open studio day in Rollinsford

In a sunny studio on the fourth floor of the Salmon Falls Mills building in Rollinsford, artist Dannielle Genovese demonstrated the use of a press to create a brightly colored monotype print. She had painted the original design on a piece of Plexiglas, and then placed a sheet of paper over the wet paint. She ran the Plexiglas and paper through the press, turning a lever to send it under a large, metallic rolling pin. When she was done, the image from the Plexiglas was reproduced on the paper.
Presses of the type found in Shaune McCarthy’s studio are not easy to come by, and Genovese was thankful for the opportunity to use it free of charge. Other monotypes she had produced earlier in the day hung to dry on a wall. 

“It’s a lot of fun,” Genovese said of the art form. “You have to love the process, ’cause it’s messy.”

McCarthy, who has leased the spacious studio for about five years, worked on her own monotypes a short distance away. She was one of about 60 artists to participate in the Salmon Falls Mills open studio day on Saturday, June 16, and she allowed Genovese to share the space and display some of her work. McCarthy said she wants to give back to the community that has offered so much support for the arts. “Rollinsford’s just a wonderful community,” she said. “We want Rollinsford to know that we’re here for them too.”

The artists at Salmon Falls Mills, located on Front Street, typically hold two open studio days each year. Last year, the first event was held in May, and some artists think this year’s event suffered from being pushed back until June. It was a gorgeous Saturday, and other events, such as the Pocket Garden Tour in Portsmouth, drew potential visitors away from the mills.

“We were really competing with a very, very nice day,” said Anna Birch, one of the volunteers who helped organize and promote this year’s event. But a steady stream of guests perused artwork in the second-floor studio Birch shares with her husband, Chris Volpe. She feels open studio days give people a unique chance to enter the behind-the-scenes world of artistic creation. “People from the community get to come in and just explore people’s creative space,” she said.

Birch is the founder and sole employee of Queen Oscar Designs, which makes hand-painted journals, greeting cards, T-shirts, canvas bags, jewelry and other items. She displayed her work on Saturday alongside her husband’s oil paintings. As she explained the artwork to visitors, she carried the couple’s three-month-old baby, which slept soundly in a sling strapped to her torso. Birch and Volpe have rented the studio for about three years, and in that time they have seen more and more artists move into Rollinsford.

“I do think it’s true that artists have been leaving Portsmouth for years now. Artists have just been draining out of there,” Volpe said, noting the high rent prices in the Port City. “Rollinsford keeps growing and growing.”

The Salmon Falls Mills is owned by Cutter Family Properties. Numerous artists who rent space there made a point of praising the Cutters for offering reasonable studio prices and fostering the arts in Rollinsford with unwavering dedication. The five-story building provides working space for nearly 100 artists, many of whom cannot afford to rent space elsewhere.

Across the hall from Birch and Volpe, painter Ruth Harding sat on a couch in her studio as sunlight flooded in through large windows in the building’s brick walls. Harding shares the space with her daughter-in-law, fellow painter Lisa Addison. Harding’s student, Judy Parent, also had work on display for open studio day.

Harding described herself as a realist painter, with a special penchant for painting animals. Her painting of two pigs, called “Matilda and Tallulah,” drew many comments throughout the course of the day. “I really enjoy doing animals. I like to do everything, but I think my forte is with animals.”

After three years in the Salmon Falls Mills, Harding said she enjoys the peace and solitude provided by her studio at the far end of the second floor. “I kind of isolate myself because I come here to work, but there is a good community. Everyone’s friendly,” she said. “They’re really nice people. They don’t ever bother you. It’s quiet.”
On the third floor, multidiscipline artist Mary Lou Bagley worked on artsy trinkets she calls “reminders.” The items consist of lengths of thread adorned with stones, crystals, beads and other materials, many of them recycled from old pieces of jewelry. The concept behind the reminders is that people can hang them in a prominent place to remind them to do something—such as spending more time on art.

Bagley also does mixed media and fiber art, and even creates artwork from old bedsprings. She calls herself a collage artist and said she is thankful for the studio in Rollinsford, which she has leased for three years. “Having a studio is so ideal, because I can have five or six unfinished things going on at the same time,” she said.
Bagley lives in neighboring South Berwick, but she enjoys the tightly knit community within the Salmon Falls Mills. The building offers artists a secluded workspace, but it is also filled with other artists possessed of different areas of expertise. “That’s the beauty. You can socialize, or you can close the door and have a space of one’s own,” Bagley said.