Beautiful Grand Marais by Roxann Berglund.
There’s lots to do in Grand Marais this week.
Let’s start with the Quick Paint at Artist’s Point from 3-5 p.m. on Thursday. The event is one of many during this year’s Plein Air Grand Marais, and it is also a public favorite. More than 75 artists will be set up on Artist’s Point on Thursday afternoon to paint a canvas in two hours, from 3-5 p.m. The public is definitely invited to come and see them work, and even ask a question or two. If the weather is nasty, call the Johnson Heritage Post at 387-2314.
More than 70 plein artists will be on Artist’s Point for the Quick Paint on Thursday from 3-5 p.m. The public is invited to come watch.
Plein air artists have been out all week painting Cook County for the annual Plein Air Grand Marais Competition and Exhibition. The competition, which is organized by the Outdoor Painters of Minnesota and sponsored by the Johnson Heritage Post, has featured a number of different mini-workshops this week, as well as opportunities to paint at specific locations in the county.
Bob Upton took second place in the main category last year for this painting of the Grand Marais harbor.
All will be revealed at the opening reception at the Johnson Heritage Post on Friday from 5-8 p.m. Plein air painter Joshua Cunningham is the juror this year.
A wide variety of prizes and awards will be given out this year including $1,000 for 1st place in the main category. A number of prizes and/or awards will also be given to special category paintings, too, including the best painting of the golf course, the best painting up the Gunflint Trail, the best painting of an historic place, to name a few. The public is invited to attend this exciting opening. The Heritage Post exhibit continues through Oct. 6. For more info about the event, click here.
Also on Thursday afternoon, the Local Food Market, which features fresh locally grown vegetables and fruit, as well as artisan breads, fresh flowers and more will be held at the Cook County Community Center from 4:30-6 p.m. If it is raining, the market will be held indoors in the 4-H Building.
The Local Food Market offers a wide variety of locally grown vegetables at the Community Center from 4:30-6 p.m. every Thursday through mid-October.
This weeks demonstration: How to make great dill pickles in a few minutes, without turning on your stove. The demo is at 5 p.m.
On Thursday night, the Grand Marais Art Colony will host “The Water Cycle: Artists Panel Discussion” at 7 p.m. at Cook County Higher Education. Four artists: Moira Bateman, fiber artist; Annie Hejny, painter; Moheb Soliman, poet and performance artist and Nick Wroblewski, woodblock printmaker, have been working in the Art Colony studios for a week. exploring the concept of water and life on the shores of Lake Superior. They have also been looking at the nature of water and how it inspires, informs and challenges artistic endeavors.
Artists, from left, Moira Bateman, Annie Hejny, Moheb Soliman, and Nick Wroblewski have been artists in residence at the Grand Marais Art Colony, exploring the nature of water and how it inspires, informs and challenges artistic endeavors. They will discuss these ideas during a panel discussion at Cook County Higher Education at 7 p.m. Thursday. All invited.
The panel discussion is open to the public. All invited. It starts at 7 p.m.
On Friday, just to be clear, the Plein Air Grand Marais exhibit opens at the Johnson Heritage Post from 6-8 p.m.
Also on Friday night, the Detroit Lakes band Rootz Within will be guests on WTIP’s The Roadhouse, which airs from 5-7 p.m. They will talk about their music and play a few songs. The Rootz Within play at the Gun Flint Tavern this weekend.
This is also the weekend of Unplugged XVIII at North House Folk School. The event, which is Sept. 13-14 this year, features a great line-up of musicians for the concert on Saturday night, the Points North online auction, lots of great classes, as well as the Folk Artisan Marketplace.
Unplugged XVIII is this weekend at North House Folk School. The concert is under the big tent.
Woodworker Anders Lindberg of Gothenburg, Sweden is the international featured instructor this year and will teach two classes as well as give a demonstration on green woodworking on Saturday. A number of North House instructors will also give presentation about their craft. And there will be lots of music: A community sing, jam sessions, a mini-course on singing in a choir with an opportunity to perform on-stage on Saturday and Kevin Kling, the host at Unplugged, will teach a storytelling class. Click here for more info.
One of the highlights of the weekend is the Folk Artisan Marketplace where crafters will display and sell their work. Baskets, felted goods, carved bowls, wooden spoons, jewelry, leather goods, and more will be on exhibit. The Marketplace is open on Friday and Saturday.
But the high point of the Unplugged event is the concert on Saturday night. This year, the Rev. Robert B. Jones Sr. is a special guest. Hailing from Detroit, Rev. Jones is an award-winning multi-instrumental blues and roots musician and inspirational storyteller, as well as being a 2018 Kresge Arts Fellow.
The Rev. Robert B. Jones is a special guest at the Unplugged concert.
Here’s a video of him playing a great song.
Other performers at the concert include Prudence Johnson, Simone Perrin, Claudia Schmidt, Dane Stauffer, Marc Anderson, Dan Chouinard and Bradley Greenwald. Kevin Kling is host and storyteller.
Tickets to the concert are still available. Click here to purchase.
Besides all the activities on the North House campus, there are lots of other events in Grand Marais on Saturday as well.
At 9 a.m. on Saturday, the Cook County Market opens in the parking lot at the Senior Center.
The Cook County Market is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Senior Center parking lot.
The Market features a wide variety of arts and crafts from local artists. It closes at 1 p.m.
Jim Ringquist of Times2Design is holding a Fine Art and Photography Sale this weekend at his studio/residence, 813 W 5th St., in Grand Marais. He will have many framed panoramics, photographs, oil paintings and original wildlife silkscreens.
Common Loon, silk screen, by Jim Ringquist.
For more information and times, call (218) 387-2234,
At 2:30 p.m., the Grand Marais Public Library will welcome four award-winning authors to talk about their books and writing in the Moving Words Series, The authors have all been recognized by the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library and many have won at least one Minnesota Book Award for their work. The authors include: Cary Griffith, “Gunflint Burning: Fire in the Boundary Waters;” Ed Bok Lee, “Mitochondrial Night”; Wendy Webb, “The Daughters of the Lake” and Mary Wingerd, “North Country.”
Exhibits:
Plein Air Grand Marais opens at the Johnson Heritage Post on Friday and continues through Oct. 6. More than 70 plein air painters participated in the event this year, and the gallery will be full of wonderful paintings of the North Shore.
Bob Upton works on a painting for the Grand Marais Plein Air. Photo by Don Davison.
The gallery is closed on Tuesdays. It is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and Monday and from 1-4 p.m. Sunday. Free.
Painter Keith Thompson continues the exhibit of his paintings in the Great Hall at Tettegouche State Park.
In Duluth, the Tweed Museum of Art continues its exhibit of sculptures in its collection.
Two sculptures by Sterling Rathsack are on exhibit at the Tweed Museum of Art: “Herm,” left and “Artemis.”
AK Dayton has opened a new exhibit of her paintings at the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth.
“The Night We Met” by AK Dayton is at the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth.
The exhibit is in the Lynch Art Gallery at the Aquarium and continuesthrough Jan. 12.
The Thunder Bay Art Gallery in Thunder Bay is opening a new exhibit this weekend entitled “Unfold Time: The Art of Leo Yerxa, A Retrospective.”
“UnFold Time” by Leo Yerxa opens this weekend at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery.
Yerxa is an award-wining artist, poet and writer a member of Couchiching First Nation. The exhibition brings together his writings with his art and continues through Dec. 1.
Below is an animated short featuring the Yerxa’s artwork. It is subtitled in Anishinaabe.
Upcoming:
The Grand Marais Art Colony will hold “Raise the Roof Fundraiser” at the Schmidt Artist Lofts Community Room in St. Paul from 5-7:30 p.m. on Sept. 19.
The Grand Marais Art Colony has recently purchased property along Highway 61 in Grand Marais, and will hold a fundraiser in St. Paul to help support the expansion.
Funds raised through this event will directly support crucial repairs along with rehabilitating space for artists to work. For more information, click here.
Only three weeks until the start of Art Along the Lake Fall Studio Tour. The tour, featuring open studios and galleries throughout Cook County, runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 6. In all, there are 22 home studios and 55 artists on the tour.
The Art Along the Lake Fall Studio Tour runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 6 in studios and galleries across Cook County.
The studios are open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and include a wide variety of artwork including painting, woodcuts, pottery, sculpture, fiber art, woodcarving and wood turning, bead painting, glass and more. There are lots of art activities around the county during the tour, too. For more info, click here. And stay tuned for details.
Art News:
Three episodes from WDSE’s Making It Up North series have been nominated for the Upper Midwest Regional Emmys: The craft district episode in Duluth’s Our Lincoln Park, the Lyric Opera of the North special and our lake-inspired show with Christian Dalbec, New Scenic Café and The Lake + Co.
Dalbec, a photographer who lives in Two Harbors, has his work at Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais. Here is the Making It episode about his lake photography. Definitely worth a watch. Kudos to WDSE, producer Karen Sunderman and videographer Steve Ash.
Music:
Here’s the live music schedule for this week:
Thursday, Sept. 12:
- Terry V’s Patio Party, Wunderbar, 5 p.m.
- Joe Paulik, Music on the Beach, Lutsen Resort, 6:30 p.m.
- Plucked Up String Band, Gun Flint Tavern, 7 p.m.
- Gordon Thorne & Friends, North Shore Winery 7 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 13:
- Portage, Grandma Ray’s, 6 p.m.
- Jef Cierniak, Wunderbar, 7 p.m.
- Rootz Within, Gun Flint Tavern, 8:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 14:
- Music Sing Along, Music on the Commons, North House Folk School, 10 a.m.
- Tom Knutson, Cook County Market, Senior Center parking lot, 11 a.m.
- Jon Kalberg, Lutsen Resort, 7 p.m.
- Unplugged concert, North House Folk School, 7 p.m.
- Brothers in Arms, Grandma Ray’s, 8 p.m.
- Rootz Within, Gun Flint Tavern, 8:30 p.m.
- Dance Party with DJ Beavstar, Papa Charlie’s, 9 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 15:
- Briand Morrison, Mogul’s Grille, 10 a.m.
- Open Stage with Joe Paulik & Pat Flack, Wunderbar, 6 p.m.
- Timmy Haus, Gun Flint Tavern, 8 p.m.
Monday, Sept. 16:
- Timmy Haus, Voyageur Brewing Co., 4 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 18:
- Timmy Haus, Mogul’s Grille, 5 p.m.
- Jam Session, Gun Flint Tavern, 6 p.m.
Photographs:
We found some great images this week. Here’s a selection:
First, a few wildlife shots:
Grey Frog by Jeff Grotte.
A happy duck by John Woodward.
All pollened-up by Jeremy Church.
Turtles gathering to catch the sun’s warmth, BWCAW by Nancy Mike-Johnson.
Liatris for Two by Maryl Skinner.
Curious, but wary by David Kirychuk.
And some plant photos:
Acorns by Lori Schafer.
A little color on Park Point, Duluth, by Jan Swart.
Fall progresses in my yard by Annie Possis.
Fall color by Bob Lyness.
Ghost flower, Hovland by Gard Arands.
Here are some beauteous landscapes:
A rosy sunrise illuminates morning fog by Roxanne Distad.
The Northwoods in early fall by Mary Amerman.
Heading down-lake in Duluth by Paul Sundberg.
Gunflint Lake: Ontario on the left, Minnesota on the right, by Matt Scott.
And then this cutie:
Taking time … by Dick van Duijn, photographed in the Netherlands.
Enjoy your weekend, everyone!
If you enjoyed the blog this week, please consider donating to keep this volunteer effort alive and well. You can donate through PayPal with your credit card by clicking on the icon below, or mail a check to NorthShore ArtScene, P.O. Box 1232, Grand Marais, MN, 55604. And Thanks!
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