A Visit to NC and VA Moutains

Our first night was spent in Blowing Rock and our first stop there was at the Blowing Rock Museum. There was a very interesting show called Field Studies which brings together contemporary artists whose work grows out of sustained attention to the landscapes, materials, histories, and lived environments of Southern Appalachia. 

I particularly loved the fiber pieces by Barbara Grenell. Barbara was a North Carolina based artist trained initally as a painter. She earned her MFA from Western Carolina University and She studied and taught regularly at Penland School of Craft during the 1970s, was a founding member of the Toe River Arts Council, and an early member of Piedmont Craftsmen.

There was another exhibit of photos by George Masa and Ansel Adams

These two early 20th-century artists took images that helped shape America’s relationship with the natural world. Adams is renowned for his sweeping views of the American West, particularly Yosemite, while Masa, a Japanese immigrant working in Western North Carolina, documented the terrain of the Great Smoky Mountains. His photographs and mapping efforts were instrumental in the campaign to establish Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Right next door is Edgewood Cottage.

Edgewood Cottage is a historic home and artist’s studio built around 1890 by renowned American painter Elliott Daingerfield (1859–1932). It was his first home and studio in the area where he taught summer classes from 1895 to 1915 and found inspiration in the North Carolina mountains. They also have an Artists in Residence program in the cottage.

I was pleased that Bernie Rosage was one of two featured artists in the Cottage. We could not get out of there without purchasing one of his small paintings. Bernie is from Jacksonville and a well known artist in our area.

We stayed at Windmoor Hotel which is half a block off of Main Street. Not only was it the perfect location but the room was very contemporary, with a faux fireplace and interesting decor. Even though check out is at 11 they let you park there until check in time for the next guests. That is a real plus as parking in the downtown can be a challenge during the season.

One of the reasons I love visiting Blowing Rock is to see all the flowers.

A curiosity on Main Street is the Prayer Tree. It was created in July 2018. It is a symbol of hope, inviting people to write down their prayers. The 100 year old building next door burned down in 2019 but the prayer tree and all the prayers were unscathed.

We made a quick stop in Spruce Pine at the Toe River Arts Council to see a show of work by the artists Ken and Galen Sedberry, father and son. It was outstanding!

Next stop was Grandfather Mountain, a first for me. We thought we were just going up to see the bridge but there was a lot more to see than that. The fee is $30 per person for adults which seemed steep at first but after visiting everything that was offered we realized it was worth the cost. 

I learned a lot about our mountains, and Grandfather Mountain.. like…

…The Blue Ridge Mountains appear blue because trees release isoprene, a volatile organic compound, which reacts in the atmosphere to create a haze that scatters blue light.

….The huge rocks you see on the way up to the top of Grandfather Mountain are Split Rock and Sphinx Rock. Sphinx Rock is estimated to weigh more than 2 million pounds. Both rocks are estimated to be about 640 million years old, older than the mountain itself. They likely formed in an ancient riverbed in a mountain range older and taller than the Appalachians, later tumbling down to their current location from a mountain range that existed 1.1 billion years ago.

….Today, the Grandfather Mountain you see is the end product of two things: the mountain-building that culminated 300 million years ago and the erosion that has been ongoing for over 100 million years and continues today.

I’m a little afraid of heights and the wind was really blowing when we were up there so I was content just to see the bridge, the word swinging added to my angst about crossing it! We enjoyed a talk by one of the workers about the birds, animals, and plants of the mountain.

The mountain is like an island. At one point it was connected to a range that came down from the north. Because of the changes in the terrain during millions of years  the mountains became a globally significant biodiversity hotspot, and is home to 16 distinct ecological communities and 73 rare or endangered species.

There is also an Animal Habitat. Some of the animals were in their dens but seeing the elk made that stop worthwhile.

On our way to Burnsville we stopped at Anvil Arts, a family run sculpture garden, gallery, and sculpture studio.

It was established by artist Bill Brown in 1981. His son Gamble mans the gallery. I fell in love with several of stone the sculptures. The ones I loved the most have been purchased by the city of Rock Hill, SC, for a new trail that is being built there. It just so happens my nephew works for the Parks Department there and was very familiar with the trail that is being built.

The outdoor sculpture garden at Anvil Arts was developed to showcase Bill’s large-scale forged and fabricated works, alongside sculptures from other regional artists. A separate gallery building shows smaller works.

On our way to Burnsville we were pleased that it looks like a lot of the damage along our route from Hurricane Helene has been repaired. The last time I was in Burnsville was with my mother in about 2000 and we stayed at the NuRay Hotel, our destination this time. We stayed in the annex which was not there on my first visit. Our room was massive! The restaurant, in the same building as our room was packed and includes a wine shop and a cigar humidor.

The NuWray is North Carolina’s oldest continuously operating hotel, dating back to 1833. The original structure was a log building with eight rooms and also served as a tavern and trading post. The original northwest section still exists. 

Around the corner from the hotel is a gallery of the Toe River Arts Council. When we visited it was being manned by Michael Rutkowsky. I had never met him but am familiar with his work and that of his wife Ruth.

Ruth puts words on some of her pots like I do. We commiserated about the trials and tribulations of doing that. Spacing and misspellings being the main issues!

Off and on we were on the Blue Ridge Parkway, seeing views that reminded us why they are called the Smoky Mountains.

We set off for Bakersville the next morning to visit Mica Gallery and In Tandem galleries. While waiting for them to open we met Dr. Joni Noble at Silver Maple Gallery, who told us about her time in the town. She and her husband, both professors at the University of Louisana Monroe, had relocated to Bakersville just days before Hurricane Helene and had much of their belongings on the first floor of their building. Unfortunately that floor flooded. The good news is the gallery floor and their living area did not. Her work is lovely. Her husband Dr. Matthew Henry James, a former professional opera singer and professor, teaches violin and piano lessons in the space as well.

Mica Gallery was as nice as my first visit in 2000, I’m so glad they are still there 26 years later. The real gem for me though was In Tandem Gallery. It is full of pottery from talented artists from all over the country. I purchased a piece by Dehmie Dehmlow which is inspiring me to get back into my pottery studio. I’ve been saying for some time now that I want to do some more sculpture and hand building, I think seeing this work is the kick start I need!

The back of her piece is as beautiful as the front.

We arrived in Abingdon and stopped at Southwest Virginia Cultural Center & Marketplace. That was somewhat of a disappointment. The building is fabulous but they could do a lot more with their displays. That is the gallery owner in me critiquing! But I did pick up another LOVE sign.

We ate dinner at The Tavern. The building was constructed in 1779 and is recognized as being the oldest taverns in the Commonwealth of Virginia and one of the oldest surviving buildings west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. From its opening, The Tavern served as an Inn and overnight stop for stagecoaches.

Over the years it has also hosted a post office, general store, bakery, cabinet shop, and during the Civil War a hospital.

We stopped in the Martha Washington Inn. The Inn was built as a home for General Francis Preston and his family of 11 in 1832. Later it became the Martha Washington College, one of the first schools in the US to offer higher education to women. The college closed in 1932 and it was converted into a hotel.

There are some lovely buildings in the town.

The main purpose of the trip was to go to the Barter Theatre. 

How the trip came about was Irene said we should go for 2 nights to Abingdon to the Theatre to celebrate our birthdays. I said if we are going that far we need to go for more than 2 nights, I have a way of making a simple point a to point b trip into a point a to b to c to d to e….. trip. There is always so much to see and inspiration to be had.

Well the play, Guys and Dolls ,was outstanding! It could have been on Broadway. The cast, voices, costumes, sets, were all exceptional. 

The Barter Theatre is the longest-running professional Equity theatre in the United States and the State Theatre of Virginia. It opened in 1933 and was founded by actor Robert Porterfield.

He created a “barter” admission system so people could trade food or other goods instead of cash. In the middle of the Great Depression it allowed people to attend the performances when cash was short.

Several renowned actors received their start at the theatre, including Gregory Peck, Patricia Neal, Ernest Borgnine, and Hume Cronyn. It operates year-round with more than 25 productions annually. 

The building was built in the 1830s as the town hall, through the years it has housed the opera, a jail, and other civic offices. 

The Arts Depot houses artists studios and an exhibition hall. As the name indicates, it is located in an old freight depot. In fact a large freight train zoomed by during our visit.

I loved Carina Karlssons’ studio in the Arts Depot, it looks just like mine! I try to clean it up but I always get distracted by half finished projects I’m working on. 

The Farmers market is right next door. I didn’t need them but I loved the looks of the cookies by Blue Ridge Confections.

They hand paint shortbread cookies painted with all natural ingredients like Spanish saffron. They are little works of art. And I could not pass up the political statement of the diversity kids cookies.

Next stop Floyd. Along the way we saw no less than 12 deer, one at a time! We had to make a stop in Fancy Gap just to prove we had been there then back on the Parkway to see the Mabry Mill.

Ed Mabry built the mill where he and his wife Lizzy ground corn, sawed lumber, and did blacksmithing for three decades. 

Next was in Floyd and an overnight in the Hotel Floyd. This was a real find. The Hotel is full of art and each room has a theme. We stayed in the Schoolhouse Fabrics Room.  It must have been fun to decorate.

Dinner was a sandwich at Floyd Country Store and we heard a little bit of that nights entertainment. There are several wineries in the area but we passed them up.

There are some really nice shops for a tiny town, population 459. One of them is Troika, owned by two young artists Abby Reczek and Annie Armistead. A shop behind holds paintings, pocketbooks, and clothing by Jeanie O’Neill.

As we headed home we passed through Whytheville, the home of the big pencil. 

And a little further south we stopped at the Jackson Ferry Shot Tower that manufactured lead shot for more than 30 years. It was completed in 1807 and operated until 1839. It was the first factory to mass-produce ammunition shot in America. The process consisted of pouring melted lead through a sieve of very small holes at the top of the tower. 

As the lead droplets fell down the shaft, they became round pellets and dropped into a large bucket of water at the base of the tower.

Our last stop was at Duke Gardens. There wasn’t a lot in bloom, due to the heat I’m sure, but it was a lovely walk all the same. A bonus was a bonsai show. Both Irene and I are novice bonsai growers.

Prior to this trip I did take two short trips, the first was to Norfolk to visit the Chrysler Museum and the Botanical Garden.

We stayed on the river and enjoyed the view. The next morning we visited The Mariner’s Museum. The Museum is America’s National Maritime Museum and one of the largest maritime museums in North America. It was founded in 1930 by Archer Milton Huntington, son of Collis P. Huntington, who played a major role in developing Newport News, its coal export facilities, and Newport News Shipbuilding.

The museum’s collection spans 32,000 artifacts, including miniature ship models, scrimshaw, maritime paintings, decorative arts, carved figureheads, working steam engines, and the world’s only known Kratz-built steam calliope. There Oracle Team USA 17 yacht that won the 2013 America’s Cup is in the collection along with artworks by James Bard and Antonio Jacobsen.

There was a photography show at the Chrysler Museum by German Jewish photographer Ilse Bing (1899–1998). She was dubbed “Queen of the Leica.” And we toured their outstanding painting collection.


Then I spent an overnight in Wilmington where I visited the New Hanover County Arboretum and the Stanley Rehder Carnivorous Garden.

More travels are on the horizon!