By ELIOT SEKULER/Oregon Coast TODAY
It’s become an annual tradition, a creative cruise along the coast that allows art lovers to indulge their curiosity, expand their knowledge of artistic technique and see work that they wouldn’t find anywhere else.
This year’s self-guided Art on the Edge studio tour will take place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, May 30, to Sunday, June 1.
As in past years, the tour will present a kaleidoscopic array of work in such varied media as oil and acrylic painting, watercolors, metal sculpture, fused glass, photography, fiber arts, mosaics, clay and ceramic art, driftwood furniture and weaving.
Two dozen artists will welcome visitors, discuss their creative process and offer work for sale at 14 studio sites along a route that extends from Neskowin to Newport.
Art on the Edge was created in 2017 by the Lincoln City Cultural Center to showcase the diversity and quality of the local arts scene. A showcase exhibit featuring all participating artists will be on display at the center’s Chessman Gallery through July 6, dramatically demonstrating. the diversity of the tour’s offerings.
The center’s visual arts director, Krista Eddy, was enthused about a new feature of the tour, the Passport to the Edge printed in in the tour’s map brochure, available at the center and at all of the tour’s studio locations. The passport features 24 boxes bearing the names of each participating artist.
“Each artist on the tour will have their own unique stamp,” Eddy said, “and visitors to their studios will be able to have their passports stamped at each location.”
Intrepid tour-goers who visit all 16 locations over the three days and turn in their passports at the center or at any of the artists’ studios will be eligible for drawings that will award two $250 gift certificates, good toward the purchase of artwork featured on the tour.
This year’s tour was organized by four of the participating artists: Maria Esther Sund, Karen Gelbard, Catherine Hingson and Tara Choate. Choate explained the advantages the tour affords both to the artist and the visitor.
“In other settings, artists are really at a remove from the public,” she said. “When you show your work in a gallery, you can’t be present all of the time and even at the opening, you’re really busy. The tour gives artists a chance to develop their presence, to talk to potential collectors, even add to their mailing lists. For the guests, the tour offers the opportunity to see items they wouldn’t ordinarily see displayed, find some really affordable art and get to know each artist better.”
Much of the artwork in this year’s event will be familiar to veteran tour-goers. Sund’s exquisite multi-media pieces, Bob Gibson’s expressive photography, Natasha Ramras’ oils, watercolors and prints and Kelly Howard’s imaginatively crafted glasswork have been a presence in past tours. They’ll be joined by about a dozen tour newcomers, creating a good balance between fresh faces and tour veterans.
Among the new faces is that of acclaimed painter Sandy Roumagoux, whose work will be on display at her Newport studio. Roumagoux, who has been painting professionally for the past 55 years, has work in the permanent collection of the Portland Art Museum, has shown her art at several of Portland’s most prominent galleries and, in 2024, served as artist in residence at the Hatfield Science Center. In an unusual twist, her career as an artist has been juggled with her interest in politics: she served three terms as the mayor of Newport, only the second woman to hold that position.
“I have a love for politics and art,” said Roumagoux, whose expressive landscapes are sometimes subtly imbued with environmental and social themes. “My artist friends can’t figure out why I’d want to be in the political world and my friends in politics can’t believe they’re dealing with an artist.”
For the Art on the Edge tour, she’ll be joined by fabric artist Janet Webster at her home studio, the tour’s southernmost site.
Although a majority of tour-goers tend to be Central Coast residents, Choate noted that a significant number of visitors to her studio in past years were out-of-towners who return to the event each year.
“I met a few people who were down for the weekend and came to my studio in family groups,” she said. “‘We do this every year,’ one of them told me. `It’s such a fun way to spend the weekend.’”
For the artist names and a map of the studios on the Art on the Edge tour go here
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