29th Annual Jamaica Plain Artists Open Studios This Weekend

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This weekend is the 29th Annual Jamaica Plain Open Studios, a free event for people to check out great artists from around the area.

A watercolor titled “Iceberg in Iceland” by artist Lisa Goren. (Courtesy Lisa Goren)

A sculpture titled “A Real Boy” by artist Marc Cote, who has participated in Jamaica Plain Open Studios for roughly 15 years. (Courtesy Marc Cote)

Organized by the Jamaica Plain Arts Council (JPAC), the event is from 11 am to 6 pm, on both Saturday on Sunday. Open Studios will showcase the work of more than 100 artists at 40-plus sites across the neighborhood -- some right from the artists’ creative spaces, to the outside of Jameson & Thompson Picture Framers in Bartlett Square, to the schoolyard at the historic Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts.

There will be art from ironworkers, jewelers, painters, potters, printmakers, quilt-makers, sculptors, woodcarvers and more.

Former JPAC board member and current volunteer Lisa Goren, a Hyde Park-based watercolorist, has participated in JPOS for more than a decade, and will be sharing her paintings based on her travels to Alaska, Antarctica, Iceland and near the North Pole.

“My first and only trip to Antarctica was in 1997. It was life changing. The area was so beautiful and so vast—just stunning. I hope to bring a small part of that to my paintings,” said Goren via press release, whose work will be displayed at the Footlight Club (7 Eliot St.).

Marc Cote, who lived in JP in the 1990s and 2000s, and has participated in Open Studios for more than a decade, loves coming back due to JP's ethos.

“I have a strong connection to and love for JP. The neighborhood has long appreciated a wide range of artistic content and approaches. It’s one of the rarer audiences that will buy my scary work,” said Cote. His work includes woodcuts, monotypes and sculptures that feature expressionistic, figurative imagery. His work will be at the First Baptist Church, one of the multi-artist sites, and draws from the subjects of children's tales, myths, fables and novels as well as his own personal experiences.

Free maps of where participating artists will be stationed will be distributed at JP businesses and will be available during the event at the information booth at JP Licks. Maps are also available for download at www.jpopenstudios.com.

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