With the 19th annual Great Falls Studios Tour on the horizon, the “number of artists joining the membership organization has increased dramatically,” said organization president Linda Jones.
The tour will take place Oct. 21-23, with several new member-artists showing art in their studios on the tour for the first time this year.
Interest in attending and participating in annual art events has surged as the CDC has rescinded COVID restrictions on group activities. Artists around the region have noticed the public’s increasing desire to be around artwork, which they attribute to a yearning for new visual stimulation after feeling cooped up for so long.
People are hungry for emotional (and physical) escape, inspiration and, sometimes, decorating ideas, organizers of the studio tour said.
Every October for the past 18 years, artists and artisans living along the winding country roads of Great Falls have opened their studio doors to the public. Visitors meet potters, printmakers, painters, jewelry makers, photographers and sculptors, all working away in their own creative habitats. The 2022 tour offers an opportunity to enjoy the work of 34 artists in 24 widely varied artist studio settings, ranging from repurposed milk and orchard houses on a centuries-old farm to a newly built contemporary loft set near a mid-century home.
New member Pamela Arent’s studio sits near a spring-fed pond that features great blue herons regularly fishing for lunch. Pamela uses a variety of mediums to create colorful works that play with patterns, layers, fluidity and form. Her pieces on paper combine ink, watercolor and drawn lines in deliberate and delicate washes, which many find reminiscent of maps.
Another new artist on the tour is Jenn Griffith, who describes her 1974 house as looking “like a cross between a Pizza Hut and a lunar landing base.” But she says that the beautiful, stained-glass domed foyer with two large studios on either side sold them on the house when they bought it a year ago. Jenn and her husband are both creative types, who love having one studio for her eclectic art (which includes painting, mosaic table making, fiber art and Ukranian psanky egg dying) and another for her musician husband.
Lead sponsors of the Studio Tour this year are TD Bank Great Falls, Brightview Assisted Living Facility in Great Falls –which will be doubling as a tour stop with artists displaying their art – and Moss Building and Design. Moss helped Parinaz Bahadori, an architect-turned-artist, rebuild her farmhouse-style home and turn a horse barn into a working studio with a large gallery area. Parinaz, who has been on the tour for several years, will be exhibiting her mixed-media paintings and demonstrating her collage technique at 4 p.m. each day.
The primary purpose of studio tour is educational. While artists will have work available for sale, the organization’s main objective is to provide a wide array of family-friendly demonstrations and hands-on experiences over the course of the thee-day event.
New member Sandi Buffie will be demonstrating metal-working and jewelry designs; Begonia Morton will teach a painting-with-wine technique; Jennifer Duncan will show how to create an accordion sketchbook; Cindy Grisdela will give live quilting demonstrations; Dorry Emmer will be leading daily garden tours; Robin Smith will help guests try their hand at throwing pottery on a wheel; Will Tuthill will offer hand-pulled printmaking demos on his antique press; and other artists will demonstrate their widely varying painting styles.
A visit to Jan Heginbotham’s recently custom-built studio will feature oil and gouache paintings, as well as bronze and plaster sculptures.
Heginbotham, who has worked as a classically trained, award-winning sculptor for 30-plus years, expanded her repertoire to include painting eight years ago. Her work straddles the line between realism and abstraction.
Always a highlight on the tour is Hidden Springs Farm. Owner Laura Nichols – a well-known local potter and founder of the Great Falls Studios – will be working on her wheel and conducting several different types of “firings,” including raku, saggar, obvara and naked raku.
On the Saturday afternoon of the tour, Great Falls Studios member Jody Grossman will be at the Farm conducting an Indigo dyeing, allowing visitors to participate with their own fabric, and Nichols’ daughter Jenny will be demonstrating her use of ink and stamps to create prints, cards and textile pieces.
Three working multi-artist studio spaces near the center of Great Falls village will be overflowing with new work and activities. The Artists’ Atelier, which has been a fixture in town for eight years, houses nine artists. The art of several other artists will be on exhibit at Artists on the Green and the Artists’ Loft, also on the Village Green.
A piece of art from each participating artist will be displayed at the Great Falls Community Library, where an “advance” peak at the work of each tour artist will be available the whole month of October.
• • • For more information, see the Website at www.greatfallsstudios.com.
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