Where Art and Autumn Meet in the Monadnock Region

For artists across the Monadnock Region, fall is more than a season of color. It is a time when the landscape becomes a subject, a source of materials and, in some cases, part of the creative process itself. This fall, studio tours throughout the region will give visitors the chance to see that relationship up close, stepping inside the spaces where local artists paint, sculpt, shape clay and develop ideas inspired by the places around them. Unlike a traditional gallery visit, an open-studio tour allows people to see more than finished work. Visitors may encounter works in progress, test sheets, tools, reference images and the physical spaces where artists spend hours experimenting and creating. Julie Gargan of Monadnock Art said that setting is what makes the experience distinctive. "The artist's studio is really a unique setting, compared to a gallery or museum because visitors see and experience the creative processes the artists use to produce their distinctive pieces," Gargan said. "One gets the sense of dedicated study and experimentation that goes into each piece. It's an intimate setting that allows a connection to the artists themselves." For many artists, that intimacy begins with the studio itself. Painter Marylise Reilly-Fajal said preparing for visitors changes the way she uses her space. "When visitors come to visit you, you clean up the space a bit and make it a welcoming world for people to explore," she said. "It is difficult to remain focused on painting with visitors. You want to greet them, make them feel welcome, so I stop painting, paint less critical sections while I explain my creative process." Her studio is not confined to one room. "My studio, which covers all the first floor and some of our living space, changes depending on the quality of the light," Reilly-Fajal said. "I turn the space into more of a gallery. I don't have a specific studio space." That fluid use of space reflects one of the central ideas behind an open-studio weekend: letting visitors see art in the environment where it is made, rather than only after it has been polished and displayed elsewhere. Watercolor artist Char Russell said a visit to her studio would reveal many of the influences and experiments that lead to a finished piece. "If you came to my studio, you would see that I have different kinds of work in different mediums," Russell said. "You may see that I always have a big piece of watercolor paper next to a painting to test colors and effects sometimes before making marks on the page." Visitors would also see the sources she keeps close at hand while working. "You would see what influences me; other artists' work, photos that relate to work that I am doing presently and my home and its surroundings," Russell said. Those details can be easy to miss when artwork is viewed only as a finished product. Inside a studio, a visitor can see the experimentation behind the work — the colors tested and rejected, the reference materials consulted and the environment that shapes an artist's thinking. For many local artists, the Monadnock Region itself provides much of that inspiration. Reilly-Fajal said the area gives painters unusual access to landscapes and outdoor spaces. "In the Monadnock area, we are fortunate we can go painting plein air pretty much wherever we want, thanks to the generosity of many owners," she said. The region's lakes, gardens and mountains have all become subjects in her work. "I always dreamed of living in a land filled with lakes, so I love painting the landscapes I see around Keene, in watercolors or oils," Reilly-Fajal said. "I started painting gardens because of the Jaffrey Garden Tours and Mount Monadnock when I understood how important that mountain was for everyone living here. This area offers so much to artists!" The landscape influences artists working in three dimensions as well. Shana Brautigam of Rooted in Clay said the woods and gardens around her have become directly incorporated into her pottery. "Being surrounded by so many beautiful natural places has greatly influenced my work," Brautigam said. "I love to walk in the woods and gardens, collecting all different kinds of plants and natural textures to decorate my work with." The influence is not simply visual. Brautigam presses pieces of the landscape directly into clay. "I imprint leaves, ferns, and tree bark directly into the clay surface to create designs and patterns," she said. "My pottery reflects the changing seasons as the plants I use to decorate them change." That connection between art and place is especially visible during fall, when the region's landscape shifts rapidly from green to yellow, orange and red. For some artists, however, the goal is not simply to reproduce what they see. Landscape painter Jim Murphy said his work is rooted more deeply in the emotions a place evokes. "I love talking with people about the joy I find in painting," Murphy said. "For me, painting isn't simply about making a representation of trees and forests. It's about expressing my emotional connection to them." That is also part of what he enjoys about meeting people during open-studio events. "I especially enjoy when a visitor responds to that feeling in a painting, because then the painting has become more than an image of a particular place—it has created a connection between us," Murphy said. That exchange — between artist, artwork and visitor — is what organizers hope distinguishes the studio-tour experience. Gargan said Monadnock Art's tour has expanded significantly over the years, while the region's deep concentration of artists has remained constant. "The biggest change has been the Tour's growth from its early years, to the current 65 studios and 84 artists today," Gargan said. "What hasn't changed is the impressive concentration of artists who are drawn to this region." She said that creative presence has become one of the characteristics that defines the Monadnock area. "There is an undeniable creative force here that has endured for generations, making the Monadnock Region a true haven for artistic endeavors," she said. The timing of studio tours during foliage season also gives visitors another reason to explore the region's back roads and smaller communities. A day of visiting studios can involve moving from paintings to pottery, watercolors to sculpture, while traveling past the same woods, hills and gardens that influence many of the participating artists. Inside those studios, the finished work shares space with the process behind it. A visitor might see leaves pressed into clay, watercolor tests beside a painting or photographs pinned near a work in progress. In another studio, they might learn why a familiar stand of trees means something different to the person painting it. For Gargan, those personal encounters remain at the heart of the experience. "Stepping into an artist's studio can be inspiring and sometimes even magical," she said. "Most of all, we hope visitors make a personal connection with the artists and discover something that speaks to them." For more information, visit fallfoliageartstudiotour.com.