Calling all returning and new artists! Join us for the 2016 Studio ARTour – apply HERE. There is a March 15, 2016 deadline.

I’m starting to prepare my studio space for Art tourists.  All season long I set up my art fair tent and create a mini gallery at multiple art fair venues.  But at the Studio Artour, welcoming people into my working space is so much for me and fun for my audience!  Visitors will see the art making space and displays of original  jewelry for sale.

Recently, I’ve been weaving these sweet, colorful, triangular beads.  In the woven beads I combine color in interesting ways.  It’s a great way to take color risks!  The woven beads are suspended from a bit a chain to create original earrings.  See these and more-

Come on in!  See you at #16.

in studio #16!

Sue Hammes-Knopf

I’m a maker of functional stoneware pottery – plates, bowls, bakers, serving dishes and an incredible number of mugs.  I get a great deal of satisfaction when I see my pieces in use on someone’s table and my favorite is when I hear someone say one of my mugs is their “go-to” mug for their morning coffee.

Yet at nearly every sale, at least one customer while carefully cradling a piece that caught their eye will tell me they’d be too afraid to actually use such a beautiful piece of pottery every day for fear of damaging or breaking it.  Since the origin of pottery is function, it’s hard to know the source of some people’s fear to use it as an everyday dish. Maybe I can help move some people past that fear with a different perspective.

When someone buys a piece of my pottery I hope they do so because they enjoy its look, its feel or maybe as a celebration and remembrance of the day they bought it.  All are excellent reasons for adding to their collection.  If however, that piece is used, at dinner or for the morning cup of coffee the owner of the piece can re-live the reason they bought it in the first place.   That won’t happen if the piece is tucked away on a shelf or sitting in a display case collecting dust.

Maybe some people have never experienced the joy of using a handmade piece of pottery, a piece that they have selected for a very personal reason, a piece that they had a chance to talk to the artist about, a piece they can use forever, that could be and I’d like very much to change that one person at a time.

Studio number 10 features artists Julie Fakler, Dianne Lockerby, and Jillian Steger.

Julie creates vibrant original one of a kind domestic animal paintings and pet portraits. Julie paints custom ordered pet portraits ask her for details when your on the artour.

Dianne Lockerby creates one of a kind functional stoneware pieces to use on your serving table. Dianne also creates non-functional leaf masks for your walls.

Jillian Steger loves the materials and colors that she uses to make her jewelry. Hand cut stones, vibrant piece of leather, shine of silver all give Jillian great joy as she creates her jewelry. 

Stop by to view our new work, get a head start on your holiday shopping, try some yummy treats and put your name in a drawing for a gift basket.

Studio number 10 always has a great spread of treats, award winning white chicken chili, pumpkin bars, hand made candies, apple pie bars, pumpkin cookies with brown sugar frosting, mini quiches, local cheese from the Cheese Cave, and wine. 

Hello, Artour Members and Patrons!
I’m very excited this year, as I will be introducing a new line of small tabletop paintings.  I’ve always been fascinated with the miniatures the Masters made from time to time.  Their meticulous paint application and precise imagery are amazing.

  My new images are 3×3 ” up to about 4×6″ images applied on 1/2″ thick board, mostly in acrylics with a semigloss clear coat. Each comes with a prop so it stands up and is perfect for that small spot on the shelf or mantel.  Most are miniature versions of my large airbrushed skies/oceans/mountains, but extremely affordable.  I hope you come to the Artour this year and stop in to say hello and see what’s new!  There are also some plein air images of the local area no one has seen before!  See you then!
Mark Daehlin  #5 on the tour.  904 Division St.  Northfield 55057

Fred Sommers writes:

To me this season of lavish beauty breathes PRAISE. I see

the gold as it reflects pure light, far brighter than the lightest artists pigments available and it

helps me praise.

After a summer of traveling and teaching, I am enjoying time in the woods and along the streams near Northfield.

I am often in awe during the “between” seasons like these days between summer and fall when brilliantly colored leaves fill both the trees above and paths beneath our feet. When leaves are floating on water, they hold me to the earth while the reflections on the water link my thoughts upward and beyond to the heavens.

Some new paintings are still on my easel and part of the excitement of the Studio ArTour is the opportunity to see artists’ work in progress.

This is the 40^th anniversary of Somers Studio and Gallery and I look forward to more adventures to come. The building I’m working in also has an anniversary: 100 years ago the builder put his signature on one of the beams in the lowest level.

I love fall, a season of great beauty, a season of great change.  Leaves make their gradual but steady shift from the luscious greens of summertime to the warm rusts, crimsons and golds of autumn.  Apples, squash and pumpkin are ripe for the picking.  And the crisp, cool edge in the air makes for pleasant walks in the Arboretum.

A lot is going on in the studios of dozens of artists in and around Northfield as well, as painters, potters, weavers, jewelers, artists of all types prepare for the upcoming South Central Minnesota Studio ArTour.  The dates are Saturday, October 17 (10 am – 6 pm) and Sunday, Oct. 18 (11 am – 5 pm).  Several studios are open Friday evenings also, so be sure to check the website for those names at http://studioartour.com.This is an exciting year for me as I prepare for the first StudioArTour in my new Studio 105 in downtown Northfield (#18 on the StudioArTour).  It is located at 105 E. 5th Street, on the second floor of the Lampe Law Office Building (directly west of the municipal parking lot).  This new space has provided an ongoing venue to hang my watercolor paintings, as well as to teach classes.  In spring I held two watercolor workshops for intermediate watercolorists, and this fall taught both a beginners and an intermediate workshop.  The details for upcoming classes are posted on my website at http://www.kmillerwatercolors.com , as well as my Facebook page for K. Miller Watercolors.

In addition to the dozens of original paintings hanging throughout my studio, I have available hundred of greeting cards, and prints of all sizes and shapes.  You’ll find everything from florals to regional landscapes to still lifes.  The most recent pieces are several scenes of northern Minnesota painted from my many photos taken of this favorite part of our state.  Also, I’ve had a lot of fun lately painting several bird pieces, which are available in originals, prints and cards.

So please stop up during the tour.  Have a cup of coffee, browse around, ask questions!  I’ll be working on a painting or two – and there’s always paper, paints and brushes lying around for you to do a little dabbling if the spirit so moves you!!

Kathy Miller

Barbara writes:

I’ve been out collecting grasses to print on plates and trays. The colors right now are spectacular. The Indian grass is golden with little yellow flecks of flowers in the seed head. The Big Bluestem is red and indigo and green. The seed heads are red to indigo, really intense when the grass is wet. The stem is usually red and green. One piece that I found was completely red–the whole stem and the blades–which I have never seen before. You can see it in the middle of the grasses in the picture.

Studio Artour now accepting applications for the 2015 Artour! ONLINE!

Here is the link: http://goo.gl/forms/MvncOztrMO

This is the Call for Entries for the 11^th Annual Studio ArTour!

We invite you to apply to be a Studio or Guest Artist on the Tour.  NEW THIS YEAR!!!! You can apply online!! Please read and fill out the application carefully and submit it  by March 31^st 2015.

To access the application, please go to: http://goo.gl/forms/MvncOztrMO

Please note: The applications are online but images must be sent via email to  studioartour@gmail.com; checks should be sent via regular mail to the address on the applications.

Also new this year, people submitting applications after that date must pay a late fee.

Our fabulous team will continue to administer this year’s tour.

We sincerely hope most questions will be answered by reading the application thoroughly.

Well, today is the day that I am sure all our Artour artists are working very hard doing last minute preparations  for the Studio Tour tomorrow! Studios are being cleaned, signs put up, last minute artwork finished up, kilns being unloaded, displays put up and probably some food being prepared! I know I sure am; the chickens have been fenced off, the studio is pretty clean, the kiln unloaded and all that remains are for pots to be put out and priced and my cats briefed on being nice to all the people who will come by.

My studio cats hard at work helping me get ready.

My two guest artist (Juan Fried and Mary Ellen Frame) will be putting up their displays today and putting out their wares tomorrow morning.

Here are a few guest-posts that came in:

Dave Peterson writes about his evolution as a woodturner:

This is my first year participating in the ArTour as an artist, rather than as a spectator. Here’s why.

Before I moved to Northfield three years ago, I knew I wanted to be a woodturner, and had dabbled. I was by no stretch a professional turner. The only evidence of my ambition was the equipment I had acquired. I was missing an image of myself as a professional woodturner. At best, I was tentative and even a little apologetic about my work. The community I had been living in didn’t provide support or incentive. I knew only one or two people with whom I shared my work. My family (fortunately a numerous tribe) was my only attentive audience. Then, I moved to Northfield and everything changed. Here, I found a large, creative, enthusiastic, generous, warm and supportive community of artists and artisans. I found wood-, glass-, and leather- workers; jewelers and metalworkers; bead and fabric artists; photographers and painters; and ceramicists. These are people whose work is at the center of their lives. They showed me this and shared the energy they put into their art. Best of all, they simply assumed I was as serious and committed as they are. They assumed that I was one of them. They have encouraged me in more ways than I can list. With very little evidence to go on, they took my efforts seriously. They took it for granted that what I made was worth my time and effort and worthy of their attention. As I got to know them, they began asking about my work. They now press me to take myself seriously and to spend more time in my shop. The more I get to know them, the more energized I am. No less important, I found that the larger community, the people and culture of Northfield, also support the kind of work I want to do. They support the arts community by making sales and exhibition events possible and by attending them. People stop me often to say they have seen my work and appreciate it. My father-in-law once told me that the most sincere form of appreciation is money. In this way too, the larger community – Northfield, Rice County, southeast Minnesota – has shown the value they put on my work So all in all, as a Northfield artisan, I take myself more seriously than seemed possible before. I value my work more highly. So, I work to improve my skill, to raise the quality and enhance the beauty of everything I make. The opportunity to participate in the Artour is one more step in this process. My warm thanks to the artists and people of Northfield! I will be showing my work at the studio of Barbara Zavaruha, a generous person and ceramicist who makes useful things of great beauty. But then, that is true of everyone showing their work in the ArTour.

Kathy Anderson also speaks of community in her post:

Community Weaving at Studio #7

As I prepare to warp my traveling loom for the 2014 Studio ArTour I eagerly anticipate seeing many of you sit down at the loom to give it a try.  The “no mistakes” philosophy means you can approach the selection of color and texture with absolute freedom. -Missed a few of the warp threads as you pass the shuttle through? -Yarn pulled a bit tighter than the last person? -Your beat a bit harder than those before you? No problem! It’s all a part of the beauty of the final piece.

Truly, it is amazing how a section with an unexpected pop of color blends right in once the piece is completed and taken off the loom. Your personalities some shining through and it makes me smile.   When I need to “get out of my box” or feel stuck I often turn to the community pieces for inspiration to bring back a playful approach to my weaving.  Thank You! Last year, fellow Studio #7 artist Patsy Dew took some fabulous pictures of the Community piece and skillfully created one of her beautiful boxes for me.  I love it! You’ll have to check it out when you stop by.

Rand Whillock,  a new stop on the tour, describes what you will find when you stop by their Studios; lots of great art!

Four Whillock family artists converge on Ivan Whillock studio for an open house as part of the Southern Minnesota Studio Tour

Ivan Whillock, renowned artist and woodcarver will host at his studio, two of his sons and a niece. Chris Whillock is also a woodcarver, Rand Whillock does glasswork, and Ivan’s niece Katie (Whillock) Olson works in ceramics.

Ivan Whillock did his first wood carvings at the age of twelve in his father’s furniture shop. He received his art degree in 1959 and has studied with sculptor Angel Lillo, and master carver Eduardo Gutierrez. Ivan’s wood sculpture, bronze statues, and reliefs can be found in churches, businesses and private collections around the world. Ivan is also renowned as an excellent teacher and has authored many books on woodcarving and art. Ivan says that “One of the joys of wood carving is that there is beauty in the material itself.” He also says that his fascination is in trying to take advantage of the beauty of wood while challenging its limitations. Ivan also plays in the Faribault based swing band “Jivin’ Ivan and the Kings of Swing along with another brother, Mark Whillock. More of Ivan’s art work can be seen on his web page at: www.whillock.com.

Ivan’s son, Chris Whillock is a woodcarver from Faribault, Minnesota specializing in hand carved wood spirits and Santa carvings. He uses mainly basswood and cottonwod bark for his creations. Chris also teaches woodcarving, hosts a local carving club and runs a woodcarving tool and supply business at: www.woodcarverswarehouse.com.

Ivan’s oldest son, Rand, is late to the art field having taken up glass working about 7 years ago. Many of Rand’s works are inspired by nature. He employs techniques including: torch-work, fusing, slumping and glass blowing. Some of his best works combine multiple techniques. Rand is looking forward to displaying his work alongside his dad, brother, Chris and cousin, Katie. Some of Rand’s artwork can be seen at: www.whillockvisionsglass.com.

Ivan’s niece, Katie (Whillock) Olson, is a ceramics artist from Owatonna. Katie’s love for throwing and creating pottery started 8 years ago simply by signing up for a pottery class at her local art center. She took a hiatus during her pregnancy and births of her daughter and son. But has returned now to enjoy her weekly Monday Mud Club nights at the Owatonna Art Center. Katie creates functional pottery for the home and garden. Her pieces vary from mugs to bowls to vases and serving platters. Katie is excited to spend a weekend sharing her relatively new passion for creating art with her richly talented uncle and cousins.

The Ivan Whillock Studio is located at 122 1^st Ave NE in Faribault. Works of the four artists will be on display Friday October 17^th from 4 to 8, Saturday October 18^th from 10 to 6 and Sunday October 19^th from 11 to 5. There will also be live woodcarving demonstrations at the studio throughout the weekend.