Among the other various artists featured on the Moosetletoe Studio Tour on Oct. 19, one of the stops will be unlike the others — in that it is located in the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery Gift Shop, rather than in a studio.
The idea is to feature all of the artists who currently have work available from the Gift Shop, as nearly all of them have ties to Moose Jaw in some way.
Three featured local artists will even be taking over the lobby of the Gallery with a sampling of their work, to go along with the pieces they already have featured in the Gift Shop.
Russell Mang, a watercolour artist known for his expressive landscapes, will be set up and working on one of his new paintings, while also welcoming discussions about his work and technique. Mang is a local painter, and the focus of one of the MJMAG’s gallery shows this winter.
Caroline Betker will also be there, with a larger selection of her glass beadwork. Betker designs her own beads, melting coloured glass to create each piece, which she then uses in jewellery and decorative handles for pens, paper cutters, cheese knives, and magnifying glasses, among others. She will have a video demonstration with her, showing her process of melting glass and shaping it.
Heather Grover has also promised to display more of her quilted artwork and silk scarves as well. Grover works largely with textiles to create incredible depictions of nature scenes out of fabric scraps. She will also bring along some of her larger pieces — wall hangings and books in which each page is stitched and quilted — that aren’t available at the Gift Shop.
Each of the three artists will be available to mingle and answer questions about themselves, just like any of the other stops on the tour.
Marg Bertsch, manager of the gift shop, chose to approach these three artists for the tour in order to create a little variety for this year’s visitors. She was looking to feature some mediums outside the pottery and painting mainstream.
“We try to feature something that isn't at the other stops along the way, . . . something that isn’t on the tour elsewhere,” said Bertsch. “We try to feature Moose Jaw artists as well.”
The rest of the tour features eight more Moose Jaw-based artists, many of which have their work displayed in the Gift Shop as well.
More information on Caroline Betker can be found on her website, and Heather Grover has a Facebook page dedicated to her work.
