Durango Open Studio Tour

Featured Durango Open Studio Tour Artist | John Modestitt

French Impressionism, From Colorado to Europe

John Modesitt’s connection to Impressionism began when he was a child.

His father was an avid collector of Impressionist paintings, and those works filled the family home. By the age of 12, John was studying and imitating the style that would become a lifelong artistic influence.

His formal study continued in college under Robert Frame, whose encouragement helped John pursue outdoor painting. He later traveled to Europe, studying Impressionist art directly in museums and even receiving permission to copy paintings by Pissarro, Monet, and Sisley at the Metropolitan Museum of Art while living in New York City.

In his early twenties, John painted almost exclusively outdoors in the manner of the French Impressionists, absorbing what he learned and gradually developing his own voice.
His career has taken him across the American landscape as well. His Southern California paintings became highly successful, with his work eventually sold through prominent galleries and auctioned by Christie’s and other auction houses.

Over time, John chose to focus more deeply on the subjects that mattered most to him. He painted New Mexico, worked on location in places such as Canyon de Chelly and Taos, and returned repeatedly to France to paint areas less frequently visited by other artists.

Today, surrounded by mountains, rivers, flowers, and changing seasons along Hermosa Creek, John continues that journey from his Colorado home.

Website: museumorimpressionism .com�
Instagram: .modesitt

Featured Durango Open Studio Tour Artist | Marie McCallum

Classical Realism | Oil & Gold or Silver Leaf

Marie McCallum’s paintings have a way of making familiar things feel newly intriguing.

Working in classical realism, sometimes incorporating gold or silver leaf, Marie is drawn to clothing, shop windows, storefronts, and automobiles—subjects that carry layers of memory, identity, and visual storytelling.

Her work is dynamic and vibrant, with perspective that pulls the viewer into the scene and creates an immediate sense of familiarity. Much of the imagery has a personal connection for Marie, giving her paintings a narrative quality that goes beyond simply depicting what is in front of her.

Clothing plays a particularly important role in her work, influenced by a tailor grandmother who was a creative force in her life. That connection between art and craft continues in Marie’s highly considered approach to painting.

Her technique also draws from an earlier career as a trompe l’oeil painter and sign artist, experiences that helped shape her graphic way of thinking and her command of realistic imagery.

The combination is distinctive: classical realism informed by a graphic eye, personal history, and an appreciation for the visual details of everyday life.

During the Durango Open Studio Tour, visit Marie’s studio north of town and take a closer look at the familiar objects and scenes she transforms through paint.

You may find yourself looking differently at the storefronts, reflections, clothing, and passing moments of everyday life after you leave.

Website: https://mariemccallumart.com/�Instagram: , https://www.instagram.com/mariemccallumart/

Featured Durango Open Studio Tour Artist | Barb Klema

Watercolor | Studio & Plein Air

For Barbara Tobin Klema, the dramatic landscapes of the Southwest have provided inspiration throughout a remarkable 50-year career as a professional artist.
Working in watercolor both in the studio and outdoors en plein air, Barb captures the character and beauty of the landscape with the immediacy and luminosity that make watercolor such a compelling medium.

Her career has encompassed much more than painting. Barb has owned two art galleries and a teaching studio, worked in botanical illustration and graphic design, and taught watercolor, drawing, and design at Fort Lewis College as well as privately.

That depth of experience is reflected in a practice grounded in observation, design, and an enduring curiosity about the landscape around her.

Over the years, Barb’s work has received numerous awards in national exhibitions, including two second-place awards and a Best of Show. She recently achieved Signature Membership status in RMNW with a painting of the Grand Canyon.

Today, she continues to live and work in the dramatic Southwest landscapes that have inspired her for decades.

During the Durango Open Studio Tour, visitors can step into Wild Sage Studio and see both studio and plein air watercolor work firsthand.

There is something special about encountering a landscape through the eyes of someone who has spent half a century studying how light, color, shape, and atmosphere transform it.

Come see what Barb finds in the Southwest.

Website: https://barbaratobinklema.com/�Facebook: https://facebook.com/barbara.klema�Instagram: https://instagram.com/barbaratobinklema

Featured Durango Open Studio Tour Artist | Kathleen Keene Jones

Hand-Built Ceramic Sculpture

Kathleen Jones creates ceramic sculpture that seems to hover between movement and stillness.

Her hand-built forms are shaped by the textures, cultures, and complexities of landscapes she has experienced through a career in multilateral diplomacy. From the mountains of Afghanistan to the White Nile of South Sudan, the Musandam Peninsula, and the rainforests of the Dominican Republic, places and communities have left their imprint on the way she sees strength, fragility, and resilience.

Those ideas become physical in her sculpture.

Large ceramic forms may balance on impossibly fine supports or appear to hover somewhere between movement and collapse. Rough, unglazed clay can contrast with reflective surfaces that catch the light like water. Subtle imperfections remain visible—not flaws to be hidden, but deliberate reminders that endurance is never flawless.

Kathleen is interested in what happens when an object refuses to be perfectly symmetrical or polished. Her pieces tilt, lean, and drift, creating a quiet tension that encourages the viewer to look longer.

The materials themselves reinforce the connection between landscape and process: earth turned by water, hardened by fire, and touched by air.

At the Durango Open Studio Tour, visitors can see these compelling forms in person at Kathleen’s studio in the Smiley Building ArtRoom Studio #19. Look closely at the balance, the surfaces, and the spaces between forms.

There is a lot happening in the apparent stillness.

Instagram: , https://www.instagram.com/kathleenkeenejonesart/

Featured Durango Open Studio Tour Artist | Yvonne Holland

Stoneware Pottery & Plein Air Pastel

For Yvonne Holland, art and music have been lifelong passions—and both continue to shape her creative life in Durango.

Yvonne works in two very different mediums: functional stoneware pottery and plein air landscape painting in pastel. One involves clay transformed by fire; the other captures the vibrancy of the landscape through pure pigment. Together, they reflect her enduring curiosity about making, observing, and creating.

Yvonne earned her B.F.A. from St. Lawrence University and her M.C. from Arizona State University. She spent 33 years teaching art in Arizona public schools before the beauty of Durango and the surrounding mountains beckoned.

The natural world is a constant source of inspiration. Yvonne loves the vibrancy of pastel and the immediacy of painting outdoors, while her long history of throwing pots keeps her connected to the tactile magic of clay. There is still excitement in opening a gas kiln and seeing how the finished pieces have emerged from the process.

And then there is music.

Yvonne plays Celtic and French Canadian fiddle and performs with the Celtic band Truckely Howe. She is also available for individual lessons in both art and music.

During the Tour, visit Yvonne’s studio and experience the creative range of an artist whose life is equally at home with pigment, clay, and music.

Website: https://www.yvonneholland.com/

Featured Durango Open Studio Tour Artist | Amy Hewitt

Nature-Inspired Art | Workshops & Exploration

For Amy Hewitt, art begins with paying attention to the natural world.

Colors, textures, and shapes found in nature provide the creative inspiration for her work and for the art workshops she offers from her studio in the Smiley Building Studio #105. Her classes explore printing, collage, rock wrapping, watercolor painting, and nature journaling—inviting participants to look closely, experiment, and discover their own creative possibilities.

Amy’s background brings an unusual blend of art, education, and natural science to her practice. She moved to Durango from Martha’s Vineyard 16 years ago and holds a Bachelor of Science in Physical Geography with a minor in Spanish, as well as a Master’s Degree in Education. More recently, she earned a Rocky Mountain Naturalist certificate from Colorado State University.

Before moving west, Amy taught Spanish and English in elementary schools on Martha’s Vineyard and served as Director of Art Education at the historic Old Sculpin Gallery.

Today, her studio practice and teaching reflect a lifelong interest in connecting people with both art and the natural world.

When she isn’t creating or teaching, Amy can often be found hiking, paddle boarding, or fly fishing around Durango—activities that continue to feed her creative curiosity.

Visit Studio 105 during the Durango Open Studio Tour and explore Amy’s colorful, hands-on approach to making art inspired by the world outside her studio door.