25 Years of Studio Tours

When you look at the map of all the studios open on this year’s tour, your first instinct may be to skip it – it’s overwhelming! But know the couch isn’t that comfy, there’s nothing much streaming and you don’t have to hit them all.

We visited just a handful of the 111 artists on this year’s tour (so far) and it took the better part of an afternoon. The experience allowed us to chat at length with the artists and learn more about their backgrounds as well as the how and why of their work. 

It’s good to check out the website and charter a course before you head out. We concentrated on North East Portland with a few stops in the South East and encountered a few that weren’t listed. The event stretches into a second weekend, so if you plan ahead, there’s plenty of time to tackle the openings in all of Portland’s neighborhoods. ]

Here’s what we encountered on a few of our stops.

Joanne Radmilovich Kollman
Our first stop was a home in the Southeast. A small entryway was filled with portrait paintings including the one featured on the website that led us to mark this studio for a visit. Once a living space, the main room of the home has a soaring ceiling and is filled with work. Many of the paintings feature a man also personally present in the room. Joanne mentioned studying with New York realist artist Max Ginsburg and mentioned he, at age 92, was coming to Portland for a workshop at the Oregon Society of Artists in February of 2024. The work in Joanne’s studio is a mixture of portraits and landscapes including a large work of cows grazing that she “keeps coming back to.” The sheer number of works leads me to believe this is a working artist who loves her craft and the activity of painting more than any one work or subject. We definitely look forward to another visit, perhaps during the second weekend of the event.

William Park
William Park is the only artist whom we visited that day with a Portland gallery representation. Portland is such a creativity-rich but somewhat gallery-poor city so many local artists won’t have a local gallery affiliation. William makes sure that visitors know all transactions must go through the Laura Vincent Gallery, which recently mounted an exhibition celebrating the artist’s recovery from a stroke.  It was a great opportunity to see his studio, and perhaps the last opportunity to get a look at the magnificent painting of the artist in his studio as it will be heading to a new home. 

Zhanna Tsytsyn
Sharing a storefront studio space with muralist Hector Hernandez, Zhanna’s work is refreshing in its use of line and color. One painting in a series laid out on a table was different, however. Zhanna explained this was left from a previous body of work and she liked to keep it around to show the artistic path she’s traveled. Previously she painted about the experience of an immigrant living and working in a new country, but after a life-changing experience, her work transformed to show how humans and human art are one with nature. Many of her works contain a small amount of earth mixed in with the paint to reinforce this connection.

Paul Rutz
One of Paul’s pieces is featured on the cover of the Open Studios website and the Digital Tour Guide. His studio is located above a garage behind his home. Many of his works are painted on shapes cut out of the quarter-inch plywood, some of it carved to provide depth. Paul says this is because he wants people to be able to engage with the paintings as objects. We discussed the concept while looking at a painting on a cutout shape featuring a wall sink and mirror with the reflection of a woman in a bathtub. A work in progress takes this concept a step further and shows girls playing basketball from a pool. 

Elisabeth Pardoe
An asterisk was next to the address on our list for Elisabeth, meaning this is one we couldn’t miss if it was too far out of the way or if we ran out of time. Arriving, we encountered a locked door to an apartment building with instructions on how to get the code to enter. Lots of the artists on the tour have home studios, backyard studios or studios in buildings outside their home. Having recently relocated from Mazatlan, Mexico Elisabeth paints right in her small apartment living space. And it goes to show big studios have nothing to do with great art. Elisabeth’s portraits and interiors are captivating in their quality. Also on display was a still life she created as a commission for a vinyl album centerfold for a metal band from Portland (classical music was playing in the background). Elisabeth is currently looking for a gallery in the city and currently shows her work in her home of Salt Lake City and in a South Carolina gallery. 

Jennifer Foran
On our last stop, we were able to catch up with Jennifer at her studio just as the last visitors were leaving. We briefly chatted about the coffee shops in Portland and how they close early. One of the women in the room commented that in Germany, 3 p.m. is prime time, but here they close at two. 

Jennifer is one of the artists people in Portland seem to know. Her tree paintings, some printed and burnt into slices of wood adorned with bark, are hard to miss. We noticed a book in her studio of the work by Emily Carr. Yes, Jennifer is a fan and Emily’s work is an inspiration. 

Jennifer talked about how her work recently has gone through a process of reduction. It’s something an art teacher told me once… “If it doesn’t add, it detracts.” A night painting in progress caught our eyes. The intersection of diagonal trees and streams of clouds almost creates a modern grid. In a way, it might be on its way to geometry or a design for an Art Nouveau tile. Jennifer says that’s something she likes about the studio tours, getting to hear what other people think her work may be. We’re excited to see the completed painting.