Local Color Studio Tour takes public inside process
Daily Inter-Lake | UPDATED 12 years, 4 months AGO
<p>Nate Adoretti demonstrates how to add color to glass by rolling a dollop of glass into a small pile of crushed glass grains on Sunday, September 16, at the Lee Proctor studio in Bigfork.</p>
<p>From left, Sheri Trepina talks with Roseanne Bloom of Kalispell and Marilyn Roberts of Big Arm as they tour her studio on Sunday, September 16, in Kalispell.</p>
<p>Brain Moore, a glass artist at Lee Proctor's Studio, works adding a color detail to a small piece Sept. 16, 2012, in Bigfork during the 2012 Local Color Studio Tour. The studio is part of the 2013 tour as well.</p>
<p>Shelle Lindholm of Smith Valley poses for a portrait outside her studio on Sunday, September 16.</p>
<p>Detail of a mixed-media canvas on display in Celinda English's Studio on Sunday, September 16, in Kalispell.</p>
<p>Visitors gather in Lee Proctor's Studio of a demonstration on glass blowing on Sunday, September 16, in Bigfork.</p>
<p>Sheri Trepina holds a piece of rice paper as she discusses how she makes her mixed-media pieces on Sunday, September 16, in Kalispell.</p>
For the third straight year, Flathead Valley artists and artisans took part in the Hockaday Museum of Art’s Local Color Studio Tour.
The free tour, which took place Saturday and Sunday, invited the public to travel to several of the valley’s many artist workshops, where they could watch artists and artisans practice their skills. Participating artists were skilled in a variety of media, including glass, sculpture, pottery, buckskin clothing and painting with everything from oil to watercolor to acrylic.
The tour included studios in Bigfork, Columbia Falls, Kalispell, Lakeside and Whitefish.
Participating artists included Lavonne Burgard, Jane Latus Emmert, Celinda English, Dawn Duane Evans, Margaret Graziano, Tabby Ivy, Ardith Karlsen-Scovel, Kris Kramer, Karen Leigh, Shelle Lindholm, Robert Markle, Gini Ogle, Lee Proctor, Elaine Snyder, Sheri Trepina, Sherry Wells and Julie Wulf.
Trepina, who has been an artist for two decades and moved to the valley more than two years ago, took part in the tour for the first time this year. To be eligible, artists must have private entrances to their studios, she explained, so after she and her husband poured a patio and made a separate entrance to her Kalispell workshop, Trepina was able to join the tour.
“It was a lot of fun talking to people who were really interested in my work,” she said.
The one downside to the tour, she said, is that as a hosting artist, she was unable to visit other studios.
A steady stream of traffic kept her busy over the weekend. Trepina said she saw a mix of artists, Hockaday members and members of the general public.
“A lot of people look at the picture of your art in the flier and decide whose technique they want to look at,” Trepina said. “Some decide to go to these artists because they’re close to my home. But a lot chose me specifically. That makes you feel good.”
Some people even showed up at Trepina’s studio for both days of the tour, she added.
“That was rewarding,” she said. “I’d definitely do it again.”
