“Walking Little Blue,” by Charleston-based artist Charly Hamilton.

Artists from around the Kanawha Valley will showcase their work at the Fourth Annual River Arts Show and Sale on Saturday, Dec. 2 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 520 Kanawha Blvd. West, with an art viewing the night before. Among the artists featured: painters Laura Avis, Rob Cleland, Traci Higginbotham and Scott McMillan; fiber artist Martha Olsen; jeweler Karin Hamer; live wreath designer Chris Higgins and many more.

The event director, Averil Howard, says some of the unique works on display and for sale include woden hats turned on a lathe, one-of-a-kind pottery and sculpture and live wreaths. The exhibit’s signature piece, “Walking Little Blue,” was created by noted Charleston-based artist Charly Hamilton, known for the intricate design, contrasting colors and whimsical/serious nature.

Shoppers and viewers may also purchase a gourmet lunch of winter squash soup, spinach salad and assorted pastries.

If You Go: A Reception & Pre-sale for the Fourth Annual River Arts Sales takes place at 520 Kanawha Blvd. West on Friday, Dec. 1, 6:30 to 9:30 pm. The sale and lunch happens on Saturday, Dec. 2, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free with free parking. Artworks are priced $4 on up. Proceeds from sles help support art outreach activities in West Virginia. For more information, call Edith at 345-5042.

It’s not your usual watercolor exhibit. Ed Bahor, a local Vietnam War vet, has painted a series of watercolors created from photographs taken as a member of 196th Light Infantry Brigade in Vietnam, during his tour of duty there from 1967-1969. He was part of a convoy from Chai Lai to the DMZ for the Tet counter offensive. The works can be viewed during business hours at the Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse or in thumbnail form at the U. S. District Court website, via this link: click here

This photo by Andy Altman is among the works in the Charleston Camera Club show at Komax Business Systems.

The Charleston Camera Club has got its members’ work collected in two current group shows this month and next. More than 30 works by Camera Club members can be seen at Komax Business Systems, South Charleston, which is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And an additional 21 framed photos can be viewed at Café Cimino in Sutton, open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 5 to 9 p.m. ( The added benefit to visiting the second show is the chance to toss back a glass of a good cabernet while eating some of the best gourmet Italian food this side of Clarksburg.) Below are thumbnails of other works in th show — click each one to enlarge them. 

Laura Moul

Ed Register

David Harris

Linda Weekley

Ric Wilkinson


Rosemary Poyet

Steve Poyet

Vince Gorby

The annual Keith Lahti Clay Open Studio, featuring pottery by Keith Lahti, runs noon to 5 p.m. this Saturday and SUnday,Nov. 11 and 12. There will be a large selection of pottery to choose from, just in time for you to wrap your head around Xmas presents, along with what a press release describes as “plentiful gourmet snacks” (like what, for instance?).

The studio is located in Clay County about 10 minutes from Exit 40 on Interstate 79. Take exit 40, go north on Rt. 16 about 3 miles to Nebo, turn right or east on Nebo-Walker Rd., go 8/10 mile to fork, left up the hill at fork, up and over the hill. The studio will be on the left at the bottom on the other side.

More info: Call 286-2635 or email lahticlay@yahoo,com.

OPENINGS: The new environmentally-inspired group exhibition, “The Appalachian Landscape: Bob Ross Don’t Live Here No More,” opens 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11 at Huntington’s Arcade Building, 949 3rd Avenue (across from Pullman Square). MORE INFO: OVEC website

This week-long exhibit benefits OVEC, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, from the sale of any of the artworks. Bob Ross, of course, was the painter with frizzy hair and a soft-spoken manner whose TV programs showed people how to paint pretty landscapes with fluffed clouds, swatches of trees, rolling mountain ranges and tumbling streams. Why then is Bob being used to promote the show? “Art is powerful when used to raise individual consciousness and to sensitize entire communities. It allows us to see the actual landscape, something not seen in a Bob Ross inspired painting,” says a press release about the exhibit. Artists were invited to submit three works of art “that address the broad and contested issues, political, social, psychological and spiritual, affecting the Appalachian landscape in our day.”