Hillsborough Gallery of Arts Hosts Preview Exhibition for Orange County Artist Guild Open Studio Tour

AS EVENING FALLS by Lolette Guthrie

The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts (HGA) will host a preview event on October 26^th, featuring the work of many of the artists participating in the Orange County Artist Guild (OCAG) Open Studio Tour.  Among the more than 70 artists on the tour are eight Hillsborough Gallery members: Linda Carmel,Garry Childs, Chris Graebner, Lolette Guthrie, Marcy Lansman, Eduardo Lapetina, Pat Lloyd and Pringle Teetor.

Linda Carmel, an experienced tour participant, says,  "I love welcoming guests to my studio and having an opportunity to show more of my work and explain my process."  Carmel shares her studio space with glass blower Pringle Teetor. “Our work shows well together,” says Teetor. “Some people come to see my work and enjoy meeting Linda and hearing about her process and some come to see Linda and her work and are pleased to see my glass and hear about something they are unfamiliar with. We make a good team.”

 Chris Graebner will be on the tour for the second year in a row. “Last year I enlarged my studio, which meant that for the first time, I had enough space to be on the tour,” Graebner says. “I wasn’t sure what to expect. Some people just wanted to come and look, others wanted to talk. I enjoyed answering questions and talking to visitors about my work or their own. I’m always happy to share what I’ve learned over the years and to learn about new materials and techniques from other artists or beginning artists. Painting is a lifelong learning process – each canvas teaches you something new.” 

Lolette Guthrie, whose abstract and landscape paintings have many devotees, says, “I’ve been a member of OCAG for four years and have participated in the open studio tour each year. I find it an exhilarating experience.  I am constantly amazed and humbled by the great number of people who are willing to travel long distances to come on the tour, by how interested they are in what I do, and by how knowledgeable so many are about art. It’s especially gratifying to meet other artists who are so willing to share their knowledge.”

Eduardo Lapetina says his open studio this year will feature his color-field abstract paintings, which he says he creates with techniques he’s worked out himself.  Using those techniques, he starts a painting without knowing what the end result will be.  

Marcy Lansman, whose watercolors are well-known to HGA visitors, says, “my studio is my living room. I love having people come by during the Studio Tour. I feel they get a better sense of who I am as an artist by seeing my paintings in their native habitat.
For the past several years, I have shared my "studio" with Dale Morgan during the tour. She paints realistic and fanciful animals; I paint flowers, mushrooms, and leaves. We feel that our work is complementary.”

For HGA wood turner Pat Lloyd, the tour provides an opportunity to introduce visitors to the art of wood turning.  She says of her visitors, “there are so many questions: where do you get your wood; how do you get it so smooth; what finish do you use; how long does it take; how do you do "that" (fill in the blank)? Throughout the four tour dates, my husband, Wayne Peterson, and I will be turning wood and spraying wood shavings while we demonstrate the process of converting a tree into a finished bowl for your dining room table. In addition, we have a gallery that will be filled with the latest crop of finished turnings.”

HGA will host the preview reception for the Studio Tour on Friday, October 26^th from 6-9 p.m. The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts is located in the Mercantile Building at 121 North Churton Street, in Hillsborough, NC.  For more information, visit the gallery Website at www.hillsboroughgallery.com.  

The 18^th Annual Open Studio Tour will be held November 3^rd and 4^th and November 10^th & 11^th from 10am-5pm Saturdays and 12 noon-5pm Sundays.  

Tour brochures with maps will be available at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts as well as many other locations across the Triangle.