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Artists in Residence 2018 poster

Last year during the Artist in Residence program, over 5000 visitors discovered the ever-changing treasures at historic Edgewood Cottage. This year beginning now through October 30th , Edgewood Cottage comes alive with the ninth annual Artist in Residence program. The Cottage is located on South Main St. next to the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum on the cultural corner where art and history meet.

Sponsored by the Blowing Rock Historical Society, the Artist in Residence series is free and open to the public. Each week features one or more juried High-Country artists, selected for their unique skills and talent. Visitors will be treated to a variety of work by painters, wood carvers, potters and fiber artists. This is a great opportunity to view a diversity of art for every interest and budget, talk to the artists about their creative process and buy original works of art. Visitors may even spot High Country artists creating work on the front porch of Edgewood Cottage.

This year’s artists include twelve first-time AiR artists. For the first time, the program has expanded to include sixteen alumni artists from the previous eight years. Visitors who purchase art will not only benefit High Country artists; they will directly benefit the Moses H. Cone Memorial Park. Half of this year’s net proceeds will go to restoration projects there through the Historical Society’s donation to the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.

During Artist in Residence, the beautifully restored Cottage will be filled with talented artists much as it was when one of America’s great artists, Elliott Daingerfield, built it in 1890. Elliott Daingerfield was a prominent early Blowing Rock resident and a good friend of Moses Cone. Beyond being one of the most successful artists of his time, he was generous with his time, teaching many other artists to paint. Elliott would be proud that his cottage is being used to further the careers of today’s High Country artists.

Artists in Residence is open every day but Wednesday. Hours are 10am-6pm, opening later on Sundays at noon.

2018 Artist Schedule:

July 26 – 31
Jane Campbell
For the past twenty years, Jane has delighted in taking animal fiber, simple tools, soap and water, and turning them into magical garments and art objects. Without spinning, weaving or cutting, the results of her felt making are a pleasure to create and surprise to behold.
Dan Smith
As a professional artist for over fifty years and a professor of art and the humanities, Dan’s body of work spans a wide variety of personal expressions and aesthetic considerations utilizing many different subjects, styles, sizes and material.

August 2 – 7
Barbara Wade
Through art, she shows her appreciation for nature and the world around her. Her favorite medium is oil. Recently she has used cold wax and oil as a wonderful mixture that permits even more creativity.
Cathy Futral
As an artist and retired art Professor of forty-five years, her favorite mediums are watercolor and acrylic. Subjects are often rendered in plein air or from her own photography. She also encourages the development of others who seek to express themselves through art.

August 9 – 14
Jane Elizabeth
Her playful combination of colors and the emotions they evoke have inspired her work. Whether capturing a drive down Shulls Mill Rd or the light of late summer, her paintings are born from a split second of reality and grown by imagination.

August 16 – 21
Sherri Stewart
Mother nature provides the color and forms that fuel her soul. Using acrylic, oil, watercolors or combinations thereof, she creates vibrant, energetic painting in the abstract and abstract realism style. She also loves to use texture for an additional layer of intrigue.

August 23 – 28
Susan Jespersen
Susan feels compelled to express her perceptions of the disappearing nature we treasure. Her work has an Asian influence using a lyrical abstract expressionist approach. Colorful brushwork has an absence of premeditated form. It is lyrical because, like music, the colors sing.

August 30 – Sept 4
Pat Flachbart
Pat has spent more than thirty years practicing and teaching painting, raku pottery and paper making. Artistic exploration and experimentation have been the guiding forces in both her work and her life as she has journeyed from California, to France, to Hickory, NC.

September 6 – 11
Susan Wilders
For twenty -five years ago, Susan has embraced the joy and influence of Chinese and Japanese painting and its masters. Underlying the apparent simplicity of composition, there is a philosophy of the unifying pattern of life brought forth by exacting, beautiful brush work.
Toni Indicott
A local artist from the Lenoir area, Toni’s mediums are watercolor, pastel and pen and ink, mostly in the realist style with a developing interest in abstract art. Painting brings her joy. A large part of her body of work are rural scenes, churches , barns and landscapes.

September 13 – 18
Patricia Collins
Nursing was Pat’s passion; art arrived a bit later. Her goal is to help us more fully appreciate living in this wonderful region and to celebrate nature’s beauty. Her vibrant colors enliven her watercolor paintings of many beloved high country scenes.
Patrick Richardson
His work is a rendition of musical color, while listening to the sounds in nature and always painting with music on. His chromesthesia stimulated creations emphasize color. He prefers the mediums of oils with occasional use of acrylics, mixed media, pen & ink, and pencil.

September 20 – 25
Tim Larson
A self-taught artist, Tim finds inspiration in the Blue Ridge mountains and foothills of North Carolina. The goal of each piece is to capture the patterns, plumages, textures and shapes of the outdoor world and bring them to life on the canvas for all to enjoy.
Pete Lupo
As a wood sculpture growing up in rural North Carolina, Pete feels that sometimes we must slow down in order to see. His art depicts wildlife interacting within the human world, creating a moment of connection between beings of a shared space.
Earl Davis
Earl paints with the expectancy that on his canvas will appear a scene calling him into it, to experience peace or to explore a wonderful place that spoke to his soul. He paints his landscapes in the style of realism, often with a touch of impressionism.

September 27 – October 2
Susan Grant
An engineering background naturally lends itself to her realistic style of painting. Her medium of choice is transparent watercolor, fresh clean colors that result from building layers of “washes” on paper or gouache (opaque watercolor) for its rich saturated shades.
Ronda Hale
Color and light are what attracts her to a subject. She often finds herself adding more brilliant color to the paintings when that color is absent in real life. Ronda paints in oil and watercolor and is drawn to a glorious garden, a rustic barn, and rushing water.
Pam Washer
Pam began crafting her one-of-a-kind RagBags in 2005, because of a longtime interest in repurposing mostly castoff items. RagBags are created from different materials: decorator fabric samples, wool sweaters, vintage buttons, books, broken jewelry, even VHS videotape!

October 4 – 9
Kim Abernethy
There is a beauty and quiet simplicity in the way she translates light and captures a mood, as she focuses on those places in North Carolina left untouched and unspoiled by development. Her impressionistic, meditative style evokes feelings of serenity and calm.
Kathy M. Reece
Her art is as much about feeling as it is about applying paint to the canvas. The views she paints in plein air are part of the cultural fabric of our community. She aims to preserve and document those scenes that are reflective of our contemporary world, yet tied to our history.
Barbara Ballesty
As a ceramic artist who works In her studio along Artist Alley known as Blowing Rock Pottery, she produces functional forms with glazes that reflect our area’s natural colors: tree bark brown, rivulets of moss green, floating blues of our skies, jewel tones of local flowers.

October 11 – 16
Gale Champion
Raised in rural North Carolina, her unique paintings are imagined, designed and created in three styles and two mediums. She is known for watercolors in a realistic style, unusual webbed backgrounds in her contemporary watercolors, and abstract/impressionistic style in alcohol inks.
Pat Grant
Pat is a charter member with The North Carolina Wildlife Artists Society. His realistic, serene style captures his love for the Blue Ridge Mountains and its inhabitants. He says about his painting, “It’s a pigment of your imagination” …. relax, enjoy, be part of nature.
Pat Moritz
Since 1987, Pat has been weaving basketry and vessels. “Contemporary basketry as my art form is always changing, demanding more of my mind, heart, experience and expression.” Her designs include natural foraged materials as well as hand-painted paper, yarns and alcohol inks.

October 18 – 23
Jeremy Sams
Jeremy is a renowned plein air landscape and portrait artist residing in North Carolina. His inspirations come from the mountains, and waterways of North Carolina, where he seeks to capture the wonder of God’s creation through the play of light, shadow and atmosphere.
Beth Taylor
Her free-form quilting combines color, pattern, and texture that resonates with her deep roots and love of this area. Every choice of fabric, embellishment and stitch gives her the opportunity to create one-of-a-kind combinations of fiber art.

October 25 – 30
Lee Harper Vason
A native of Hickory and renowned dancer and choreographer, she has added oil and acrylic painting to her artistic expressions. Using a style of flowing, full of motion and heavily pigmented color, her art brims with vibrant energy.
Tunde Afolayan-Famous
Tunde’s thematic compositions in vibrant colors allow figurative images to adopt expressive, abstract qualities as well as representational styles. His color palette tempered with strong and vibrant hues exemplifies his powerful African roots and aesthetics.