Author: Blackstone Valley Art Association

The Millbury Bike Path is part of the plans for a long bike path / walking path / celebration of the entire Blackstone River from Worcester, MA to Pawtucket, RI. The stretch which is complete in the Millbury area starts at a parking lot near the Blackstone Shoppes mall complex and goes north along the river to the parking lot with the WalMart in Worcester.

Lisa has a PixelStick which is an amazing device to do long-exposure photography with in the darker hours.

https://thepixelstick.com/

We’ll play with it and have some fun!

Completely FREE! Supported by Constellation Energy! 🙂

Directions and Time
We’re meeting at the bike path parking lot. It’s immediately across the highway from the Blackstone Shoppes, on that same road that leads into the Shoppes. So if you look on Google for:

206 North Main Street
Millbury MA

That house is right across the street from the parking lot for the bike path.

We’ll meet there at 7:15pm to gather up everyone. This is the golden hour so we’ll get some lovely photographs on the way in, and then play with the PixelStick and flashlights until we’re done! Please bring a flashlight with you – the path is unlit, which is the whole purpose of being there :). I recommend bug spray as well. This is by a river, after all. It’s good to have a tripod, but you can also rest your camera on a rock or something else to have it steady. It’s also good to have a camera which can take a picture over a long period of time, like 3 or more seconds, but even if you just have a cellphone it’ll be fun too!

Please let us know via our contact form if you’re planning on coming, so we know to wait for you. It’ll be a great evening of learning about photography and exploring our Blackstone River history!

Blackstone Valley Bike Path Photos

This is just one part of our month-long Celebrating the Blackstone artistic celebration. Be sure to check out all of our events!

This month-long celebration is sponsored by Constellation, an Exelon company.

River Bend Farm in Uxbridge is a beautiful location. There’s the traditional red farm which has a visitor’s center within it. Then the farmland is right on the Blackstone Canal. This is one of the best locations on its entire stretch to see what the canal was once like.

Until the early 1800s, traveling around central Massachusetts was fraught with trouble. The woods were thick. There were wolves and other dangers. Either you were trudging through deep snow in the winter or dealing with swarms of bugs in the summer.

It was nearly impossible for any trading to get done.

Finally in 1823 the Blackstone Canal Company was formed. Its mission was to create an easy-to-navigate canal connecting Providence to Worcester. This would then open trade up to the entire world via the Narragansett Bay.

Construction went fairly quickly – they began in 1825 and were completely done with the first travel on October 7, 1828. It took two days for one of the slender canal boats to make its way from one end of the course to another.

They expected the canal system to last hundreds of years.

Unfortunately for them, the railroads saw the opportunity and quickly moved in. By 1848 the canal was shut down. The railroad had taken over that quickly.

Come on out with us to get a solid look at this amazing part of our history!

Talented, amazing artist Michael Graves has showcased his art in the Massachusetts State House as well as in countless galleries. He’ll be leading our adventure today! He’ll begin with a short demo, so you can see what plein air painting is all about. Then he’ll offer advice and suggestions as you all explore your painting skills!

If you’ve never done a plein air paint before, you might read: Plein Air Painting – Preparing for your First Outing. If you don’t have supplies, we’ll bring watercolors, brushes, and paper. Bring a water bottle and something stiff like a small cutting board to tape the paper to.

If you’d like to bring a beach chair to sit on, and snacks / drinks, feel free.

Please let us know via our contact form if you’re planning on coming, so we know to wait for you. It’ll be a great morning of learning about photography and exploring our Blackstone River history!

Location and Time
River Bend Farm
287 Oak Street
Uxbridge, MA

9:30am – 2pm (or so, feel free to leave earlier)

Michael Graves is a nationally-recognized landscape artist based in central Massachusetts. As a plein air artist, Graves paints on location, braving the elements, to capture the many moods and temperaments of the natural world. Over a 30 year career, Graves has received over 70 awards and medals, been featured in a variety of books and publications, and inducted into numerous national art associations.

Although Graves has taken painting trips throughout North America, and parts of Europe and Asia, his favorite subjects continue to be of the simple farms, bucolic vistas, and rugged coasts of his native New England. His artwork is and has been exhibited in dozens of galleries throughout the U.S. and is included in the permanent collection of the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. His paintings have also been selected eight times for inclusion in the national Arts for the Parks competition of the Top 100 Paintings of National Parks.

Born in 1952, the son of a local tree warden, Graves grew up with a love of painting and a deep appreciation for the outdoors. In the late 1970s, Graves met the renowned Cape Ann artist Bernard Corey (1914-2000). Corey became a lifelong friend and mentor and the two painted together nearly every day for over two decades. Michael Graves is a member of the Rockport Art Association, the Guild of Boston Artists, the Hudson Valley Art Association, and the Old Lyme Art Association. He is a friend and frequent painting companion of some of the most well known plein air artists of New England.

Mike lives in Millbury, Massachusetts with his wife Pam. He has two sons.

Michael Graves Artist Website

This is just one part of our month-long Celebrating the Blackstone artistic celebration. Be sure to check out all of our events!

This month-long celebration is sponsored by Constellation, an Exelon company.

It’s a fantastic photography workshop with the talented Al Weems!

The Millbury Bike Path is part of the plans for a long bike path / walking path / celebration of the entire Blackstone River from Worcester, MA to Pawtucket, RI. The stretch which is complete in the Millbury area starts at a parking lot near the Blackstone Shoppes mall complex and goes north along the river to the parking lot with the WalMart in Worcester.

It’s quite an interesting bike path. It wends along the Blackstone River quite a lot, so you get good images of the ducks, turtles, beavers, and other creatures. There are a number of train bridges and walking bridges to get photos of.

Plus, the Blackstone River goes right along the train lines here, so there’s ample opportunity to get cool photos or drawings of the trains in various configurations.

Directions and Time
We’re meeting at the bike path parking lot. It’s immediately across the highway from the Blackstone Shoppes, on that same road that leads into the Shoppes. So if you look on Google for:

206 North Main Street
Millbury MA

That house is right across the street from the parking lot for the bike path.

We’ll meet there at 10am to gather up everyone, and then go for a gentle walk to explore photography and the path!

Please let us know via our contact form if you’re planning on coming, so we know to wait for you. It’ll be a great morning of learning about photography and exploring our Blackstone River history!

Be sure to check out the website of our amazing instructor Al Weems for more information about him!

https://www.alweemsphoto.com/

Here’s the details on the bike path itself:

Blackstone Valley Bike Path Photos

This is just one part of our month-long Celebrating the Blackstone artistic celebration. Be sure to check out all of our events!

This month-long celebration is sponsored by Constellation, an Exelon company.

FRESH DATE DUE TO RAIN! NOW SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 2 2018!!

We’ll meet at 10am and paint for an hour or two. If you want to stay longer, or show up later for light reasons, that’s quite fine! This is a casual, relaxing painting and photography day.

The Blackstone River is an incredibly powerful waterway, going 46 miles from Worcester to Pawtucket, RI. Over that length it drops a full 450 feet in height. This awesome power is what gave motion to the many mills which developed along its length. It’s also what carved out the beauty of the Blackstone Gorge.

The Blackstone Gorge, with the Rolling Dam right above it and the Tupperware Mill right below it, is right on the border of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Rolling Dam is in Blackstone, Massachusetts while the Tupperware Mill is in North Smithfield, Rhode Island.

Directions and Time
Parking is found at the corner of Staples Lane and County Street in Blackstone, MA.
To find that, search on:

66 County Street
Blackstone, MA

The parking lot is immediately across the street from that house.

Time is 10am to around noon, or you can stay longer.

Supplies
We’ll have tray watercolors, brushes, and paper available. Please bring a water bottle to wet your paints and a small cutting board or something similar to tape the paper to. If you’d like to bring a beach chair to sit on, and snacks / drinks, feel free.

If you’ve never done a plein air paint before, you might read: Plein Air Painting – Preparing for your First Outing.

Please RSVP via our BVAA Contact Form so we know how many paints to bring.

National Park Service page on the Blackstone Gorge

This is just one part of our month-long Celebrating the Blackstone artistic celebration. Be sure to check out all of our events!

This month-long celebration is sponsored by Constellation, an Exelon company.

ASHTON MILLS EXCURSION SAT 8/4/2018 CANCELLING DUE TO RAIN! WILL RESCHEDULE!

You can of course go anyway – just wear a raincoat! :)During its heydey, the Blackstone River was the powerhouse behind the many mills which sprung up all along its length. Town after town boomed due to the jobs and products created at these mills. Many of these large brick structures represented prosperity for the entire town. The mill owners would often build smaller brick houses for their workers.

The Ashton Mill complex is a great representative of what these communities were like. The area was put onto the National Register of Historic Places on November 1, 1984.

Come on out with us to get a solid look at this amazing part of our history! What would it have been like living in the era of the mill? Where all your family and friends worked in the same place and could hang out together side by side on weekends?

ASHTON MILLS EXCURSION SAT 8/4/2018 CANCELLING DUE TO RAIN! WILL RESCHEDULE!

You can of course go anyway – just wear a raincoat! 🙂
Location and Time
The location is now apartments. The address to get there is:
Ashton Mills
51 Front St
Cumberland, RI 02864

We’ll start at 10am – this is a CASUAL event. Carol Frieswick will be on hand at 10am to greet people and answer any questions about the BVAA. Feel free to come whenever you wish and to stay for however long you’re entertained. Bring paints, cameras, notebooks – whatever strikes your fancy!

Across the street is the The Captain Wilbur Kelly House Museum which has great exhibits about the mills.

Note that we have permission to use the bathroom :).

There will be a kite and paper airplane making workshop there as well.

This is just one part of our month-long Celebrating the Blackstone artistic celebration. Be sure to check out all of our events!

This month-long celebration is sponsored by Constellation, an Exelon company.