Watercolor workshops: Painting Inspired by Nature by Abenaki Artist Amy Hook-Therrien

The day will feature two workshops: 10am for grades 7 -12 for a forty-five-minute session followed by a two-hour event for adults at 11am. Advanced high school students in the first session will be able to stay through to the later workshop. The workshop is free, but donations are requested to support SVA and future outreach events.

The location for Painting Inspired by Nature celebrates the first collaboration between SVA and Slate Valley Trails, as the workshops will take place at the main Fairgrounds system trailhead parking area at 131 Town Farm Rd, Poultney, VT 05764. Some supplies will be available, but if you have your own drawing pads, something firm to support the pads, brushes, lawnchairs, etc., please do bring them. Please RSVP to [email protected] to ensure a spot, although walk-ins are welcome to see if there are spots available at the time. Come on over and give it a try.

“SVT and SVA have pretty much evolved side-by-side over this last decade,” says Diane Bargiel, executive director of SVA. “Amy Hook-Therrien’s focus on nature has provided us the perfect opening for this first collaboration.”

Amy Hook-Therrien is a Native Vermonter, who grew up surrounded by nature and adventure. After graduating from the University of Maine in Orono with a bachelor’s degree in fine art and a focus in sculpture & painting, she returned home to begin her professional career. In 2019 Amy was the Vermont Abenaki Artists Association’s Artist of the Year, and, recently, Amy was asked to provide art for Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center’s new Patient Pavilion that is “grounded in nature,” and uses art to promote healing. Amy says, “I love to paint natural things, birches, dead beech leaves, waterfalls, plants, stones . . . it allows me to be freer in my painting style; nothing ever looks exactly the same in nature. You can fall in love with the imperfect.”

As a reminder, Abenaki storyteller and musician Joe Bruchac will appear in three places that same day, July 29th: 1pm Middletown Springs Public Library; 3:30 Mettawee Community School in West Pawlet; 7pm Stone Valley Arts at 145 E. Main St., Poultney. July 29th and 30th are the final two days of the Abenaki art show at SVA. The gallery is open from 11 – 2 both days, and at 6pm prior to Joe Bruchac’s Saturday performance at 7pm at SVA. Please keep posted on the latest information at www.stonevalleyarts.org

Celebrating Abenaki Art, Heritage, and Culture is supported by grants from Vermont Humanities, New England Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Western Arts Alliance Advancing Indigenous Performance Touring Fund, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.