The Spring Art at the Winery event at
Snus Hill Winery near Madrid, IA was last Sunday, May 2nd. A nice crowd of art fans and wine lovers spent the afternoon browsing the displays of 20 local artists from all over central Iowa, and I was pleased to be part of that show. Craig and I chatted with lots of nice people, sold several pieces, and thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful spring day.
We arrived early enough for a good spot in a corner of the winery's big banquet room, and had interesting "neighbors" -- a glass blower and a local painter -- to talk with. My friend Deb Anders-Bond, who does collage and printmaking, (below) set up nearby, and we met a lot of local
art fans and/or wine lovers (the two sort of go together, really) all afternoon. I sold some of my socks and scarves, a skein or two of hand-dyed yarn, and generally considered the event a success.
Some of the 20 other artists included a local woman who illustrates children's books (right) and a popular area painter, Terry Dooley (below), who recently produced a wonderful image of the new High Trestle Bike Trail bridge underpass in Woodward, IA.
But my favorite (besides Deb's and my work, of course) was the Gourd Artist who displayed beautifully painted and carved gourds of all shapes and sizes. They were very interesting and certainly an art form I had never encountered before.
We enjoyed the opportunity to get our first taste of Snus Hill's 2010 Boulle du Pois -- nickname "Hairball", a lovely white wine that won several prizes for them last year. We gave the new Hairball an enthusiastic "thumbs up". and hope it does as well in this year's wine competitions as the 2009 version did.
