For our 2025 BVAA Art & Poetry Show pairing, one pairing was with artist Carole Plante and poet Sue Lovejoy!
Here are the works they created!
Carole Plante provided this artwork to Sue Lovejoy.
In response, Sue Lovejoy wrote the following poem:
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The second half of this pairing involved Sue Lovejoy giving Carole Plante a poem as a starting point. Sue Lovejoy provided this poem:
In response, Carole created this artwork:
To meet the artists and poets, be sure to come to our art-poetry reception at the Blackstone Public Library in Blackstone, Massachusetts on Thursday, April 17th from 6-8pm!
In the Blackstone Valley Art Association’s 2025 “Local Beauty” art show, we celebrated scenes of local interest. Joanne Zeis entered a photo of the Miss Worcester lunch car diner. This classic diner is located in Worcester, Massachusetts. The way Joanne took this photo, the diner looks like a toy model.
How do you get a camera to turn a regular building into a toy model version?
2013, Miss Worcester Diner / Joanne Zeis
Joanne’s husband, Mike Zeis, explains the process!
Joanne shot the Miss Worcester Diner photo with her Canon Rebel T3 in 2013, through a Lensbaby Composer mounted instead of the regular zoom lens.
Think about it this way: The regular lenses we use are tubes with one lens mounted on the outside of the tube and another lens on the back of the tube—that’s the part that attaches to the camera body. The Lensbaby Composer is built so that the lens on the outside pivots or tilts. With the front lens aligned straight, the photo will be normal (except with a very shallow depth of field). With the Lensbaby, the sharpness fall-off is steep—there’s only a small center in focus. When you pivot or tilt the front lens, the optics that usually allow images to be sharp in the center shift, and the areas that are in focus (plane of focus) move to another part of the image, and no longer are parallel to the plane of the film.
In other words, because the whole plane of focus changes, the depth of field sometimes appears to be “stretched,” so that some parts of the picture that are the same distance from the lens appear in focus and others that may be nearby are not. The ability to modify both the location of the center of focus and the shape of the depth of field makes this kind of lens special: It has the ability to make subjects look like toys, like in the Miss Worcester shot.
There’s no autofocus: Lensbabies have a focus ring on the barrel. One controls the aperture and depth of field by swapping out washer-like plastic inserts into the front part of the lens.
In practice, the Lensbaby is sort of the opposite of point-and-shoot. It’s a little easier to set up if your photo has the sharp part in the center. But if your composition calls for the in-focus part to be on the side or toward one of the corners, there’s a bit of back and forth between adjusting the tilt/pivot and bringing the subject into focus. Screen preview helps a lot, and zooming in on the screen preview and scrolling over to the right place lets you nail in the focus, and gives you assurance that you’re OK.
Our Lensbaby (Lensbaby Composer) was $199 when we got it in 2013. The line has expanded considerably. Today’s Lensbaby Composer Pro II costs $299. The low-end model, the Lensbaby Spark 2.0, costs $199. They’ve added an aperture ring, but now use a “accordion-like design” with “squeeze-to-focus” adjustment.
Joanne’s photo is not from street level. And we didn’t put a ladder up in the middle of the intersection, we used the handy concrete ramp across Southbridge Street. The lens is 50mm, and the photo was cropped tight (there’s no uncropped version that we could find).
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Thank you so much to Joanne Zeis and Mike Zeis for bringing us this photo and explaining how to create it!
A framed 8×12 version of this photo is available for $50 from Joanne Zeis. Contact us for details or if you’d like a different size.
Worcester Center for Crafts, in collaboration with ValleyCAST, has invited BVAA artists to exhibit in their Community Gallery for their annual event Hot Night in the City!
This amazing artistic event draws in crowds of 3,000 people. Our artwork would be featured down the main hallway of the center. It is a prime opportunity for visibility and sales!
When: June 28 to July 27, 2025
Where: Worcester Center for Crafts 25 Sagamore Road Worcester, MA 01605
Each BVAA member may exhibit up to three art items. All forms of media are warmly encouraged – paintings, mixed media, photography, textiles, sculpture, and more.
Entering the Show Thanks to a kind donation from ValleyCAST, this show will be FREE for BVAA members to enter. ValleyCAST will cover the cost of the prizes and ribbons for us. Thank you, ValleyCAST!!
Note that as this is a non-BVAA-gallery show YOU CAN ENTER PIECES THAT HAVE BEEN IN PREVIOUS BVAA SHOWS. You shouldn’t enter any piece which was in the 2024 Hot Night in the City show. Select the works which you feel best represent you!
Artwork can be any size. That being said, please contact us first if you plan on bringing anything over 20″ x 30″ in size. We need to arrange for space for those separately.
All art must be family friendly and properly wired for hanging. Our hanging system does not work with saw-tooth or triangle hangers. If you are new to preparing art for shows, read our page on How to Mat and Frame a Photo. You may choose to have your artwork listed as not for sale.
All art items which are entered are displayed. There is no “pre-selection” process where some are accepted and others are rejected. If you submit artwork, and it is family-friendly and wired properly, it will be part of our show.
Submissions To submit your entries use our BVAA Online Submission Form. The deadline to submit your online details is midnight on Sunday, June 23, 2025. Work must be dropped off at the Worcester Center for Crafts on Saturday, June 28, 2025 from 10am to 1pm. Please do not bring in art to the gallery at other times. All work which is brought in will be displayed (as long as it is properly wired and is family-friendly).
We plan on arranging / labelling the show on Saturday, June 28 as work is being dropped off starting at 10:00 am. Please don’t be late! If you are unable to bring your work on that date, please contact us to make other arrangements on or before June 22
As this show will not have a reception, and is not in our gallery, there will be NO commission on sales. The artist gets the full amount.
Judging Judged for monetary prizes to be determined. Thank you ValleyCAST!!
Opening Reception In lieu of an opening reception, everyone is invited to attend Hot Night in the City on Friday, July 18, from 4:00-9:00 pm. This is a free event.
Pick Up Sunday, July 27, 2025, from 10am to 1pm at the Worcester Center for Crafts. If you aren’t able to make that, please contact us for other arrangements.
The Blackstone Valley Art Association is sponsoring its seventh annual Series Show! This is a fun, creative art show which celebrates the magic of creating artwork in a series.
This show is for all BVAA members to participate in. You can submit two or three artwork items as your series. They can be related to each other in any way that you wish. It’s wholly up to you to define the theme of your series.
Maybe they are all shades of blue. Maybe they’re all landscapes. Do they all involve triangles? Cows? You can mix your artwork styles. Do one photo, one sculpture, and one watercolor painting. Explore your creativity!
When: June 7 (dropoff) to July 12, 2025
Where: BVAA / Open Sky Uxbridge Community Art Gallery 5 South Main Street Uxbridge, MA 01569
There is a TON of free parking immediately next to this building. It is fully and easily handicapped accessible.
Each BVAA member may exhibit two or three art items. These will be judged *as a series* (i.e. one prize for a whole group) for cash prizes. Note that you CAN submit items which you’ve submitted separately for judging before. This time they’ll be judged as an entire series. Also, when you submit items to this show as part of a series you CAN then submit them separately for a future show as individual items. This here is a fairly unique show in that we’re judging the art items as one coherent “group”.
Entering the Show The entry fee for this show is $20 for two to three pieces. Note that you can’t submit just one item. This submission needs to be 2 or 3 items which relate to each other. They can be presented together if you wish, as in a triptych frame.
Artwork can be any size. That being said, please contact us first if you plan on bringing anything over 20″ x 30″ in size. We need to arrange for space for those separately.
All art must be family friendly and properly wired for hanging. Our hanging system does not work with saw-tooth or triangle hangers. If you are new to preparing art for shows, read our page on How to Mat and Frame a Photo. Please also check out our Show Terms and Conditions. This includes all details including the 25% commission for any sales of exhibit artwork in the gallery. You may also choose to have your artwork listed as not for sale.
All art items which are entered are hung. There is no “pre-selection” process where some are accepted and others are rejected. If you submit artwork, and it is family-friendly and wired properly, it will be part of our show.
Submissions To submit your entries use our BVAA Online Submission Form. The deadline to submit your online details is midnight on Saturday, June 7, 2025. Work must be dropped off on Saturday, June 7, 2025 between 10am and 3pm. Please do not bring in art to the gallery at other times. All work which is brought in will be hung (as long as it is properly wired and is family-friendly).
We plan on arranging / labelling the show on Wednesday, June 11th starting at 6:30pm. We’d love to have you join us! Please contact us in case we change the date or time.
Judging Judge to be announced
Reception The reception for the show is Friday, June 13th from 5-7pm. Invite family and friends – all are welcome!
Pick Up Saturday, July 7, 2025, from 10am to 3pm. If you aren’t able to make that, please contact us for other arrangements.
The Blackstone Valley Art Association is honored to have talented oil painter Dianne Panarelli Miller present a free demonstration at our April 15, 2025 meeting! This demonstration will be helpful to ALL artists, even if you don’t use oil paints.
This demo is an introduction to how to approach plein air paintings, by learning techniques that can be practiced beforehand at home.
First, what is a plein air painting? Simply put, a plein air painting is a painting done on location, usually in an outdoor setting. You’ve probably seen this in movies or TV shows. An artist stands or sits in front of an easel, painting a lovely meadow, seascape, or rustic barn. That painting-on-site is what plein air is all about.
The BVAA runs a number of free plein air gatherings throughout the summer, giving our community a variety of opportunities to learn and discuss approaches to painting local waterfalls, lakes, historic buildings, and other locations. By attending Dianne’s workshop, you’ll get a sense of what plein air is all about and how to learn some basic skills. That way when you attend your first plein air in person you’ll be ready for the fun!
All are welcome to this meeting. This is open to the public. Beginners warmly welcome.
Location: BVAA Open Sky Uxbridge Community Gallery 5 South Main Street Uxbridge, MA 01569
This meeting and session is free and open to the public. No experience is necessary. The fun of our workshops is that we all learn new things we’ve never done before.
Our meetings cover BVAA organization business from 6:30-7:00pm and then go into the workshop part of the evening. Feel free to come for whichever half interests you the most. In general, our monthly meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month unless otherwise announced.
All are welcome – this workshop is open to members and non-members. Feel free to bring along a friend! We’d love to see you there to learn some new things and explore your creativity!
Here’s a write-up of things you might want to bring with you, when you go to an actual outside plein air location:
Dianne Panarelli Miller is a world reknown artist painting in Canada, Bermuda, and Europe. She is an award winning Boston-based “Plein Air Painter” of color and light and is a signature member of the New England Plein Air Painters and is a “Copley Master”. Her approach combines the classic atelier training of the “Boston School”, with a mastery of technique of her own personal style expressed through the harmony of color and design. The original Boston School way of painting seeks to combine the truth of impressionist color with good drawing, sound composition and skillful paint handling. Its leading exponents included Edmund Tarbell, Frank Benson, William Paxton, Joseph Decamp, Philip Hale, R.H. Ives Gammell. Gammell was a turn of the century Boston Museum School pupil of the first three men and later consulted with Paxton. Robert Douglas Hunter and Robert Cormier (with whom Miller studied ) were students of Gammell. David Lowery and Robert Moore, also students of Gammell rounded off her studies.
Enter her website to see her versatile style which allows her to capture her subjects with sensitivity and detail. Her work can be seen all over the country.
The Blackstone Valley Art Association is sponsoring its annual BVAA Spectacular Spring Show – this is our 67th year! The show is open to all BVAA members. If you’re not yet a BVAA member, now’s the time to join us!
When: April 5 to June 7, 2025
Where: BVAA / Open Sky Uxbridge Community Art Gallery 5 South Main Street Uxbridge, MA 01569
About the Show: The Blackstone Valley Art Association celebrates its 67th year with its annual Spectacular Spring show. This open-themed extravaganza features the very best artwork from its diverse membership. We explore stunning black and white photography, soaring landscapes, delicate watercolors, swirling acrylics, precisely detailed oil paintings, and much, much more. Our members range from teens to retirees, from those just starting out to award-winning Putney Painters. We warmly invite you to our opening reception where you can enjoy insightful conversations with the artists and infuse inspiration into your life!
Entering the Show The entry fee for the Spectacular Spring show, open to all styles of artwork, is $8/piece or $20 for three. You can submit up to three pieces. The theme is wide open. You can submit a portrait, landscape, still life, abstract, seascape, you name it. Your imagination is the limit. Because this show is judged, you cannot enter anything which has previously been submitted for a BVAA judged show. It’s fine to enter works which have been in non-judged BVAA shows.
All artwork must be family friendly. Any hanging artwork MUST BE properly wired for hanging. The gallery will not accept non-wired wall-hanging artwork. If you are new to preparing hanging artwork for shows, read our page on How to Mat and Frame Artwork. Please also check out our Show Terms and Conditions
Submissions To submit your entries use our BVAA Online Submission Form. The deadline to submit the online form is midnight on Saturday, April 5th, 2024. Work should be dropped off that Saturday, April 5th from 10am to 3pm. All work which is brought in will be hung (as long as it is properly wired and is family-friendly).
We will have a sign-in sheet. Please make sure you sign your art in so we can track what is in the gallery.
The show will be hung on Monday, April 7th from 4-6pm. We’d love to have you come participate! Hanging is easy and fun now that we have the wall hanging system. It’s all about figuring out which artwork styles go together.
Judging This show awards cash prizes based on the number of entries received. The judge for this show is to be determined.
Opening Reception The opening reception for the show is: Friday, April 11th, 2025 5-7pm
There’ll be music, fun, and lively conversation! Bring a snack to share – just how creative can you get? Lisa might bring her ladybug-tomato-on-mozzarella! That is nice and springy!
Please invite family and friends – all are welcome!
Viewing Hours Mondays through Saturdays 10am-3pm. If coming during the week, note that Open Sky uses this space for their work with clients. Call ahead to make sure someone will be there.
Pick Up Pick up for this show is:
Saturday June 7th, 2025 10am-3pm
If you aren’t able to make that, contact us for other arrangements. Address any questions via our BVAA Contact Information
Ask with any questions! We look forward to seeing your entries!
The Blackstone Valley Art Association is honored to have talented artist Bonnie Frederico to lead our March 2025 meeting!
Note that we have a DIFFERENT PLACE AND TIME for March, due to Bonnie’s schedule.
DATE: Saturday, March 15th, 2025 9:30am to 12:30pm
Location: Singh Performing Center 60 Douglas Rd. Whitinsville MA
This meeting and session is open to the public. No experience is necessary. The fun of our workshops is that we all learn new things we’ve never done before.
This workshop is $5 per person to cover the special batik supplies.
In addition, if you have them, please bring along these items:
pen: .05 micron waterproof permanent pen brushes: watercolor round 6 or 8 with a good point and 1” flat if you have one watercolor paints: yellow. red or orange. sap green. Paynes grey. ultra marine blue. burnt umber or brown. purple. watercolor palette or plastic plate to mix your colors. Something to hold your water Acrylic or glass to tape the paper to while working on the piece, something bigger then 5×7 masking tape paper towels
If you don’t have some of these above items just let us know which you need. We do have BVAA supplies and just need to know how many to bring. It’s just that ours might be lower quality than the ones you have at home, if you’re already a watercolor painter.
Please RSVP directly by email so we can make sure we have enough supplies to Carol Frieswick csf@meganet.net
All are welcome – this workshop is open to members and non-members. Feel free to bring along a friend! We’d love to see you there to learn some new things and explore your creativity!
It’s time for an encouraging, compassionate critique session! We all discuss our latest works or images and then offer each other suggestions and advice. You can present photos, paintings, drawings, sculptures, digital art, collages, and whatever else you’ve been working on.
Whatever you wish! It’ll be fun, relaxed, and conversational. All abilities are warmly encouraged to participate. We each have something to learn!
If you’d like just to listen in, and gain knowledge from the conversation, that is fine too.
Our February 2025 monthly meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 18th, 2025 from 6:30-9pm.
Due to the snow and ice we will NOT be holding this session in person. We will be online on zoom!
This meeting and session is free and open to the public. No experience is necessary. The fun of our workshops is that we all learn new things we’ve never done before.
Our meetings cover BVAA organization business from 6:30-7:00pm and then go into the workshop part of the evening. Feel free to come for whichever half interests you the most. In general, our monthly meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month unless otherwise announced.
All are welcome – this workshop is open to members and non-members. Feel free to bring along a friend! We’d love to see you there to learn some new things and explore your creativity!
Ask with any questions!
Here is the one-time Zoom link for the Tuesday Feb 18 meeting:
Congratulations to all of the Blackstone Valley Art Association members who were juried into the 2025 Small Stones Festival of the Arts! This show runs through February 2, 2025. Be sure to get out and see this show in person! If I missed any member’s art which was juried into this show, please let me know.
Three of our members were awarded Juror’s Choice prizes: Xiang Li, Bob See, and Lisa Shea.
Celebrate the beauty of the Blackstone Valley in Massachusetts! Our “Local Beauty” community art show is open to ALL forms of art – photography, watercolors, acrylics, oil paintings, pastels, printmaking, sculpture, and more. The topic is our local Blackstone Valley in Massachusetts. We eagerly look forward to seeing local landscapes, architecture, visions, and interpretations of:
Do you have a photo of Purgatory Chasm in Sutton? A watercolor painting of the Millville canal lock? An abstract interpretation of Worcester City Hall? We’d love to see how you interpret this topic!
This show is FREE to participate in and is open to all community members! You don’t have to live in a listed down to participate. The image itself needs to somehow represent one of those towns.
When: March 1st to April 5th, 2025
Where: BVAA Open Sky Uxbridge Community Gallery 5 South Main Street Uxbridge, MA 01569
There is a TON of free parking immediately next to this building. It is fully and easily handicapped accessible.
Participation is open to the public. Each participant may exhibit up to three pieces of art.
Entering the Show Artwork can be any size. That being said, please contact us first if you plan on bringing anything over 20″ x 30″ in size. We need to arrange for space for those separately.
All art must be family friendly and properly wired for hanging. Our hanging system does not work with saw-tooth or triangle hangers. 3M stick-on hangers are notorious for falling off – please don’t use those. If you are new to preparing photography for shows, read our page on How to Mat and Frame a Photo. Please also check out our Show Terms and Conditions
All art which is entered is displayed. There is no “pre-selection” process where some are accepted and others are rejected. If you submit artwork, and it is family-friendly and wired properly, it will be part of our show. You can have your art listed with a price for sale, or you can have it Not For Sale if you wish.
Submissions To submit your entries use our BVAA Online Submission Form. The deadline to submit the online label information is midnight on Saturday, March 1nd, 20254. Work must be dropped off on Saturday, March 1nd, 2025 between 10am and 3pm. Please only bring artwork in on Saturday – the staff in the location during the week do not handle artwork processing. All artwork which is brought in will be hung (as long as it is properly wired and is family-friendly).
Please indicate on your label which town each image represents. We’ll be using that information to create our town-specific slideshows, explained below.
Judging This show will be a community choice voting. Every person can vote for a first, second, and third place. Winners will be announced at the reception.
Video Slideshows
In addition to the in-gallery experience and the traditional full show video walkthrough, we will also do town-specific slideshows as part of this project. We’ll create a slideshow of the images representing Uxbridge, the images representing Grafton, and so on. That way people who are interested in art from a particular town can easily find it.
Reception The reception for this show will be on Friday, April 4th, 2025 from 5-7pm. Prizes are usually awarded around 6pm. Winners will receive ribbons and certificates.
Pick Up Pickup of the art is on Saturday, April 5th, 2025, from 10am to 3pm. If you aren’t able to make this date, please contact us for other arrangements. Please do not stop by the gallery during the week to pick up art – the weekly staff are not able to process the art items.
Ask with any questions! We look forward to seeing your entries!
To get inspired, here is our Local Beauty show from 2024!
This Uxbridge gallery is supported in part by BVAA member dues, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and by ValleyCAST. The space use is kindly donated to us by ValleyCAST, the community outreach department of Open Sky Community Services. Open Sky uses this space for special-needs client activities during daytime weekdays. They allow the BVAA use of the space – and its gallery walls – on evenings and weekends. We actively support their inclusive mission. All are welcome to all of our events and activities!
