Saturday and Sunday, September 26 and 27
11 AM to 4 PM
both days Free and self-guided
Sculptor Steve Gevurtz
Artist John Sherry on the 2024 tour
Most people meet artwork after it's finished. Framed, lit, hung on a wall, resolved. By then the making is over and all the interesting parts have been tidied away.
A studio is the other version. It's where things get figured out, where the piece that didn't work still sits on the easel because it’s teaching the artist something, where the tools stay out because they'll be needed again tomorrow.
For two days this September, fourteen Bend artists are opening those rooms to you.
You'll see work in progress. You'll see materials before they've become anything. And the artists will be right there, ready to talk about process, about why this material and not another, about what happens when a piece goes wrong.
The range on this tour is the point. In a single afternoon you can move from a garden studio to a garage workbench to a spare room with north light, and see something completely unfamiliar at each stop.
Bronze and ceramic sculpture. Fused glass and mosaic. Pottery and lampwork. Pastel, oil, watercolor, acrylic, gouache, collage and mixed media. Photography. Handmade drums.
Some of these rooms are extraordinary. Some are as ordinary as a kitchen table. Every one of them is where the work actually gets made.
Artist Laura Fouts on the 2024 tour
SageBrushers Gallery & Studio, by Kay Larkin Photography
One stop on the tour isn't a private studio at all.
The SageBrushers Gallery and Studio sits in the Southwest Crossing neighborhood, in a 1940's cottage converted into a gallery, library, and working studio. Member artists will be working there throughout the weekend, so you can watch the process unfold in real time.
It makes a natural first stop or a good place to finish, depending on how you plan your route.
SageBrushers Art Society
117 SW Roosevelt Ave, Bend, OR 97702
The gallery is open to the public Mon, Wed, Fri & Sat from 1-4 PM
✅ It's free and self-guided. No tickets, no registration, no set route. Start wherever you like and go at your own pace.
✅ Both days, 11 AM to 4 PM. Studios keep the same hours Saturday and Sunday, so you can split the tour across two days rather than rush it.
✅ Bring questions. The practical ones are the artists' favorites. How long did that take? Why that material? What do you do when it doesn't work?
✅ Give yourself time. Most visitors spend twenty to thirty minutes per studio. Plan for three or four stops in an afternoon, or make a full day of it.
✅ Work is available for purchase at most studios, though there's no expectation. Come to look if that's what you want.
Impressionism is Barbara Alford's passion, and her style is impressionistic realism with a contemporary edge. Recent work finds her inching toward expressionism, a new freedom with less regard for detail.
Jesica Carleton's body of work is a tapestry of abstracts, landscapes, whimsical pieces, and representational works, spanning 2D to 3D, indoor to garden. She has embraced her need for perpetual exploration over a single consistent voice, and loves the accessibility of mosaic, believing it can empower even those who doubt their artistic abilities.
🌐 carletonmanormosaics.com
🅾 @CarletonManorMosaics
Scott Dyer is an oil painter whose work captures light, color, and atmosphere with a confident, contemporary touch. He describes each painting as a practice piece, one more attempt at holding the beauty and emotion of a moment on canvas.
🌐 scottdyerfineart.com
🅾 @scottdyerfineart
Steve Gevurtz has created realistic figurative bronze and ceramic sculptures for 26 years, known for bringing his subjects to life through movement, intense emotion, and elegant detail. Visitors will find over 50 finished works alongside pieces still in progress, with every part of his process visible in the studio.
🅾 @stevegevurtzsculpture
Much of Susan Hood's work is created en plein air, standing in front of the scene itself, drawn to places that evoke stillness and awe. Her paintings are grounded in observation but never literal recordings; she simplifies, edits, and responds intuitively, seeking what she experiences rather than only what she sees.
🌐 susanhoodstudio.com
🅾 @susanhood1001
In 2020, when the world went quiet, Nancy Joy picked up a paintbrush and enrolled in Nicholas Wilton's Creative Visionary Program, learning to build paintings around value, composition, and contrast. Her work moves between loose abstraction and playful still life, with bold color and confident mark-making.
🅾 @nancy_joy
Elizabeth Kolstad always wanted to be an artist but accidentally became a psychologist instead. Retirement gave her the time to lean in, and she has worked her way around acrylics, watercolors, collage, and oil portraits ever since, learning from YouTube and from many of the SageBrushers teachers. She is guided by the Ben and Jerry’s motto, “If it’s not fun, why do it!”
Sally MacAllister found instant inspiration in the high desert upon moving to Bend seven years ago, and her contemporary landscapes reflect the excitement of coloring what she feels rather than only painting what she sees. She invites viewers to move into her paintings and experience some magic.
Judi McAlpin, known as the Wild Crone, was born to a family of an artist and a musician, so she never had a chance of being normal. She focuses on pottery while constantly exploring photography, painting, and lampworking, finding her joy in creating and exploring possibilities.
🅾 @wildcronepottery
Melissa McGlenn is a mixed media artist whose work moves between painting, handmade drums, clay, and collage, drawn from dreams, hypnotic visions, and a deep connection to nature. Her process is intuitive, an alchemy where symbols surface through layers of texture and color.
🅾 @melissa.mcglenn
Kenneth Meyer spent his childhood exploring nature in rural southern Oregon, studied ecology, and built a career as a forest biologist. He works without a studio, going into natural areas to make his images, and describes his mission as capturing the beauty of the subject or moment as it existed.
🌐 kmeyer14.zenfolio.com
Denise Rich can hardly remember a time when she didn't have a pencil or brush in her hand, and since moving to Bend in 1991 she feels she is truly in the right place. She works across acrylic, watercolor, pastel, and pencil, a SageBrushers member since 1992 and a founding member of Plein Air Painters of Oregon.
🌐 deniserichfineart.com
Laura Jo Sherman brings 30 wonderful years of experience as a pastel artist, inspired by local scenery, animals, and flowers, with a recent interest in Oregon wildflowers. Her work is traditional with a bit of abstract use of color and motion in her technique.
Deborah Stevens has been working with watercolor for a few years now, enjoying all the different avenues to explore, and says she's still waiting to find out which style she's best at. What she knows is that her heart loves giving someone a personal painting of their dog or cat the most.
SageBrushers Art Society is Central Oregon's oldest arts organization, a non-profit supporting more than 220 members through gallery exhibitions, workshops, classes, and community programming.
The Studio Tour began as a way to connect Bend residents with the working artists living among them. Now in its third year, it has become an annual invitation into rooms most people never get to see.
Presented by SageBrushers Art Society
Saturday and Sunday,
September 26 and 27, 11 AM to 4 PM
Free and self-guided