Category Archives: artist profiles

Sue Pariseau, potter, talks about function and beauty

Posted on October 13, 2015

I’m a maker of functional stoneware pottery – plates, bowls, bakers, serving dishes and an incredible number of mugs.  I get a great deal of satisfaction when I see my pieces in use on someone’s table and my favorite is when I hear someone say one of my mugs is their “go-to” mug for their morning coffee. Yet at nearly every sale, at least one customer while carefully cradling a piece that caught their eye will tell me they’d be too afraid to actually use such a beautiful piece of pottery every day for fear of damaging or breaking it.  … Continue reading →

Studio 10, Paintings, pottery and Jewelry!

Posted on October 12, 2015

Studio number 10 features artists Julie Fakler, Dianne Lockerby, and Jillian Steger. Julie creates vibrant original one of a kind domestic animal paintings and pet portraits. Julie paints custom ordered pet portraits ask her for details when your on the artour. Dianne Lockerby creates one of a kind functional stoneware pieces to use on your serving table. Dianne also creates non-functional leaf masks for your walls. Jillian Steger loves the materials and colors that she uses to make her jewelry. Hand cut stones, vibrant piece of leather, shine of silver all give Jillian great joy as she creates her jewelry.  Stop … Continue reading →

Mark Daehlin Introduces a new line of Paintings

Posted on October 8, 2015

Hello, Artour Members and Patrons! I’m very excited this year, as I will be introducing a new line of small tabletop paintings.  I’ve always been fascinated with the miniatures the Masters made from time to time.  Their meticulous paint application and precise imagery are amazing.   My new images are 3×3 ” up to about 4×6″ images applied on 1/2″ thick board, mostly in acrylics with a semigloss clear coat. Each comes with a prop so it stands up and is perfect for that small spot on the shelf or mantel.  Most are miniature versions of my large airbrushed skies/oceans/mountains, … Continue reading →

Painter Fred Sommers talks about what inspires him

Posted on October 5, 2015

Fred Sommers writes: To me this season of lavish beauty breathes PRAISE. I see the gold as it reflects pure light, far brighter than the lightest artists pigments available and it helps me praise.   After a summer of traveling and teaching, I am enjoying time in the woods and along the streams near Northfield. I am often in awe during the “between” seasons like these days between summer and fall when brilliantly colored leaves fill both the trees above and paths beneath our feet. When leaves are floating on water, they hold me to the earth while the reflections … Continue reading →

Kathy Miller, water color artist, prepares for the tour

Posted on October 2, 2015

I love fall, a season of great beauty, a season of great change.  Leaves make their gradual but steady shift from the luscious greens of summertime to the warm rusts, crimsons and golds of autumn.  Apples, squash and pumpkin are ripe for the picking.  And the crisp, cool edge in the air makes for pleasant walks in the Arboretum. A lot is going on in the studios of dozens of artists in and around Northfield as well, as painters, potters, weavers, jewelers, artists of all types prepare for the upcoming South Central Minnesota Studio ArTour.  The dates are Saturday, October … Continue reading →

Preparing for the Artour

We are just over 3 weeks out from the 10th annual Artour (October 18 & 19)and our artists are hard at work making art and getting their studios ready.   Some, like Glynnis Lessing, have just returned from art fairs and must create more work. Others are excitedly preparing for their first Tour, like the guest artists at her studio. Glynnis has a busy art fair schedule all summer and has had to make enough work between each event for the next fair. Usually there are about 3 weeks between events.     This means throwing and trimming her porcelain … Continue reading →

A quick tour of Kip O’Krongly’s amazingly neat and tidy studio.

  It’s always fun to see other artists’ studios- that’s the philosophy behind the tour! Where do people create? What inspires them and how have they arranged or adapted a space to work best for them? Kip’s studio is upstairs in her house and is amazingly neat and tidy for a potter who works with a dark clay like Terra Cotta. Kip does a lot of work with  stencils and has evolved from hand-cutting out reusable stencils from thin plastic to using a stencil cutting machine called a Silhouette Cameo which has given her a lot more flexibility in sizing and … Continue reading →

New Artists Join the ArTour!

Posted on August 15, 2013

The tour is back!  Hey ArTour fans, planning has been underway to bring you another wonderful ArTour this fall. We hope you are making plans to go back and see your favorite artists but also see who’s new! Here are our New artists: Toni Easterson- textiles Joan Herzog- painting Kip O’ krongly- ceramics Glynnis lessing-ceramics Diane McDonald-Painting and Patricia Mazurkiewicz-painting. Additionally, the brochure is going to change a little! It will offer a new layout with the  idea of a tour within a tour. That is, if you want to only look for Ceramics, all the ceramic artists will be grouped together.  … Continue reading →

A Kiln Collaboration

Posted on October 18, 2012

There’s a Christmas-like atmosphere about once a month out at the old Halling kiln.  We opened the cooled kiln yesterday to finally view our transformed pots.  Five days ago we put in our bisqued pots, which were covered in various glazes. Then, a few days later, after a day of turning that brick box into a veritable inferno, we open it up to find, voila — our finished, gleaming, colorful pots! This October three local women potters collaborated on the filling and firing of the kiln: Barbara Zaveruha (functional stoneware), Juliane Shibata (sculptural and functional porcelain) and newcomer, Glynnis Lessing … Continue reading →

Studio ArTour Artist Profile: Fred Somers

Posted on October 11, 2012

The eighth annual Studio ArTour is coming up in Cannon Falls, Northfield and Faribault in just 10 days. I want to share about some of the fabulous artists you can meet October 20 and 21 (Saturday and Sunday) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. as the 10-day countdown begins. Pastel Painter Fred Somers Fred Somers is a force in the world of pastel painting—not just here in flatland—but nationwide. He was the first place winner in the Landscape Division of the American Artists’ Magazine Best Art of 2011, published in their January 2011 issue. Just last month he received the … Continue reading →