ARTsee's Open Studio Tour Underway Through 5 p.m. Sunday

Twenty area artists again are opening their studio doors throughout Bernardsville and Basking Ridge for the 3rd Annual ARTsee Open Studio Tour, with the free tour that was held on Saturday to be held again through 5 p.m. on Sunday. The popular event this year attracted seven new artists.

The artists’ studio tour was scheduled from noon to 5 p.m. on both that Saturday and Sunday, and is similar to a garden tour or historical homes tour. The public can pick up brochures with maps at any of the locations or download online maps to follow a self-guided to artists’ private workspaces.

The artists will include five at the Farmstead Arts at 450 King George Road, where the tour's co-founders, Caren Frost Olmsted and Gail Mardfin of Bernardsville, have been an active part of that center for area artists.

ARTsee signs will designate the stops. For more details and a free map, visit: www.ARTseetour.com

Those studios contain works in progress, demonstrations, and finished artworks available for purchase. New artists have been added to the tour this year, said a release from the organizers of the tour.

Free, no reservations required

With studios located is picturesque areas of Bernardsville and Bernards Township, the free, self-paced tour is the perfect way for visitors to spend a leisurely early autumn weekend, say the organizers.

No reservations are required and the studio tourists can just show up and enjoy, either or both days, rain or shine.

In surveys sent out to the public after previous tours, the reviews have been nothing short of glowing, the organizers said.

Many comments referenced how ARTsee is filling a void in by offering an amazing hands-on creative experience. 

“We heard consistent feedback from visitors who praised the high quality and diversity of the art work,” reported Olmsted and Mardfin in an earlier release.

"There is something very special about the tour in that talented individuals are opening their homes to observers to become a part of their artistic process," said Kristina Lloyd, volunteer and contact for the show.

Since this is the third year, those attending have started to customize the way they approach the tour and add it to their calendars as a ritual for late September," Lloyd said. 

Seven new artists this year

This year, there are seven new artists on the tour, working with media that includes pastel landscapes, jewelry enameling and expressionistic surrealism to name a few," Lloyd said.

"Our outreach to the general public has grown to include a deeper understanding of the essential role art plays in our lives and in our home towns," Lloyd said.

The co-founders, both artists themselves, said the group is fortunate to be living in an area with a vibrant arts community, and to have a tour that gives visitors the chance to interact with artists directly.

Attendees numbered over 400 in 2011, and in 2012 grew to more than 500, according to the ARTsee Open Studio Tour organizers.

Artists on the tour represent a wide variety of works spanning from traditional oil paintings to abstraction, textile art and new media. This specifically includes: acrylic, alkyd, oil, and watercolor painting, ceramics, collage, drawing, fiber art, gourd art, handcrafted luminaries, jewelry, painted instruments, pastels, photography, mixed media, murals, pressed botanicals and textile art. 

Basking Ridge artists to be displayed include Alex Bigatti, Vicky Knowles, Susanna Kopchains, Kristina Lloyd, Beth Murphy, Caren Frost Olmsted, Bruce Rice, Mahvash Saba, Anjali Shalit, and Anna Vranckx. 

Bernardsville artists on the tour route include: Susan Berry, Brigid Glynn-Young, Patrick Healy, Gail Mardfin, and Mark Thompson.

Farmstead Arts artists include Joanne Devine (from Elizabeth), Anthony Galati (Stanhope), Laurine Gilbert (Bernardsville), Anita McKenna-Murphy (New Vernon), and Frank Pietrucha (Basking Ridge).