Fourth Friday Art Walk Will Be Rocking With Scavenger Hunt
Painted rocks will be among the featured items in the Fourth Friday Art Walk this weekend.
The painted rocks trend has been popular in Ste. Genevieve, with people collecting rocks left in public places.
Gina Bennett, who has been one of the local artists behind the viral sensation locally — which has its own Facebook page — is co-sponsoring a Fleur de Lis Rock Hunt this Friday, September 27, along with fellow artist Mary Peura and the Ste. Genevieve Welcome Center.
“There will be seven Fleur de Lis rocks to find among the Art Walk venues that folks can turn in to the Centre for French Colonial Life [from] 6 to 9 p.m. for a $5 wooden Fleur de Lis buck which they can spend at one of the 25 merchants who accept them,” Bennett said. “I will have various painted rocks inside the Welcome Center, some for sale and some to give away, from 6 to 8 p.m. that evening.”
Bennett will be the featured artist at the Welcome Center.
Peura, a past president of the Ste. Genevieve Art Guild, and Farmington-based artist Derek Gollaher will be the featured artists Friday night at the Centre for French Colonial Life, 198 Market St. at the intersection with Second Street, in a show presented by the Gallery Association of Ste. Genevieve.
The Fourth Friday Art Walk series takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. on the fourth Friday of each month from spring through the fall with downtown galleries and art spaces open in evening hours.
The Gallery Association this year took coordination of the event, which celebrates more than 11 years.
For this week’s event, Bennett said various painted rocks will be “hidden in plain sight” at Art Walk venues.
“You are welcome to keep the rocks you find or ‘re-hide’ them somewhere for someone else to find,” Bennett said.
The hidden rocks with the Welcome Center’s Fleur de Lis tattoo on them can be redeemed for Fleur de Lis bucks.
Also in this month’s Fourth Friday Art Walk:
n The featured artist at the Sainte Genevieve Winery on Merchant Street will be Dean Burns of Farmington.
Burns is a retired educator who has done most of his artwork since retirement in 2006. His paintings of local churches and farms have been exhibited throughout the region, but it is his wood sculptures that are unique. Included in the exhibit is his sculpture, Abstract Family, which recently won first place in the Art is Ageless competition and will appear in the calendar created from that competition.
n E-KLeK-TiX Gallery at 130 N. Main St. will welcome visitors to the “Biggest Little Art Show in Town” with 100-plus original paintings ranging in size from 2 inches by 2 inches to 8 inches by 10 inches. The super-sized collection of small art was created by gallery owner J Rissover.
n Plein air artist Julie Wiegand will be the featured artist at Merchant Street Gallery.
Wiegand’s superb handling of light on the natural landscape has garnered her numerous awards — most recently the Artist’s Choice Award in the 2019 Augusta Plein Air Festival.
She has taken several awards in past Ste. Genevieve Plein Air events, including a 2013 first place, a 2010 Best of Show and a first- and second-place prizes in 2011. She has also won awards in Plein Air paint-outs in Augusta and in New Harmony, Indiana.
Wiegand’s exhibit will be on display during the Plein Air event beginning Thursday, September 26, through early afternoon on Sunday, September 29.
n Next door at Galerie Melange, the show “Impermanence,” fluid paintings in permanent ink by Janice Nabors Raiteri, will be on display during Fourth Friday Art Walk and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, September 28.
(Information from various Art Walk venues and participants.)
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