depicts elders in her thread-on-fabric portraits.
“I was doing a series of tarot queens, and needed some very regal looking queens. I had a concept that they would be elders, so I went and introduced myself to a nursing home nearby, where they loved the idea [of me drawing them],” she said.
“As soon as I started, I never looked back. No more kings, no more queens, just elders. It pushed me into a richer surface and a richer psychological element,” said Scherer.
Visitors can expect to see a full-scale self-portrait that she started in December, made by cutting and sewing in front of a mirror for hours at a time.
Many of the artists on the tour are returning, but this year, there will be some fresh new faces as well.
Georgie - she goes by her first name only - has been painting for about 15 years, but this is the first time that she will be featured in the tour.
She is a plein-air painter: when she paints she is outside, on location.
“What I am interested in is capturing a sense of color in my subjects,” said Georgie.
Indeed, her paintings burst with bright, vibrant colors that breathe life and energy into even the most tranquil of landscapes.
“I am inspired by Vermont, which speaks 'paint me,'” said Georgie. “When you come into my studio, it looks like a southern Vermont tour guide. It has everything that you think Vermont would have - sugarhouses, barns, farms, the Chelsea [Royal] Diner, the Marina restaurant, the Dummerston bridge. I think it will be really fun to meet people and talk to them, and get a chance to show people my work and see what their reactions are to some of the things that I have painted.”
Georgie said she will set up an easel outside her door and do a lot of painting over the weekend, so that people can see her in action.
Art direct from the source
In these tough economic times, Ross said, artists have struggled because art is seen as “a luxury.”
But this tour gives the artists a chance to meet with potential buyers, and in turn, it gives art lovers a chance to buy direct without a middleman.
“Galleries keep 50 percent, and a lot of galleries on the edge are failing now because they can't make it in this climate,” said Foye. “Selling direct, you can sell your work for less. You can have a personal connection with the buyer.”
“I've been through other recessions, and I've seen them affect people, but art is still a need to feed the soul and support the spirit,” said Sherer. “That's what I see people doing with my work.”