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GREAT Days!
Catch the first glimpse of fall color on...
The Gills Rock Entertainment Arts Tour
Friday, September 30, Saturday and Sunday, October
1 - 2
 TOUR MAP
(PDF 344K)
GILLS ROCK, WI - Celebrate
Autumn color season with the most northerly artists on the Peninsula, the Gills Rock Artisans. Goldsmith and engraver
George Bentley,
painters Rob Williams,
RD Bentley and
Jim Maronek,
fiber artist Phebe Bentley,
photographer Shirley Williams
and arts maven Charlene Berg
band together to draw your attention northward to the top of the Door.
The Gills Rock Artisans launch the 1st Annual Gills Rock Entertainment Arts Tour - acronymically entitled, GREAT Days!
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each of the five destination stops - located within minutes of each other
- will provide rural arts hospitality. GREAT Days showcases a variety of live demonstrations, entertainment and tasty treats - beckoning
you to enjoy the beauty of autumn in northern Door County.
For three days… Friday, September 30, Saturday and Sunday, October 1 - 2 the Gills
Rock Artisans welcome visitors from 10 AM to 5 PM with each of
the artisan craftsmen hosting ongoing demonstrations of a particular artistic endeavor.
The first stop on Highway 42 heading north out of Ellison Bay, after you round the Europe Bay corner, is a collection
of historic log barn buildings on your right at 12180 Highway
42. There, find George and Phebe Bentley's Renaissance
Gallery & Studio. Participants in the GREAT Days tour will
observe George at work, engraving silver flatware and working his antique forge - a device that was actually used
during the building of the trans-continental railroad. Bentley's Gallery is a working studio where George utilizes
many tools and techniques, from the Renaissance to the present, in the historic barn complex.
His wife Phebe is a fiber artist, creating wearable art knitted with
luxurious textures and rich colors.
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She also features her felted bags and a collection of her contemporary and
traditional quilts. |
Head north for approximately a mile on Highway 42 to the next road and turn
right. Drive less than ½ mile to 753 Isle View Road where you will find Rob Williams
Studio Gallery. Open for his second season after retiring to
Gills Rock from a 35-year career teaching art in Cary Illinois, Rob Williams will demonstrate painting en plein
air.
He invites you to stop by any day during GREAT Days to watch his expressionistic
oil landscapes take shape before your eyes. A tour of the gallery will permit you to see more of his work and enjoy
the black and white photography by his wife Shirley, also on exhibit.
Returning to Highway 42 and rolling north for another ½ mile, you arrive at Charlene Berg's Gallery Ten,
located at 12625 Highway 42.
There you will see a full spectrum of fine art work by a cadre of more than 100 artists. Her latest show just opened,
featuring an edgy photo-sculptural installation by Traeton Garl and a climb up the spiral tower stairs to an intimate
display of black and white pen and ink journaling by Laura Yost Manthy.
On Saturday, October 1,
Peter 'Birdog' Daniels
will perform at Charlene's with his old-time instrumental claw-hammer banjo from
2-3:30 PM. GT Coffee - adjoining the gallery - will serve espresso
drinks each day, with cherry pie and a chance at catching a glimpse of Art and Cuppa Joe, the art poodles.
Head north again for another 1/2 mile on Highway 42, then turn left onto rustic, twisty Cottage Road for approximately
a mile to North Elm Road.
It's a right-turn-only, to find #1076,
the address of the internationally renowned portrait painter, Robert
Dewar Bentley. His new gallery and studio addition is stunning
and worth the hunt.
Bentley welcomes visitors to watch him at work on a collection of commissioned portraits that currently include
a prominent U.S. congressman, a Marine general and a family depicted in one of his "narrative portraits."
"Affaire d'Arte"
You may also catch "R.D." at work on a few of his eccentric
and whimsical flights-of-fancy
(above). His landscapes and a variety of his prints are on display
in the adjoining gallery at Bentley's
of Door County.
Like a treasure hunt, the last stop in the GREAT Days Tour will be the one of the most rewarding, but also one
of the most challenging to locate. Rest assured, once you arrive at the eclectic, Russian estate known as Silver Poplar Studios, the reward will be self-evident. Artist Jim
Maronek is an award winning theatrical set designer with a love
of architectural remnants. He has stitched them all together in a world he and his wife Carol call Ellison Wonderland, regularly
a featured stop in the annual House and Garden Walk.
To get there, return to Cottage Road, turn right and continue traveling a few hundred yards until Cottage meets
up with Blackberry Lane. Turn left onto Blackberry for a very short distance and ,ake a sharp turn right down the
steep hill of Garrett Bay Road. After it twists down to the shoreline it bends away from the water in a sharp left
corner. A thousand feet later watch for Door Bluff Road, a right-turn-only and proceed straight to 1519 East Door Bluff Road.
Stroll about and admire the Slovak log barn coupled with remnants from
at least five other barns and a rare, wooden-stave silo with a glass roof - all finished in 1998, but looking like
they have been standing in the meadow for a hundred years.
Jim Maronek invites
you to play where-is-Waldo as you make your way throughout the grounds trying to find him somewhere in the meadows,
woods, or among the flowers, painting in plein air each day.
Don't fear! Guide
maps are available at each and every stop along the way and
you can even download one in advance at GillsRockArtisans.com. Enjoy the first blush of fall color and a variety of refreshments provided at
each location. The Gills Rock Artisans invite you to make northern Door your high color destination for GREAT Days...
it's well worth the trip!
Call Charlene Berg at Gallery Ten for more information: 920-854-9907.
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