17th Annual Foothills Artists Studio Tour

(11/24) The 17th annual Foothills Artists Studio Tour will be held November 23 and 24, the weekend before Thanksgiving, at various locations in and around the western Adams County communities of Fairfield, Orrtanna and Cashtown. Fourteen artists will be participating in a special pre-holiday show and sale from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.

Thirteen returning Foothills Artists are excited to welcome back a familiar artist to the tour this year – Erin Brown. Eight different studio locations will feature original paintings, pottery, sculpture, woodworking, photography, printmaking, fiber and textile arts, enamels, jewelry, illustration and bookbinding. See first-hand where the artists create their work and have the opportunity to buy directly from them. For those interested in making purchases, checks and cash are welcome. Credit cards are accepted by most, but not all, of the artists.

This popular, free tour is self-guided and may be completed in any order. The website, www.foothillsartists.net, includes a map of each studio’s location and street address, as well as links to each artist’s individual website. It also includes biographies and artwork examples for each artist. Several of the artists live and work in historic homes.

The studio tour began more than seventeen years ago as a holiday event in conjunction with the Willow Pond Farm in Fairfield. Farm owners Madeline and Tom Wajda along with artists Dorothea Barrick (formerly of Woodsboro and Carroll Valley and the late Sheila Waters launched it along with Jack Handshaw, who gave the tour its name. Handshaw has been participating every year since. In those first years, Erin Brown was part of the tour, as well, and she rejoins the tour this year. Over time, the tour has stretched its wings and has slowly expanded from the Fairfield valley north to Orrtanna and Cashtown.

This year’s artists:

Erin Brown — Erin Brown Art, 43 Water Street, Fairfield. Erin is an artist and art educator who has created whimsical drawings and paintings since graduating from Rhode Island School of Design in 1993. She uses her imagination and nature to inspire her use of color and imagery. She has also focused on capturing the essence of buildings which can be seen in her building portraits.

Daryl Despres — Mountain Woodworks, 59 Ringneck Trail, Carroll Valley. Daryl is a woodworker who has turned his passion into his profession. He creates functional, non-traditional bandsawn boxes using different woods, almost all reclaimed. He prefers to use locally sourced wood or materials given to him by friends.

Andrea Finch – showing at Beech Springs Farm, 784 Mt. Carmel Road, Orrtanna. Andrea creates sculptural quilts of botanical subjects, from realistic to abstract, exploring textile textures. Her botanical obsession began with photographing and creating an arboretum in her yard. She comes to quilt-making from a different angle, letting go of the rules, allowing the fabric to speak through texture, color, and design.

Anne Finucane — showing at Beech Springs Farm, 784 Mt. Carmel Road, Orrtanna. Anne works in a variety of printmaking and other fine art media, and will be showing her etchings and linocuts on the tour. A long-time organizer and advocate for the arts, her work is consistently accepted into juried exhibitions from DC to NYC.

Geoff Grant – Eden Farm, 378 Topper Road, Fairfield. Geoff is an award-winning fine art photographer who finds expression in "painterly" landscapes, graphic street scenes, and candid portraits of people of different cultures, particularly those from his travels in other countries.

Jack Handshaw — Hobbit House Pottery, 1575 Mount Hope Road, Fairfield. An award-winning artist for over 45 years, Jack is a potter working in all forms of clay, particularly reduction fired glazed porcelains, raku and redware. He is a juried member of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, and has been accepted into numerous juried shows. He also shares his art through teaching and demonstrations.

Chris Herbert – Rocktop Bookshop and Bindery, 1229 Old Route 30, Cashtown. A graduate of the Clark University School at the Worcester Art Museum, with 27 years of experience in Book Binding, Chris has the skills to help with any book project from restoring a cherished family Bible, to creating a custom gift book for a loved one.

Sarah Maclay – showing at Beech Springs Farm, 784 Mt. Carmel Road, Orrtanna. Sarah has been creating and exhibiting her work for more than 25 years, with a primary focus on landscape painting. Her work lives in collections across the country and reflects the sense of place she has found in south-central Pennsylvania.

Heidi Myers — Haywire Studio, 260 Orrtanna Road, Orrtanna. Heidi is a

ceramic artist who has been expressing herself with clay for over twenty

years. She enjoys sculpture, slab and hand-building. This year she has continued to explore sgraffito. Heidi's inspirations can be found in the nature that surrounds her Haywire Studio.

Judy Pyle — showing at Beech Springs Farm, 784 Mt. Carmel Road, Orrtanna. Judy makes jewelry in hand-fabricated silver, torch-fired enamels on copper and fine silver. Her new enamel pieces are wearable sculptures. She has been a life-long art educator, as well as a practicing artist. Her most recent small sculptures — enameled items and other found objects — have been juried into national exhibits.

Jóh Ricci — showing at Eden Farm, 378 Topper Road, Fairfield. Jóh is a multi-media artist and instructor who is self-taught in a number of techniques & mediums. An award-winning artist and art educator, she is nationally recognized for her fiber art. Exhibiting in invitational & juried art shows, her work is included in several private collections, numerous magazines and book publications.

Jayne Shord – Beech Springs Farm, 784 Mt. Carmel Road, Orrtanna. Jayne is a photographer, specializing in garden images from her beautiful Beech Springs Farm, as well as from other locations around Adams County and her extensive travel. Her work has received local and national recognition, including from Kodak.

Geoffrey Thulin – Blue Orchard Studio, 1013 Old Route 30, Cashtown. Geoffrey is a watercolor painter specializing in bold animal imagery, landscapes and abstracts. His award-winning work explores color, pattern and rhythm, and their connection to the spiritual aspect of nature. He holds a degree in art from Penn State and has been a professional picture framer for 40 years.

Debbie Westmoreland — showing at Eden Farm, 378 Topper Road, Fairfield. Debbie, a fiber artist, creates needle-felted, one-of-a kind scarves, and wall art. Silk becomes a canvas upon which wool fibers are combined with hand stitching and embellishments, giving her designs unique textures, color, and special effects. Debbie has a background in interior design, curating, merchandising and teaching.