Spotlight | Hidden in the Hills Studio Tour

Cave Creek, AZ
Various locations, November 17-19 & 24-26

Lucy Dickens, The Joy of Spring, oil, 36 x 60.

Lucy Dickens, The Joy of Spring, oil, 36 x 60.

This story was featured in the November 2017 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art November 2017 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

The Hidden in the Hills Studio Tour is an annual pastime for new and seasoned collectors alike. Now in its 21st year, the event continues to grow, this year featuring 174 artists at 44 studios across the Cave Creek, Carefree, and North Scottsdale areas. The self-guided tour is held during the last two weekends of November, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

The event is hosted by the Sonoran Arts League and offers visitors the chance to see both established and emerging artists at work in their private studios, along with guest artists from across the state who also display and sell their work. Pieces range in price, style, and size, with mediums including traditional painting and sculpture as well as fine-art jewelry and crafts. The tour has often attracted those searching for unique holiday gifts. Here we introduce you to a few of the artists participating this year.

Landscape painter Lucy Dickens opens the doors of her gallery and studio again this year. Dickens uses light and shadow to portray small corners of the vast desert. “I love ‘the magic hour’ just before dusk when the shadows grow long and the golden light caresses the landscape,” she says. The award-winning artist seeks to transform a simple landscape into a narrative pictorial by conveying an emotional reaction to the scenes around her.

Brian Johnson’s mixed-media works seem to evoke the artistic history of Native American cultures in the Southwest. Using dried cactus skeletons, along with woven cotton, copper, turquoise, and more, Johnson creates figures, which he calls shamans, as well as other woven pieces. “I explain my shamans as being spirits of Native American warriors in the desert,” he says.

Jeweler Kathi Turner uses her experiences as a cattle rancher to inspire her intricate accessories. Turner combines various metals with natural stones, such as locally sourced turquoise, to tell stories in one-of-a-kind pieces that often include symbols such as arrows, feathers, stars, and horseshoes. Through her pieces, she hopes to convey the stories and spirit of the West with a contemporary flair. —Mackenzie McCreary

contact information
480.575.6624
www.hiddeninthehills.org

This story was featured in the November 2017 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art November 2017 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

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