Category: BVAA Shows and Events

It’s creepy and it’s kooky! Mysterious and spooky! For one night and one day only, the BVAA will hold a pop-up show and Halloween costume party in our BVAA Gallery!

Where:
BVAA Alternatives 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

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

Submissions
The online submission deadline for the Macabre show is Monday, October 28th, 2019. You can submit up to three works which can hang on our panels or sit in or on a case. Because this is a pop-up show on panels within the gallery, we’re limited to what fits on those panels. It’s open to all BVAA members. This is not a judged show so you CAN enter things you’ve entered in previous shows.

Drop-Off
If you can come to Milford TV on Thu 10/24, Lisa Shea can take your items from you there to then bring to Uxbridge. You can drop off work on Fri Oct 25th during the Tapestry reception or Sat Oct 26th during regular gallery hours.

You can also bring your works with you Friday of the party at 4pm to help us with the hanging and setup of the panels. Note that we can’t set up the panels before 4pm because this room is in use by Alternatives before this point. If none of these options work, contact Lisa and she’ll arrange an alternative!

Reception
We’ll have our pop-up celebration on Friday, November 1st (Day of the Dead!) from 5-7pm.

Pick-Up
We will take down the show Saturday afternoon at 3pm so that visitors on Saturday can enjoy it. If you can’t make it Saturday that’s fine, we’ll figure something out :).

Theme
This show is Halloween. Spooky. Shadowy. Here are photos from a previous year – Macabre Show 2016

Use the BVAA online submission form to submit for this show.

We’d love to see your spooky work!

Here’s a gallery of some of the artwork items which were featured in the 2019 Macabre Show. If we missed something, please let us know!

Come on out for a free, fun photography workshop along the Blackstone River! It’ll be Sunday, October 20 2019 from 11am – 1pm. It’ll be led by the amazing talented photographer James Hunt –

https://jameshuntphotography.com/portfolio-under-the-highway

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 Worcester Visitor’s Center just past the WalMart.

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 MIDDLE Millbury bike path parking lot. It is immediately across the street from the Valu Gas Station at:
1255 Millbury Street
Worcester, MA

So if you search for that on your GPS, you’ll find the spot. Here’s a map so you can see where it’s located. The parking lot is just north of where Route 20 crosses Route 146 and the Mass Pike. You can get to it by going a bit north on 146 from there and taking your first exit, then taking a right. Alternatively, you can take Route 20 east from 146, then take your first left onto Park Hill Ave, and then two more quick lefts.

We’ll meet at the middle parking lot at 11am to gather up everyone, and then go for a gentle walk to explore photography and the path! Call or text Lisa if you’re running late and she’ll let you know where to find us.

Please let us know via our contact form if you’re planning on coming, so we know to wait for you. If you forget that’s OK to, just show up! Bring friends! It’ll be a great morning of learning about photography and exploring our Blackstone River history!

Here’s the details on the bike path itself:

Blackstone Valley Bike Path Photos

We look forward to seeing you there!

We have an exciting demo planned for our next meeting on Tuesday October 15th 2019 6:30 to 9:00!

Our October 2019 meeting will feature a previous member of the Blackstone Valley Art Association, Stephen Halpert. Stephen and his wife Tasha were officers of the BVAA and helped begin the original Grafton Arts Festival.

Stephen is noted for his complex and beautiful collages.

Stephen will speak initially about the art of collage, giving a brief historical chronology , then discuss aspects of design like the law of thirds, balance, color contrast, and more. Then participants will be given boards and asked to make 3 collages of 5, 10 and 15 cuttings. That will be followed by Q&A. 

Please plan to attend to see his work and participate in making a college yourself. Bring a pair of scissors, we will have everything else!

Telegram.com Article on Stephen Halpert

Location:
BVAA Alternatives / Open Sky Uxbridge Community Gallery
5 South Main Street
Uxbridge, MA 01569

This meeting and 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.

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 try some new things and explore your creativity!

Ask with any questions!

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

IMPORTANT NOTE: This class has been cancelled. Please contact Carol Arnold about future classes.

NOTE: This class will focus on still life. Bring what you’d like to paint and your light and Carol will see you there!

Oil paint has been the medium of choice for a wealth of famous painters. Leonardo da Vinci. Claude Monet. Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Paul Cezanne. There is just something spectacular about the beauty of oil paint which captures the eye and the imagination.

Whether you’re a raw beginner or an experienced painter, this oil painting class will take you to the next level. It’s full of personal hands-on advice and a warm, welcoming atmosphere!

Talented painter Carol Arnold teaches a monthly oil painting class at the BVAA Alternatives Uxbridge Community Gallery! Carol is a member of Richard Schmid and Nancy Guzik’s Putney Painters! All levels of painters are welcomed with open arms. The focus will be on drawing, edges, values and color. These are areas which a beginner can practice and an advanced student can hone to perfection.

Carol makes these classes fun and inspiring, while supporting you to the next level of your growth!

This monthly class usually meets on the first Monday of every month from 6-9 pm. We are experimenting with other days to see how they work.

Cost:
The maximum class size will be 10 students, to ensure plenty of hands-on time for each one.
If there are only 1 or 2 students registered for a class, the class will be cancelled.
If there are 3 or 4 students, each student pays $20/hr for the class = $60 total.
If there are 5-10 students, each student pays $15/hr for the class = $45 total.

Invite your friends! Share the news! The more students which attend, the less you pay and the more fun it is to learn from each other.

When:
Monday, Nov 4, 2019
6pm – 9pm

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

This class is open to the public. It is open to all ages and to all levels of painting ability.

Please make sure you register beforehand so we know how many to expect. Carol will send you a supply list to get you started.

To register, please make sure you email: carol@carolarnoldfineart.com

To learn more about Carol Arnold and to view her painting gallery:

https://carolarnoldfineart.com/

Follow Carol on Facebook!

Carol Arnold Fine Art on Facebook

Dear Group –

Since at least 2010, there has been an annual Tapestry community art show held in our Uxbridge Gallery. It was run by Alternatives, then ValleyCast, and now by us. The idea of the show is that it’s a free, all-ages, all-abilities, open celebration of community and art. It’s for all types of art, from photography to painting to drawing to sculpture to stained glass and so on. It’s wholly inclusive.

Here’s the logo that was used for most of that time.

The problem is that nearly everyone I talk with thinks it’s a fabric / textile show and that they won’t enter because they don’t do fabrics or textiles. The logo doesn’t do much to clarify it at all. 

This current year I tried using an image which shows more that it’s about inclusivity, and to use wording in the write-up which shows it’s an open theme, but I still don’t think this is helping enough. I’m still hearing from members that they weren’t planning on participating because they figured this was a textiles-fabrics-only show.

Help!

What can we do for a logo that makes it more clear? Maybe a ring of people around a four-square of different types of art, to visually show that everything is welcome? And say right in the name of it that we take all kinds of art from all kinds of people?

Maybe something more like this? Clearly done by someone more talented than me :).

And then what could we call it? Something that has that Tapestry “woven together” feel but isn’t so specifically fabric oriented?

Please share any ideas you might have. And please do enter this year’s show – the drop off is NEXT WEEKEND. Please invite family and friends – the more the merrier! All are welcome to participate!

Sincerely,

Lisa Shea & the BVAA Team

The Open Sky / Alternatives / ValleyCast organization has held a yearly event for a few years now at the Whitin Mill complex in Whitinsville, MA. The one-day event, held in the fall, runs from 10am to 3pm. It is a celebration of making art and making music.

Artists set up tents in a ring around the plaza. Each artist is “making” something. One person shows how they make guitars with pretty art on them, another person shows how they make stained glass art, and so on. They also sell their art in their booth. The focus is on having visitors be able to come, see how the items are made, and to buy the art.

The stage has a rotation of musicians on it. There’s also a booth or two with a “petting zoo of instruments” where visitors can try out different instruments and see how they sound.

There’s a few food trucks on hand.

Cristi Collari at ValleyCast is looking to put together a small committee to plan the Fall 2020 event. That way the committee can look through the list of artists who want to participate, figure out the music schedule, choose the food trucks, and so on. She’d like 4 or 5 people to be on this with her so they have a good group to brainstorm.

If you’re interested, either in being a part of the festival or being a part of the committee (or both!) please contact Cristi at:

cristi.collari@openskycs.org

This will be quite a lot of fun. Visitors love the unique nature of what the festival offers.

Thanks!

Hi, we are very pleased to have Kristina Carroll from Gamblin presenting a 90 minute lecture demonstration on Saturday October 5th at the Uxbridge Gallery. WE NEED AT LEAST 20 ATTENDEES!

Let us know if you will be attending ASAP-

Did I mention that there will be goody bags !!!

Saturday October 5 2019
10:30am – 1pm

Uxbridge Art Gallery

5 South Main Street

Uxbridge, MA

All details:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1273506272834311/permalink/1273506816167590/

Working with models can be challenging. How do you get them to show the emotion you’re looking for? How do you handle lighting? Tori Heffernan is an expert at these things and is going to lead us through the process both in an outdoor and an indoor location.

We’ll be starting at Capron’s Dam in Uxbridge, MA. It’s immediately around the corner (walking distance) from our gallery. Then we move inside when it gets dark.

All are warmly welcome to attend! If you don’t have your own paints, let us know in advance so we can bring some for you. Or you could just come and watch! Painters and photographers are warmly welcomed to learn.

Date: Tuesday, September 17th, 2019
Time: 6:30-9pm

Location:

Capron’s Dam
Across from the FireFly Gallery
15 Mendon Street
Uxbridge, MA 01569

Thank you to Carol Frieswick for planning this event!

Some info from Tori:

My name is Tori and I am a freelance model. What that means is I do not stand with an agency, and I represent myself. I am also a model instructor at The Creative Collaboration events that a couple of my colleagues and I run. My goal is to show the community that there is beauty in everyone, and art can take many forms.

I help models who are new to the industry learn how to pose by letting their emotions influence their expression. I help photographers interact with models by demonstrating different methods of communication and direction. My instructions are a baseline for models and photographers to build their own style off of.

I enjoy working with others, individually and in groups. Using my knowledge to help others new to the art form or wanting to try something different. I love what I do!

A reminder that tonight Wednesday August 28, 2019 we have a fun light painting workshop at the Alternatives Singh Theater in the brick mill in Whitinsville MA!!

60 Douglas Road! Whitinsville! Free!!

Light painting is the art of creating light images with time-lapse photography. Several BVAA members own “light sticks” which let you do this kind of light painting. You can also use flashlights, LED lights, laser beams, and all sorts of other things.

In essence you have a camera on a tripod which you can set the shutter speed for. You want the shutter to stay open for a length of time – usually 5 seconds or more. While the shutter is open, you move light (and people and such) around in front of the camera so the camera captures that motion.

Here’s Luke’s page to see some examples –

https://www.instagram.com/lukemacneil92/

Bob Evans has some, too –

https://www.instagram.com/leonard_of_quirm/

The PixelStick site has a lot of great examples –

https://www.thepixelstick.com/

The challenge is you need it fairly dark for this to work. Otherwise the surrounding light impacts the image. Luckily, Lisa will be at the Singh Theater in Whitinsville on Wednesday 8/28 running a writing seminar on social media networks. That’s from 6-8pm. The seminar is in the outer area of the theater. The inner area of the theater is nice and dark and big. So members can use the theater to test out various light painting ideas. Lisa is done with her seminar at 8pm and then can join you as a model or participant.

I know of three PixelSticks (or equivalents) that the group has – Lisa’s, Bob’s and Luke’s. Let us know if anyone else has one.

This is FREE to participate in! Come on out and see how it works! Even if your camera doesn’t have a shutter speed setting, come anyway. You can try out one of our cameras and/or serve as a model or light-holder.

We hope to see you there!

Singh Theater
60 Douglas Road
Whitinsville, MA

https://www.openskycs.org/community/whitin-mill.html