Being an artist can be a solitary occupation — and being one in the Hilltowns can sometimes make you feel even more isolated.
But this weekend, over two dozen Hilltown artists are joining hands to show their work in an open studio tour, one that they hope will give visitors both a glimpse of the range of talent in the area and an opportunity to make a scenic drive.
It’s the first-ever open studio tour offered in the Hilltown region, and participants hope that it could become a regular event.
“Open studios have become very common in a lot of places, but not here,” said Olwen Dowling, a painter who lives in North Chester. “We think this is a unique event because it also gives people a chance to explore a landscape that really hasn’t changed much in over a century.”
And, added Dowling, “The quality and the variety of the art is really wonderful … I think it’s a great opportunity to share that with the public.”
The tour includes 26 artists in five towns — Chesterfield, Cummington, North Chester, Plainfield and Worthington — and takes place 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. It’s sponsored by the Hilltown Arts Alliance and also includes a small group exhibit and refreshments at the Cummington Community House at 33 Main St. in town.
The artists involved work in a number of mediums — painting, printmaking, ceramics, wood sculpting, photography — and several will be giving demonstrations of their work over the weekend.
Kevin O’Connor, a Worthington architect and wood artist, says the Hilltown Community Development Corporation in Chesterfield hosts a bimonthly art exhibit that profiles area artists, but that the open studio tour will ideally give exposure to a wider range of artists all at once.
And the event’s website (hilltownartsalliance.org) also includes a Google map that will allow visitors to get exact directions from one studio to another, he noted.
“We’ve gone from not even having a website to having this great navigating tool,” O’Connor said with a laugh.
O’Connor, Dowling and other artists note that the event will ideally allow some of other artists to get to know each other a little bit better.
“In a way, I think that’s already happened as we’ve worked on getting [the tour] together,” said Dowling, who has a background as well in theater and arts administration (her late husband, Vincent Dowling, was the founder of the Miniature Theatre of Chester, now the Chester Theatre Company).
Among the participating artists are Michael Melle of Plainfield, who makes life-size sculptures of human figures from sticks, hay and other natural materials; painter Robert Sweeney of Worthington, a longtime Amherst College art professor whose work is represented by William Baczek Fine Arts in Northampton; painter Cyndy Sperry of Chesterfield, a founding member of Northampton’s Oxbow Gallery; and sculptor Beckie Kravetz of Cummington, who also makes masks and other materials for theater and opera companies.
“We think this will be a great way to give a little more exposure to artists and let visitors see a beautiful part of our state,” said O’Connor.
Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.
To see the full list of participating artists and a map to their studios, visit hilltownartsalliance.org and follow the link to the open studios tour.