AMR Open Studios Tour Artists: Part I
Over the next three to four weeks we will be featuring several of the artists who graciously opened their creative spaces to the public.
Let’s begin with Rick Mills
Richard Mills described the 2026 AMR Open Studios Tour as both exhilarating and exhausting after three days of welcoming a steady stream of visitors. While sales were modest, he said the greatest reward came from meeting new people, hearing thoughtful questions, and receiving encouraging feedback about the direction of his work. Mills noted that the tour is as much about building relationships as it is about selling artwork.
His current paintings continue an ongoing exploration of a single meadow view, revisiting the same composition through the influence of artists he admires, including Paul Klee, Paul Cézanne, Piet Mondrian, and John Marin. He explained that each painting becomes a conversation with art history, leading naturally to the next piece. Mills has also rediscovered etchings from his New Jersey garden created in the 1990s and is reworking them with watercolor, giving the older images a fresh perspective. Visitors are welcome to arrange private studio tours through his website.
Luke Dougherty, a SUNY Oneonta art professor and frequent exhibitor at Hawk + Hive Gallery in Andes, approaches painting as an open-ended exploration rather than a search for fixed answers. During a visit on the tour, he described his creative process as allowing ideas to evolve through intuition, memory, literature, art history, and long walks through the woods. Quoting filmmaker Werner Herzog, Dougherty reflected, “It is not only my dreams, my belief is that all these dreams are yours as well. The only distinction between me and you is that I can articulate them.”
His paintings often revisit recurring figures and themes, drawing inspiration from artists such as Francisco Goya while remaining deeply personal. Rather than illustrating a specific story, Dougherty hopes each image continues speaking to the viewer long after it is first seen. “If it stops talking, it gets really dead,” he explained, emphasizing that a successful painting should continue revealing new meanings over time.
Equally distinctive is his restrained color palette, built around muted warm and cool harmonies that he says simply “vibes with me.” After years of experimenting with brighter colors, Dougherty realized this historic tonal approach best expresses the quiet emotional atmosphere that has become the unmistakable signature of his work.
John Phillips brings a lifelong love of music into his abstract imagist paintings, creating works that balance rhythm, color, and composition much like a carefully arranged song. After developing his artistic voice in Chicago among fellow Imagists, including longtime friend and curator Deven Golden, Phillips has continued refining his distinctive style while settling into his new home in Margaretville. As he walked through his studio during the 2026 AMR Open Studios Tour, he explained, “My art has a lyrical inspiration to it,” describing his paintings as instrumentals with different visual elements working together like drums, bass, and lead guitar.
One of his favorite paintings, My Daddy Drives a UFO, draws its title from the opening lyric of the Cramps song Mystery Plane while its visual concept references Johnny Cash’s 1957 Hot and Blue Guitar album cover. The work represents an important stage in Phillips’ artistic development and reflects his decades as both a record collector and DJ. Looking back on his early years, he recalled advice from artist Laurie Anderson during the Whitney Independent Study Program: “She told me my paintings were in the second and a half dimension.” Having spent the past year restoring his Margaretville home, Phillips is now looking forward to returning his full attention to creating new work.