Not Matise

The start of a new season

1-10-12 Coming Next

Margaret's Wall- 1-24-12

It’s back for a new off-season.  Each Monday for the next 6 months we will post a photo of Margaret’s painting wall… You can watch paintings begin, develop and get finished….

Is this a Matise?  No, just Margaret preparing for her January class at Peninsula School of Art.

12-19-20

Cynthia Johnson

Cynthia works in bold blocks of color, abstract but often recognizable as landscapes, still lifes, domestic scenes.  She brings to her work talents as a poet, pastor/ preacher, wife and grandmother, traveler and commentator.

Cynthia has been represented by Woodwalk for7 years and lives in Baileys Harbor.

sort of a Gee's Bend quilt square

All over Door and Kewaunee Counties historic quilt squares are popping up on family farm barns.  They are a celebration of “women’s work” on the farms, often grandmother’s handiwork, and the beauty of the barns.

Woodwalk is no longer a family farm so we are not eligible for the program nut we decided to participate anyway with a square reminescent of the quilts from the Gee’s Bend communiity.

Cherry Orchard

Woodwalk artist Elizabeth Heller will be the featured artist at the new Gallery at Door Peninsula Winery.  Her show will open with a reception 5-7:00, Thursday, December 8.  Come join her foor food, beverages, fun and her beautiful art work.

Remembered Path

After a wonderful summer and fall, now it is into the studio for Margaret.  One commission to Forida, one to Milwaukee, one to Burr Ridge and one to Fox Point.  Sales possibilities in Australia, California, Chicago, Milwaukee and Florida.

from her studio to yours

January 17- 20, 10- 1:00 pm Margaret will teach “Painted Spaces” at Peninsula School of Art.  EAch day she will highlight a historic artist’s approach to space then offer exaples from her own work.  Goup and one-on-one critiques will follow.  A chance togrow artistically with a Door County Master.

Safe Harbor

Join us at Mr. Helsinki’s in Fish Creek, Thursday 5-7,  for the opening reception of Margaret’s show there…  It’s really quite stunning!

Last year's opening

Door County Magazine’s BEST OF… issue will be out soon.  We’re thrilled that readers have voted Woodwalk Gallery, Door Conty’s second best gallery.

The ethereal Door County landscape paintings of Margaret Lockwood will be featured at an exhibit at Mr. Helsinki’s Restaurant in Fish Creek beginning October 16^th, 2011.  There will be an opening reception of the exhibit on Thursday October 27^th from 5 to 7 PM.

Lockwood is known throughout the Midwest for her often large scale abstract paintings of trees, skies and water.   She says about them, “We are surrounded by the beauty of this peninsula with its weathered shores, dramatic skies and mysterious woods.  I take it all in then paint my memories, impressions, emotions and  relationship to them from my studio.  My desire is to capture the spirit of our home and the moments of our lives here.  I try to create welcoming spaces that bridge reality and abstraction.  At some point though my paintings become more about color, atmosphere and space in the abstract rather than about specific landscapes or memories.”

More of Lockwood’s paintings can be seen at her studio at Woodwalk Gallery which will be open by appointment November through April, and is open daily May through October.  Please call  920-868-2912 or go to www.woodwalkgallery.com.  Woodwalk Gallery is located at 6746 County Road G, 5 miles south of Egg Harbor and 2 miles north of Carlsville on Highway 42, just toward the Bay from  Shartner’s Farm Market.

Colette Odya Smith

This month we feature the outstanding work of Colette Odya Smith.  Colette works in oil pastel over water color for dynamic, vibrant pieces often deftly handling the complexities of moving water.  Her work has been featured in regional and national pastel publications.  She is on the faculty at Peninsula School of Art and has been represented by Woodwalk Gallery since 1998.

Sales were strong, the Bucket of Rain concerts were sold out 4 of the 5 nights, each of the 4 weddings was spectacular and even the weather was perfect.

Your personal invitation

The Saturday, October 1st Grand Opening of the new Door Peninsula Winery and Distillery in Carlsville will feature an exhibit coordinated by Allin “A Day In The Life of Door Peninsula Winery.”

10 photographers spent a day on their new campus photographing nooks and crannies, production lines and staff, buildings and sales areas.  Then each photographer chose one of their own photos and jurors chose a second the be printed and exhibited in the show.

Join us for the festivities and vote for your favorite… one photographer will receive a $500 first prize based on the voting.

Dylan live

Banners by Skye

Fabulous musicians, music, audience, setting….. truly awesome!

Someone who attended was Woodwalk’s 4,000th visitor of the season counting gallery customers, event attendees, people who visit just to walk the labyrinth, concert goers and nonprofit fund raisers.

JUNE 2,9,16, 23, 30

JULY 7, 14, 21, 28

AUGUST 4,11,18,25

SEPTEMBER 1, 8,15,22, 29

As always, it is a $500 non-refundable deposit received that reserves a date.  Go to the EVENTS page for pictures of past weddings at Woodwalk. 2013 inquiries welcome…

Mr. Dylan

We have invited Bob Dylan to come and join us for a 70th birthday party Sept. 1,2,3 and 8,9.  If he comes, he’ll join Jeanne Kuhns, Eric Lewis, Tommy Burroughs, Rich Higdon, Katie Dal and Patrick Palmer on stage… wouldn’t that be something….. anyway, whether or not he joins us, the party will go on! Call 868-2912 for reservations…

Liz Heller

July was a very good month for sales at Woodwalk.  25 of our 47 artists had sales, several, the best of their careers.  Still, though, there is no reliable purchasing pattern with gift items selling well and several large paintings selling to customers new to the gallery.  Traffic has heavy and rentals to weddings and non-profits introducing new people to the gallery  each week.

Featured artist of the month, Liz Heller, lives with her husband John in Egg Harbor where she also has her studio.  Her paintings are often fun renditions of classic Door County scenes and classic paintings by old masters.

gala

Someone tonight at the Door Shakespeare gala is the 2,000 visitor to Woodwalk this season.  59 people visited the gallery during the day and 85 people are at the gala.

Ripple

Today with great joy the triptych “Ripple” found a new home!  Margaret had always hoped it would stay together… thank you J and P.

Checks went out to 15 artists who had had sales during May, several of them for major pieces.  A great start….

Nostalgia by R.Crowell

Taking A Spin by A. Winkler

Detail from Nancy's Favorites by A.Winkler

Woodwalk Gallery presents its second exhibit of the 2011 season, ”Bounded Movement” featuring new works by Rebecca Crowell and Anita Winkler.  The opening public reception will be Sunday, July 3 from 4:30- 7:00 with food, beverages and music.  At 6:00 the artists will talk about their work for the exhibit.

Each of these two artists captures moments of movement in their works- movement of time, space, emotion, memory and nature.  Crowell’s work in oil paint and cold wax evoke a struggle for balance and symmetry.  Major elements are joined by etched scribbling and splashes of color.  Translucent layers of wax and color invite the viewer into the figures creating “bounded movement”.

A highly awarded artist and influential faculty member at Peninsula School of Art, Crowell inspires students and viewers with her sense of abstraction and dissonance freeing them to move outside the lines and closer to the boundaries of their own personal experience.

Winkler’s works for the exhibit are filled with meaning highlighted by her unique artistic techniques. For “Taking A Spin” she has carefully captured spider webs, dyed them then mounted and sealed them with hot wax.  Fragile yet encased, evocative of the weaving spider at work yet beautiful in its own captured moment, the pieces are memorable in or out of their context in nature.

“Nancy’s Favorites” incorporates fabric squares from Winkler’s mother’s wardrobe, each square showing wear and typical decade-specific patterns.  The viewer cannot help but remember a dress “like that” worn by mother or grandmother, or, at least, available in a vintage clothing store.

Thank you Barb and Greg!

Christian Egger "Fossils"

Chris Egger is having a wonderful early season at Woodwalk having sold 9 of his wall platters that he calls “Fossils.”

Using his own unique process, Chris presses natural materials into clay slabs then low fires the material and clay.  He then applies glazes and surfaces over the impressions and ash remains.

Often there is a wildness and earthiness to his work  that feels right at home at Woodwalk but also in collections at Acuity Insurance, homes on the North Shore and up and down the peninsula.

The stage is set

but the story goes on told by his horse Rocinante.  The stage is set, the actors ready (well, sort of)… join us for great singing and silliness.  You are the stars getting to sing Tonight, Some Enchanted Evening, I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’, etc.   Friday, Saturday and Sunday- 7:00 pm.

Population: 250. Small-town charm: endless. Egg Harbor has everything you seek in a small town: friendly people, unique shops, homey restaurants, and is situated on one of Wisconsin’s most treasured natural resources. Travelers across the nation have heaped praise on Egg Harbor – it was named one of the top ten “coolest small towns in America” by Budget Travel in 2010.

It’s a haven for artists with the performing arts, free live music in the summer, and so much more. It has a

quaint, small-town flair, and a lot of personality. The shopping is tremendous, even without the big box stores. A new beach and marina optimize the sparkling waters of Green Bay.

Right on the lake, beautiful scenery and access to all of Door County’s offerings, including theatre, wineries, shopping, galleries. It’s a great vacation destination and the people are friendly.”

What a horse...

The cast is set for this year’s fractured classics production, the story of Don Quixote told from his horse’s point of view: Lief Erickson as Rocinante, Jennifer Erickson as Maria, David Clowers as the Inn Keeper and general nastiness guy, David Morgan as Don Quixote, Susan Morgan as Dulcinea, Margaret Lockwood as the-consequences- of-everything-going-wrong-that-can-go-wrong, Allin Walker as the narrator.

The audience will, as always, sing the actors’ songs with music from Porgy and Bess, West Side Story, Man of LaMancha, and others.

Show dates are June 3,4,5.  Reservations are suggested.  Email here or 920-868-2912.

To answer the ever present question “Why them and not some of the other 46 applicants?”  All but four of last year’s artists are returning with new work.  Paula is a long time, dear friend; Beki applied last fall; Tom walked in the door with his portfolio.

The Gallery opens 10:00, Friday, May 6.  The opening reception is Sunday, May 29 including new works by Margaret and Kirsten Christiason.  Music will be a CD release party for David Hatch and Lynn Gudmundsen’s “Beginnings”

Saca Welcome at the Pfister

Thirza Defore, HoopDancer

ProfDimensions 2011 Saca Awards

Margaret and award winner Nancy Sennett

Great women! Great event! Great honorees! In every way the Sacagawea Awards event “honoring the spirit of women” was a celebration of accomplishments and vision.  Highlights included the opening Hoop Dance by Thirza Defoe, the Invocation by ReDonna Rogers, and the speaches by the two Sacagawea 2011 Award Recipients: Nancy Sennett and Jill Mortin.  The Pfister Hotel never seemed more elegant, the food was yummy and stories of support and encouragement abounded.  Margaret’s paintings looked right at home…..

Photos by Nancy Rubly

Through the eyes of Dylan

We are so excited… for Bob Dylan’s 70th birthday Jeanne is working on a Bob Dylan Review show Sept. 1,2,3,4 and 9.  “I’d give it all gladly if our lives could be like that.”  Reservations are pouring in… it’s going to be a wonderful show!

Style Me Prty wdg

The great ideas of how to make Woodwalk work for the wedding of your dreams never cease.  This weekend Emily and Nick came with ideas for a rustic wedding and will incorporate barn wood scraps, barrels and the silo trellis  into their romantic wedding.  They will drape the barn with fabric and rock the night away to a dj inside and live band on the patio.  Horse delivering the groom to the ceremony? Why not……  You can see another dream come true (think yellow: balloons, shoe laces, bow ties, tutus….) by going to http://www.stylemepretty.com/2010/11/01/wisconsin-wedding-by-anna-page/

A third piece has been commissioned for the organization’s permanent collection housed at Alverno College.

Each year Professional Dimensions: Women Who Inspire holds a statewide competition to choose the artist to produce the gifts to be given to their prestigious Sacagawea Award winners. Selection is on the basis of the artist’s skill and originality and expression of the themes of the Sacagawea Award itself. The award honors Wisconsin women who have made significant career accomplishments, are trailblazers, have evidenced a commitment to their community and who have supported the advancement of women. Two award winners are chosen each year for this prestigious award.

For the presentation gifts Lockwood is producing paintings that continue her expressing of the emotions and memories evoked by trees and woods at different times of the day and seasons. In her paintings light dances and beckons and evokes places and times long remembered. There is a sense of the known and the unknown, the familiar and the yet to be discovered that calls out to the trailblazer and invites them (and the viewer) to come a see what lies ahead and within. It is not uncommon for a viewer of Lockwood’s work to stand close enough to her larger paintings to let them immerse themself in the painting’s and their own remembered time and place.

Past presentation gifts have been produced by Door County artist Stephanie Trenchard and Woodwalk Gallery Artist and Peninsula School of Art facultymember Colette Odya-Smith.

Sacagawea herself was the only woman on the 1803- 1806 Lewis and Clark expedition to find the Northwest Passage across North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. She led the expedition through hostile country and is credited with keeping the men of the expedition alive, moving forward and on course. She came to be appreciated for her foresight, leadership, intelligence, common sense and adaptability- all qualities embodied in the Sacagawea Award winners to be honored March 16th with gifts of the paintings by Door County’s own Margaret Lockwood.

Painting mostly from memory, Margaret’s painting are often large enough to invite the viewer to walk into them. They can dominate a setting transporting the viewer back to remembered places, times and emotions. It is not unusual for a viewer to approach quite close to a painting to allow it to immerse them in their own memories.

For all the reasons people come to Door County, Margaret paints those essences. The landscapes are special; the light is special; the way of life is special; the memories are special. Some of the people who have recently purchased her paintings have said:

JE- “We wake up every morning and the first thing we see is Margaret’s painting of what we feel is mist on the lake… times 10. The colors, the rhythms, the size, the invitation to peacefulness- all begin our day well.”

MC- “We are privileged to own 4 of Margaret’s large paintings. They form an ever-changing compliment to the views of our lake and woods. Yes, they remind us of Door County, but there is so much more to them; even our young grandkids say they wish they could go there, without knowing where “there” is.”

BP- “We own a sunset painting that is over our mantle in our city house where most days we don’t see much of the sunset. Our neighbors in the apartment next door have several times come over just to “see the sun set”.

NH- “I might own the largest painting Margaret has ever painted. In two houses I have built dedicated space in a room to hang it. It is one of the most precious things I own. Whenever I come home, it welcomes me and reminds me what it is to be alive.”

TW- “We saved up for 5 years to buy our Lockwood. It’s the first thing you see when you walk into our home, right in front of you in our entry hall. It tells people what we want our home to be about and how we want to get to know them.”

CD- “Margaret’s work and Woodwalk Gallery are just plain my most favorite in all the world.”

Margaret will claim some artistic genes and early talent but it was not until midlife and kids in school that she got her Masters in Fine Arts and rented shared studio space in St. Louis. First came weaving with landscapes emerging almost by accident, trees found in the warp and woof, light and shadow playing in the textures, colors flowing into one another but an already recognizable quality of being a Lockwood was present. Owners of those early weavings point to how much still they welcome you into remembered places and emotions.

Gallery shows and awards soon followed but Margaret began to paint and before long, the loom was in storage. She had found her medium and her voice. Her commitment to her art led to purchasing Woodwalk Gallery and moving to Door County. Some of the first walks and drives and encounters there still inform Margaret’s painting and are still being worked out on canvas.

Serving as the Artistic Director and teaching at Peninsula Art School, shows at the Wisconsin Triennial, Fairfield Museum and UWGB Lawton Gallery, and awards from the Art League and Professional Dimensions have added to her reputation, but it is at Woodwalk Gallery that she is at home. Her studio stands above the gallery floor, built of straw bales and timbers and stucco, soaring into the barn roof beams. Like a cocoon the studio embraces her and her work, feminine with its lack of hard edges and straight lines.

No matter what the setting or how unexpected, when you see a painting by Margaret Lockwood, you know it is hers. Like her early weavings, light and shadow play in the textures, colors flow into one another and memories and emotions are evoked.

door

It means having an appreciation for the history of things well used, for the simplicity of the natural including its imperfections, for the marks of time and use, for the inherently good and appropriate.

Wabi- Sabi is one of the ways we think about what makes Woodwalk and Door County special.

This year with appreciation/ homage for works by large-scale, environmental sculptors Andy Goldsworthy and Patrick Dougherty, there will be new paths to walk, new places to discover, some hands-on experiences to be a part of.

ceremony at silo

(4/15/11 updated) Due cancellations, Woodwalk is available to host a wedding on Saturday, July 23 and Saturday, August 13.  E-mail for more information.  Reservations now being taken for 2012.