Tuesday morning started with a long walk to get breakfast. Mark wanted to try a place called Biscuit Heads about a 20 minute walk down the hill. Small, charming place, but we walked right past it and had to turn around. It’s in a building of what I guess to be 1970s colonial apartments converted to offices and small shops.
The walk to Biscuit Heads comprised one leg of a rough equilateral triangle connecting our hotel, the restaurant, and the River Arts District, so we decided to start our day of art in the RAD. Many of the galleries there have what might best be described as tourist hours; they open at 10 or 11 and only Thursday through Sunday. We may go back on Thursday to see some of the places that were closed, but we managed to get into a few galleries and talked with a couple of the artists. Pink Dog Creative was open, as was Cotton Mill Studios, where we met an artist, Elizabeth Porritt Carrington, who gave us some good guidance. The RAD was devistated by Hurricane Helene, and two years on, many buildings, galleries, and studios that were lost have yet to be rebuilt. We have a map still showing whole buildings that are no longer there. The photos of the flood are heartbreaking.
But enough of that. The district is rebuilding, and some places survived with minimal damage. We spent a nice 15 to 20 minutes in one of them, Squeaky Wheel Pottery, talking with potter Terry Smith. We’re hoping to visit some of the galleries that were closed on Tuesday before the end of our trip.
We wended our way back to downtown and our hotel for a respite (Don’t judge! We walked more than 10 miles Tuesday!) and then started visiting galleries downtown. The art we saw in the RAD was scrappy and experimental, whereas the art downtown was more “fine art” (and generally too costly for our pocketbooks to bear 😂). We did see some wonderful pieces and got to talk to a couple very nice gallerists.
Momentum Gallery had some really nice works by Mariella Bisson of landscapes in a blocky style. Bender Gallery had some interesting work but perhaps too avant garde for us. In Russell | Armstrong, we met a really nice gallerist, Jen, who used to be an art teacher and went to art school with the artists who own the gallery. All of the work was really accomplished, but the paintings by Jeremy Russell were particularly appealing to our taste. The Haen Gallery, Ariel Gallery, and The Asheville Gallery of Art all featured some really beautiful work. Mark is still pondering buying a piece of pottery from Ariel. In the Asheville Gallery, we spent a while chatting with the artist, Gail Drozd, who was very funny (and obviously ornery). And the Haen Gallery, we realized after the fact, represents an artist from New Orleans with whose work we fell in love several years back, Aron Belka.
We didn’t get into several galleries and likely won’t this trip, but we DID get into one on Wednesday after our day at Biltmore. You’ll have to wait for the next post to hear about that. It may end up being our favorite.
We ended Tuesday at Strada Italiano for a hearty Italian meal. I have to comment again on how friendly and fun the people we met in galleries and eateries were. They were all able to make us feel welcome immediately.
I just realized that I’ve been babbling on and not posting photos, so here are some images from our wandering.
Then there’s this fabulous barber chair.
And then there’s this.
I’ll leave you with that today.