The Studio Art Tour is celebrating its 26th anniversary this weekend with an Innisfil youth art show.
Visitors are invited to pick up a pamphlet and follow a map, and visit artists and artisans in their own settings, as an opportunity to get to know the creative individuals who paint, sculpt, craft jewellery, weave, pot and take photographs.
“The Studio Tour is important to established artists to give them an opportunity to showcase and sell their work, to encourage young artists to take part in a show — and it allows the community to see the incredibly talented people in Innisfil,” said Barb Baguley, a director with the Innisfil Arts, Culture and Heritage Council (IACHC), which runs the annual event.
The Nov. 3-4 tour will include demonstrations of artists’ work, and visitors can purchase one-of-a-kind works.
There is also an economic development angle to the tour, noted Baguley.
“The tour brings visitors to the area, and they inject money into the local economy,” she said.
On a Thursday evening in October, many of the artists gathered at the Big Bay Point area home of artist Pamela Meacher, whose meticulous watercolors are reminiscent of Victorian botanical art, to promote the upcoming tour.
Each brought a sample of their work — from the hand-crafted soaps of Patricia Jackson, to the paintings of internationally-acclaimed artists Jeanette Luchese and Andrei Kovalev.
Liam Jones was one of the new artists to join the tour. A visual artist, Jones is also a singer/songwriter, and the painting he brought captured the singer’s intensity in a few brush strokes.
The annual tour offers a variety of media and styles. Visitors can to drop into 12 locations to view the work of 18 artists and artisans.
Six of them — wood-turner Anastasia Cheetham, jewellery artist Deeni DeMedeiros, encaustic painter Beth Evans, potter Kimberly Evans-Milak, poet and pyrographer R. Murray Haist, and portrait artist Marcia Godbout — are part of a group show at the Knock School Heritage Site on Sideroad 10 at Line 9.
The tour also includes the sixth annual Youth Art Show, with works from both elementary and secondary school students, on display at the Innisfil ideaLAB and Library at 967 Innisfil Beach Rd.
“For the youth who participate in the Youth Art Show, it is a great opportunity to experience the creation and showing of their artwork, perhaps for the first time, and to discover an appreciation of the creative process, personal expression and recognition, in the community,” said IACHC member Sydney Hardie.
All venues are open Nov. 3-4, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and admission is free. For more information, visit innisfilstudiotour.ca, or pick up an Innisfil Studio Tour pamphlet at any Innisfil library.
