They are still counting the numbers, but it looks like this year’s Studio Tour, the weekend artists throw open the doors and invite us in across the County, tallied the highest number of visits ever — or at least since the height of the pandemic. According to co-chair Dale Wainwright, in 2021 the Tour recorded 5500 individual studio visits. In 2025, that number shot up to 7174. Studios reported an average of 150 visitors over the weekend, while those in the center of town reported about 300 visits each. Close to $100,000 in artwork was sold over the three days.

“It really has become one of the premier studio tours in Ontario,” notes Ms. Wainwright, who is rightly proud of the fact that the Tour has doubled in size since she assumed management ten years ago. “It’s a full-time job,” she laughs, “but I really do love it.”

Studios reported visitors from as far as Switzerland and the UK, as well as from the United States, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and from the far reaches of  the surrounding region. A huge draw is, of course, the artists themselves, notes Ms. Wainwright. “They explain their process, how they work and what they are trying to achieve to their many, many visitors over the course of the weekend.”

“With 62 artists and 39 galleries, we knew the numbers would be fantastic,” said Ms. Wainwright’s fellow co-chair, Heather Kerr, who is also an artist. 

After all, who doesn’t enjoy meandering across the County, taking in fine art on a sun-soaked weekend afternoon? Warm and friendly artists, engaging conversations and steady sales made for a great weekend.

“The Studio Tour has the broadest geographical reach out of anything that’s offered and there’s a great collaborative spirit amongst the artists,” Ms. Kerr added. “That comes through in the cross promotion they do for each other on the weekend. There’s a real love of each other’s work and a real sense of community.”

Landscape Painter

J. Douglas Thompson is a painter of majestic, atmospheric skyscapes, landscapes and seascapes. Even before he offers a bit of biographical info, it’s clear he has been inspired by Canada’s Left Coast. Born in Vanvouver and raised in Calgary, his catalogue is equal parts big sky and soggy, foggy forest scenes.

 His landscapes offer ethereal, dreamlike images, mist drenching the forest on the Haida Gwaii archepelago, or massive storm clouds rolling across the Calgary foothills, the Rockies looming in the background.

Mr. Thompson takes a rag with a fair amount of paint on it and whips the canvas with it. From those movements, texture forms. Rocks start to emerge.

“The background is really what I’m starting. And from that, I can envisage an image that has a Turner-esque feel.” 

With good reason. During his time in London as an illustrator and a graphic designer, Mr. Thompson visited the Tate Galleries on his days off.

“As a young artist, I was already inspired and influenced by J.M.W. Turner’s work but I couldn’t figure out how he pulled these things off.”

Eventually, he honed his craft and “shifted” his creative process.

He also draws on a metaphor that reflects his Christian faith. The Prairie storm pieces in particular reflect hope coming out of the storms of life. 

“The storms at this point in my life are moving away,” he says. “Earlier in my life, they were coming.”

A Welcome Guest

Mr. Thompson hosted guest artist Michelle Hutchison of Hay Bay in his home gallery on Wilson Road for the weekend.  

Ms. Hutchison works primarily in fluid acrylic. She describes her efforts as “spontaneous quirkiness and a lot of happy flowers.”

“When I start, I know the dominant colour. And I put that colour down, and then I look at it and I start to react to the paint. And the shapes and the colour and the lines and the marks. And that’s when the story comes out.”

That story reflects the artist’s thoughts, experiences and feelings. Her large “Make A Splash” acrylic piece was inspired by a sculpture garden replete with beautiful bronze creations.

“But what really caught me was how they were positioned near ponds. Bringing that home with me in my memory, I didn’t have to look at my photos. I was inspired to paint water lilies and out they came. 

“You can see here, they’re dancing, they’re just happy,” Ms. Hutchison explains, adding she used a kitchen whisk to get the form of the flowers just right.

Outdoor Gallery

Artist Julie Seddon relocated from Toronto, and a position at the Art Gallery of Ontario, to the County in 2024. She could not be more pleased. “The community here is so welcoming, and I’ve found so many people to connect with, it’s been actually overwhelming. I really cannot believe my luck.”

Ms. Seddon lives in Picton, and welcomed Tour-goers into a display gallery spilling out of a charming wooden garage. “I’ve had more than 80 people a day here,” she said, during a quiet moment on Sunday before the closure of the Picton Farmers’ Market promised more visitors.

Ms. Seddon’s work is at once bold and colourful, and precisely detailed. For some works she paints from photographs to create beautiful renderings of streetscapes and Main Street window displays, many inspired by Picton. “When I paint from a photograph, I take liberties with the image, collating, editing, enhancing, even inventing in much the same way that our minds re-organize and edit our memories of our own life events.” The result suggests a living memory, a refracted mind.

In others, she explains, she painted over earlier works. “I was going through old paintings, and found some painted when I was in a difficult period of my life. They showed it. They were flat, dark, a bit empty. I found myself touching them up, adding some colour.” 

The results are extraordinary, dynamic paintings brought to life with different layers of paint and colour bridging different ways of seeing.