Studios & Sketchbooks
I’m joining the Tahoe Art League Studio Tour 2025!
Where: Shelley Zentner Gallery @Untethered Space, 195 Hwy 50, Zephyr Cove, NV
When: August 1 – 3rd 2025, 11 am – 4 pm
Cost: Free
Studio Maps: Contact me for a map. Hard copies will be distributed around town this week. I’ll have a stack too.
More info: Tahoe Art League
Once a year, our Tahoe community enjoys a rare and beautiful event. It’s a weekend of free access to artists’ studios and curated exhibition spaces.
I love seeing where other artists work. It’s like getting a tour of someone else’s mind. Studios and workshops are intimate places where the work of making comes together with ideas, imagination and observation. I don’t get see other artists studios very often these days, being a contented loner. But I’m also quite nosy curious. What can I say? We’re a curious breed.
So this year, I decided to briefly remove my outsider jacket, and join in for a change. My parents would be proud.
Remembering When I First Opened my Tahoe Studio (During COVID)
My closest neighbors and collectors remember this time well. I first opened a window to my world during COVID. It was literally with a mini-exhibition in our living room window.
Locals came and checked out what was on the window easel on their walks, often every day. Sometimes several times a day. So I changed the painting often, happy to provide some entertainment. People started bringing friends. We waved from inside, thrilled to see some faces getting excited about art. The neighbors would also see me painting at the river nearby. They would approach to see what was going on (from a ‘social distance’).
People started buying art, wanting to see more and commissioning their own pieces. I’d just quit teaching to commit full-time to my art career, and then the pandemic hit. It was a lovely surprise success at a weird, scary time
Once we all felt better about being near each other again, I invited local people into my studio. It was sweet to see their eyes light up as they looked at the paintings inspired by places they loved.
And it wasn’t the usual ‘Iconic Tahoe Scenes’ that they wanted to see.
People were really drawn to the weird nooks and crannies of the river. These parts of the forest just feel like home. The subtle spaces. The places you will miss if you don’t see the trail in all seasons.
The places where an important conversation might have happened, or a revelation. Where the dusk light caught an edge of rotting wood, transforming it into a glowing masterpiece of tenebrism.
As they say, you had to be there to understand.
This shared love of the unusual places gave me the confidence to do more.
Since then, I’ve built on the success of those early, informal studio tours at our home.
I needed more space (and less housecleaning, to be honest!) I already had a connection with David and Jamie Orr, co-founders of Cowork Tahoe and Untethered Mountain Workspace. They collect my art, and are passionate supporters of our local community.
I asked them if they’d be interested in a permanent exhibition on their extensive walls, and they said yes!
The rest, as they say is history. I still have a studio at home, but I keep it mostly private now. It allows me to be myself. All my crazy ideas are pasted all over the walls to inspire the next piece. I also work outside a lot, so you could say the forest is also my studio!
For the Studio Tour in August, I’ll have a brand new collection of plein air watercolours to share. They’re rough, raw and honest. Some are tiny, pocket sized. Perfect for ‘guerrilla painting’.
I hope to see some new and familiar faces at the studio tour. I’ll have some demo pieces on the easel to share my process, and sketchbooks to look at. I’m happy to answer any art questions you might have!
There will be free beverages and snacks, of course. See you there!
Sending love,
