LOCAL ARTIST INSPIRED BY VALLEY
Painter
Astrid Tuttle has a family camp outside Staunton, and she’s drawing from that
in a series of paintings of Old North Mountain that takes the same approach as Monet
did to many subjects — different angles, different seasons, different light.
Tuttle
notes that with every season, every weather condition, the mountain seems an
entirely new landscape, “never looking quite the same.”
She
finds that the Valley provides a lot of inspiration for her art, largely
through the mountains, farms and fields. Living on a farm, on a hill about two
miles from Staunton, she enjoys a panoramic view, and her paintings reflect the
hills and valleys that surround us.
“I’ve
traveled many places, but this Valley is a very special place,” the Cuban-born
Tuttle said.
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Artist
Astrid Tuttle paints in her studio overlooking West Beverley Street in downtown
Staunton on Tuesday, July 31, 2012. She works on finishing a landscape that is
part of a series she is doing on North Mountain. / Mike Tripp/The News Leader
She’s not the first artist to find
inspiration in the Shenadoah Valley, nor even the most famous. Folk art painter
Grandma Moses lived in Augusta County before moving to New York State. Her
Verona home, Mount Airy, was recently added to the state landmarks register,
and if you stopped by the R.R. Smith Center in downtown Staunton this spring,
you would have seen several of her paintings that featured familiar
surroundings.
The
beauty of the Valley continue to inspire artists of all stripes.
Waynesboro
artist Betty Arehart is a Virginia native and has most recently focused on
painting near the Tye River in Nelson County. When she got her first digital
camera several years ago, she took it a favorite place where she and family
used to go bicycling and picnicking years ago. In one stretch of this river
there are enormous boulders, and the shapes fascinated her. The camera let her
get closeups of the river and boulders. She soon noticed little waterfalls
throughout the view as the water tumbled over rocks and boulders, and has since
completed a series of Tye River paintings.
Another
Waynesboro artist, Don Whitson, said, “The beauty of the Shenandoah Valley
constantly inspires me. If my water color paintings inspire the viewer to see
things in a new light and put a smile on their face, then I have succeeded as
an artist.”
With
all of these artists, it’s clear they love what they do and that this lush and
varied Shenandoah Valley continues to beckon, cajole, and inspire artists from
the world over. Grandma Moses may have been the most famous to date but the
essence of what inspired her continues to draw creative spirits to our countryside
to immerse themselves in the magic of these mountains, fields and valleys.
Indeed the unifying theme heard from the artists was the incredible variety and
beauty found in this place. And their subjects — whether a mountain, a boulder,
a field or tree — are the ones they love the most – at that particular time.
Arehart,
who studied art at James Madison University and Beverley Street Studio School
draws on the Valley throughout her work.
“I
just love this area,” she said. “There is so much here: the mountains, fields
and farms – it’s just so rich!”