Open Studio Tour: Susan Minier

Continuing on our series of Open-Studio Tour introductions, artist Susan Minier will display her custom designed functional art for the home using fabric and collage.

"Residing in New York's Hudson River Valley, I love the freedom of being a full-time artist. Since I began my adventure with fabric collage in 1994, I have enjoyed creating vibrant landscape and flower collages. Later, I learned how to make beautiful floorcloths, table runners and placemats using acrylics, faux painting techniques, and collage. Sharing these techniques, I regulary lead workshops in these areas."

Susan's educational background includes graphic design at Broward Community Collage in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and fine art at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL. Her artwork has been shown in numerous group exhibitions on the East Coast. Since 2008, three were solo shows including an exhibit at the Woodstock Artists Association in Woodstock, NY.

All images and quote were taken from Susan's website http://www.susanminier.com/. To see how Susan Minier creates her exquisite works, be sure to stop by her studio in Highland Mills as you explore the riches of Orange County's artists and craftspeople.

Along the Studio Tour: Clayton Buchanan

The Open-Studio Tour, will feature nearly 40 Artists, each artist is incredible in what they do all are very different from each other, from Painters to Sculptors, Photographers to Craftsmen. We even have a dance studio on our tour. We want to bring people in to see who is in Orange County, and the delightful things they create.

Clayton Buchanan is another fellow artist that is going to be seen with in our County-Wide Open Studio in October. Clayton Studied Impressionist Painting with Henry Hensche, Provincetown, MA, 1968-1974, Worked in the Graphic Arts Industry for 30 years and is now painting full time. Clayton who is very well known for his pastels, creates wonderful vivid in color pieces. His work is described as Colorful, Realism and he has some exciting new artwork in preparation exhibition.

"I paint the real world" says Buchanan, "- those endless combinations that we see everyday. The spontaneity and natural fitting together of colors and shapes is a remarkable learning ground." His goal in painting is to comprehend and interpret what is in front of him and share his vision. "Composing those colors and shapes drives me from painting to painting and I am always searching to do it better - to capture that intrinsic mood, that fleeting moment of recognition when light gives birth to the poetry of color."

All Photos and Quotations were taken from his website, http://www.claytonbuchananart.com/. If you want to see more of his work he has a link to his great profolio, and if you have any questions to ask him, he has placed his contact info for anyone who wants to speak to him.

A New Idea for Creative Contacts

Every artist has that pile in their house. The one of old paint brushes, scraps of paper, maybe some ink that you might use one day. And that pile sits there growing, like a junk pile in any other household times a hundred (or far more depending on the artist). The next meeting of the Creative Contacts series on August 27th is a way for artists to not only clean out that pile (or for the real packrats, just make it a little lighter) but help other artists in the process.

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For everyone who doesn't know, Creative Contacts is "a series of artist networking events that encourage collaboration, cooperation and sharing resources is "a series of artist networking events that encourage collaboration, cooperation and sharing resources." It gives artists a chance to meet other artists in their area, make contacts to help them proffesionally and creatively. For this meeting, in addition to artists getting a chance to network with other artists, there will also be an opportunity for artists to share old art supplies that they're never going to use but may be a treasure to someone else. Everything artists bring and take to the meeting is free.

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This is also an opportunity to get inspired by what others think of as junk, what might just sit in a closet or get thrown away. Maybe you make your masterpiece using someone else's collection of old shells or discarded pieces of fabric. Maybe that old instrument that stopped working thirty five years ago is exactly what you need to finish your sculpture, or that interesting piece of wood is enough to inspire your next poem.

For more information about this event, or to tell us that you're attending, click here or e-mail us at info@ocartscouncil.org.