Canoe in Spatterdock Woodcut

 Karma Grotelueschen's most recent woodcut features a canoe / kayak on water among spatterdock.  The limited edition print will be available at the gallery.

A few of the prints have been hand colored with oil pastels.

Art is Messy!

On a recent Tuesday, Karma Grotelueschen of Prairie Oak Artisans was sending woodchips flying to carve a woodcut of a canoe among spatterdock leaves and flowers.

 Just a couple doors down on Commerce Street, Bruce Howdle was working on a clay wall mural featuring a child on a tree swing with a rolling Wisconsin valley landscape beyond.  Out back of the Howdle studio, Howdle's student, Henry Graser, was splattering paint onto huge vases that he sculpted recently.  Henry was painting and glazing to finishing up the pots in order to fire them prior to his departure for education at the Art Institute in Chicago.

It was a busy, but typical, day in Mineral Point's art district that encompasses galleries and studios along High Street, Commerce Street, and Fountain Street, and others a little outside the downtown area such as Brewery Pottery on Shake Rag Street and some actually a little out of town, like Windy Ridge Pottery on Route 39.

Wood Strip Canoes by Randy Pfeifer

These canoes are custom made of cedar wood strips bent around a form. The artist glues each strip on individually, using no staples or ties, resulting in a perfect flawless exterior. The wood is covered inside and out with fiberglass and epoxy to render it water-tight and lake- and river-worthy. Gunwale design, seat design, deck design and other details can be individualized, and a number of shapes and sizes are available. Custom inlay work can decorate the sides of the boats, and dark and light strips allow design elements to grace the hull of the canoe. These boats will turn heads, whether on the car roof-top carrier, in the water, or hanging from the ceiling of your home. They are beautiful.