PUTTING DOWN ROOTS: GROWING NUMBER OF ARTISTS TURNING TO THE BERKSHIRES

There is something, in addition to the mountain air, the beautiful surroundings and the vibrancy of the Berkshires, that attracts artists of all types like moths to a flame. Between the lush and well established areas like Lenox and Williamstown, and the gritty petri-dish of energy like North Adams, the settings for artistic evolution are boundless. Add in the great institutions like The Clark, Mass MoCA and countless others, and the area becomes more and more a destination for artists to put down rootsandcontributetoanever-growingvesselofcreativity.

Upon arriving, one will discover a vast network of like- minded artists sharing a common goal: living, breathing and ingesting art. Artists are magnetized to one another in the Berkshires, and a supportive creative community continues to grow. There are those who are more established in the area, having been here for many years, providing a foothold to those who are newer and arriving with new energy to add to the mix. Here is an invitation to step into a formidable collection of artists and their studios in the Berkshires.

Kathline Carr arrived with her artist husband, Jim Peters, to North Adams 10 years ago. Spending a lot of time immersed in the natural beauty of the area, the artist feels at home on many levels. Home and studio are interchangeable: an old, giant Victorian converted into mostly workspace, in addition to a barn, is an inspiration in itself. That, and the fact that it takes literally three minutes to be in a natural surrounding, creates a whole personal ecosystem for the artist, her work “dealing mostly with landforms and space through abstraction”. In her painting, it is this abstraction that affords the quality of the landscape its precision.

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