Name: Exploring Tonalist Painting with Kyle Buckland
Start: 2025-10-10T09:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-10-12T14:00:00-04:00
Location: Blowing Rock Art & History Museum

October 2025
August 6 @ 11:00 am - October 19 @ 6:00 pm

Exhibition: Daingerfield & The Tonalist Instinct

Blowing Rock Art & History Museum 159 Ginny Stevens Lane, Blowing Rock, NC, United States

Daingerfield & The Tonalist Instinct explores the development of Tonalism, a distinctly American artistic movement responding to early modernist impulses in painting. Emerging in the latter half of the 19th century, Tonalism was characterized by subtle color harmonies, soft atmospheric effects, and contemplative, mood-driven scenes. Often emphasizing twilight or dawn landscapes, tonalist works evoke introspective, serene, or even ominous atmospheres, prioritizing mood and emotional resonance over detailed realism.

Free Entry
August 6 @ 11:00 am - December 27 @ 6:00 pm

Exhibition: The Shape of Color – Understanding Color Theory in BRAHM’s Collection

Blowing Rock Art & History Museum 159 Ginny Stevens Lane, Blowing Rock, NC, United States

This exhibition explores key milestones in the history of color theory through seven case studies, each centered on a single work of art from BRAHM’s Permanent Collection. Alongside these works, diagrams and historical models illustrate how color has been classified, studied, and understood over time. By examining these varied approaches, The Shape of Color invites us to consider the ways in which color influences our perception, emotions, and the visual world around us.

Free Entry
August 6 @ 11:00 am - November 15 @ 6:00 pm

Exhibition: Mary Lou Higgins – Sibylline Faces

Blowing Rock Art & History Museum 159 Ginny Stevens Lane, Blowing Rock, NC, United States

This exhibiton presents a selection of ceramic works and drawings by MaryLou Higgins (1926–2012), an artist active in North Carolina throughout her prolific career. Best known for her illustrative approach to ceramics, Higgins worked across multiple media, creating a body of work defined by intricate draftsmanship and a focus on the female figure.

Free Entry
August 6 @ 11:00 am - November 29 @ 6:00 pm

Exhibition: Arlee Mains – A Life in Watauga

This intimate installation of ten “memory paintings” by Arlee Mains (1935–2019) offers a vivid and affectionate portrait of early 20th-century life in the mountains of western North Carolina. A lifelong resident of Watauga County and a self-taught artist, Mains drew upon family stories, personal recollections, and regional traditions to create painted scenes of everyday Appalachian life.

Free Entry
August 6 @ 11:00 am - November 29 @ 6:00 pm

Exhibition: Andrea Keys Connell- Pattern Mapping

Blowing Rock Art & History Museum 159 Ginny Stevens Lane, Blowing Rock, NC, United States

At the heart of Andréa Keys Connell’s work is a question: how can the things we make help us hold time, memory, and care? Her ceramic sculptures—often fragmented, patterned, and emotionally charged—explore what it means to endure, to remember, and to repair.

Free Entry
September 19 @ 7:30 pm - November 1 @ 11:30 pm

Ghost Train – Fri & Sat Nights

Tweetsie Railroad 300 Tweetsie Railroad Lane, Blowing Rock, NC, United States

Tweetsie Railroad transforms from the Wild West into a haunted park with Halloween thrills and chills for all ages.

$45 – $65
October 7 @ 1:00 pm - 1:30 pm Fall Color Rambles

Fall Color Rambles

Grandfather Mountain 2050 Blowing Rock Highway, Linville, NC

From Oct. 4 through 12, guests enjoy short, guided nature walks that highlight Grandfather Mountain’s fall colors. The Fall Color Rambles take place daily, weather permitting, and are included in your admission ticket. The short excursions begin at 1 p.m. and typically last for 30 minutes. Rambles will start outside the entrance of the Wilson Center for Nature Discovery.

Included with Admission
October 8 @ 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Mindfulness Meditation Group at BRAHM

Blowing Rock Art & History Museum 159 Ginny Stevens Lane, Blowing Rock, NC, United States

Make time for yourself on Wednesday evenings for a weekly mindfulness and meditation Group. The gatherings will explore meditation, mindfulness and consciousness. Combining years of meditation practice experience with his lifelong passion of living in service to others, Eric DeVere will be guiding the weekly meditation group.

Free
October 9 @ 10:00 am - October 12 @ 4:00 pm

Broom Making Demo at Moses Cone Manor

Moses Cone Manor Blowing Rock, NC, United States

Peter Werner will be demonstrating traditional Appalachian broom-tying, which is how he creates his whisks, cake testers, and large sweepers. This demonstration will be held on the front porch of the the Moses Cone Manor from 10am-4pm.

Free
October 9 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Camp Catawba: The Groovy Camp

Blowing Rock Art & History Museum 159 Ginny Stevens Lane, Blowing Rock, NC, United States

Less than a mile from the Cone Estate, the camp sprung up each summer so young boys could learn about Homer’s Odyssey, hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and discover music and art. Vera and her partner, Tui St. George Tucker (the camp’s music director), ran the camp from 1944 to 1970.

Registration Required
October 9 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Tunes at the Trout – Thursdays

The Speckled Trout Restaurant & Bottle Shop 922 Main Street, Blowing Rock, NC

Head over to The Speckled Trout Restaurant & Bottle Shop to get your tunes fix and hear some live music! Thursdays from 6-8pm.
October 10 @ 9:00 am - October 12 @ 2:00 pm

Exploring Tonalist Painting with Kyle Buckland

Blowing Rock Art & History Museum 159 Ginny Stevens Lane, Blowing Rock, NC, United States

Immerse yourself in the captivating world of Tonalism, taught by nationally acclaimed landscape painter Kyle Buckland. This workshop will guide you through the core principles of this evocative style, including limited palettes, close values, and creating a sense of mood and atmosphere through subtle color variations.

$349.00