Another lovely, albeit chilly, afternoon, another section of the Arts Trail.

On Friday, Kathy, Grace and I began the third installment of our adventure at Picton-based Riccaro Jewellery Studio & Gallery where artist Carol Burrill was in the midst of reorganizing her showroom. Carol graciously took a time-out to chat with us as we admired her wide array of delicate earrings and chunky necklaces. She also took us behind the scenes to her workshop. There we learned about stone polishing and cutting—her husband’s specialty—and a process she uses when working with silver called annealing. According to Carol, annealing involves heating and cooling the silver, which in turn makes it more malleable so that can then be hammered or worked into different shapes.

At our next stop, the Red Barns (an artisan’s playground) the topic of annealing came up again as Heather Watson walked us through the hot shop. Apparently, when it comes to glass blowing, annealing involves cooling hot glass slowly in order to relieve internal stresses and to improve its durability.

As a first time visitor to the Red Barns, I was impressed by its size and scope. On top of the hot shop, Heather toured us through the complex’s woodwooding, blacksmithing and ceramic workshops as well as its roomy retail store and still we didn’t see everything there is to see.

In Bloomfield at Angeline’s Restaurant, Inn & Spa we viewed an exhibition of oil paintings by Harlan House a Marysville-based artist probably better known for his work as a potter. Focused on fast food (cheeky considering they’re hanging in one of the County’s finest restaurants), I found the paintings’ lively colours and rich textures nicely offset by the dining room’s brightly hued walls.

We ended our day with Tess Moffat at Windswept Studio, tucked into a small thicket of trees just east of Ameliasburg. The second floor space, flooded with natural light, acts as a gallery, a classroom and a studio—the latter, only when the weather forces Tess out of her garden to work indoors. From small to oversized, the canvases we saw were mostly lush landscapes and florals and had me dreaming about next summer. Driving back to the office while gazing at the County’s snow-dusted scenery definitely felt like a study in contrasts.

Still to come: Covent Garden Fine Art & Gallery, Shattered Gallery/Studio, Elements Glass Studio, Bloomfield Studios and La De Dah Sculpture Studio.

Tags: Arts Trail