Carmen Barros Howell opens her Allder School Road studio to the public

Art lovers take note: Carmen Barros Howell is celebrating the opening of her studio Saturday, Oct. 29 by opening its doors to all art lovers.

Barros Howell’s studio is next to her home at 37825 Allder School Road just north of Purcellville. Saturday’s Studio Opening Exhibition starts at 11 a.m., with an Opening Reception at 2 p.m. The studio will stay open until5 p.m.

The first thing visits will see as they turn into her driveway is a double row of welded steel sculptures dating form the last 37 years.  Ceramic and steel sculpture greets visitors from the porch and gardens of the house, and in front of the studio a few steps to the east.

In the studio, Barros Howell has established work areas for drawing, painting (under the natural light of the southeast window), firing clay, working with stone and welding.

Born and raised in Chile, she started drawing before she was 15, and continued her studies at the University of Chile. There she learned the art of lithography took up carving and sculpting and continued to develop her drawing and painting.

Behind the studio are racks and piles of found objects that will turn into sculpture under her skilled hands – scrap construction steel, rusted farm implements and more.

One of her favorites at the moment is a rusted set of hay bale hooks from the loft of the Brownells’ barn.

“I go to junkyards, friends will call and tell me they have something that will be interesting to me,” Barros Howell said, at the preview studio show Friday afternoon. Sometimes local construction companies drop off unused construction steel. She will transform it.

Nancy Cobean and her Rose Gallery – formerly on market Street West in Leesburg, now on-line -- is managing the art show.

“It’s beautiful and a real thrill,” Cobean said. ”A studio show is much different from a gallery. It gives guests a very inside view of the artist’s place of creation. You see the works and you see how it all begins.”

For more information, go to www.rosegalleryfineart.com, e-mail Cobean at nancy@rosegalleryfineart.com. Call 617-899-7252 for an appointment to visit the studio if you miss the opening