Category: tourism

Tour Around Oxford County This Weekend

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In case you missed it, this weekend is the annual Oxford Studio Tour here in Southwestern Ontario.  We have lots to offer to delight the eye and capture the imagination, and we hope our varied talents will attract one and all.

Exhibiting our art is always done in the hope it will be so well liked it goes home with the viewer.  But we are also happy when it sparks some good conversations and some word-of-mouth advertising!

On that note, a reminder to all of us, artists and tourists alike, to be kind, supportive and respectful to one another.  We all have different sources of inspiration, and different tastes.  Also, let’s remember that while most of us don’t want to hear another word about COVID ever again, some of us do exist in situations where we have to protect either ourselves or other vulnerable people from it and other viruses.  Let’s respect that need.

With that said, we can all look forward to an enjoyable weekend of  free art appreciation.  It’s a fun rural day-trip for a group of friends or family, or just by yourself.  To plan your outing, you may want to consult the page on our website which has all the artists listed as well as maps for individuals and the tour as a whole.  See you this weekend, 10 to 5 on Saturday and Sunday!

Oxford Studio Tour less than 2 weeks away!

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Below is an article kindly written for us by Jeff Tribe, and featuring several tour artists:

The Oxford Studio Tour always has been, is and always will be a diverse, inclusive artistic space.

There is commonality amongst participants given each must successfully pass an application process confirming commitment to their art. Beyond that, the 33 participants on this year’s 16th Annual event offer their unique vision through 16 distinct media.
“I am in awe of it all,” said Wendy Gielis, a first-time member who joined after touring last year’s event with her sister Monique. “And what they create out of it.”

This year’s tour is scheduled for Saturday, May 6th and Sunday, May 7th, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.
A full palette of detailed information including descriptions of individual artists and examples of their work, tour maps and locations and event sponsors is listed on the website www.oxfordstudiotour.ca. Glossy, full-colour brochures featuring the same are available from Tillsonburg’s Station Arts Centre, Ingersoll’s Creative Arts Centre, the Woodstock Art Gallery, Tourism Oxford, Early Bird Coffee and participating artists. Interested persons are also invited to phone 519-842-6151 or email office@stationarts.ca. During the tour, red signs will be planted to further identify the tour’s 15 locations.

Sue Goossens, a professional Otterville-area-based watercolour artist and tour founder recommends using the brochure or website to plan out an itinerary efficiently using as much time as guests would like to commit. Some strive to take in every site and artist across two full days, others pick locations which particularly interest them for a half or single day. Any amount of time will however, open the door to a wide range of artistic expression.
“We are very fortunate to have such a variety of talented artists in Oxford County,” said Goossens. The diversity developed organically she continued, believing it is an Oxford tour strength. Those enjoying the opportunity can expect to view oil, acrylic and watercolour paintings, graphite, pen-and-ink, encaustic, collage and mixed media renditions, pottery, jewellery, photography, digital art, weaving and fibre arts along with gourds and woodworking.
“We have everything,” Goossens said. “And we haven’t had to work at the variety, we’re fortunate, it has just happened.”

Tillsonburg-based Tabitha Verbuyst’s own diversity is expressed in dramatic dark and alternatively, light dreamlike interpretations of movement, colour and life. She looks forward to the tour weekend as a focussed concentration on the depth and breadth of Oxford County’s artistic community, for both public and participants.
“It’s great to work with so many talented artists,” Verbuyst said, citing benefits including shared peer and community exposure. “And from that, they gain personal growth and new opportunities in the world of art.
“Don’t just take our word for it, come and see for yourself,” she smiled in conclusion.

Some of our 2023 Oxford Studio Tour artists

The 2023 Tour is coming up!

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It’s almost spring and the Oxford Studio Tour is once again on the calendar, less than 8 weeks away. Our website is updated with a fresh list of artists and locations, complete with links to a Google map for the tour as a whole, as well as individual maps for each location. A sample and description of each artist’s work is given, as well as either a link to their own website or an email address for them, along with other contact information.

Brochures will soon be available, so keep your eyes open at places around the county and surrounding area, especially the places listed on the home page of the website. In the meantime, enjoy exploring the site and share the news. We hope you’ll plan on participating in this outing on May 6 & 7 with your friends and/or family, or as a treat for yourself!

This Weekend!

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Just a reminder that the Oxford Studio Tour is indeed this weekend: April 30 and May 1, 2022. Whether we should call it the 13th, 14th or 15th annual tour, after all the COVID postponements and virtualizations, is anyone’s guess, but we artists are excited to welcome tourists to our studios and galleries this year.

We encourage you to visit those you haven’t visited in previous years, or revisit to your heart’s content. All of us are just so happy we can finally do this again. Some have been super creative, others have been less so, with all that’s been happening. Regardless, we all have art we want you to see and in the past few years, not so much interaction with collectors. It will be a treat for all of us.

Please, while touring, we ask you to be mindful of others’ comfort and safety, and your own, as we will be. All of us will be doing our best!

If you need a map, click here, or go to the website’s home page or the Studios and Artists by Location page. While driving, look for the red signs. If you haven’t got a brochure, any artist should be able to provide you with one. Happy art touring!


A Glimpse of the Real Thing

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Thirty-five participants in 18 locations are thrilled to be physically sharing their artistic vision once again through the 14th Annual Oxford Studio Tour, scheduled for Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“It will be nice to actually see people again,” said Burgessville-area wildlife and nature acrylic artist Rhonda Franks. “It’s nice to get an actual physical response to your work.”

COVID-19’s unwelcome arrival caused a one-year hiatus, then converted the 13th annual tour in 2021 to an online event due to ongoing pandemic challenges and restrictions. That experience underlined how fortunate one of the tour’s founders and ongoing organizers Sue Goossens of Otterville feels, ‘to be doing this again.’

“It’s something as an artist you look forward to.”

Full-colour brochures complete with descriptions of each artist and a tour map identifying individual and shared gallery locations (highlighted by red tour signs) are available at the Woodstock Art Gallery, Ingersoll’s Creative Arts Centre, Tillsonburg’s Station Arts Centre, tour sponsors and participating artists. Additional information including GPS coordinates is also included on the tour website (oxfordstudiotour.ca), available by calling 519-842-6151 or visiting the tour’s dedicated Facebook page. The latter will be hosting gift certificate giveaways courtesy of several participating artists throughout the month of April.

COVID’s dynamic nature has made establishing hard and fast criteria for artists and tour participants alike difficult. If artists have special requests for visitors with regards for example to sanitation or masking, they are to be clearly identified on location.

“The biggest thing is just being respectful,” said Tillsonburg-based oil painter Tabitha Verbuyst.

There is no charge for the tour, which covers both a wide range of Oxford County geographically, and media including oil, acrylic, watercolour painting, mixed media, graphite, pen and ink, pottery, jewellery, photography, weaving, fibre arts, encaustic, collage, digital art and gourds. Those resuming what has become an annual spring tradition celebrating and encouraging connection amongst the county’s artistic community and its supporters will notice a blend of familiar and new faces, offering what Goossens believes is ‘something for everyone’.

“It’s all out there, just waiting to be found.”

Feedback on the studio tour’s return has been ‘highly positive’ says Goossens, who believes it is not only artists looking forward to the weekend event.

“People are anxious to get out and do something as well,” she concluded.

From left, Paulette Robertson (foreground), Lianne Todd (rear), Sue Goossens (rear), Aggie Armstrong (front), Lesley Penwill (front), Tabitha Verbuyst (rear) and Rhonda Franks (rear) are among 35 participating artists in 18 locations featured on the 14th Annual Oxford Studio Tour, scheduled for Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Information on the tour can be found in full-colour brochures, the tour website (oxfordstudiotour.ca), by calling 519-842-6151 or visiting the tour’s dedicated Facebook page.

From left, Paulette Robertson (foreground), Lianne Todd (rear), Sue Goossens (rear), Aggie Armstrong (front), Lesley Penwill (front), Tabitha Verbuyst (rear) and Rhonda Franks (rear) are among 35 participating artists in 18 locations featured on the 15th Annual Oxford Studio Tour, scheduled for Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Information on the tour can be found in full-colour brochures, the tour website (oxfordstudiotour.ca), by calling 519-842-6151 or visiting the tour’s dedicated Facebook page.

Oxford Studio Tour 2022!

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It is officially less than a month until the Oxford Studio Tour. Yes, no April Fool’s joke, it is a real life event for the first time since 2019, and we are excited!



You can pick up printed brochures as of today at:

Early Bird coffee:  2 locations (these will be open during tour, also):

375 Dundas St N4S 1B6  & 815 Juliana Dr #3 Woodstock Ontario

Schaus Decorating, and

Your Farm Market in Woodstock.

Soon, they will also be available at:

Tourism Oxford,   580 Bruin Blvd,  Woodstock,  ON,   N4V 1E5

Ingersoll Creative Arts Centre,   125 Centennial Ln,  Ingersoll,  ON,   N5C 3V3

Station Arts Centre,   41 Bridge. St. W.,   Tillsonburg,  ON,   N4G 5P2

Or, you can just ask any of the artists on the tour for one. Other options include visiting our website for information on artists, links to Google maps of tour locations, and more. www.oxfordstudiotour.ca

Stay tuned!

Artists’ Application for 2022 Tour

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We are feeling very positive about holding a freshly planned art studio tour in Oxford County, Ontario in 2022!

To be included as an artist on the tour please read the artists’ application carefully, follow ALL directions, download, print, fill, and scan to send by email, or send the filled form and any other required materials by mail to the address listed in the application.

All artists (first time or previously included artists) must submit an appropriately filled application with specified requirements and it must be submitted on time.

Link to Application Form for 2022 Oxford Studio Tour

Deadline is October 18, 2021.

Happy creating!

Virtual Oxford Studio Tour

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As you know, our Oxford Studio Tour, which would have been this weekend, has been cancelled once again due to COVID-19.

We know visiting our art onscreen is not the same as the fun of touring around Oxford County and seeing each artist in person, along with all of their fabulous art, but what to do? We decided to make the best of it and hold a virtual tour in the form of a Facebook Event. Consider yourself invited! Join in by clicking “Going”, then check out the “Discussions” button to see all of the artwork being showcased. Artist contact info should be available at each post. We’d all be thrilled if you decided to purchase a piece, but we are happy if you just want to look, like, share, etc. It is open to the public and it is free. It’s on right now, and it will be open until 9 a.m. May 7.

After that, just follow the directions for non-Facebook users:

For those not on Facebook, it might be fun to visit our Studios and Artists by Location Page here on our website, and just visit each artist’s website.

2021 Tour Cancelled

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Once again, we find ourselves in the position where we have to cancel the Oxford Studio Tour. We had thought we would be able to hold it this May 1&2, with COVID-19 safety protocols in place. However, with the recent province-wide restrictions being put in place, we have to cancel.

So, we will start fresh this fall with a new application for artists, a new plan for the tour, and new brochures for next year. Please stay informed by subscribing to this blog, if you haven’t already. We will also make announcements on our Facebook Page, and as individual artists.

As you can imagine, it’s been a difficult year to show our art or to make art sales happen. If you would like to support your local artists, it always helps when you ‘like’ and ‘share’ their art on social media, and when you ‘follow’ their blogs or their pages. Visiting their websites helps too. These are small actions with huge consequences. All of these things can exponentially increase an artists’ internet exposure, so that more eyes will fall upon their art. This, in turn, can increase sales for the artists.

Of course, we’d also love it if you yourself chose to purchase a piece. This is usually possible even if we cannot open our doors to tourists or have live gallery shows. Just contact us and we will find a way.

We hope to see you in 2022! Thank you for your interest.

Oxford Studio Tour 2021 – updates!

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We have decided to go ahead with our Oxford Studio Tour this year, given the hopeful outlook of having vaccines, the ability and knowledge of everyone to more easily comply with COVID-19 prevention strategies, and the desire to do something fun that isn’t online!

It will occur on May 1 & 2, 2021, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.   All precautions will be taken to ensure a safe tour for everyone, given the current pandemic.  Please follow all guidelines and instructions at each location.  Masks will be required at all times.  We thank you for your cooperation and patience in this!

We will be using the brochures that we had printed for the 2020 tour, however they may not be available in some of the places you are accustomed to seeing them.  We have not distributed them yet, and that won’t be happening for a little while.  A notice will go out from here when we do, so you will know where to find them.  You could also ask one of the artists for one – you can use the contact information for an artist here on the site, or you can use our contact us page.

There will be several changes from the original tour plan, so these will be reflected on the website, and on the Google map of the tour.  People move, venues become unavailable, etc. etc.  None of the artists are required to participate, so some are opting out for this year.  We will attempt to modify the brochures with the new information, but it would still be best for you to consult the website before embarking on the tour!

These are the changes we know of so far (for details see Studios and Artists by Location):

For Location #1:  only 2 of the original 3 artists will be participating.

For Location #3:  the location will be different, and only 3 or the original 4 artists will be participating.

For Location #13:  the location will be different.

For Location #14:  this location is completely cancelled

For Location #16:  the location will be different.

Please subscribe to this blog to stay up to date.   Thank you for supporting your local artists by spreading the news about the tour in any way you can.  Stay tuned!