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Seventy artists from Corrales and the surrounding area will exhibit, and hopefully sell, their creations during the three-day Corrales Art and Studio Tour September 10-12. Paintings, sculpture, fiber art, ceramics, fused glass, digital art, pastels and photography will be shown,s will one-of-a-kind jewelry and unique wood dowel wall hangings. A preview galleryร‚ย  at Casa Vieja, 4541 Corrales Road, will introduce tour-goers to what lies ahead. The gallery will open Friday, September 10, 1-4 p.m. and be open throughout the weekend 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Maps of participating studios and gallery locations will be available at Casa Vieja along with a tour catalog. They will also be available from a booth outside the Frontier Mart and other shops in Corrales. Or they can be downloaded at CorralesArtsSudioTour.com. The tour is in its 23rd year, continuously except for pandemic-stricken 2020. Works of art will be priced from the $20 range to several hundred dollars.

This yearรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs tour features many who have exhibited in the past and several new participants. Among those returning are Barbara Clark, Krysteen Waszak, Sandra Corless, Susana Erling, Ken Duckert, Jeff Warren, Bonnie Mitisek, Lynne Pomeranz, Sue Ellen Rael, Rick Snow and Juan Wijngaard. In addition to those are, in alphabetical order: Chip and Linda Babb, Laura Balombini, Corky Baron, Michael Baron, Kevin Black, Elaine Bolz, John Boyes, Linda Boyes, Lynda Burch, Barbara Burzillo, Candace Cavellier, Christiane Couvert, Diane Cutter, Linda Dillenback, Amy Ditto, Denise Elvrum, Rex Funk, Myra Gadson, Terri Garcia, Doreen Garten, Renee Brainard Gentz, Tricia George,ร‚ย  Cherrymae Golston, Roger Green, Karla Hackman, Gail Grambling Harrison,

D.L. Horton, Elizabeth Huffman, Paul Knight, Fran Krukar, Urey Lemen, Victoria Mauldin, Sandra Moench, Rita Noe, Jenn Noel, Sharon Patrick, Martha Rajkay, Leah Henriquez Ready, Liz Roberts, Maggie Y. Robinson, Barbara Rosen, Sharon Rutherford, Dave Sabo, Cristina Sanchez, Peggy Schey, Mickie Sharp, Tricia Simmons, Emily Spykman, Ivana Starcevic, Greta Stockebrand, Gale Sutton-Barbere, Chris Turri, Gina Voelker Bobrowski, Ken Wallace and Beth Waldron Yuhas.

Since the tour began, Corrales Comment has featured two or more artists participating in that yearรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs event.They and their artwork have been highlighted in a centerfold photospread and their explanation for their creations have been captured through recorded interview. This year, the featured artists are Paul Knight showing jewelry produced in his workshop and Linda Dillenback, whose paintings often depict succulents, while not neglectingร‚ย  rabbits and otherร‚ย  critters.

This is Knightรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs first year with the studio tour; he will be stationed at Dave Saboรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs studio at the north end of Corrales, rather than at his workshop at the 1.5-acre farm he shares with wife Chris Allen. His metal work is mostly in silver and bronze, but he has produced etchings, illustrations and paintings as well. For the tour, heรขโ‚ฌโ„ขll offer jewelry that can be bought for as little as $25 and other works priced at $300.

The 69-year-old considers himself semi-retired, although he keeps up a routine that some would find grueling. He had recently turned in a report on a field biological survey conducted for the national firm NV5. รขโ‚ฌล“Iรขโ‚ฌโ„ขm doing field studies all the time. I just got done walking two-thirds of the way to Farmington. I run field crews, and I do the reports. I see things all the time that go into my artwork. I get ideas all the time.รขโ‚ฌย The artist, who holds a masterรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs degree in botany, served 10 years as N.M. State Botanist. His graduate work was in paleo-ethnobotany (the identification of prehistoric plant remains, a subject matter that often turns up in his art.

รขโ‚ฌล“In the show, Iรขโ‚ฌโ„ขll concentrate on jewelry. I have a lot of different kinds. I will have material that I have collected from the Triassic time period, and Bronze Age jewelry รขโ‚ฌโ€most people wonรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt know, but probably every single one of their European ancestors, men and women, for 3,000 years wore only bronze jewelry. Gold and silver generally was not available to people, so bronze was the jewelry from about 2,500 BC to about 500 AD.รขโ‚ฌย

Heรขโ‚ฌโ„ขll also show jewelry made from dichroic glass, which has been coated with certain metals which results in high reflectivity, and art pieces from glass as pendants depicting such critters as bees and dragonflies. Those are more recent artforms. รขโ‚ฌล“I started out doing etchings and engravings. Later on, I moved into watercolor, mainly of wildlife that I observed around the country and, to some degree, around the world.รขโ‚ฌย

Knight also produces mosaics and bronze sculpture, large and small pieces. รขโ‚ฌล“I love doing bronzes. I like doing bronzes almost more than anything else, but the cost of making them and then selling them can be prohibitive.รขโ‚ฌย He explained that a bronze sculpture would cost a minimum of $2,000 a foot in height, so if the piece is five feet tall รขโ‚ฌล“youรขโ‚ฌโ„ขre talking about $10,000 just to cast it.รขโ‚ฌย He pulled out some small bronzes, maybe two inches tall. รขโ‚ฌล“I thought about trying to sell some of these, but there is a lot of work in doing something like that. Iรขโ‚ฌโ„ขd probably have to sell that for $200 plus dollars, and itรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs a small item, so Iรขโ‚ฌโ„ขm not convinced that people would want to spend that much on them.รขโ‚ฌย Over the past 35 years, most of his jewelry, such as bracelets and earrings, has gone to family members.

Knight has taken only one art class. รขโ‚ฌล“That was because, I used to fence and I got stabbed with a sword. I had trouble with muscles in my arm, so the doctor recommended art. I took one art class and thatรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs when I started drawing. I had never really drawn anything before that. I found drawing very satisfying.รขโ‚ฌย He tried several media, but found he couldnรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt tolerate chemicals in oil paints.ร‚ย  รขโ‚ฌล“But Iรขโ‚ฌโ„ขm always experimenting with media. The progression has been from pencils to painting, to bronzes to mosaics, etchings, engravings to glass work. รขโ‚ฌล“The only ones of those that I havenรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt done recently are the etchings and engravings. Everything else I still do. For subject matter, it is whatever strikes me at the moment.รขโ‚ฌย A possible new departure is combining bronze with glass. รขโ‚ฌล“I have some ideas on how to do that.รขโ‚ฌย

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Linda Dillenback has shown her paintings during the Corrales Art and Studio Tour for 10 years. Her painting style may be one of the most recognizable among all the exhibitors, given her consistent subject matter, cacti, and a direct, up-close presentation reminiscent of Georgia Oรขโ‚ฌโ„ขKeeffeรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs work. Dillenbackรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs paintings were shown in the Onyxswan Gallery in Old Town until it closed amid the pandemic. She will have four paintings in the Fine Arts Galley at the State Fairgrounds September 9-19. For the last several years, her work has been juried into the Corrales Historial Societyรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs Old Church Art Show.

For the Corrales Art and Studio Tour, she will display at least 15 paintings, most priced between $300 and $525 for the larger sizes. รขโ‚ฌล“I want what I show to be representational of the kind of work I can do. So Iรขโ‚ฌโ„ขm not going to just give away something that Iรขโ‚ฌโ„ขm really not fond of. On the other hand, itรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs really hard for me to part with something that Iรขโ‚ฌโ„ขve worked really hard on, and that Iรขโ‚ฌโ„ขve learned something with. So I think รขโ‚ฌหœOh my gosh, Iรขโ‚ฌโ„ขll never be able to do that again!รขโ‚ฌโ„ขรขโ‚ฌย

A native of rural Kansas, she received little formal art training; the schools she attended offered no art classes. On the other hand, รขโ‚ฌล“What I did during the pandemic was watch a video or two every day about artists around the United States, in all media. So I kinda took a masterรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs class in art. I donรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt know that it improved me any, frankly, but it was inspiring and kept me upbeat.รขโ‚ฌย

She studied portraiture briefly with Deborah Wilcox, which has influenced her work. รขโ‚ฌล“If I can suggest something without putting it down in total detail, thatรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs a big accomplishment. I work on that. You can get so caught up in detail that you donรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt take a nice swipe of paint and put it down and leave it down. What Debbie said was, รขโ‚ฌหœif you take more than three brush strokes, youรขโ‚ฌโ„ขre over-working it. But thatรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs hard to do!รขโ‚ฌย

รขโ‚ฌล“I like to do a lot of cactus. I like to do a lot of faces, especially children and dogs. Rabbits are challenging, and I like challenges like painting fur. I tend to be, but Iรขโ‚ฌโ„ขm working on expressing a certain amount of detail without actually putting it there.รขโ‚ฌย

รขโ‚ฌล“Most artists like to try to capture the personality of their subject, and sometimes itรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs whimsicalรขโ‚ฌยฆ like the way a cow willร‚ย  look at you.รขโ‚ฌย The artist completes around 15 paintings over a yearรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs time, all oils. รขโ‚ฌล“Iรขโ‚ฌโ„ขve experimented with acrylic and watercolor to some degree, but I like oil.รขโ‚ฌย Dillenbackร‚ย  described herself asร‚ย  a slow, methodical painter who likes to fix what may be errors as they come up. รขโ‚ฌล“I like happy mistakes as well.รขโ‚ฌย Her paintings are almost always crisply defined and meticulous in detail, such as the array of needles on cactus. รขโ‚ฌล“Iร‚ย  love colors and Iร‚ย  love patterns.รขโ‚ฌย She has done a few commissioned paintings; a relativeรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs dog and friendรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs horses.

Dillenback has painted most of her adulthood, although not continually. Wherever she lived, she usually found a group of artists with whom she could paint. Asked which artists had the greatest influence on her, she first mentioned Georgia Oรขโ‚ฌโ„ขKeeffe. รขโ‚ฌล“I have many artists whose work I look at to learn from. Talk about simplicity, with George Oรขโ‚ฌโ„ขKeeffe you know exactly what sheรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs painting.รขโ‚ฌย

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