First Fridays are extra special in Manitou Springs, where art lovers can stroll from gallery to gallery just a few blocks apart to see new work and meet artists. Downtown Manitou is home to three major galleries. Here’s what they’re offering in August:
Commonwheel Artists Co-op is hosting its annual Summer Market, offering arts and crafts in a range of media, from paintings to pottery and photography to pyrography (artfully burned wood). This year’s edition will showcase 23 artists, including co-op members, who were juried into the market. All items cost less than $100.
The markets have been popular with people from the Pikes Peak region, Denver and Pueblo, says co-organizer Jean Cuchiaro, a painter and Commonwheel member.
“We attribute the Summer Market sales to the increased number of visitors during the summer and the wide variety of artful gift items to be found in the Creekside gallery room,” she says.
The Summer Market traditionally brings in more revenue than most of the monthly gallery exhibits, Cuchiaro says. Sales are so brisk, and buyers can take their treasures immediately (or have them shipped), the shelves and walls are constantly restocked.
102 Cañon Ave., open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. every day in summer. Information: https://www.commonwheel.com/ or 719-685-1008.
Green Horse Gallery will feature Noli Morath’s acrylic and oil paintings. The show has no title or particular theme, other than the landscapes, flowers and still lifes that Morath sees around her.
After leaving Boston’s Museum School of Fine Arts, marrying fellow painter Stephen Morath and raising four children, Morath spent 26 years teaching language arts at Manitou Springs Middle School and four years as a substitute.
When she had the time, she painted privately for her own and her family’s enjoyment.
“Now retired, I like to have a schedule that includes the discipline of painting,” she says.
She’s planning to show about 20 pieces in her first exhibit anywhere, and she’s especially excited about the location.
“A first show at the Green Horse Gallery is an honor — I have known and admired this gallery since it was Filthy Wilma’s on Ruxton Avenue,” Morath says.
729 Manitou Ave., open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. every day in summer. Information: https://www.greenhorsegallery.com/ or 719-685-0636.
The Manitou Art Center is showing “Texture and Form in Handwoven Cloth,” with work by Pikes Peak Weavers Guild members Susan Bowman, Jeanne Steiner, Beverly Weaver and Dottie Weir.
All have been practicing their craft for 40 to 50 years and have exhibited previously at the MAC, taught, co-chaired and juried international weaving exhibits there.
“Thousands of yards of yarn can pass through a weaver’s hands while preparing a warp, dyeing it, and throwing a shuttle as the woven cloth emerges,” Bowman says.
Her work combines large complex designs with hand-dyed threads and “evoke a sense of seeing land and sky from afar,” according to her biography.
Steiner spent 36 years as a weaving teacher and Arts and Crafts Program director at Colorado College. She weaves layers of fine silk, along with gold leaf and other materials, to create her pieces.
Weaver often uses hand-dyed cloth strips for her wall art, rugs and tapestries; her background as a software architect informs her hand-weaving techniques.
Weir, a former interior designer, blends dyed layers with other surface design techniques to create bold contemporary statements.
513 and 515 Manitou Ave., open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays. Information: https://manitouartcenter.org/ or 719-685-1861.
Opening receptions are 5-8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1.
Editor’s note: Van Pelt handles PR for Green Horse Gallery.