Woodstock Sculpturefest

Springfield native Jamie Townsend exhibited at Sculpturefest for the first time last year. This year, he’s the featured artist.
http://www.vnews.com/lifetimes/8222747-95/woodstocksculpturefest

woodstock Sculpturefest By Alex Hanson Valley News Staff Writer Thursday, August 29, 2013 (Published in print: Thursday, August 29, 2013) Jamie Townsend exhibited at Sculpturefest for the first time last year. This year, he’s the featured artist, with a handful of new, large, site-specific pieces already in place. The show isn’t exactly a coming-out party for Townsend, but it represents a steady progression for the 41-year-old Springfield, Vt., native. “He’s really just jumped in. It’s wonderful,” said Charlet Davenport, who has hosted Sculpturefest with her husband, Peter, on their Woodstock property for decades. As usual, this year’s show opens with a reception on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend from 4 to 7 p.m., and stays open until the leaves fall off the trees. Picnicking is encouraged. After adding a second nearby venue, the Vermont Land Trust’s King Farm, a few years ago, Sculpturefest continues to grow. This year, in addition to the Davenports’ place (which Charlet calls “the land”) and the King Farm (“the farm”), Sculpturefest will reach into Woodstock village, with a small show at the Woodstock History Center. And for the second straight year, BarnArts will produce a play in conjunction with Sculpturefest. A production of ART , by Yasmina Reza, opens for six performances in the King Farm Barn on Friday evening. The most intriguing event planned for Sculpturefest’s run is a talk by Charlet Davenport on the local afterlife of sculpture from previous years’ shows. A lot of it moved to nearby properties or neighboring towns, Davenport said. “We’ve been doing this so long,” she said, that it raises the question of “where did all this work go?” Townsend is the latest of many artists to have his work featured at the annual festival. He graduated from Springfield High School a few years after another prominent artist, Vermont cartoonist laureate James Kochalka, and went to Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Fla. Back in Springfield, Townsend works in agriculture and at his family’s sawmill, although art is starting to take a larger share of his time. He has painted some large-scale murals in his hometown, and his painted sculptures have found a home at Sculpturefest. Since last winter he’s spent one day a week working at the Davenports’. The angular work of Picasso and other abstract painters such as Gustav Klimt and his protege Egon Schiele are prime influences on Townsend’s work. In all, he made five new pieces for Sculpturefest, all of them large and colorful, and the pieces he exhibited last year remain on view at King Farm. “I think it’s a privilege to be asked to do this,” he said. Townsend is one of more than two dozen artists who will have work at this year’s Sculpturefest. Among the highlights, Davenport said, are models of Pleistocene animals by sculptor Bob Shannahan, who uses found materials to make his woolly mammoths and prehistoric camels. Admission to the exhibition is free, and while the show is nominally open through foliage season, the art isn’t going anywhere. People occasionally tromp through on snowshoes, Davenport said. The exhibition at the Woodstock History Center opens Sept. 12 with a reception at 5 p.m. and Davenport’s talk at 7. For tickets to the BarnArts production of ART, ca ll 802-332-6020 or go to www.barnarts.com. Directions to the Sculpturefest sites are available at www.sculpturefest.org.