A positively packed pop-up gallery

SALISBURY — While it is not uncommon for residents of  Litchfield County to open their homes in the country for a tour around their flowering garden or their newly tiled kitchen to help out a cause, Maggie Cady of the Northwest Connecticut Arts Council explained that the Open Your Eyes studio tour in Sharon and Salisbury was simply a way to “benefit the artists themselves.” 

Now in its eighth year, the free two-day tour of the studios of 31 artists is aided by local sponsors, and was conceived with the idea of shining a spotlight on the many talents in the area. 

Cady hosted a preview party of the tour at the Scoville Library in Salisbury on Sunday, June 11, welcoming a packed room of visitors who met the majority of the artists on the tour ahead of time. 

They also took a pop-up gallery tour of a small selection of work. 

Artist Lilly Woodworth, a veteran of the tour who will once again be showing off her painting and monotype printing studio in Sharon, said the greatest benefit of the preview party was “getting to meet the other artists! The one drawback of the tour is that over the course of the weekend we’re stuck in our studios so we don’t get to go see everyone else.” 

Still, she described her memory of the past tour as “quite remarkable. I was amazed, the last time I was part of it, just how many people visited.” 

Leslie Sykes-O’Neill, who recently crossed the threshold of 5,000 Instragram followers, will certainly have plenty of real followers as she opens the doors of her Lakeville studio for the tour. 

A small-bead jewelry designer, Sykes-O’Neill’s background includes the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, studying silver and designing for a fine jewelry manufacturer in Manhattan before making the move up to Litchfield County and embarking on her own. 

She explained that while much beaded jewelry can fall into the “arts and crafts” style, she uses her background in classical design to bring a tailored, European look to her work.

Tom Goldenberg, whose paintings of the natural world are currently being shown at The Re Institute in Millerton, will show off his brand new studio in Sharon. The project began in December and has only just been completed this spring, right in time for visitors. Has he broken it in yet? 

“The answer is ‘yes, but….’ I’ve only really just started working in it. It takes more time than you would think to get everything ironed out and really working the way I want.” 

Time is unpredictable when it comes to Goldenberg’s paintings. He elaborated that while he might spend a few hours in the studio on a drawing, one work might takes years to finally complete, even a decade or more. 

“It might sound odd to say I’ve been working on a painting for 15 years, but it can happen.”

The free Open Yours Eyes Studio Tour will take place Saturday, June 24, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and June 25 from10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a Toast of the Tour cocktail party held at Lakeville Interiors on June 24 at 5 p.m. for $15. For more information, go to www.artsnwct.org.

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