Since 2016 Catskills Folk Connection has been committed to curating and producing an exhibit of Catskills folk art every two years. (One year's exhibit slipped into the following year, but was soon made up.) They have taken place in different venues in Delaware and Sullivan Counties, and each has focused on folk art produced in s single, different medium. Below are examples from each of the five exhibits from 2016 through the planned exhibit for 2024. Plan to visit this year's exhibit, "Folk Art in Fiber", is taking place at the Delaware County Historical Association from October 11 through November 17,2024. .
2016 "Growing Up to Brush":
An Exhibit of Landscape Paintings
at Roxbury Arts Group's Walt Meade Gallery
"Spruceton, Mink Hollow" by Don Strausser Farmscape "The Denver Store" by Nellie Bly Ballard The paintings in this exhibit were by two artists. One was Don Strausser, Westkill resident, and well-known musician, who painted on canvas, slate shingles, tools, an ironing board, and on shelf fungus. Many of his paintings depicted known or inspirational views in the Catskills, others documented the change of seasons in fields "growing up to brush", and still others were imagined or painted from photographs.
The other artist was Nellie Bly Ballard, a Roxbury native, who was famous locally for painting portraits of farms and farm houses, and other features of the community such as covered bridges. Some of her paintings are clearly not local and seem to resemble Currier and Ives-type calendar art. Nellie was sometimes referred to as the "Grandma Moses of the Catskills." Her farm portraits, especially ones painted a few year's apart of the same farm or valley, reveal the encroachment of raspberry bushes, goldenrod, and small trees ("brush") that will soon grow up to cover the hillsides in their succession to forest.
2019 "Folk Art in Stone"
Exhibit at Erpf Center in collaboration with
The Catskills Center for Conservation and Development
"Little Guy" Trout carved by Richard McCormack
Miniature fireplace in stone & copper by Mark Swanberry
The Catskill Center's educator, Katie Palm, now Director of the Catskills Visitor Center's Mt. Tremper NY, contributed her exhibit expertise to plan the installation of "Folk Art in Stone" in the Erpf House center gallery. Thank goodness the artists carried in their heavy works of art!
Mark Swanberry and Richard McCormack live in Schoharie County, both have stone landscaping businesses, and both create art with bluestone. Richard tends to carve animals, fish and birds as outdoor sculptures and flat bluestone pained with scenes of vernacular houses on farms and i communities. Mark carves some outdoor pieces, such as bird baths, but much of his work is smaller, including lanterns, reliefs, and clock faces. These smaller, interior pieces show the influence of his future creations in copper, as you can see in the fiieback of his 5" tall "fireplace" candle holder.
2020 Folk Art in Wood
exhibited at Hanford Mills in their Learning Lab
"Owl" drawn with woodburning stylus "Snow Goose" carved and painted by Joe Dibble
by Kira Lendo.
In the year of the COVID pandemic, Catskills Folk Connection was fortunate to be invited to create our biannual exhibit at Hanford Mills Museum, an outdoor history museum dedicated to portraying life, and especially water power and woodworking, in Delaware County in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Covid protocols prevented school groups from visiting, but the Mill's careful planning and precautions enabled the museum to offer limited visitation for adult and family groups. Catskills Folk Connection benefited by having its exhibit open at the Mill for over 6 weeks in the fall of 202 when many other exhibit venues were still closed.
Kira Lendo, from Ashland NY, developed her own way of drawing using a woodburning stylus to depict wildlife and sometimes flowering plants. She pursues her art for her own satisfaction but sells it occasionally so she can make more. Joe Dibble, of Bovina Center, NY, fell in love with carved decoys and spent many years carving game birds, from woodcocks to swans. His other passion is turkey hunting and he has developed his draughtsman skills with pen and ink, and with pencil and watercolors. Two of his drawings of turkeys accompanied his game birds - and an unusual carving of a brown trout - to this exhibit.
Other exhibitors were Gary Meade, of Fabulous Furnishings in Margaretville, who displayed unique furniture from local wood he processed at his sawmill; Chris Carey from Treadwell, who showed his banjo, handmade from local wood; Dane Scudder from Big Indian who brought a fiddle and a banjo made of gourds (from afar in W.Va.) with wood from his family's farm in Halcott Center; and Joe Hewitt, New Kingston, and Ken Etts, Rixbury, who shared i presenting a whirly-gig type toy that when rubbed turns the propeller at its end. In addition there were two displays of historical wood carvers, LaVern Kelley and Homer Benedict.
2022 Folk Art in Metal
again at Hanford Mills Museum
John Jackson, Jefferson NY demonstrates how An evocative small pieces of a sperm whale by traditional
hi creates his figures from tools and vehicle parts. blacksmith, Lucas Novko, from Laurens, NY.
Once again, Catskills Folk connection's folk art exhibit benefitted from Hanford Mills Museum's public programming by holding its 2022 exhibit for six weeks, this time in the Old Mill building, a tall and rugged space perfect for art in metal. Five artists displayed their work, starting with a wall piece by Mark Swanberry that showed a woodpile drawn on copper (repoussée) . Mark prided other nature-themed copper wall pieces plus his signature hammered copper bowls. Lucas Novko brought examples of traditional styles of polished and unpolished iron kitchen and table implements m the 19th century tradition. He delights in adding slight innovations to tradition-bound designs and added pieces of his own design such as this whale.
Other artists included John Jackson who is a master at seeing critters in something as simple as a hand mixer, and envisioning characters made from musical instruments who are them selves are shown playing other instruments. His demonstration engaged his audience with his imagination as he acquainted them with the raw materials of his art and related it to the finished products on display.
Michael Radu, who has worked professionally casting metal art works for other artists, on his own time creates furniture using techniques he learned from his family's previous generation of metal workers. But Michael favors a different style, unexpected in folk art: mid-20th century modern. He brought a chair made of bent stainless steel pipes, with seat and back of Kevlar, and a circular glass table balanced and held together with taught wire. This unusual folk art (that does not resemble folk "style") caught the eye of a visiting architect.
2024 "Delaware County Folk Art in Fiber"
Mark you calendars for "Delaware County Folk Art in Fiber" opening on October 11 at the Delaware County Historical Association, Delhi, NY, with many different types of fiber and textiles artists, plus weekend demonstrations of their craft and a three-session workshop on tapestry weaving.
For more information call Ginny Scheer, 607-326-4206 or 607-238-9162. E-mail her at gscheer.mcs@gmail.com, and check this blog later.
"Delaware County Folk Art in Fiber" is funded in part by a Delaware County Arts Grant, a program of the New York State Council\ on the Art, supported by Gov. Hochul and the NYS Legislature.
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