This weekend was the 17th annual ARTrails (Art Trails) Studio Tour in the Yuma Foothills. I had no idea that my pickleball friend, Cindy, was a talented painter. After seeing some of her paintings at her home, I asked if she knew about the ARTrails weekend. She did not, so I invited her to ride along with me.
We left our place on Saturday about 10 am, and returned about 2 pm. There were 12 locations to go visit. Each location was the home of a local artist, he or she usually shared their property with additional artists. A total of 34 artists were featured. ARTrails tour is open from 10-4 both Friday, March 3, and Saturday, March 4. The tour was just as amazing this year. What a pleasure to also have the chance to talk directly to the artists about their work. Please note that the pictures below do NOT do any of the beautiful artwork justice!
We began at stop 11. Diana Germain’s oil and acrylic paintings were pretty awesome.
While I was drawn to the sepia portrait (above) on top of the cabinet behind Diana, Cindy and I both loved the painting of the three wolves (below). Their eyes were incredibly life-like, and the sunlight on the snow crystals enabled me to hear the snow crunch. Unfortunately, this general angle of multiple paintings did not capture it well. But when we walked into this room, the wolves painting was on the opposite wall and completely drew us to it.
Diana invites David N. Kitler, a professional Canadian Artist, to her home in February for a 3-day class from 9am-4pm each day. Kitler was Diana’s mentor as he taught her his techniques for portraits and animal paintings. The cost to attend is $350. He teaches these same techniques during the 3-day class. The eyes on all the animals are so well done, which is a key focus in the class.
To contact Diana: GermainArts@aol.com
JoAnne Morgan Mowczko (pictured below) told me about a cool poet/artist combo event that the library puts on. Poets submit poems, and an artist looks at the poems and selects one he/she would like to illustrate through visual art media. The poem she selected involved a hummingbird, an eagle and an ostrich. She made a ceramic representation of each one. Yesterday for JoAnne’s display, she had a copy of the poem next to the bald eagle head, the hummingbird and the ostrich. The later two were sold on Friday. She explained to me how she added the layers of feathers for the eagle. The eagle sells for $40.
Lynette Weise is one of my favorites on this tour. Her work in both colored pencil and pastel pencil is incredible! She will be doing a class in the fall!
Lynette is extremely accomplished in this media. She has an extensive collection of prominent buildings from colleges and universities throughout the country. The detail in each is mind blowing.
Lynette also works with alcohol ink. I will check with Lynette in the fall to see what a class for this would entail.
I purchased a card with a real alcohol ink picture – not a print.
Exquisite scratchboard art animals by Joe Watkins. The detail is so well done that you can “feel” the animal fur, feathers, hair, or scales.
Mark Wall’s art is unique. He specializes in an encaustic media which uses beeswax and tree sap (damar resin), and a small handheld torch. It is pretty cool how oceans waves or the Yuma agricultural fields are represented in this abstract art form. For more information on his encaustic + mixed media work, visit his website, www.markwallcreative.com. No two pieces are the same.
Pine needle baskets by Mona Mcllvenna.
The doughnuts and fish rock caught my eye even though this was not someone’s official art display.
Acrylic painting. This artist often uses watercolor paper instead of canvas. It is much cheaper and then she glues it to something more substantial to hang as a canvas painting. When it comes to abstract art, I either like it right away, or I walk on by. I really like three of those below. (Top right one, the one to the left of it, and then the one diagonally to the left.)
Diane Piro:
Diane may have a class on March 29 for “Neurographic Art”. It will be a 3-hr class for $60 – all supplies are provided. Cindy and I are both interested in going. I had never heard of Neurographic art. So what is it?Neurographic art is art that just flows. It can be as simple or as complex as you’d like. It is supposed to be very calming – and addictive. We’ll see. Of course, I really don’t need something more that is addictive. LOL
I bought a pair of stud style glass art earring by Tracie. This I should definitely check out the first day of ARTrails.
Marie Harty – water color (and acrylic)
This was our last stop. Cindy and I were both blown away!! These pictures do not do justice to any of Tania Bolin’s mixed media artwork!!
The background of many of Tania’s work could be a painting on its own!
Below, Tania holds a thicker art piece that began with some clay leaves, followed by some clear resin layer(s), some painting, more resin layer(s), and more painting until she had a really cool multi-layered 3d work of art.
For more artwork by Tania visit her website: https://www.taniabolin.com.
I can’t wait to see Tania’s work in person next year, but in the meantime, I will hopefully check for new pieces via her website.
Barry and I would like a piece of art or two in our home, but what is the right piece for the limited space we have? Or do we take a few of our travel pics and have them put on canvas or aluminum? Or??
Doing the ARTrails studio tour on Saturday has the advantages of fewer people and fewer vehicles. Parking was never a problem. It was nice to move freely at each site taking as much time as we desired looking at any given piece or artist’s display. We were also able to talk personally to the various artists about their work. However, going on Friday, there would be more to see at many of the stops. Next year, I may try going on Friday. I will see if dealing with more people and some likely parking issues is only a minor inconvenience. Weather will be the main determining factor as to which day is better to enjoy the tour!
Thank you, Cindy, for going with me this year. It was fun to share our impressions of the various artwork we encountered. You were also a great navigator!!
I’m so sad to have missed this years art event. Looks like you found some amazing artwork. Would love to do a glass next season.