Leaf Season, Art Shows, a Studio Tour & Music

The leaf season is here, and it looks like it’s going to be a good one! The woods are already dotted with every hue, and we’re nowhere near peak.

So, there’s that.

This is also the season when North Shore artists pull out all the stops and create art experiences of every kind for our enjoyment as we drive around and enjoy the colors of fall. This weekend, it’s a Hazel Belvo opening. a fall pottery sale and plein air exhibits. Next weekend, there are four different studio art tours that start on Friday, Sept.29 —  We’ll get into some details about next weekend’s art tours a little later.

Let’s start with the Hazel Belvo art opening, which will be held at the North Shore Winery in Lutsen from 7 -9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21.

Belvo is an artist, master teacher, and mentor. She has exhibited nationally and internationally for 50 years and her work is in many public collections including the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Bezalel Museum, the Dewitt Wallace Collection, and General Mills. Hazel was a Radcliffe Institute Scholar and WARM Gallery member. She is a retired professor emeritus at Minneapolis College of Art and Design after 34 years of teaching. She has taught at the Grand Marais Art Colony for 32 years. The exhibit will feature her paintings as well as prints, and should be outstanding.  Jazz guitarist Briand Morrison and Roxann Berglund will perform. All invited.

It’s pretty quiet in Cook County on Friday night, except for lots of music choices. Saturday is a different story.

The day opens with the Cook County Market in the Senior Center parking lot, which runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., featuring a wide variety of wood crafting, pottery, fiber arts, handmade pickles, jams and soaps, baked goods and artisan breads, to name a few.

Last Chance Gallery in Lutsen will hold a Bronze Pour at 4 p.m. This is a weekly event that will continue through the Art Along the Lake Fall Studio Tour. Last Chance Gallery is participating in the studio tour.

And then, on Saturday night, Pat Donohue & the Prairie All Stars will be in concert at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m.

Hearing Pat Donohue, Richard Kriehn, Peter Johnson, and Gary Raynor may take you back to their days on “A Prairie Home Companion,” as members of Guy’s All Star Shoe Band. But the evening’s offerings will include much more, in the styles of blues, rockabilly, folk, jazz, and of course Donohue’s hilarious anecdotes. With Donohue at the helm of this ever-so-talented crew, it’s guaranteed to be a fantastic night out. Tickets can be purchased at the door or at www.tix.com.

And, if you’re in the rural Duluth area, consider stopping by the Nodding Trillium Fall Pottery Sale on Saturday and Sunday.  This great annual fall studio sale features the current work of Dave Lynas, Jan Andler, Rita Morris, Sharon Moen and Anne Sterbenz-Duus.

Nodding Trillium Pottery is located just off the Expressway outside of Duluth at 215 McDonnell Rd. Look for signs.

Another sign of fall: the Make-A-Bowl for Empty Bowls pottery events begin at the Grand Marais Art Colony on Monday. The Make-A-Bowl events feature the opportunity to throw one bowl on a pottery wheel and handbuild a bowl in the ceramics studio at the Art Colony. There will be several workshops on Mondays and Saturdays through Oct. 21.

This year, local pottery Hannah Palma Laky will be running the events, where the public is given instruction on how to make the bowls that will be donated to the Empty Bowls Fundraiser, to help feed the hungry in Cook County. Registration is required and a small fee ($5) is requested to help cover materials costs. The first Make-A-Bowl events will be from 6:30-7:30 p.m. and 7:45 -8:45 p.m. on Sept. 25 and Oct. 2. Saturday’s Make-A-Bowls will be held at 3 p.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 30, Oct. 7 and Oct. 21. To register and for more information, call 218-387-2737. Make this a part of your fall experience and help feed the hungry in Cook County. BTW The Empty Bowls Fundraiser will be held on Monday, Nov. 13 at St. John’s Catholic Church with seatings for lunch and dinner. Stay tuned!

On Wednesday, Oktoberfest celebrations will begin at Voyageur Brewing Co., and run through Oct. 1 with games, music and more. The event is being held in collaboration with the Cook County Community Fund.

And, if you’re in Duluth on a Wednesday through Oct. 25, stop by the Duluth Art Institute and watch live painting. 4;30

Exhibits:

 The Grand Marais Art Colony‘s Plein Air 2017 exhibit opened at the Johnson Heritage Post last week, with more than 300 plein air paintings by artists from all over the region.

The Plein Air Exhibit at the Heritage Post continues through Oct. 29. The Heritage Post is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and Monday, and from 1-4 p.m. on Sunday. It is closed on Tuesdays. Free and open to the public.

In Duluth, the Tweed Museum of Art will have a double opening on Friday, Sept. 22 with a reception from 5-7 p.m. The exhibits include “A Thousand Words,” an exhibition of photographs from the museum’s permanent collection and the national Plein Air Painters exhibition “America’s Industrial Landscape.” Free and open to the public.

We have been running regular posts about the “A Thousand Words” exhibit, but here is your chance to see them all. Here’s one of the photos that is in the exhibit:

Several painters from the organization, the Plein Air Painters of America, have been in Duluth this month painting America’s Industrial Landscape.  An exhibition of their work is opening as well

This is the last weekend to see “Perspectives From Here: 150 Artists from the North” at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery. It closes on Sept. 24.

 Upcoming:

There are four different studio tours set for next weekend along Highway 61: the Lake Superior 20/20 Studio Art Tour in St. Louis and Lake County, the Cooter/Tonder & Friends Studio Tour and an Open Studio with Joyce Yamamoto and Jerry Riach in Lake County and the Art Along the Lake: Fall Studio Tour in Cook County, which lasts through Oct. 8.

There are all kinds of events scheduled for the Art Along the Lake: Fall Studio Tour, and many artists are opening their studios to the public for the first time.

Beadpainter Jo Wood for example, will be showing new work at her studio, 357 County Road 14, for the event.

And Steve and Sharon Frykman are opening a new art gallery at their residence during the tour in rural Grand Marais, too. The gallery is located at 306 County Road 44.

The gallery will feature works by Hazel Belvo, acrylic & oil; Laurie Toth, pastel; Sharon & Steve Frykman, glass & metal: Paul Donhus, stone; JD Jorgenson, ceramics; Natalie Sobanja, ceramics; Brittany Foster, jewelry; John Books, bronze and Maryl Skinner, mixed media.

There are a number of other studios that are open for this tour, including plein air painter Neil Sherman, who will be exhibiting his paintings on the outside of his house in rural Hovland, weather permitting, and Dan & Lee Ross, a favorite of the Crossing Borders Studio Tour, which ended last year.

And this is just a taste of what people can see starting next Friday, Sept. 29. One of the nice things about this studio tour is that is last for 10 days, giving everyone plenty to time to visit the 14 studios/galleries on the tour.  To see the complete list, click here. And to see a map, click here.

Painter Kat Corrigan will be the featured artist at Sivertson Gallery through the Fall Studio Tour with her exhibit, “Mostly Otters.”

She will give demos at the gallery from 1-3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 30, and talk about her work at a Fireside Chat at 6 p.m. on Saturday. By the way, Sivertson Gallery ‘s Inuit Premiere is Oct. 14 this year, throat-singers included. Stay tuned for details.

Window Shopping:

 

 

 

Here’s the music for the week:

Thursday, Sept. 21:

• Gordon Thorne, Gun Flint Tavern, 7 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 22:

• Briand Morrison, Voyageur Brewing Co., 4 p.m.
• Portage, Grandma Ray’s, 6 p.m.
• Dead Pigeons, Gun Flint Tavern, 8 p.m.
• Michael Monroe, Bluefin Grille, 9 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 23:

• Common Ground, Voyageur Brewing Co, 4 p.m.
• Pete K, Cascade Lodge Pub, 7 p.m.
• Michael Monroe, Log Cabin Concert, 7 p.m.
• Eric Frost, Lutsen Resort, 7 p.m.
• Pat Donahue & the Prairie All-Stars, Arrowhead Center for the Arts, 7:30 p.m.
• Plucked Up String Band, Grandma Ray’s, 8 p.m.
• Dead Pigeons, Gun Flint Tavern, 8:30 p.m.
• DJ Beavstar, Papa Charlie’s, 9:30 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 24:

• Mysterious Ways, Gun Flint Tavern, 8:30 p.m.

Lots of photos this week. Let’s start with wildlife:

 

 

And then there are mushrooms:

 

And there were storms:

 

 

 

 

And calm, beautiful days:

 

 

 

 

And flashy nights.

 

 

And fall colors:

 

 

 

And serenity:

 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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