Recently a group of 19 artists held their first two-day Highland Open Studio Tour, in what they hope will become an annual event. Despite some inclement weather, people got a chance to see the studios where local artists create their works.

Beth Walters Storyk’s paintings cover every inch of wall space in her studio. She felt the group’s inaugural event was, “successful” and she received very positive feedback.

Beth sets aside time to paint every day and has plans to do larger works. She singled out two of paintings that she loves; one is a scene of three women (nonnas) in Tuscany, Italy and a second is of very colorful peonies.

“They make me happy and they are a fresh style,” she said.

Felicia Casey said, “What I enjoy doing most is very quick, free-hand and generally nature-based drawings and will use any medium to get the color that I want. You know that it’s done when it feels good. I have to fight with myself sometimes to not put a next mark on (the canvas) and to let go.” She calls this stage the, “agony of not knowing when to quit.”

Phil Whitebay, who holds a degree in Fine Art Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology, is a painter and a woodwork artist.

“I do tables, carved bowls and spoons, sculptures, construction art, acrylic and oil paintings and photographs,” he said, adding that he loves all of the mediums he works in.

Phil uses wood from, “next to the road and I don’t buy anything. I look for the grain in the wood.” He said cherry wood is nice, and ash, “but we’re running out of it” due to disease.

Phil said the HOST group of artists, “is good for Highland and I am amazed at how many artists I have right here in my neighborhood. It’s good to have more exposure for the people.”

Phil had a steady stream of people coming to his studio during the Tour, “and they’re very supportive.”

Edward O’Hara is a large-format abstract painter and is inspired by nature and the universal idea about eternity.

“My art is intentionally non-representational and I really execute on that theme through the development of the surface; I’ll layer it with plaster and glue and putty, gesso and acrylic coats,” he said. “The last step would be to apply the paint, but I don’t use brushes; I use scrapers, putty knives, and just pull the paint across and a lot of beautiful accidents happen when you do that.”

O’Hara said his paintings depict, “how the world started; it’s what it looked like, what it felt like and that’s the vibe I’m trying to portray.”

O’Hara went to Queens College to study art. He spent a period of time working as a brand specialist and created sports team logos and other sports related designs before returning to his first love, painting.

“It was still a visual life, otherwise I wouldn’t have had a good life, but it wasn’t what I am doing now,” he said. “I am semi-retired and this is what I want to do; this is my job now, painting pictures.”

O’Hara said the HOST group is, “great and I think it was amazing for the first year.”

Amy Dooley is the President of the fledgling artist group. She owns Studio 89 in the Highland hamlet and shows many artists works on a regular basis. Next year she is planning to show more of her own photographs, ceramics, graphic design, printmaking and will hold regularly scheduled classes.

Dooley and fellow artist Jill Ziccardi compiled a list of artists they knew in the area, which led to the birth to the group.

“We ended up with 19 who signed up, but we know there are more out there, so I think next year will be bigger, but I think 19 for our inaugural year is just great.”

Dooley stressed the importance of supporting artists.

“This town is growing and I hope people notice us,” she said, pointing out that, “art brings us all together.”

YoYo Chu is enthusiastic about having open studio tours in Highland. “I am just so happy that we really made it. We put in a lot of work for the first year,” she said.

YoYo works in many mediums, such as oil, watercolors and ink on paper. She loves to depict nature scenes, with blue and green being her favorite colors. Some of her work shows mountain terrains in different seasons.

“I don’t want to copy nature, but I want to use my way to make a wonderful piece of art,” she said.

YoYo was trained at a top art academy in China. Today she is a full-time working artist and wants to bring peace into the world through her art.

Polly Reina describes her art as a mix of abstraction and expressionism.

“Expressionism means there is a lot of emotion within the painting when you look at it,” she said.

Reina uses charcoal and pastels, “and I’m really enjoying oils at this point because I love the beauty of oil paint. The colors look juicy and I’m mesmerized by color.” She starts out with a rough compositional idea of what she wants to paint, “and I play around with it, work on it and make something out of it.”

Reina said if she keeps tweaking a painting, she may overdo it and then she destroys it and moves on.

“When is the last brushstroke is a very hard question for me to answer; I have a real problem with that,” she said. “Sometimes I feel I will never get anywhere and that makes it even more exciting and then I’m totally into it.”

At a very early age Reina was fascinated with art and found that she was very good at drawing. She later attended SUNY New Paltz and graduated with a degree in Fine Art.

“I paint every day. I just come down to my studio and do it; I just have to,” she said. “What would life be if I wasn’t doing this?”

Reina has titled her paintings: ‘Girls Night Out,’ ‘Five O’clock Whistle,’ ‘Seeing Ghosts,’ ‘Bathing Beauties’ and ‘Whirlybird’ to name a few.

The HOST event had a few additional artists who participated: Caroline Hopenwasser, Kit Cowan, Sarah-Ann Bloom, Leticia and Dionisio Cortes, Bonnie S. Gulden, Jill Ziccardi, Knaus Gallery, Shoshana Aliza Driller, Anne Gorrick and Scott Gibson.