A walk into the garden: Art Center’s annual Art & Garden Tour next week

Beauty in the gardens will combine with creations from area artists next weekend for the Albert Lea Art Center’s annual Art & Garden Tour.

This year, the tour is taking a road trip north to Geneva, where all five gardens will be located.

Beth Tostenson, who helps organize the event, said they had put a call out for gardens to the Art Center’s members and found out about some wonderful gardens in Geneva. Organizers thought it would be easy for people to get around to them, noting some are even in walking distance of each other.

The gardens feature a variety for viewers, ranging from a master gardener with many gardens, to another gardener who has a vegetable garden along with a flower garden, Tostenson said. Another has a pristine yard with space she has dedicated to flowers, and one has a water feature.

“They’re all pretty unique in each way,” she said.

This year’s gardens include the following:

• Jon and Bernie Warnke, 215 E. Main, Geneva

• Keith and Ruth Hagen, 106 Second Ave. NE, Geneva

• Neal and Shelley Pederson, 212 First St. NE, Geneva

• Lonnie and Theresa Baartch, 304 First Ave. NE, Geneva

• Dan and Sue Richards, 602 Fifth St. SE, Geneva

Each garden will be paired with an artist:

• Joan Richter Weidling: Weidling’s interest in art began as a child and in recent years has evolved and become more diverse. She features custom designed watercolor paintings of wildlife, birds, flowers, landscapes and domestic animals. She uses multiple mediums and techniques, including watercolor, acrylic, colored pencil, digital painting and texturing.

• Sherri Hansen: Hansen, most known for the Blue Belle Inn B&B and Tea House Cookbook, has also written 20 novels and recently renewed her love of art and painting. Her new style incorporates broad, loose brush strokes in colorful acrylic landscapes and florals reflective of her more relaxed lifestyle in northern Iowa.

• Bonnie Broitzman: Watercolor has been Broitzman’s constant companion throughout her career. Captivated by the beauty of the natural world, she spent her childhood drawing animals the painting the rolling hills around her family’s farm. She has gone through both undergraduate and graduate work in art-related fields. She “finds the fluid nature of watercolor to be the perfect medium for enjoying the spontaneity of the creative process,” the tour brochure states.

• Tamara Schneider: Schneider’s favorite subjects are animals, particularly horses, dogs and cats.

She enjoys creating small mini-paintings of farm scenes on small easels and does commissions work of pets from photographs. Her work can be found at several art center shops, as well as in the lobby of the Freeborn-Mower Electric office in Albert Lea.

• Devona Maher: Maher is a nature-loving artist who lives in Northwood. Her love of animals is directly reflected in her colorful artwork, showcasing everything from African landscapes to pastoral scenes and Iowa cornfields. She uses everything from watercolor, pencil and pastel pencil to watercolor with pen and ink.

Tostenson said the Art & Garden Tour started in the mid-1980s and has taken place every year except for 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is one of the Art Center’s biggest fundraisers of the year, and takes an estimated 30 to 40 volunteers to make it possible.

Tickets are $15 per person. The tour is open from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 20. It will be held rain or shine.

She said the organization starts looking for gardeners six months in advance and are interesting in showcasing all kinds of gardens, whether it be one that is extremely simple that the average person can do to others that are more complex. People interested in showcasing their gardens a future year should contact the Art Center at 373-5665.

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