Greene County Council On The Arts

Members of the Tivoli Artists Co-op, based in the Dutchess County town of Tivoli, will be showing a wide variety of artwork at the Mountaintop Gallery in Windham from Jan. 16 to Feb. 22. The co-op, which has 35 members currently, was founded in 1993 after local artists experimented with a holiday show in a vacant storefront in Rhinebeck the prior winter.

“Being in the co-op is a motivating force behind staying active artistically,” says Dea Archbold, secretary of the group over the past few years. “It also gives me access to numerous opportunities for gallery exposure along with the support of an artists’ community.”

The artists in the co-op include painters, sculptors, jewelers, photographers, potters, poets and performance artists. Most of the artists work in more than one medium, making each exhibit unique and unprecedented. Since its inception, the Co-op has built a reputation for excellence and enjoys recognition for its stimulating exhibits and related events. The works in the show at the Mountaintop Gallery will highlight that energy and diversity.

Co-op artists in the show include Dea Archbold, Dot Chast, Marie Cole, Kurt Holsapple, Richard Lisle, Janet Jappen, Ann Moring, K. Velis Turan, Mary Untalan, Karl Volk, Nancy Yu and Barbara Walter.

“The Tivoli Artist Co-op is a wonderful community of artists,” explains K. Velis Turan, a Greene County artist. “We are all looking to get our work out into the world. Some are novices, just starting out on their art path and others are very skilled artists looking for a wider audience. It's a great place to come together with people from many different walks of life, working in many a variety of mediums, all with a common goal.”

Another Greene County artist, Dot Chast, was honored by the Greene County Council of the Arts for her lifetime contribution to art in the upstairs Catskill gallery in 2008.

“After many years of creating art,” Chast says, “I am able to place work in almost every show at the Tivoli gallery. The fellowship and encouragement from artists at the co-op keep me painting.”

The co-op is self-governed by committees and by-laws. Every member pays annual dues and has an equal voice. All the artists take turns sitting at the gallery and curating the shows. Artists also volunteer for administrative assignments, such as new membership, web-site management, or acting as treasurer.

Each year about a dozen exhibits of varied scope and subject are mounted at the Tivoli gallery. Themes for exhibits in 2010 include two shows that also double as fundraisers for the gallery: the “Erotica” show in February and the “Food” show in June. These fun events raise money to keep annual dues as low as possible. Other themes for the 2010 season include “3”, “The Dark Side”, “Words and Music”, and “Circus”. The gallery also has exhibits of small works, landscapes and the holiday show to round out the year.

“Starting late as an artist, as a second career, the co-op has given me the boost to mature quickly,” says Barbara Walter. “I am currently working on a series of acrylic paintings about northern Greene County where I live. The works show the beauty of rural upstate New York. They also depict historic context of our small towns and hamlets while providing a window into the present.”

Walters will have several landscapes from this series in the Mountaintop exhibit.

Mary Untalan, a landscape painter who is showing several 5x7-inch paintings at the Mountaintop Gallery, has enjoyed the challenge of working small.
“When working on such a small scale, you actually see more abstractly—simplifying the scene to more geometric patterns and grouping areas together," she noted. "I like the intimacy of a small painting.”

Marie Cole will have larger plein air  landscapes in the Mountaintop exhibit.
“One of the series of oil paintings I’ve been working on for the past few years are large-scale landscapes of the Hudson Valley in winter, and I’m really looking forward to the snow this year. The cold weather of winter is an especially exciting time to paint in the valley. It is a challenge to see how much color can be found in the landscapes now.”

Landscape paintings will just be one part of the Co-op’s Mountaintop Gallery show. Dea Archbold is showing her work with traditional leaded glass and kiln-fired glass painting techniques. Another artist, Kurt G. Holsapple, will be showing his wood and stone sculptural pieces, while fiber mixed media art works by K. Velis Turan are also on tap. Join us for an opening reception on Jan. 16, 2-5 p.m.