Valerie Ashton

News from Valerie Ashton 

"I have just completed ( and passed,yeah!) the 14 week intensive (very intensive) graduate arts program, Studio Process Advancement, in Haliburton. This was a wonderful program with a lot of homework, seminars, presentations and studio time. While there I worked on a series based on the theme of Home, using used objects as my medium, coffee filters, tea bags, bottle caps and beer cans.

These pieces will be hanging in my studio during this year’s tour along with some rolled prints also made during the course."

Make sure to stop by Valerie's Studio #11 and see this work 

Also at this location is Jara Niekraszewicz

Sketchbook Project

Three of our members have participated in the Sketchbook Project  

"The project is an independent Brooklyn-based company that organizes global, collaborative art projects. Our flagship endeavour is The Sketchbook Project, a crowd-sourced library that features 33,844 artists' books contributed by creative people from 135+ countries."

Allison Bullock participated in 2013 and here is the link to her book
Diana Bullock participated in 2014.... the link to her book

In 2015 Diana created another book  ..... the link to this sketchbook  
and Grace MacPherson created a book also ..... the link is here

These books all become part of the permanent Sketchbook Project in Brooklyn, New York however this coming weekend the books created in 2015 will be part of a mobile library that will be visiting the GTA. If you are in Oakville Ontario or the Distillery District of Toronto make a point to stop for a few moments and check out this unique collection. This is the last year the mobile library will be travelling to different locations. In the future the books will be available to view in Brooklyn or on line. 

More information is here August 27th in Oakville and August 28th - 30th in Toronto 

Grace MacPherson (C) 2015

Diana Bullock (C) 2015

It's a family affair

Interesting fact about our Tour..... for some of our members it is a family affair

This year
at Studio # 11 mother and daughter
Valerie Ashton and Jara Niekraszewicz

and at Studio #15 three generations
Grace MacPherson, Diana Bullock and Allison Bullock

Studio #16 has husband and wife
Margaret Grandison and Ray McNeice [son James Wilkes on sabbatical in 2015 rounds out this family of artists]

and at Studio # 20 husband and wife
Vladmir Lopatin and Olena Lopatina

Make sure to stop by and see the work of these talented families ....it's a family affair!

Sara West

Introducing 

Sara West

Sara West was born and raised in Newmarket, ON.  Her love of drawing began at a very young age Her favourite subjects are animals.

After taking a class in airbrushing Sara started her business Air Art. In the beginning she created T-shirts and small carpets for craft shows and The 400 Market.  This led to bigger jobs and a full time career.

Sara's projects include wall and vehicle murals, people and pet portraits, wood cut out displays, signs, art on slate and much more...

From simple cartoon to highly realistic, Sara's work compliments thousands of businesses and homes in the GTA and beyond.

Sara is now married, started a family and moved to Cedar Valley. She is looking forward to getting back into full swing and participating in the Stouffville Studio Tour!

Make sure to visit her Studio location #2  on this years Tour and for more information visit her website www.airart.ca

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Lis Simpson

Our longtime Studio Tour member Lis Simpson shares what is keeping her occupied this summer 

Metal Etching Class

During the summer I like to explore other media other than my glass work.  So last week I took a class in Metal Etching.  It was fun, and I learned a lot by making mistakes – “what not to do” stays in my head longer!  LOL!

We used ferric chloride as the etchant and Sharpie markers, stickers and tape for the resist.  Here’s my copper piece, after design created and after etching and clean-up.

I also did a piece on thin brass (have you heard of Shim in a Can?).  I used a rubber stamp for the seahorse and tape for the rocks.

I might not do this again, because I have worked in the metal clays – both copper, brass and silver.  They are so much easier to work with and get good texture happening.

Some of my small completed pieces 

Summertime is great for exploring and doing activities “out of the box”!

Thank you Lis for sharing!

Make sure to visit Lis at Studio #13  on this years tour. 

She is a guest artist at Sandra Cole Burke's location.