Ashland Art Works

Of course Eric beat me to this! Nina and I happened on it today after brunch at Morning Glory. I have new next door neighbors who come up to Ashland, staying at Abbott’s Cottages. Nina called Abbott’s this morning to see if we could take a look at them. They’re all rented, so we couldn’t, but the woman she spoke to told us where they were so we could look at the exteriors and grounds. We parked across the street near the former Cantwell’s grocery store and walked over. As we walked down the brick driveway we noticed several pieces of rusted metal art affixed to the wall of the house to the left of the driveway. They were for sale and were party of the gallery display. To the right we saw a sign w/​a description of the gallery spaces and an invitation to visit them. All gallery spaces are designated w/​bright yellow sun splashes. There are five of them. We missed the smallest of them, but saw the other 4.
The grounds are lovely, w/​garden sculptures scattered around and at least one bench to sit on under a large tree. I can no longer remember the names of the individual galleries, but each of the back ones is a single room. The first one we went into had beautiful silk scarves, very reasonably priced at $ 38, wooden carving/​cheese boards for $ 40 or less, interesting wall clocks, a children’s book, a very attractive wood framed mirror w/​coat hooks to hang in a hallway, black and white glass ornamenting the top portion of it. If I had a place to put it I would have bought it. We were looking for a hostess gift for a friend who’s having us over tonight, so we picked out one of the cheese boards. Nina took a book for her granddaughter and a cheese board for her sister’s birthday.
There was no one in the gallery, so we just carried our treasures to the next one, which had more scarves and wooden pieces, but also a fabulous multimedia sculpture w/​a smallish table (w/​a secret drawer) bearing an unstrung cello w/​a typewriter sitting atop it, a candelabrum w/​5 red candles behind the cello and a black French umbrella behind and over part of the cello. It was imaginative and amazingly well priced at $ 1700. I hope someone w/​money, room and taste sees it and brings it home. In addition there was a handsome, large ceramic urn w/​a piece of deer horn affixed to the top. This beautiful piece was $ 120. Also displayed in this gallery and the last were pieces of art glass, mostly platters of various colors and shapes, also well priced at $ 120 each. As at the previous gallery, there was no one in attendance, so we moved on.
The third gallery was exclusively large ceramic pieces, some wall hung, most large, urn-​like creations which sat on tables. The smallest gallery was around the corner from this one and it was the one we missed. We went to the front gallery, where we found someone to help us. In addition to more scarves and wood, there were tightly woven small rugs, some hanging on the wall, as there had been in some of the other galleries, some jewelry, some quirky, interesting clay sculptures of people and dogs and other appealing objects. On the front porch was a very cool sculpture of a painted guitar w/​a mannequin’s shapely legs, paint covered brushes woven through the guitar’s strings. As Eric says, it’s an artist cooperative. Prices are extremely affordable and quality is excellent. They are open Thursday-​Saturday from 10 – 5 and Sunday from 11 – 3, so we were happy not to have come earlier in the week because we would have missed them. Abbott’s cottages are scattered among the gallery and I would imagine that they would be wonderful places to stay.

Ashland Art Works has 5 galleries, art studios, sculpture gardens and decks overlooking Ashland Creek. AAW is a non-​profit, artist cooperative. Gayle and I have been here as part of the First Friday Art Walk and have enjoyed the various demonstrations and the campus-​like display environment. The selections and artist vary over time and there’s always something cool to look at and ponder the possibilities.