Purcellville's Artisan Tour Weekend: The Studios You Can Walk to and the Ones Worth the Drive

On Saturday, November 7, and Sunday, November 8, the Purcellville Train Station at 200 North 21st Street becomes a gallery for four artists. Jim Haller will bring his stippled pen-and-ink pieces. KarenLee Fabric Design will have quilts and textiles. Patricia Stephenson will show felted wool work, and Eric Wickstrom will show nature photography. It's one of nine stops on the seventh annual Purcellville Artisan Tour, open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. The Purcellville Arts Council sponsors it.

Most of the tour happens on streets you already drive on errands. Six of the nine addresses are inside the town grid, at a makerspace, two stops on South Nursery Avenue, a train station, an office suite on Maple Avenue and a brewery on East Main. The last three are farm and winery stops, where the art starts with lavender, sheep and grapevines. If you live here, you can do most of the tour as an afternoon in town and save the country leg for whichever day has better weather.

Admission is free, according to Visit Loudoun's event listing. The tour's own website lists nine stops and more than 20 artists, and it has a map you can use on your phone or print.

Six Stops You Already Drive Past

The in-town stops are close together, so you won't lose much of the afternoon to driving and parking. The tour numbers its stops, but you don't have to follow the numbers. One workable order:

1. Eleven Eleven Brewing Company, 725 East Main Street. The brewery hosts potter Jenn Bodamer and photographer Cheryl Chirillo. Bodamer throws her pottery in her Purcellville studio, with earthy tones and carved textures drawn from the Loudoun countryside. Chirillo photographs reflective surfaces, water, nature and urban decay.
2. Station Stitchers, 201 North Maple Avenue, Suite 207. This Purcellville nonprofit makes heritage quilts for people in need around Loudoun County. Volunteers piece the quilt tops, and the studio supplies the backing and batting and handles the long-arm quilting and binding.
3. Purcellville Train Station, 200 North 21st Street. This stop has the most artists under one roof: Haller, KarenLee, Stephenson and Wickstrom. Wickstrom has been photographing nature for more than 50 years. He started with film and long hours in the darkroom, and the tour site notes that none of his images contain generative AI elements.
4. Purcellville Makersmiths, 785 South 20th Street. You can tour the shop itself here as well as see members' artwork. The Town's release names nine members on the roster: Diane Bollinger, Courtney Cline, Melinda Gretsinger, Dawn Martin, Kiran Martin, Cricket Pagnano, Diane Painter, Glenda Skelley and Lucile Weschler. The tour site says at least 10 member artists will be showing, so expect at least one name beyond that list.
5. Geoff and Lori DeMark, 511 South Nursery Avenue. Pottery and jewelry.
6. Joe Baker, 516 South Nursery Avenue. Ink and mixed-media art from a home studio.

Two Stops on South Nursery Avenue

Stops 3 and 4 are both on South Nursery Avenue, and they show best what this tour is.

At 511, Geoff DeMark starts his functional pottery on the wheel, then pushes, presses and cuts some pieces to change their shape and surface. Lori DeMark, a Purcellville artist, makes one-of-a-kind jewelry in metal and clay, working with hammering, embossing and stamping, and her background is in printmaking and ceramics. She also teaches jewelry workshops, which is worth knowing if you'd rather learn the craft than shop for it.

At 516 is Artfully Joe, a small art business Joe Baker runs with his mom out of a studio in their home. They're new to Purcellville, so this may be your first chance to meet them.

The tour is built on this kind of stop. In its news release, the Town describes it as a weekend when "the artists open their studios and share their stories and inspiration." The event was started by the Purcellville-area members of the Loudoun County Artisan Trail together with the Purcellville Arts Council. Some of the in-town stops are the places where these artists make their work, which you don't see on a regular errand run.

Where the Art Starts as a Crop

The Town's announcement lists "participating artists, agri-artists, and tour stops." The agri-artists are the reason the drive is worth it. At these stops, the material comes from the land around Purcellville.

Blooming Hill, 19929 Telegraph Springs Road. This boutique lavender farm sells lavender products it grows and makes itself. It also carries giclée prints of western Loudoun's historic towns by Peter Rinek. If you're shopping for someone who knows Purcellville, Round Hill or Hillsboro, a print of their town is an easy gift.

868 Estate Vineyards, 14001 Harpers Ferry Road. The winery runs an art gallery in its tasting room. The tour site says it currently features works by Hope Hanes and invites visitors to "enjoy wine and food" while they browse. Painter Lizzy B. Javier joins for the weekend with acrylics and watercolors. She was born in Puerto Rico and studied with the painter Bart Mayol. This is the only stop besides Eleven Eleven where food and drink are part of the visit, so it's a good place to end the country leg.

Amy Berringer, 37797 Drawbridge Way. Berringer works in photography, painting and ceramics. She grew up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and draws on nature, travel and bright, saturated color.

The town loop has an agri-artist too. Patricia Stephenson, at the train station, raises sheep and alpaca on a farm in Purcellville and makes wearable and decorative felt art from their wool. So a scarf you buy downtown on Saturday may have started on a pasture a few miles away.

All Nine Stops at a Glance

Visit Loudoun gives 221 South Nursery Avenue as the event's directions point. The tour doesn't require a starting point, though, so begin at whichever stop is closest to your house. Neither the Town nor the tour site has posted parking instructions. At the residential addresses, plan on parking on the street and being considerate of the neighbors.

If One Weekend Isn't Enough

The Artisan Tour starts a month of maker events in western Loudoun, and the next ones fit the same plan of a few studios plus a stop for lunch:

• Catoctin Holiday Art Tour, November 14–15, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The 15th annual tour comes from Lovettsville artists and their guests. It has 20 artists at nine studios, all within a five-mile radius, working in glass, wood, jewelry, fiber, metal, painting, pottery, photography and sculpture. Details are at catoctinart.com.
• Dirt Farm Christmas Market, November 28–29. Dirt Farm Brewing in Bluemont holds its eighth annual market with local artisans, beer and holiday drinks. It's outdoors, and the brewery suggests warm clothes and a blanket.
• Town Tree Lighting, December 4, 6:30 p.m. The Town lists the Purcellville tree lighting in its October 9 council update.

If you start on South Nursery Avenue on Saturday, November 7, and end at the tree lighting on December 4, you'll have done your holiday shopping without leaving western Loudoun.

At 15 West Homes, we love a weekend that sends neighbors into each other's studios, and we hope you come home with a pot, a print or a quilt made a few streets away. If you're wondering what a Purcellville home studio or a few country acres would be worth on today's market, request your free home valuation and we'll walk you through it.