What do an elementary school teacher, a high school teacher, a graphic designer, an art critic, a System Engineer and Kent County Coordinator for Pets on Wheels, a businessman, Executive Secretary, an Organizational Consultant, and a Vocational Rehab Counselor, have in common? They all share a passion for art and will be on the Chestertown RiverArts 16th Annual Studio Tour for the first time, October 24-25 and October 31-November 1, 2015, bringing the total number of artists to over 50. Thanks to the continued sponsorships of the Chesapeake Bank and Trust and WYPR, RiverArts is able to continually offer support to the Kent County arts community, especially by giving new artists the chance to be recognized.
Once an elementary school teacher, Judith Gunter is now an award winning quilter. She began her journey into textile art many years ago. As with most quilters, Judi started with very basic and traditional quilting and then further developed her skills by taking classes with nationally-known instructors. Never wanting to have a quilt that was like someone else’s, she began to explore the use of color, texture, and form within her designs. Her art quilts are created through using actual strips of fabric that are stiff and can provide a dimensional factor. This results in stunning sculptural creations that are both tactile and free flowing while reflecting a minimalist design aesthetic.
Judi’s work has been part of such national juried exhibits as at the Schweinfurt Memorial Art Center in NY and the International Quilt Show in Houston. Her quilt “Trees” has been printed in Quilting Arts magazine and other articles have been published in numerous other magazines. Judi will be showing her quilts at Marti Hawkins’ home.
Howard and Mary McCoy focus on the environment, exploring nature and how we humans relate to nature in the present day and traditionally through myth, folklore and shamanism. They use primarily found natural materials and work both collaboratively, usually on large-scale outdoor sculpture, and individually on smaller pieces. Howard concentrates on sculpture, while Mary often incorporates text into her work which includes sculpture, artist’s books and mixed media using natural materials, acrylics, and pen and ink.
Howard has a BA in Art from Georgetown College and an MFA in Painting from George Washington University. Mary has a BS in Studio Art from Skidmore. Howard worked in graphic design until his retirement. Mary worked in graphic design until she became an art critic for the Washington Post and various art magazines. She continues to write for the Chestertown Spy and the Talbot Spy.
The McCoy’s studio is a converted two-story garage on their family’s farm. Designed by Peter Newlin and Associates, it has raw space downstairs that is used for working on larger sculptures and for storage. Upstairs is a light and airy space which Mary uses for creating smaller works. They currently have outdoor sculptures in Baltimore’s Robert E. Lee Park and at Adkins Arboretum where they are Resident Artists on the Arboretum’s art program and creating site-specific outdoor sculptures every other year since 1999.
Once a System Engineer and now KC Coordinator for Pets on Wheels, Nancy Montague makes the time to follow her passion for art. She has loved art since childhood when she started out sketching cartoons of various characters including Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. Her art has certainly taken a different turn since then. Over the years she developed a strong love of painting nature’s beauty, especially flowers in bloom. Currently she grows and collects flowers from her own gardens filled with multiple varieties of prize-winning tall-bearded iris. She paints and grows orchids in a sunroom designed especially for that purpose. Her favorite mediums are sketching with colored pencils and painting with acrylics. Nancy will be exhibiting her work at the home of Marti Hawkins.
Describing herself as a “cruising artist”, Christine O’Neill recently moved to Rock Hall. She works in acrylics, watercolors, and oils; her paintings reflect light and shadow with an emphasis on water, including scenes from the Bahamas as well as the Chesapeake. An award-winning artist, Christine has exhibited her work with the Annapolis Watercolor Club, the Kent Island Federation of Art, and the Annapolis Maritime Museum.
Christine has a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, a Masters in Art Education and a second Masters equivalency in Painting from Towson University. She taught art in the public schools for thirty years and also on the community college level. Currently, Christine is teaching adults at the MD Hall for the Creative Arts and at the Chesapeake Fine Arts Studio in Stevensville.
In the 90’s Christine was awarded a sabbatical under the auspices of Towson University which enabled her to sail the Caribbean and South America for 14 months accompanied by her husband, son, and dog. She created 52 paintings which were exhibited at Towson’s Horwitz Gallery for the entire theatre season. Once again, in 2006 she and her husband sailed their catamaran until 2013. They now have a private catamaran charter company available for four-hour trips, which enables Christine to continue to paint.
Once a businessman, Michael Riggin considers himself blessed that he can now work as a full-time artist. A couple of years ago Mike saw a very poorly done hanging Wine Bottle Candle at a show; it had no design and the bottoms were not smooth. “I thought I could do better. So after watching hours of YouTube videos I started trying to cut the bottoms. Well, a hundred or so broken bottles later I sought help from a true glass artist who guided me in the right direction.”
Mike currently takes old wine bottles and gives them new life. He cuts the bottoms off of them, carefully sands the bottoms, and removes the labels. Then he creates a harness or wind chime insert. The final step is to laser etch a design onto the bottle.
Mike does the bottle cutting and sanding out of his studio behind his house and the final etching in his little shop in Oyster Court, in Rock Hall. During the tour Mike will be in his studio demonstrating the cutting and sanding of the bottles and then visitors can stop by his shop to see the bottles being etched.
Paula Tarbutton’s work includes hand-knit sweaters for people and dogs, hand-knit scarves, hand-crocheted hats, and custom knitting. In addition she invented and got a copy write for a decorative suitcase tag that wraps around the handle of any suitcase thus making it easy to identify. Paula has been knitting since junior high, learning techniques from her mother. She decided to teach herself crocheting; since she considers herself a perfectionist this meant a lot of trial and error.
Though Paula was a State Vocational Rehab Counselor and then a Real Estate Appraiser, she never stopped knitting. She now does some 40 craft shows a year. She also does good deeds by knitting nearly 100 or more hats/year for low income children, especially for those of American Indian heritage.
Linda Roy Walls is a photographer and story teller. Her roots are deeply penetrated in Eastern Shore soil and this is reflected in her images. Linda has been displaying her work on canvas for about 10 years and on metal for about 6 years. Currently, she is combining reclaimed wood or vintage wood frames/objects with images on metal that are connected in some way to the wood. Most of her pieces are one-of-a-kind and can never be mass produced. She writes back stories containing slices of Eastern Shore life, an intimate glimpse in honor of being a multigenerational native which has been sparked by her interest in genealogy. For her, it is not about the technology. It is about the composition, harnessing a moment that will never reoccur, and the tender touch of life.
Though she majored in photojournalism in college, her career took a different turn; she has been a non-profit and public agency organizational consultant for the past 25 years. Nevertheless, Linda has been taking photos since 1970. She is now engaged in her career part-time so that she may spend more time on her art.
Linda’s true studio is being outside in nature or in places of historic significance to her ancestors including vast farm fields and bodies of water. Her Chestertown studio is a place where she can be surrounded by the materials that inspire her – her computer for editing photos and writing, vintage frames, reclaimed wood, old photographs, and embellishments to accent images on metal. It is also a gallery featuring her photographs and shore artifacts.
The quality of Linda’s art has been recognized in many different ways. Among them are being juried into the Easton Waterfowl Festival, voted “Peoples Choice” in the 2014 photography show at the Dorchester Center for the Arts, had a photo selected by Smithsonian Magazine as a website “Photo of the Day”, and been published on the cover of the Tidewater Times.
Many visitors return annually to take the tour. They enjoy seeing the work of artists who have participated throughout the years to see how their technique and interests have expanded. Visitors also like to see the work of award-winning artists who are rejoining the tour after several years’ absence and, naturally, they want to see the work of artists new to the tour.
For more information on the Studio Tour you can call 410-778-6300, email [email protected] or go to www.chestertownriverarts.org where you can download the tour brochure and/or stop by the gallery at 315 High Street, Suite 106 to see samples of the work by our artists and artisans on the tour throughout the month of October. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday, 11-4 and Saturday, 10-4. During the tour the gallery will be open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10-5.
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