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| Vermont Flower Farm by Gill Truslow |
Keene’s
54th annual Art in the Park returns Labor Day weekend
by Nicole S. Colson
It’s time once again to gather under the tents
along the Ashuelot River, where artists from far and wide converge to show off
their latest projects. The 54th annual Art in the Park happens over Labor Day
weekend, opening Saturday, Sept. 1 (the same day as the Keene Music Festival
downtown) and continuing Sunday, Sept. 2, at Ashuelot River Park on West Street
in Keene.
As has been the case for the past handful of years,
spaces filled quickly this year, meaning there will be more than 85 artists
displaying and selling work spanning a variety of media. On the list are
watercolor, oil, acrylic, pastel, sculpture, mixed media and photography. The
event, hosted by the Monadnock Area Artists Association, will feature a dozen
brand-new artists.
Among them is William C. Turner, a realist oil
painter. He refers to his latest series as “anthropomorphic vehicle portraits,
bringing new life to old, forgotten relics of the past.”
Turner’s vivid works make rust, dents, broken glass
and peeling paint on snowplows, dump trucks and tractor cabs look beautiful.
Painter Linda Mahoney will be showing the color
woodblock prints she began creating four years ago. She employs a Japanese
watercolor woodblock printmaking technique to translate her ideas, born from
her hobbies — her favorites include hiking, kayaking, skiing and bird watching —
into art.
Another new face at Art in the Park this year will
be Cheryl Z. Miller, whose fabric collages are inspired by her love of quilting
and her interest in land preservation and supporting local organic farms.
One of the many artists returning to the event this
year will be Kathrine Piper of Keene. She normally works in acrylic paint,
using an interesting technique mapping out her images using a grid. This year,
she has been experimenting with different media. In some of her new
eye-catching and colorful pieces, she uses unusual materials, including
magazine cutouts, tissue paper, thread and buttons depicting slogans and
graphics from her childhood collection.
u The Monadnock Area Artists Association will
present the 54th annual Art in the Park Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 1 and 2,
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Ashuelot River Park, West Street, Keene. Refreshments
will be available.
Artists’ work will be judged in five different
categories. Musical performances will take place Saturday at the park gazebo as
part of the Keene Music Festival. Visitors can enter a raffle to win prizes,
with the grand prize being an original work of art of their choice. The grand
prize winner will be announced Sunday at 2 p.m. Proceeds from this raffle fund
the artist association’s scholarship awarded each year to an art student from
Keene High School and Monadnock Regional High School.
For more information, visit monadnockareaartists.org
