image description — A painting by Bruce Shickmanter.

Art on Main Gallery New Exhibit: Oil Water Clay

12:26PM / Friday, August 18, 2023Print Story | Email Story

Works by Michael Coyne.

WEST STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — A new exhibit by artists Mike Coyne and Bruce Shickmanter will open at the Art on Main Gallery on Aug. 24.

There will be an opening reception on Aug. 26 from 2 to 4 pm.

Gallery hours are Thursday through Sunday from 11 am to 4 pm.

The gallery is located on 38 Main Street.

Michael Coyne is a retired emergency physician whose artistic interests include metalwork, ceramics, photography, and painting. Michael’s art is inspired by; music, travel, the outdoors, and his love of colors. His works have been displayed in a variety of galleries and shows within New England and the Southwest.

In his paintings, Bruce Shickmanter tries to use pleasing shapes along with light and color to convey a sense of magic, mystery and movement. He uses the texture and matte finish of gouache to create a contrast with the transparent and ephemeral qualities of watercolors. He has begun to use acrylic as an extra complement to his work. The scenes he paints are often places he has come across while hiking or biking or are inspired by a photo that stimulates his creativity.

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South County Celebrates 250th Anniversary of the Knox Trail

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
06:18PM / Sunday, January 11, 2026

State Sen. Paul Mark carries the ceremonial linstock, a device used to light artillery. With him are New York state Sen. Michelle Hinchey and state Sen. Nick Collins of Suffolk County.

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. —The 250th celebration of American independence began in the tiny town of Alford on Saturday morning.

Later that afternoon, a small contingent of re-enactors, community members and officials marched from the Great Barrington Historical Society to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center to recognize the Berkshire towns that were part of that significant event in the nation's history.

State Sen. Paul Mark, as the highest ranking Massachusetts governmental official at the Alford crossing, was presented a ceremonial linstock flying the ribbons representing every New York State county that Henry Knox and his team passed through on their 300-mile journey from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston in the winter of 1775-76.

"The New York contingent came to the border. We had a speaking program, and they officially handed over the linstock, transferring control of the train to Massachusetts," said Mark, co-chair of Massachusetts' special commission for the semiquincentennial. "It was a great melding of both states, a kind of coming together."

State Rep. Leigh Davis called Knox "an unlikely hero, he was someone that rose up to the occasion. ... this is really honoring someone that stepped into a role because he was called to serve, and that is something that resonates."

Gen. George Washington charged 25-year-old bookseller Knox with bringing artillery from the recently captured fort on Lake Champlain to the beleaugured and occupied by Boston. It took 80 teams of horses and oxen to carry the nearly 60 tons of cannon through snow and over mountains.

Knox wrote to Washington that "the difficulties were inconceivable yet surmountable" and left the fort in December. He crossed the Hudson River in early January near Albany, crossing into Massachusetts on what is now Route 71 on Jan. 10, 1776. By late January, he was in Framingham and in the weeks to follow the artillery was positioned on Dorchester Heights.

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