© Sandy Finkenberg
Art is meditation, says William Duke who runs a Life Drawing class at Streamside Yoga in Andes every Thursday night with a live nude model from 4 to 7pm. Charge is $10 to pay the model and there is usually some serious regular talent at this event, like Sandy Finkenberg, Peter Mayer and William Duke, Steve Burnett or Gary Mayer. Continue reading
Photo courtesy of Laura Sue King
This week at The Painters Gallery in Fleischmanns starting Monday July 17th at 1pm for two weeks, a community goldleafing project begins, hosted by Laura Sue King called The Gilding Bee. No reservations are needed. You can turn up at The Painters on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1pm to 5pm for the next two weeks. The project will culminate in an exhibition on July 30th.
Laura will provide the gold leaf and found ceramic, glass and metal objects, but you are welcome to bring your own. Other materials that are gold leaf friendly are plastic, wood and paper. It’s preferable if the object fits in the palm of your hand as the gold is real and we want to make sure there’s enough for all. Participants will be able to take their object home with them.
This is a chance to make everyday items into something exceptional with members of the community: a symbol of the importance of friendship and the significance of art, to put on the mantle piece. It could be a rock, pebble, small pot, or bottle.
The Painters Gallery, 1109 Main Street, Fleischmanns, NY 12430. Suggested donation of $5 will be waived for those who cannot pay.
The Gilding Bee is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Grant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Roxbury Arts Group. Sponsored by the MARK Project.
© J.N. Urbanski
Amy Masters and Ted Sheridan share an elegant and softly lit studio in Arvkille, which they had built as an addition onto their Catskills home three years ago. This winter will be the third winter they’ve worked in it. Warmly inviting, the studio is decorated in muted tones, covered in art and filled with books and trinkets collected over the years. Winter is a time for thought and meditation, especially when there’s a foot or two of snow accumulated outside and your studio is the warmest part of the house, like Masters’ is.
On Saturday October 8th from 6pm to 8pm, Rachel’s Framing and Fine Art will show a selection of striking metal sculptures and watercolors by Steve Burnett. 68 Main Street, Delhi, NY 13757. The exhibition will be up from October 8th to October 29th.
© J.N. Urbanski
Saturday Cider Pressing: The Hubbell Family Cider Mill on Route 30 in Halcotsville, which has been pressing apples since 1878, opens its doors to the public on October 1st and every Saturday in October. The press will start promptly at **12.30pm***, so please be on time. I will be interviewing Burr Hubbell and Andrew on WIOX Radio on October 3rd at 9am to discuss the history of the Catskills apple and farming in the region. Hubbell Family Farm, 46124 State Highway 30, Margaretville, NY 12455.
***The time for the cider pressing has moved forward to 12.30pm from the originally stated 11am.***
Pony Palooza at Rosemary Farm: A pony party at the horse sanctuary with games, food, music, and ponys. There will be demonstrations with the horses; local vendors with special offerings, pumpkins and corn; horseshoes, coloring and a chance to meet, pet and maybe even hug your favorite RF horse. Tickets are $7.50 in advance, $10 at the door, with limited admission. (Note that the Tack Sale is outside the ticketed area, you may come and shop for free). Rosemary Farm Horse Sanctuary, 1646 Roses Brook Road, South Kortright, NY 13842.
© J.N. Urbanski
The 13th Annual Lark in the Park run by the Catskill Center, a non-profit devoted to conservation and development in the Catskills, begins on October 1st and runs to October 10th. The event offers hiking, paddling, cycling, fishing, nature walks and lectures as well as cultural and educational events throughout the entire Catskill region.
And, finally, an artist’s reception on October 1st from 1pm to 3pm in Margaretville – see below for details:
© Linda Lariar
The LongYear Gallery has been showing the works of Linda Lariar, Catskills artist, since July 16th. Linda is part of the East Branch of the Delaware Plein Air Group. Her opening reception will be July 23rd, 3pm to 6pm.
LongYear Gallery
First Floor Rear, 785 Main Street, Margaretville NY 12455
Gallery Hours: Sat 10am-5pm, Fri-Sun-Mon 11am-4pm
845-576-3270
A high of 72F, breezy and sunny with rolling clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
© J.N. Urbanski
The East Branch of the Delaware Plein Air Group have their opening reception on Saturday July 2nd at the Commons Building, 785 Main Street in Margaretville, New York. The exhibition will be up until July 31st.
Writers in the Mountains, The Roxbury General and “community friends” have arranged an installation called “Raining Poetry” in Roxbury, New York, tomorrow morning. It’s poetry written on the pavement. It’s invisible though, so you have to throw some water on it to reveal the beauty. Watering cans will be set up so you can wet the sidewalk and watch the poetry appear.
The Painters Gallery on Main Street in Fleischmanns is hosting an opening on Saturday July 2nd from 3.30pm – 6pm called Weather Reports at Sea, an installation with multiple projections by Tona Wilson.
Woodstock Farm Sanctuary’s 9th Annual July Jamboree takes place on Sunday July 3rd from 11am – 4pm. Award-winning veggie food trucks and booths, live music, vegan-themed tattoos done on-site by the artists from Gristle Tattoo in Brooklyn, kids’ activities including face-painting, a bouncy castle, water slide, and more! Bestselling author Terry Hope Romero will also be presenting around her new cookbook, “Protein Ninja”. Spend the day with family and friends and meet over 300 friendly rescued cows, pigs, goats, turkeys and more while benefiting our rescue, shelter and outreach work for farmed animals.
There will be a free sanctuary shuttle for this event departing hourly from the New Paltz Trailways bus station.
© J.N. Urbanski
Dotted around the Catskills through the warmer months this year, in leafy nooks and floral crannies, on (disused) train tracks and atop mountains, you’ll find Plein Air painters at their easels from dawn to dusk. The East Branch of the Delaware River Plein Air Group meet every Tuesday and yesterday they were painting on the curated grounds of The Blackbird Inn in Halcotsville, possible the most picturesque hamlet in the Catskills. There were patches of vivid red poppies; fresh mullein glistening with essential oils, getting ready to start their journey upwards like cornstalks from a double set of train tracks; kayaks laid out on the shore of Lake Wawaka were waiting for visitors from far and wide to Susan’s Pleasant Pheasant Farm.
© J.N. Urbanski
What brought you to the Catskills?
We (Brian and his partner, Brian Clyne) had an apartment in the city and I had the studio for 20-odd years in Williamsburg in Brooklyn. We both grew up on Long Island, so we grew up close to the water but for whatever reason, we both had an affinity for the mountains. One summer – I think it was about the year 2000 – we had enough friends up here that we could spend two or three weeks up here as vagabonds, throughout the Catskills. We went to different regions, but this region in Delaware County was very appealing to us. There was something about the topography, the landscape and the history of all this that suited us very well.
© J.N. Urbanski 4/9/16 1.30pm
The Roxbury Arts Group is partnering with Fleischmanns First on this year’s Fleischmanns First Maple Festival 2016. They have curated an exhibit, Maple on Main, which will be located at 1053 Main Street in Fleischmanns. The Opening Reception for this exhibit is this Saturday, April 2nd from 4-6pm. The exhibit will be open throughout this two-day festival, April 2nd and 3rd.
This multi-media exhibit, celebrating everything Maple, includes work by Sharon Suess, Alix Travis, Jenny Neal, Dan Williams, Nancy McShane, Emilie Rigby, Solveig Comer, Laura Sue King, Miguel Martinez-Riddle, John Virga, Michelle Sidrane, Joseph Muehl, Dora Chambers, Robin White, and Andes Central School students Emily Andersen, Katie Edelson, Rylee Burton, Hunter Collins, Destiny Weaver, Stephanie Gaydos, Christian Bauer, Rachel Masterson, and Lila Green.
The exhibition will be a short stroll from The Painters Gallery on Main Street, featuring Project Topoi, “an experiment in using images rather than words to discuss ideas” that includes a 26 minute video from contributors. The Gallery will be open from 12pm to 4pm.
© J.N. Urbanski
Local Catskills’ artist Alix Travis invites everyone to pop into her new winter studio in Margaretville for a cup of tea and to watch her work. In the gallery you can view her latest exhibition entitled “Family Friends Celebration and Holiday Colors”, which consists of gorgeous works of oil on canvas, watercolor and collage on the subject of relationships, warmth, brilliant color and the shared values of the holiday season and all year round
the Commons Gallery, the Commons, 785 Main Street, Margaretville, NY; December 3, 2015 through March 31, 2016. Open Saturdays from noon – 4pm, and any day when you see the lights on.
© J.N. Urbanski
William Duke and Madonna Badger, owners of the gorgeous Willow Drey Farm in Andes, New York, are keen to make use of their beautiful barn between weddings and events. The idea is to create a space for artists to gather, collaborate, cogitate, create and exhibit in an inspirational environment. From 1pm to 4pm tomorrow, Saturday November 14th, for their first group show Wide Open Art Exhibit, the public is invited to come and view watercolors, oils, wooden sculptures and tiny scenes of glass forest sprites inside acorns (pictured below by Michael Pereira. The above chandelier was made in one night by William Duke and artist Peter Mayer (who painted the colorful, smiling Avatar below) and they’re calling it “post-apocalyptic modernism”. There’ll be watercolorist on site painting small works outside if it’s not too cold (your humble writer). Join us.
Fleischmanns, in upstate New York is having an art fair on Saturday August 15th. There have been two galleries in the village for years, The Painters and Zoom, but this is the first annual art fair where you’ll find art on the street: a street art fair. Please come and support Catskills artists, especially the one in the yellow sombrero, from 11am to 3pm.
The second and final day of the Arkville Roxbury Margaretville Art Tour wherein more than 20 artists showed their work and/or opened their studio to the public. Today’s highlights were Oneida Hammond, fine artist, who showed at the Halcott Grange on Main Street in Halcotsville and Alix Travis who has a studio in the hamlet.
Barn Door by Oneida Hammond, Watercolor
It was worth making the trip just to peruse Oneida’s sketch pad and her Mexican travelogue.
Oneida Hammond’s Travel Sketchbooks
And, of course, there was an array of public art that’s on show year round:
Mark Pilato’s 911 Memorial in Halcotsville
Rust in Peace on Route 38 between Route 30 and Arkville, Lynn Johnson
Lisbeth Firmin
Highlights in the Margaretville area: the EBDR Plein Air Painters’ group exhibition at the Commons Gallery, Lisbeth Firmin and Robert Axelrod. Robert’s stunning landscapes are on show at the Longyear Gallery. Lisbeth has opened her studio upstairs in the Commons Building to visitors today and will continue tomorrow. Her New York City scenes are lushly gorgeous and her studio is also reminiscent of a New York City painter’s studio with its warmly inviting office nook. It’s somewhere you’ll want to park yourself for a while, with a frosty beverage, and just soak up the atmosphere.
Lisbeth Firmin’s Studio
Robert Axelrod
A new pop-up show, The Urge Unchecked at the Commons in Margaretville had its reception last night and there are some beautiful pieces in there ranging widely in both size and price. The art is installed in the small gallery in the right window of the Commons building and in the back in the former Home Goods Store.
A favorite is Elizabeth Firmin’s “Old Man Sleeping” (below). Well worth a visit, the show is up for a month.
The Urge Unchecked at The Commons
785 Main Street
Margaretville, NY 12455
© J.N. Urbanski
The tireless Alix Travis, our fearless leader, organizer of the East Branch of the Delaware River Plein Air Painters’ group has organized a group exhibition for us in July at the Commons Gallery in Margaretville, upstate New York. The reception is Friday 3rd July from 3pm to 5pm. Come and see a selection of our work, which was hung this morning.
The Commons Gallery
785 Main Street
Margaretville, NY 12455
Reception: July 3rd, 2015 3pm to 5pm