The Gallery

(For A Virtual Tour of The Gallery,
Click on the Images Below as Requested)

"The Timmel Collection" is a Fine Art Gallery and The Saugatuck Garden Center for the Arts located at 133 Main Street, on the village green, in historic downtown Saugatuck, Michigan. And, of course, the gallery is of great value, as it has an educational function to maximally acquaint the audience with various cultural phenomena, buy book reports to learn more about it. (For a history of Saugatuck, click here) The Gallery represents over one hundred and forty painters, sculptors, photographers, glass artisans and functional artists with national and international reputations. Only twenty are from the State of Michigan.

The Gallery, established in 1998, specializes in contemporary and modern paintings, sculpture, fine prints, pottery and photography. The Gallery has grown to represent a stable of artists whose works range from recent graduates of Ox-Bow (summer school for The Art Institute of Chicago) to the artisians whose commission pieces reach into seven figures. The Gallery is a place comfortable for both the beginning collector and those who (Click Left Image For Outside Gallery Tour) have been doing so for a very long time. Services offered by The Gallery include museum quality conservation framing; consulting and acquisition services for corporations, institutions and foundations; private and corporate sculpture placement; and art appraisals for estates and individual works, for personal and corporate collections.

The Gallery is open daily, March 5 - into late November 2009, 10AM to 5 PM. Winter hours are by appointment only. All Gallery Services are available year round via "Collector Services" on this Internet site.

(Click Left Image For Main Gallery Tour)

(Click Right Image For Saugatuck Garden Center for the Arts Tour)

 

 

(Click Left Image for
Back Gallery Tour)

Location

Saugatuck is the embodiment of a small town in America.  Located on a secure harbor with direct access to Lake Michigan, Saugatuck has been an art colony for over one hundred years. The little Victorian Village seems to sway with the rhythm of the lake and the river, yacths moored along its waterfront, fish on its menus, and nautical gear in its storefronts.

The Potawatomi and Ottawa first claimed this land, and the lumberjacks who followed in the mid-1800's kept the native name for "river's Mouth," Saugatuck. Lumber companies set up operations in Saugatuck and Singapore, a larger settlement at the mouth of the river.

The twin mill towns of Saugatuck and Singapore helped Chicago rebuild after the Great Fire, but soon the lumber companies' 50 year "big cut" felled most of Michigan's native forests. With its mills dismantled, strapped onto Great Lake schooners, and shipped away, Singapore was utterly exposed at water's edge, and blowing sand eventually covered the entire village. Now the ghost town of Singapore lives on only in the name of the local yacht club and as a wind-scaped memory.

Saugatuck survived though, making the transition from mill town to resort when the carriage-trade families of St. Louis and Chicago discovered, at the turn of the centruy, its cooling breezes and dual waterfronts. They stayed in hotels, then built cabins and, finally, grand mansions that they called "cottages," in the ironic manner of Newport, Rhode Island.

Today the artistic heritage continues with strong ties to the Art Institute of Chicago, and a profusion of private galleries and specialty shops. The one hundred-ten year old building in which The Gallery is located has eight rooms, and in early part of the century was the town hospital.

Saugatuck is conveniently located two hours from Chicago and three hours from Detroit. It is an hour from the Grand Rapids International Airport.

Above are two of The Galleries eight rooms of original art and sculpture.
Below left art is displayed outside in the natural light in season. Below right
The Gallery is located in the heart of Saugatuck in a secluded spot perfect for browsing.



The Staff


Gallery Summer Director Rocky
Kruithoff is always 'all smiles!'


Joel Timmel opened The Gallery in May of 1998.
A appreciator of fine art all of his life, Mr. Timmel
has long term relationships both as collector and
Gallery owner with the artists The Gallery represents.

Shown in the photograph at left is Joel Timmel and
Director Rocky Kruithoff maintaining the philosophy
of "le beau vie" at the renowned Veranda Restaurant
in Fort Myers with Gallery Patron's and francophiles
Bob Kish and Bob Main..

Better Staff

The Gallery is a welcome place with JoJo and JoJos Shadow (d.b.a. Shadow) greeting every client from their front porch perch in season, and off from on The Galleries oriental carpets on the buildings original hard wood floors. They have made The Gallery a 'must-stop' for young and old alike. A special treat for Gallery patrons is when "Cousin Max' pays his (almost) daily visit!



Left: "Triple Trouble"
Cousin Max, JoJo and Shadow
seated in The Sculpture Garden's "Alice in Wonderland Chair"
Top:"JoJo and Shadow"
The Gallery security staff at work ... sort-of, kinda!



Top: Enough Already"
JoJo gives photographer Vicky Stull the 'evil eye' as in "Enough already!"
Left: The Boys"
JoJo, Cousin Max and Shadow
observe the daily routine in
The Sculpture Garden

Dog Photography by Professional Photographer Vicky Stull