Art show finds a niche

Jeff Green | Oct 08, 2015

The Red Door Studio on Long Bay is holding its first show over the Thanksgiving weekend. The studio is located off the Westport to Maberly road (#36), a location that straddles two successful, long standing studio tours. The Perth Autumn Studio Tour is based in nearby Brooke Valley, and the Westport Fall Colours Tour is centred in nearby Westport.

Until this year the Red Door was a location on the Fall Colours tour, but for a couple of reasons Ingrid Bron, the owner of the property where the studio is located, wanted to start an independent show that still takes advantage of the crowds that attend both tours on Thanksgiving weekend each year.

“For one thing we have always been at the edge of the Fall Colours Tour because we are far from Westport, but more than that I have been hosting some emerging and younger artists each year who are not likely to make a lot of sales, or artists who have larger pieces that are hard to sell, and paying the full studio tour fee was more than they could risk,” Ingrid Bron said.

The solution was to form the Red Door Collective, which uses a different fee structure with a lower up front payment, and try to develop a stand alone event with features that should make it an attractive show for the public to attend.

There are 18 artists who are part of the collective and three guests as well, all showing at the Red Door. They range from well-known Westport painters such as John Shea and Sharbot Lake Sign maker Donna Larocque, to newcomers such as textile artist Kim Fisher, and many others.

The art will be set up in the barn and throughout the property, which is also a hobby farm with an infamous donkey (Murray), sheep and other livestock. There will be music performed periodically throughout the weekend and locally sourced food prepared in conjunction with the Sharbot Lake Country Inn, in addition to the unique artwork on display.

The Red Door collective includes: Meghan Balogh – photographer; Diane Black - sculpture in clay and iron; Steven Boyd - stained glass; Ingrid Bron - salvage art; Jim Craig - jewelry designer; Mary Lou Devine - fabric sculptures; Shawn Donaldson, Abstract painting and mixed media; Martina Field - collagraph prints; Kim Fisher - textile creations; Lynda Johnston - Totally Hooked; Cindy Laneville - mosaic stained glass artist; Donna Laroque - signs and portraits; Douglas MacDonald - cast stone; Jana Osterman - multi-media art; Marguerite Roberts - textile art; John Shea - architectural landscapes; Jim Sprague – woodturning; Rhéni Tauchid - painting; Jennifer White - watercolour painting.

For further information go to Reddoorcollective.ca. The show runs from 10 am to 5 pm, October10-12.