North Frontenac Back Roads Studio Tour and Culture Days
Among the 33 artists who were showing their work at 20 studios across North Frontenac last weekend at the Back Roads Studio Tour, there was a cluster of four in the Snow Road area, including perennial favourites, textile artist Jenna Rose and cheese maker Jeff Fenwick at Back Forty Cheese, and Sven Schlegel at Mariclaro.
This year there was a new Snow Road-based artist on the tour, Arthur Hannigan of Artizan Knife on Station Road.
Hannigan, who moved to Snow Road with his wife in 2013, and after a varied career, including ownership and management roles at Perth-based Superaje and Storm Internet, has been pursuing a lifelong passion for knife making. He has been selling knives for years, mostly for custom order customers, since setting up his studio at Station Road. He went to his first craft show just a month ago, however, at the Sundance Show in Maberly, and this was his first year at Back Roads.
By the end of the first day, he was very pleased with the response. A number of people who already knew of his work came out, as well as some tour goers who were intrigued.
He makes a variety of knives, with cooking and hunting knives at the forefront. He sources materials from around the world, but is devoted to using locally harvested wood for his handles in most cases.
He said he is always ready to talk to people about knives, and finding the right combination and the right technique for the needs of his customers is his specialty.
At the Snow Road Hall this year, classical realist artist Cheryl Oblinski Nickerson (Oblinick Studios) shared the space with Hanne Quigley of Silent Valley Alpacas. Cheryl's vibrant images were on one side of the wall, and the alpaca fabric pieces from Hanne, both functional and non functional, were on the other.
Hanne said it was a change for her to show at the hall. Silent Valley Alpaca, located not far down the road on the way to Ompah, has usually been where she has shown and always drawn crowds to the farm to see the Alpacas and other animals, but the hall was a good place to focus viewers more on her fabric work, for this year,
She also was showing at the hall as a kickoff to a second, related event to the Studio Tour, Culture Days in North Frontenac. Culture Days is a provincial initiative, promoted by a not for profit corporation, called ONCD (Ontario Culture Days).
Between September 19 and October 12, a series of de-centralised events are taking place across the province to focus on a wide variety of artistic endeavours. In North Frontenac it is based primarily in the Snow Road Hall, although the studio tour itself is a part of it.
It continued at Snow Road on Monday to Wednesday of this week. On Monday, Hanne Quigly demonstrated wood turning, and on Tuesday Joe Clayton from the Nature Natives Art Gallery (Ompah area) did a Q and A about Indigenous artifacts.
On Wednesday, a CNIB Ambassador Dog was at the hall and there was a Tai Chi demonstration.
Culture Days kicks into high gear at the hall this weekend, with opportunities to participate in art creation.
The Culture Days weekend runs from 10am-4pm on Saturday and Sunday at the Snow Road Hall.
Events include: mixed media and paint your own magnet, fibre art felting and a hat display, pottery wheel demo, fermentation know how, neurographic art, photo and art displays, and Indigenous artifacts. Participate in thread painting, knife detailing demo, oil painting in action, dream interpreting, or try out spin art.
Lunch will be available at the petite café, along with home-made desserts. All ages are welcome.
