Uxbridge SketchFest 2024 River Bend Farm Sample Images

These sample images were taken by Lisa Shea during the 2024 Uxbridge Massachusetts SketchFest event held at River Bend Farm. You are granted permission to use them as a basis for any sketches or painting projects!

Photo gallery from Lisa Shea from our 2024 SketchFest session at River Bend Farm.

Click on an image for a larger view.

Here’s source images from the Uxbridge Common from 2023 –

Here’s images from the 2022 SketchFest, taken at various locations in Uxbridge –

Here’s the details of the 2024 Uxbridge SketchFest –

You can also see the Uxbridge SketchFest source images from 2022, 2023, and 2024 in a YouTube slideshow:

Great Gifts Art Show 2024

BVAA Great Gifts Art Show – December 2024

The Blackstone Valley Art Association is showcasing a delightful selection of photography, watercolors, acrylic paintings, oil paintings, jewelry, and more for the month of December 2024. Be sure to stop by and see what we have available! Perfect for gift giving! We’ll also have fun events on every Saturday in December to entertain and intrigue you!

When:
November 16th 2024 to January 4, 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.

BVAA Alternatives Uxbridge Community Art Gallery Information

Entering the Show
This FREE show is open to BVAA members only. The theme is wide open. Any topic can be addressed as long as it is family-friendly. 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.

This show is NOT judged (no ribbons, no prizes) – it is primarily about providing visibility and sales for artists during the holiday season. For that reason, you can enter pieces that have been in previous shows. We suggest you enter pieces you think will catch a buyer’s eye and serve well as a gift.

All wall-hanging items must be properly wired for hanging. Our hanging system does not work with saw-tooth or triangle hangers. If you are new to preparing artwork for shows, read our page on How to Mat and Frame a Photo. Please also check out our Show Terms and Conditions

Submissions
To submit your entries use our BVAA Online Submission Form. This show is free to participate in. Each artist may submit up to five items under 11×17 or up to three items if they’re 11×17 or larger.

Drop Off of Works
Drop off your works on Saturday, November 16th from 10am – 3pm.

All work which is brought in will be hung (as long as it is properly wired and is family-friendly).

Opening Reception
The opening reception will be on Friday, November 22th from 5-7pm.

Pick Up
The pick-up for the Great Gifts show will be on Saturday, January 4th 2025 from 10am – 3pm.

Address any questions via our BVAA Contact Information

Ask with any questions! We look forward to seeing your entries!

Here’s the show from 2022 to inspire you!

Milford TV Art Show

Perfect Presents – Milford TV Art Show Nov 2024 – Jan 2025

The holidays are coming at the Milford TV Station! Come out and participate! This art show is open to all current BVAA Members and is FREE to participate in.

The Milford TV Station is an active public location which creates a wide variety of cable TV shows. People come and go quite often. Our gallery consists of the walls of their long hallways. This public showcase also gives us the opportunity to make numerous social media posts about the art, and the public can then stop by Milford TV any time they are available to see the art and buy it.

The theme of “Perfect Presents” showcases anything ideal for gift-giving. Usually smaller, less expensive items (relatively) work better for sales. Explore the possibilities!

Drop-Off
We’re going to do a range of drop-off dates for this show since it’s a busy time of year. Your options are Mon Oct 28th 9-5, Tue Oct 29th 12-6, Wed Oct 30th 12-3, and Thu Oct 31st 8-4. If you can’t make any of those days / times let our contact Dominique Charest-Ciampa know at Dominique@milfordtv.net and we’ll figure something out.

If you still have art at Milford TV from a previous show, please pick it up during this time. We really need to cycle old art out to have space for fresh art there. Thanks!

Location
Milford TV Station
138 South Main Street
Milford, MA
https://www.milfordtv.net/

Reception
We will figure out a reception time for sometime in November or December, based on the availability of the artists who participate. There aren’t awards for this show, so it’s more of a hang-out-and-talk event.

Show Details for the Artists
The Milford TV Station employees create the labels and perform the hanging for us. There is no need to use the BVAA online submission form to indicate what you’re bringing. Simply be sure to label the back of each piece with its title, your name, contact info, and the price. This show is for BVAA members only and is free to participate in.

The Milford TV station does not take any commission on sales. Neither does the BVAA. This is an ideal sales venue, and we do see sales regularly at this venue.

Most artists bring in three to four items depending on the theme of the cycle. If you do have more that match the theme, please bring a maximum of 8. This allows room for everyone to participate. The items can be any size or shape – Milford has a great hanging system which can accommodate pretty much anything. If you bring giant art, please bring less than 8. The hallway is not infinitely long. If you bring smaller art, 8 is fine!

Pickup
We’ll figure out a pickup time for sometime in January, based on the interests of the artists who participate.

Ask with any questions! Share the news!

NOTE: If you want, you can bring art in to me (Lisa) at the Uxbridge gallery either Friday night 10/25 5-7pm at our Community show reception or on Saturday 10-3. I can then bring your art in with me when I go to Milford with my own art.

BVAA Favorites Art Show

2024 BVAA My Favorite Artwork Show II at the Whitin Mill

Artists pour their souls into their creations. Each artwork can represent a different stage of the artist’s life or step in their journey. How could an artist choose just one piece of art as their “favorite”? This show presents that very challenge!

Note this is the SECOND time we have held this Favorite Artwork show. The first Favorite show was in 2022. So if you entered the 2022 Favorite show, this new piece might be your second favorite! Or maybe now it is your new first favorite? In any case, you can enter ANY piece into this show, as long as it wasn’t in the 2022 show. It’s fine if this piece was in other BVAA shows in the past! Your favorite is your favorite!

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Where?
The Favorite Artwork art show is held at the:


Spaulding R. Aldrich Heritage Gallery
Whitin Mill
50 Douglas Road
Whitinsville, MA

Spaulding R. Aldrich Heritage Gallery Webpage

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About the Show
Many art shows revolve around a specific theme. The artwork must be monochromatic or feature flowers. Maybe the art has to be created within the past four years. For this show, we decided to release all boundaries. Any style of art is welcome. It can be from your teenage years or finished last week. It could have been entered in previous BVAA shows (Except the Favorite 2022 Show)!

The single most important thing is that you consider it your current FAVORITE work of art that you’ve created. We’ll be fascinated to find out why you chose it!

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Submissions
The submission deadline for the Favorite show is Saturday November 2nd 2024. Use the standard online form for your submission. You can enter ONE and ONLY ONE piece.

This show is open to all BVAA members and is free to participate in. This is not a judged show – it is primarily a visibility, conversation, and sales opportunity. By having it not judged, artists can feel free to put in their true personal favorite. They don’t have to give any consideration to how a judge might evaluate it.

Any sales will include a 30% commission taken by the Whitin Mill. The BVAA takes no commission on this show. Full BVAA terms: BVAA Show Terms and Conditions

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Drop-Off
The drop-off for the Favorite is Wednesday October 30th to Friday November 1st at the Whitin Mill. Hours are 9-4 Wed-Fri at the Whitin Mill. Cristi will be hanging the show Saturday November 2nd from 10-1 so you can also bring it in then!

If you can’t make these dates, contact Lisa Shea via the info@bvaa.org email and she’ll arrange something.

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Public Reception
Reception is Thursday, November 7th, 2024 from 5:30-7:30pm. Invite family and friends! Share the news!

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Pick-Up
The show ends on Saturday, December 23, 2024. Pick-up for the show is the following week Wed Dec 25th through Fri Dec 27th during Open Sky open hours (9-4). Contact Lisa if you need her to bring a piece over to the Uxbridge gallery for normal Saturday 10-3 pickup there.

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To see the information on our first edition of our My Favorite show in 2022 visit here:

Let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing what you choose as your favorite piece of art!

Thank you so much to ValleyCAST for this opportunity to hold a show in this beautiful, historic building.

ValleyCAST
2024 Macabre Spooky Art Show

10th Annual BVAA Macabre Spooky Art Show – 2024

Our tenth anniversary! Hurrah! It’s creepy and it’s kooky! Mysterious and spooky! 2024 is the year for our 10th Annual Macabre art show! We hold this members-only pop-up and virtual show to celebrate Halloween. It is free, not judged, and does not involve prizes. It’s all for fun!

About the Show
Spooky. Unsettling. Wisps of mists and dark shadows. Macabre brings out the fascination with the off-beat side of life.

Submissions / Virtual Show
The online submission deadline for the FREE Macabre show is Wednesday, October 23th, 2024. You don’t need to use the online submission form – you can simply email the JPGs to us. You can submit up to five works for the virtual show. It’s open to all BVAA members. This is not a judged show so you CAN enter things you’ve entered in previous shows (including previous Macabre shows).

The In Person Macabre Show

We have our community show reception on Friday October 25th 5-7, and then the gallery is open its normal 10-3 hours on Saturday October 26th. So we’ll have places in the gallery for those TWO DAYS ONLY for the Macabre special event. Please bring in 1-2 items for the in-person feature. There will just be shelf and easels, so we want to have room for everyone. You can bring your art with you Friday if you want and then pick them up any time after Saturday afternoon (or in later weeks). No rush. The in-person show is just a highlight to …

The Macabre Video
The video we release for the reception with be a “moody” version. It will have a soundtrack and the images showing one by one. It will be something you could have going in the background at a spooky dinner to add ambiance.

Virtual Reception
We’ll have our premiere of the video slideshow on Friday night October 25th to kick off the Halloween weekend.

Here’s the video!

Artwork by:

Anayah . Bob Evans . Bob See . Carol Frieswick . Carole Plante
Della Erickson . Joanne Zeis . Judith Potter . Judy Murphy
Laura Cenedella . Lisa Shea . Melissa Beyer . Mike Zeis . Sue Gomes

Theme
This show is Halloween. Spooky. Shadowy.

Here are photos from previous years –

Twisted Dolls Show 2015

Macabre Show 2016

Here’s the video from the 2020 show!

Here’s the Macabre show from 2022!

Here’s the Macabre show in 2023!

We look forward to seeing your spooky work!

Verne Thayer Oil Painter

Oil Painting Demo with Verne Thayer – October 2024

The Blackstone Valley Art Association is blessed to have talented oil painter Verne Thayer as one of our members. Verne runs an art show on Milford TV and is also well known for his beautiful landscape paintings. On Tuesday, October 15th, 2024, Verne will do a live demo for us of oil painting a landscape scene!

This will be helpful to ALL artists, even if you don’t use oil paints. Verne’s skill with composition, color, emotion, and more can be applied to any form of art.

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!

You can learn more about Verne here:

2024 Community Art Show

2024 Free Community Art Show

The Blackstone Valley Art Association is proud to host the FREE 2024 Community Art Show! The public is warmly invited to participate! This show is open to all forms of artistic expression. We would love to see watercolors, acrylic paintings, oil paintings, sculptures, pottery, mixed media, drawings, pastels, photography, cyanotypes, and other forms of art.

THERE IS NO THEME. Your art can be about any topic at all! We celebrate the diversity of our artistic community. All levels of artist warmly encouraged to participate!

Up until 2022 we called this art show “Tapestry” to indicate it represented all types of threads from the community coming together. Every time we referred to it as “Tapestry” artists thought it was a fabric arts show and wouldn’t enter. In 2022 we updated its name to “Diversity” to represent our aim to bring in a diverse community. However, people then thought the topic was specifically about Diversity. So now we simply call this a Community Art Show!

When:
October 19th to November 16th, 2024

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.

BVAA Open Sky Uxbridge Community Art Gallery Information

Entering the Show
The theme is wide open. Any topic can be addressed as long as it is family-friendly. 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 wall-hanging items must be properly wired for hanging. Our hanging system does not work with saw-tooth or triangle hangers. If you are new to preparing artwork for shows, read our page on How to Mat and Frame a Photo. Please also check out our Show Terms and Conditions

Submissions
To submit your entries use our BVAA Online Submission Form. This show is free to participate in. Each artist may submit up to two items. The deadline to submit is Saturday, October 19th 2024 at 3pm EST.

Drop Off of Works
Work must be dropped off on Saturday, October 19th between 10am and 3pm. All work which is brought in will be hung (as long as it is properly wired and is family-friendly). Please ONLY bring your artwork in on Saturday, October 19th. BVAA staff need to be present to sign in the artwork, and we are only there at that day and time.

Reception
We will be having an in-person reception at the Uxbridge gallery on Friday, October 25th from 5-7pm! We would love to see you there.

Pick Up
Pick up is on Saturday, November 16th from 10am to 3pm. If you aren’t able to make that, please contact us for other arrangements.

Address any questions via our BVAA Contact Information

Ask with any questions! We look forward to seeing your entries!

Here’s the video walkthrough from the 2023 art show:

Here are the winners from our 2023 show!

Here is the 2021 Community Art Show to get some ideas!

Here’s the 2018 show video:

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Here is a flyer for this show for you!

James Hunt Photography

Small Stones Prep: Taking Photos of Paintings

The Small Stones Art Festival 2025 is coming up soon! This is an art show for photography and paintings. The submissions of JPG images of the art is all done online. Judges then look through those JPG images in order to decide what will be allowed into the physical show at the Brigham Hill Community Farm in North Grafton, Massachusetts. The show runs Jan 25 to Feb 2, 2025.

Usually this submission process is fairly easy for photographers. Photographers are generally fairly good at turning their images into JPG files for submission.

Often, though, this process is much more challenging for painters. A painter might be really talented at creating an oil painting on canvas of a woman’s face. It might be much harder for that painter to figure out how to take a great photograph of their painting, with the right lighting and focus, so that the resulting JPG file showcases well for the judges.

We are here to help!

Award-winning photographer James Hunt has kindly volunteered to take photos of BVAA members’ paintings for FREE for the Small Stones festival. The 2025 Small Stones festival allows each artist to submit up to 5 pieces of art. Each accepted physical piece can be a maximum of 26 inches (including frame) on its longest side. Full Small Stones art show requirements:

Small Stones Art Show

Here are the details of what James Hunt is offering for our BVAA photo shoot.

When: Saturday, September 28nd 2024 from 1-3pm
Where: BVAA Uxbridge Art Gallery, 5 South Main St., Uxbridge MA

James provides this information:

  • We can photograph up to 5 images (typically paintings or drawings, two-dimensional art only).  It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.
  • The maximum size for any image is 26″ framed, though we won’t photograph the frame. We highly recommend removing the glass if there is glass involved. Glass can cause reflections.
  • Image will be color and exposure corrected in post, cropped to the edge of any framing.
  • Images will be sized according to the Small Stones Festival specifications (maximum 4500 pixels on the long edge). You’ll also get a full-sized version for other use.
  • Jpeg images will be sent to you via Dropbox only, the next day.  You don’t need a Dropbox account, just email.
  • Hopefully your work can lie flat!!!
  • No charge, no do-overs!
  • This offer is available to BVAA members only.

Thank you so much to James for volunteering to help out our painters! To learn more about James and his photography, be sure to visit:

https://jameshuntphotography.com/

Ask with any questions!

Painting Demo with Deb Bottomley – September 2024

The Blackstone Valley Art Association is blessed to have talented painter Deb Bottomley. On Tuesday, September 17th, 2024, Deb will do a FREE live demo for us!

This will be helpful to ALL artists, even if you don’t use Deb’s particular paints. Deb’s skill with composition, color, emotion, and more can be applied to any form of art.

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!

Note that Verne Thayer was originally going to do our September demo but he became sick. We will definitely have Verne paint for us when he feels better! Thank you Deb for stepping in to do a demo!

You can learn more about Deb here:

https://www.deborahbottomley.com

Blackstone Valley Art Association Sponsors

Our meetings are supported in part by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Brandi van Roo

Basics of Quick-Sketching at River Bend Farm with Brandi van Roo

We are celebrating our Seventh Annual Uxbridge SketchFest with beauty! We have the amazingly talented artist Brandi van Roo joining us in Uxbridge to present supportive encouragement on how to quick-sketch buildings, landscapes, and bridges. We will walk short distances around the River Bend Farm canal and use the beautiful architecture and landscapes to develop our sketching skills.

Perfect for all levels of artists. Beginner will get themselves started, and more advanced artists will hone their skills!

This workshop is FREE! Please RSVP either with the online form on this site or by emailing info@bvaa.org so we know how many supplies to prepare. We will provide clipboards to draw on, paper, and pens / pencils. You can of course bring your own if you have supplies you prefer to use.

By getting started with Brandi, you’ll then have the skills you need to participate in our Seventh Annual Uxbridge SketchFest, which runs from Sunday September 15th through Thursday October 31, 2024!

Our River Bend Farm Sketching workshop will be held on Sunday, September 29th, 2023 from 2-4pm. If it rains, we’ll hold the workshop in the Uxbridge BVAA Community gallery space. We will definitely post here and on social media, and email all RSVPed people, if we have rain concerns.

Initial Meeting Location:
River Bend Farm
287 Oak Street
Uxbridge MA

The space is fully handicapped / disability accessible with no stairs. It has a large free parking lot.

This workshop is free and open to the public. No experience is necessary. The fun of our workshops is that we all try new things we’ve never done before.

All are welcome – this workshop is open to BVAA members and non-members. Feel free to bring along a friend! We’d love to see you there to try some new things and explore your creativity!

For more about the 2024 SketchFest event:

For more information about River Bend Farm, visit:

https://blackstoneheritagecorridor.org/exploring-the-blackstone-river-valley/heritage-centers/river-bend-farm

Here are a few sketches and paintings by Brandi to see her style!

Brandi van Roo
Brandi van Roo

This event is supported in part by grants from the Uxbridge Cultural Council, part of the Massachusetts Cultural Council.