Events & Festivals

As a small winery, we like to attend smaller, local wine festivals. Our upcoming events and festivals include:

Flying Fox in the Media

The Virginia Sportsman magazine had a lovely article about Flying Fox in its April/May issue. Download article [PDF]

St. John's University recently did a story about "Johnnies" who work in the food and beverage industry and our very own Rich Evans is proud to be included with a few of his fellow alums. Download article [PDF]

The Winter 2009/2010 Virginia Wine Gazette has an article on Newcomer Vineyards featuring Flying Fox Vineyard ~ and we made the cover!
Download article [PDF]

Guest Artists at the Tasting Room

Our tasting room is small, but charming ~ and a big part of that charm is due to the local artists who graciously exhibit their art works at Flying Fox.  Our current exhibit is from Betty Arehart.  In her own words....

I consider myself very lucky to live in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.  The mountains, valleys, rivers and streams give me the inspiration and subject matter for most of my artwork. 

I started painting as a hobby but it quickly became a second career.  My love of nature, which was cultivated by my parents, started at a very early age.  Fresh flowers grown by my parents were always on our tables.  As a child, flower and gardening were a big part of my “growing up”, as were pulling weeds and the weekend family drives through the countryside.  The landscape was dotted with orchards of apple and peach trees.  There was a large variety of hardwood trees as well as many types of evergreens, including pine, hemlock and cedar.  The orchards are mostly gone now, replace in part by wine vineyards, but the memories remain with me and are very much reflected in my art.

Early in our married life, my husband and is started spending our vacations on the Gulf Coast of Florida.  We purchased property there and each year spend time on Sanibel Island.  The shore birds and shells are a big part of our love of the island.  With the “Ding” Darling Bird Sanctuary located on Sanibel, there is niver a time when I cannot spot the beautiful birds of the island, often with their young in tow.  The trips south give me the opportunity to visit the parks and gardens in the southern states, and there are many.  I always keep my sketchbook at hand as well as my camera.  I often carry a little box of watercolors and several brushes so I can note the details that might interest me and the colors that I want to remember.

I find it is important to spend time close to nature.  I paint now in my studio, mostly from photographs and sketches.  Most of the time my finished work looks nothing like the photographs or the sketches, but takes on a life of its own. In the end, my art is mostly memory from all of those years of looking at the landscape that is now etched in my mind.

Betty R. Arehart
1401 Woodrow Avenue
Waynesboro, VA  22980
540-942-9317
forrest@ntelos.net