By BOB GUSTIN | For The Democrat
Hit the roads in Brown County this October to venture out and see 27 artists in 19 different studios showing off their unique talents and their way of life.
The Back Roads of Brown County Studio will happen the entire month of October featuring a variety of artists from woodworkers to painters to stone carvers to photographers. Last year’s tour was canceled due to COVID-19, but studios are reopening and visitors are invited to go on free self-guided tours. Many studios will require face coverings and social distancing this year.
Days and operations of each study vary, but listings for each studio and a map can be found in a brochure available throughout Brown County and at browncountystudiotour.com.
The studio tour began in 1998. This year’s tour includes a mixture of studios which have been on the tour for many years, along with some new venues. Some artists will be doing demonstrations, and works will be available for purchase at all 19 locations.
T.C. Steele State Historic Site is one of the stops and will offer a discounted admission for those visiting on the tour. All other studios will be open free of charge.
Artists on the tour this year include Kathy Sparks, fiber art; Sidney Bolam, stone carving; Ann McCann, weaving; Juliette Herwitt, painting; Jean Haley, fiber art; Martha Sechler, watercolor and gourd art; Jason Nickel, blacksmithing; DeMaris Gaunt, stained glass; Scott and Jill Stowers, woodworking, food and soap; Amanda Mathis, primitive painting; Evan Knox, jewelry; Dixie Ferrer, mixed media art; Joy Sims, glass art; Lori Morgan, handpainted barn quilts; M.K. Watkins, painting; Mary Burkhart, wooden decor and stone carving; Sarah Noggle, weaving; Sarabeth Noggle, prints and drawings; Robb Besosa, handcrafted furniture; Lory Williams Winford, pastel art; Brad Cox, metal art; Susan Showalter, photography and jewelry; Sandy Binder, alpaca fiber art; Chris and Bob Gustin, weaving; Pete Baxter, woodworking; and Martha Hall Bowman, jewelry and painting.
Learn more about some of the artists on the tour in by reading more below.
Amanda Mathis
Amanda Mathis is one of the founders of the Back Roads of Brown County Studio Tour, and has been featured on the tour since its inception in 1998.
She does primitive painting, also known as folk art or naïve painting, and will be doing demonstrations of her art during the tour. Her first painting lesson came from her mother at age 5, and she has since been trained in traditional fine arts. Her style has evolved through the years, and she’s best known for painting little villages where people are enjoying and being part of nature.
Unless she is doing a commission where specific information needs to be included, everything in her paintings comes from her imagination.
“I know every part of every painting I do,” she said. “I’m living it. Each painting has a story and I know it. If there are people in it, they have names.”
She’s proud of the simplicity of her finished work, and the memories of their own lives people often have when they view one of her paintings.
Brad Cox
A member of the Back Roads of Brown County Studio Tour for 13 years, Brad Cox left the industrial welding world to become an artist more than a decade ago after he became tired of missing events in his children’s lives.
He started slowly at first, experimenting with industrial metal pieces and turning them into whimsical representations of nature. From backyard welding to eventually building his mill and studio 11 years ago, he makes repurposed and recycled metal art for gardens and sculptures.
Years ago, after a profitable crafts fair in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, he decided he could quit his job as general foreman on a crew building aboveground petroleum tanks across the eastern United States, and devote his time to art.
He finds inspiration in nature, turning discarded metal pieces of all types into his vision of plants and animals, and admits he “doesn’t get” many of the more abstract sculptures found in the art world. But a loyal customer base finds joy in his work.
His proudest moments? “Just to be able to quit my job and go around and make people happy and get paid for it.”
Kathy Sparks
Kathy Sparks is a fiber artist who spins yarn from Indiana-grown rabbits or sheep, and it’s either the natural color of the animal, or dyed with foraged or historic, all-natural dyes such as cochineal, indigo or madder.
She produces towels, simple garments, shawls and scarves. She has practiced natural dyeing for almost 50 years.
Now on her fifth year as a member of the Back Roads of Brown County Studio Tour, she will demonstrate natural dyeing on Fridays. She will offer weaving classes on Sunday afternoons for a fee. Contact her for more information on the weaving classes.
“My mission is to take traditions we have had in the past and be able to continue them into the future. And because I have had such great mentors who shared their knowledge, I feel it is my responsibility to pass that knowledge on to others,” she said.
Her equipment includes an assortment of tapestry looms and four floor looms for weaving. He also has seven spinning wheels, ranging in style from antique great wheels to a contemporary electric-powered model.
Lory Williams Winford
Now on her fourth year as an artist on the Back Roads of Brown County Studio Tour, Lory Williams Winford is a pastel painter who specializes in landscapes and nature paintings, and is inspired by living in Nashville. She will be doing demonstrations during the tour.
She uses pastel paints on sand board, and describes her medium like this: Chalk is almost all binder and very little pigment. Pastels are almost all pigment with very little binder. She uses rubbing alcohol to cover some of the harder pastels, then goes over them with softer pastels to get the textures and colors she’s after.
“It’s like painting with butter,” she said.
She takes photos of the landscapes she wants to capture, then paints from the photos. Her inspiration comes mostly from nature, but also from the Impressionists and their style and combination of colors.
“I get satisfaction from taking a photo of an idea and putting it on paper in such a way that it makes it shine and come to life and match the image I have in my head,” she said.
Martha Hall Bowman
As a mental health counselor and music therapist, Martha Hall Bowman includes art and music in her work, and now finds it therapeutic herself.
This marks her first year on the Back Roads of Brown County Studio Tour, offering paintings and jewelry and home décor such as tables, trivets and coasters. She will be demonstrating her paint pouring techniques to visitors, including using dried paint skins as jewelry focal points.
Paint, when mixed and manipulated, makes cells which can look like anything from lace to landscapes, and can be embellished with trees or other things.
“There’s something about the way paint moves,” she said, which allows for creativity to take over. “I’ve always loved creating and making things out of nothing, and things others can enjoy.”
As a child, her parents collected art, and she always loved the idea of art and music and how they can enrich life. In her therapy work, she says it’s satisfying when clients can feel good about having made a work of art.
“I’m excited about being on the tour and living in Brown County and being in this amazing group of artists,” she said.
Martha Sechler
Martha Sechler is a storyteller, performing for audiences at the Brown County Public Library, local elementary schools and elsewhere. And that talent carries over to her artwork, where her favorite watercolor paintings or pieces of gourd art tell a story.
“I like the ones that give you an idea that something is happening or about to happen,” she says of her work.
She began about 50 years ago as a watercolorist, and took up decorative gourd art about 25 years ago. She has been a member of the Back Roads of Brown County Studio Tour for eight years.
Her gourds are often cut open and cleaned out, then become lidded storage containers or household decoration. She often paints, burns, carves and draws on the gourds, and will be demonstrating gourd craft during the tour.
“I like to use the shape and coloration of the gourd to determine what to do,” she said, adding that the gourds themselves often suggest what it is to become.
The view from her studio inspires much of her work, but a recent trip to Guatemala also influenced designs.
Her Impressionist-influenced watercolors are “mostly out of my head” instead of from photos, she said.
“It’s my interpretation of what I’m experiencing, I like to add energy and color.”
Mary Burkhart
Mary Burkhart does a variety of craftwork, including stone carving and wood burning. Her stone creations range from jewelry to garden statues and her woodwork includes toys and home décor.
She has been a member of the Back Roads of Brown County Studio Tour for six years.
Sometimes she combines her stone and wood work for unique creations and she also does calligraphy on stone.
She likes finding items in nature to use in her work, and keeping some of the essence of her finds in the finished product. Often, some of the original stone remains untouched in the carvings, and some of the wood still has bark on it, so that the natural state of the item remains. The found pieces themselves determine what they are going to be, she said, noting that owls have become a favorite finished piece.
She spends her days as a graphic designer, so she gets satisfaction from making something out of what others might see as nothing, such as a rock.
“It’s like a release for me, almost therapy,” she said.
