Orange County Artists Guild will take first spring tour

In his home studio, painter Eduardo Lapetina of Chapel Hill can be found with his palette knife painting the abstract, spring-inspired works that will be on display at his home gallery show this weekend.

Lapetina is one of 19 Orange County Artists Guild members who will be participating in the guild’s first ever spring tour.

“I use a lot of layers and only paint. In the middle of painting, I have to really think a lot about what to do next,” Lapetina said. “Sometimes I think it takes much longer than the actual painting, I go back, do more layers and it gets to a point when I know the painting is finished.”

Seventeen venues throughout Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough will display the artwork — including paintings, ceramics and glass — for viewing and purchase. Visitors will have the opportunity to drive to each studio and meet the artists during the weekend.

Lapetina said he has enjoyed interacting with the people who have walked into his studio during the guild’s past tours.

“The most important thing is that we meet new people that are interested in art,” he said. “We are able to tell them what we do, how we do it, what’s our inspiration and how long it takes to produce one piece of art.”

The guild organizes annual fall tours for the first two weekends in November, which usually include about 75 members. This year, the guild put together a smaller tour for the spring as well.

Joan Meade, the tour’s coordinator and guild board member at large, said the spring tour was made possible by the members’s group effort and cooperation.

“There were many parts,” Meade said.

“Each member is opening his or her studio, so each member has been doing a lot of work to help make this go.”

Meade said the guild will continue this tradition and put on a fall and spring tour next year.

“I call it a trial, but we’ve learned so much in this first one that we’re definitely going to do it next year to take advantage of all the things we learned this year,” she said. “We have a nice group of artists who are eager to have visitors.”

A group show displaying samples of the participating artists’s works will be on view until April 28 at the Chapel Hill Art Gallery. A reception will also take place tonight at the gallery.

David Taylor, a member of the guild and the gallery, said the reception before the start of every tour is a tradition.

“On the tour itself, you can only see one artist’s work at a time, and nobody has time to go to every place, so this gives people a chance to see what they’re looking for and see the styles artists use in one location,” he said.

Taylor said he would like to sell some of his paintings during the weekend because he sees the purchase of his work as a meaningful compliment.

“I hope that the people who come to the reception will be enthusiastic about what they see, think this is really great and will want to go to some of the artists’ homes and follow up,” he said.

“I hope that the artists that participate will say this has worked very well and will want to continue doing it in the spring.”

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