The 5th annual Beaverdam Studio Tour will take place on Saturday, October 29, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, October 30, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The tour will feature the artists of Beaverdam Valley along with three guest artists. All studios are off Beaverdam Road, reached from Merrimon Avenue in north Asheville.
Make Me. Lynne Harty, artist
Peggy Johnston of Peggy Ann Johnston Studio prioritizes diversity in her art, exploring a bold variety of media, styles and subject matter. During the tour, her studio will display ceramic sculpture and functional art for sale, as well as paintings, prints, jewelry, fiber work, glass, mosaic and mixed media work. “I can do serious, representational work, but also enjoy creating fun, unexpected, mixed media pieces,” she says. “I tend to work in series, making a number of related pieces, all unique.” This will be Johnston’s first time participating in the Beaverdam Studio Tour, though she is familiar with opening her studio to the public. “I started opening my studio and home and gardens over 20 years ago for the Silicon Valley Open Studio program in California,” she says. “Open studio days have always been the high point of my creative year. The last stage of the creative process is sharing our art with the larger world around us.”
Also new to the Beaverdam Studio Tour, Michelle Marra is an abstract painter who identifies herself as a spirited colorist, alluding to the high level of emotion, energy and luminosity in her paintings. “Acrylic paint and gestural brush strokes create an interplay of seriousness and whimsy in my work,” she says. “Biomorphic forms and lush color relationships are grounded in the natural world, evoking images of wildflower gardens and tangled jungle landscapes.”
Reb Haizlip, a painter and sculptor, has participated in the Kenilworth Studio Tour in the past, but this is his first year as a Beaverdam artist participant. “I joined this tour as a challenge to paint more, and as an untrained artist to push my boundaries and learn more,” says Haizlip, who hopes people will enjoy his studio space as much as his art. “It’s a wonderful space, attached to the house, filled with natural light, flanked by pollinator gardens, and calmed by the sound of falling water.
For my wife and me, it’s our local architectural office, painting studio and all-around creative hub. I haven’t decided how to display the work yet, but it may be throughout the entire house, which is a mid-century gem. And of course, there will be paintings galore.”
For more information including maps and a brochure, visit BeaverdamStudioTour.com.
