Plein Air Competition, The Radio Waves Music Festival & A Wall Cloud

It’s Radio Waves Music Festival weekend — Yay! to local music and musicians. We’ll be able to sit back and enjoy hours of great music for two days at Sweetheart’s Bluff in the Grand Marais Rec Park, dance with our friends (and meet someone new), eat fun food and watch all the activities in the Kid’s Tent.

Radio Waves got started five years ago by WTIP Community Radio as a way to showcase local musicians as well as offer the community a chance to get together in the fall. It’s grown bigger every year, which has been great for everyone involved. The North Shore Music Association is co-sponsoring the event with WTIP, the third year they’ve done so.

The event is funded in part by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund and the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council and is and supported by funds from the Grand Marais Area Tourism Association.

There’s a small cover charge ($5) to cover expenses, but it’s definitely worth it. Check out this video by Patrick Knight produced during last year’s Radio Waves to get a flavor of what’s awaiting you this weekend.

Here’s the festival line-up for Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday, Sept. 8

• North Shore Community Swing Band, 11 a.m.
• Yvonne Mills, 11:45 a.m.
• Drew Heinonen, 12:15 p.m.
• Bughouse!, 12:45 p.m.
• Trails End Band, 1:30 p.m.
• Briand Morrison, 2:40 p.m.
• Cook County’s Most Wanted, 3:25 p.m.
• Bill Camplin & Randy Sabien, 4:35 p.m.
• skyBLUEtrio and ORANGEgirl, 5:20 p.m.
• The Splinters, 6:05 p.m.
• Rich Mattson & Germaine Gemberling,  7:15 p.m.
• The Carpenter Ants, 8 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 9

• Gordon Thorne, 10 a.m.
• Jim & Michele Miller, 11 a.m
• The Pete K. Group, 11:40 a.m
• Mysterious Ways, 12:20 p.m.
• Minnesota Don & Captain Al ,1:30 p.m.
• Portage, 2:10 p.m.
• Paul H. Pederson, 3:20 p.m.
• John Silliman, 3:55 p.m.
• D’Merritt, 4:20 p.m.
• Bump & Barbara Jean, 5:30 p.m.
• The Sivertones, 6:10 p.m.
• Earth, Wind & Todd, 6:50 p.m.

Want to know more about the bands? WTIP has produced a wonderful program guide to the bands. See it here. 

For a preview of one of some of the music you’ll hear over the weekend,  tune in to The Roadhouse on WTIP Community Radio from 5-7 p.m. Friday to hear Randy Sabien & Bill Camplin, who will perform at the music festival on Saturday. The Roadhouse will also feature an interview with Jim McGowan, Midwest state advocacy director for the American Diabetes Association, who’s also a musician appearing at Cascade Lodge Pub this weekend.

The Roadhouse hosts Buck Benson and Bob Carter will also visit with Brad Herried, cartographer & web developer at the U of MN Polar Geospatial Center, about a cool new project they’re doing with Google that allows users to see the inside of early polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s hut, visit a penguin colony and take in the wonders of the Antarctic landscape online.

This is also the weekend  the Grand Marais Art Colony’s Plein Air Competition begins.

The annual Plein Air Competition, Exhibit and Sale should be even bigger this year as artists from throughout the region come to Grand Marais to compete in this popular event. They will hit the streets, woods and shorelines from the Canadian border to the Caribou River  for a week of plein air painting (Sept. 7-14) and then exhibit their work at the Grand Marais Art Colony with an opening reception from 5-7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 14. The exhibit and sale at the Art Colony continues through Sept. 30.

The public is invited to participate in this great art event in a number of ways. People can embark on a self-guided scavenger hunt to find artists at work by picking up a list of painting sites at the Art Colony and searching them out. (The Art Colony is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.)

Then, next Thursday, Sept. 13, the public is invited to watch The Quick Paint on Artist’s Point from 4-5:30 p.m. In this competition. artists must complete a painting in 90 minutes, with a shotgun start. The event is followed by a barbecue, and the public is invited to bring something to grill, too, as well as watch the action.

Last year, WDSE’s Karen Sunderman and  Steven Ash (The Playlist) videographed the competition and produced a great video of the event. They called it “The Brush-Off,” and it has been nominated for an Upper Midwest Emmy. (The Emmy winners will be announced on Sept. 29.) Meanwhile, check out the trailer to the  video here. It really captures the spirit of this fascinating plein air painting competition. The Grand Marais Library has copies of the entire show. It’s about one half-hour long.

Then, from 5-7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 14, the Art Colony will hold an opening reception featuring all the work produced in the last week. Jan Sivertson, owner of Sivertson Gallery, is the juror this year. Winners receive cash prizes and the winner of the all-around category will have their work exhibited at Sivertson Gallery in October.

The paintings will be exhibited in the Founder’s Hall at the Art Colony through Sept. 30. Here’s a link to photos of some of the paintings from the 2011 competition.

Note: Painter David  Hahn will teach a Kids’ Plein Air workshop in Harbor Park on Saturday, Sept. 15 from 1-3 p.m. Free. All kids invited. Bring a pencil, paper and a smile.

Fun times, no doubt about it.

And, for a completely different kind of competition, the annual Fall Superior Trail Races will be held this weekend, Sept. 8-9 with 50- and 100-mile races and a marathon on the Superior Hiking Trail and the Oberg Mountain Loop.

The 100-mile race starts at the Gooseberry Park Visitor’s Center at 8 a.m. Friday, Sept. 7. The 50-mile starts in Finland on Saturday and the finish is near the Caribou Highlands Lodge. The 26.2-mile marathon starts  on the Cramer Road. For details about the trail races, which are pegged as “rugged, relentless, remote,” click here.

Also this weekend, the watercolor exhibit by Minneapolis artist Karen Knutsen continues at the Johnson Heritage Post. The Heritage Post is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 1-4 p.m. Sunday.

And the Cross River Heritage Center in Schroeder continues its September exhibits featuring Joyce Yamamoto, mixed imedia collage artist; Jerry Raich, printmaker; Nancy Kemp. fused glass;  David Degree, photography and Ann Ward, ceramic artist.

Drury Lane Books will host Jill Breckenridge who will read from her memoir: “Miss Priss and the Con Man.” The Salon will be held at 5 p.m. Saturday at the book store.

And North House Folk School will hold a Hands-On Birch workshop at 2 p.m. Friday as part of their summer public programs. Participants will learn about birchbark and make items with it. Registration is $5 for individuals 10 and over. Call 387-9762.

And, of course, if we mention North House in September, we have to add that next weekend is the Unplugged XI weekend with two performances under the Big Top with Mountain Stage Radio on Thursday and Friday nights, Sept. 13 & 14 and a classic Unplugged performance on Saturday, Sept. 15.

The Thursday Mountain Stage Radio show is sold out. It features Trampled By Turtles, LOW, Grand Marais’ own, Barbara Jean Johnson, and  Peter Himmelman.

On Friday, Sept. 14, Mountain Stage Radio presents presents Jonathan Edwards, Mollie O’Brien & Rich Moore, Gretchen Peters and Chip Taylor. (Some tickets available.)

On Saturday, Unplugged founder Jon Vezner presents Mollie O’Brien & Rich Moore, Jonathan Edwards & others for a classic Unplugged Concert. (Some tickets are available.)

More details about the Unplugged weekend next week. Meanwhile, check out the North House Web site for tickets, info and more. Click here.

In other art news, Bump Blomberg won 2nd place in the Big Top Chautauqua Singer/Songwriter Contest recently. With his win, he had the opportunity to open for John Hiatt, the featured performer at the Big Top last week, He and Adam Moe played one of Blomberg’s winning songs. Here’s a video of that performance. Check it out here.

So you think that fish can’t live in trees, ah? Well, actually, they can. Tim Young recently discovered this in an article which ran in the Daily Mail in London, England.  Here’s the article. At left is one of Young’s wonderful fish-in-pine-tree paintings. He started his fish-in-trees series long before he read about them. Hmmmmm.

The Attic Gallery of American Crafts has owl carvings by Al Sunde of Lutsen.

Blue Moose Gallery is featuring “Spirits of the Lake” a sculpture by Karen Larsen. The gallery also has sculptural art glass pieces by Karen Ehart.

The Coho Cafe  in Tofte is exhibiting paintings by Laurie Hoffman.

Last Chance Gallery in Lutsen  is hosting a series of artist demonstrations on Sundays in September from 1-4 p.m. This week’s artist is Karla Bradley, who will demonstrate making enameled jewelry. The public is invited.

Betsy Bowen’s newest book, “Hawk Ridge” will be released next week. The book, with illustrations by Bowen and text by Laura Erickson, will be featured at Hawk Ridge this month. Erickson and Bowen will be at the viewing area at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve’s Main Overlook during the Hawk Weekend Festival, which is Sept. 14-16.   (http://www.hawkridge.org/)

They will on-site Sept. 15 and have the books for sale and signing.. Bowen and Erickson will also give a presentation at the Hawk Ridge Lecture Area on Sept. 22. Reservations requested by Sept. 17. Please RSVP to mail.hawkridge.org or 218-428-6209 as space is limited.

Also, Betsy Bowen, raku potter Kristi Downing,  Ojibwe beadworker Marcie McIntire and sculptors Dan & Lee Ross are preparing for the opening of the Crossing Borders Studio Tour & Sale. The tour, which includes artists from just outside Duluth to Grand Portage, runs from Sept. 28 through Oct. 7. For more information about the tour and the artists participating, click here.

And finally — this. Remember that wonderful photo of a hummingbird that we ran last week (and the week before)? We asked our readers to identify who actually took the photo and identify what the bird was. We mistakenly attributed the photo to Don Davison, a Grand Marais photographer, and said it was a ruby throated hummingbird.

Well, Kate Watson figured it out. The photo was taken by  Josee Yee, and was published on National Geographic’s My Shot page. It is a wine-throated hummingbird, not a ruby throated hummingbird, and it lives in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.

Here’s the link to the page where the photo was first posted.

But there’s more. Kate said that you can now do a reverse Google image search, which is (maybe) how she found out where this photo came from. You just go to Google Images (click here) and then click on the camera icon and upload your image. It will tell you where it came from. Amazing. Thanks, Kate!

Here’s all the music for this week:

Thursday, Sept. 6

• Bump & Barbara Jean, Harbor Light Supper Club, 6 p.m.
• Rachael Kilgour, Stephan Hoglund’s Outback, behind Superior Designs in downtown Grand Marais, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 7

• Don Bauer, Harbor Light Super Club, 6 p.m.
• Pete Kavanaugh, Bluefin Grille, Tofte, 9 p.m.
• Bingham & Thorne, Gunflint Tavern, 9 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 8

• 5th Annual Radio Waves Music Festival – 11 a.m. to  1o p.m..
• Jim McGowan, Cascade Lodge Pub, 7:30 p.m.
• Cook County’s Most Wanted, Harbor Light, 9 p.m.
• Timmy Haus, Papa Charlie’s, Lutsen Mountains, 9 p.m.
• Bingham & Thorne, Gunflint Tavern, 9 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 9

• 5th Annual Radio Waves Music Festival, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
• Eric Frost, Harbor Light Supper Club, 7 p.m.

Monday, Sept. 10

• Joe Paulik, Bluefin Grille, 9 p.m .

Wednesday, Sept. 12

• Bingham & Thorne, Bluefin Grille, 9 p.m.

And now, for some more photos from our local photographers.

We had a totally spectacular wall cloud move through here on Tuesday night (See Stephan Hoglund’s photo, at top of page)  and several people were out, cameras in hand.  Here’s a medley of images I’ve found so far.

The first one is a stunning image by Krishna Woerheide.

Kjersti Vick caught sunset light on the storm cloud.

Here’s another incredible one by Stephan Hoglund.

Travis Novitsky didn’t send me any photos, but he took an incredible timelapse video of the cloud as it marched by. Take a look, here.

Kjersti Vick caught the “end” of the storm in this fantastic display of mammatus clouds.

Gorgeous, ah?

And now, closer to the earth… here’s an inspring photo by Travis Novitsky … taken of a tenacious tree on a recent hike up the  Devil Track River.

Here’s a Paul Sundberg photo of a youngster just coming into his own.

Now we’ll swing back to Lake Superior, the source of our inspiration, with this beautiful image by Bryan Hansel: ”Full Moon & Lighthouse.”

And finally, an evocative photo/illustration by Stephan Hoglund.

Enjoy the music this weekend, everyone!