Art in the Valley Studio Tour celebrates Canada’s 2015 Craft Year

Next weekend, June 6-7, 2015, the Art in the Valley Studio Tour is saluting Canada's Craft Year with special events and open houses from the Grand Falls area to Woodstock and points between and beyond. Some of the highlights: From top left, Francine Simard Levesque’s 7-foot sculpture (a portion of which is shown here) at her studio in Rowena demonstrates her meticulous technique; necklace and earrings inspired, according to Perth’s Japheth McKinney, by a sudden “craving for watermelon”; a particularly fine ceramic piece by Wendy Johnston (formerly of Woodstock), part of an extraordinary show at the McCain Art Gallery in Florenceville; pigs do fly, occasionally, on the broad lawn in front of sculptor Kerry O’Toole’s gallery in Grafton; wood-turner Randy Hathaway’s lighthouse-inspired showroom on the banks of the Tobique. Bottom: necklace by Sarah Smith Stewart recently on display at the Creek Village Gallery in downtown Woodstock.
 (These items subject to prior sale or may not be available for purchase.)

‘I’ve become a YouTube junky. That’s how I learned the craft.’

Jeweller, artist Japheth McKinney

  McKinney is fond of fluid, colourful pieces like this which are produced using a pouring medium combined with acrylic paints. Once the paint compound is applied to the canvas in layers, the whole piece is tilted to produce the bleeding effect. "I just love the intensity," he says.

‘I had a hard time finding a market. Now I can rely on word-of-mouth.’

Artist Craig Smith Dow

The artist surrounded by canvases in his Somerville NB studio which will be open to the public Saturday, June 6 and Sunday, June 7, 2015.

PHOTO © CRAIG SMITH DOW