Art Studio Bike Tour, May 11: photos

The weather was fabulous on Sunday, just perfect for our first Art Studio Bike Tour. It happened to coincide with Mother's Day, which I thought was going to bring out lots of moms. Not so. We only had 8 people altogether on our tour. It made it certainly more relaxing for me to have fewer people than expected, so I thoroughly enjoyed myself. As did the others.

The art was amazing. We saw a.o. beautiful paintings by Diane Speirs, clearly inspired by the beautiful nature in our area, lifelike wood sculptures by Bruce Rothe, made from wood found by the Fraser River and beautifully transformed into various types of fish such as, of course, salmon. Also beautiful glass dishes and jewelry by Jane McKay, more gorgeous paintings by amazingly versatile artist Elaine Booth-Kallweit, leather art by Joie Pare, and more.

  Some of the comments I received:

..."Thanks for a great day! I loved it! ...A great ride!"...

..."I wanted to thank you again for making today so enjoyable. Following the bike with the flowers turned out to be great fun! Thank you for making my mother's day one I will remember."...

Credit: Art Studio Tour

For more photos, click here.

I'd love to do this again next year. I read some interesting articles in the paper about some of the other artists in the Tour. Perhaps our next one should be in Pitt Meadows: great art, and suitably flat terrain!

Art Studio Bike Tour, May 11

Do you know the annual Art Studio Tour in Maple Ridge is coming up? It’ll take place on May 10th and 11th.

This year you have the option of joining members of our local HUB committee on our first Art Studio Bike Tour.

Date: Sunday, May 11 

Time: 10:00 am

Where: The ACT, Memorial Peace Park

We’ve selected a nice variety of art studios along a pleasant route for this ride.  Length of the route is about 16 kms, so quite doable for the average person. You can expect some refreshments along the way, offered by the various artists, but you may want to bring along a small lunch and a water bottle as well, since we’ll be on the road for several hours.

Doing it by bike adds another dimension to exploring the arts scene in Maple Ridge. It’s just as much about enjoying the exercise and the outdoors as about discovering the amazing artsy talents in our community!

There is a small fee ($2) we will need to charge for this ride, which will cover a HUB membership for the day, which pays for insurance for ride participants. Update April 27: no charge for insurance. Members as well as non-members will be covered by HUB insurance (required by the District of Maple Ridge). All participants will just need to sign a waiver. Nevertheless, we always appreciate a small donation to help cover the cost of running our local activities, or you can consider an annual HUB membership which will help support HUB's activities throughout Metro Vancouver. A HUB membership will give you benefits such as discounts at local bike shops. Check out the HUB website for more info. You can join on-line.

We have been asked by the District's Engineering Department, the RCMP and the Fire Department to point out to participants that:

1. it is illegal to ride 2 or more abreast, 
2. cyclists are legally required to wear a helmet,
3. riders must obey all traffic rules/regulations specially at intersections,
4. riders must yield to all emergency vehicles,

Arts studios that we’ll be visiting:

• Barbara Heller (tapestry artist) at the ACT
• Kerry McLaren and Donnae Bell (clay artists), 21536 River Road, Maple Ridge
• Elaine Booth-Kallweit (paintings – nature, carving, native art) and Joie Pare (leather art), 12507 – 216 Street
• Jane McKay (art glass design), 22416 129 Avenue
• Bruce Rothe (wood carving), 12717 – 228th Street
• Diane (painting) and Craig (wood/found objects) Speirs , 23386 124th Ave

Pre-registration is recommended, but if you decide last-minute you want to join us, it's not a problem!

Please contact Jackie at jchow23708@yahoo.ca.

This is the approximate route: