Summer is already drawing to a close, and how hard this is to believe! But the season isn't over yet - Seal Level, my solo exhibit of paintings in Rockland, Maine at Landing Gallery, has been very successful and has been carried over until the end of August, with the addition of some new work on the same themes. Thanks so much to art collectors, friends, and family who turned out to support this show - I appreciate your interest so very much!
In other news, I am also very pleased to be participating in the final exhibit of the summer - the annual Penobscot Potluck - next week at the Islesboro Historical Society and Museum, from Friday August 22nd through Wednesday the 27th. Details and directions are here. I will have around fifteen paintings in this group show, made on Islesboro, around Penobscot Bay, and beyond.
And, of course, I've been making the most of these too-brief summer months by painting outside as much as I am able - I've spent time working on Bear Island and Great Spruce Head Island, in Winter Harbor, out at Schoodic Point, and in Brooklin, where this new painting (pictured below) recently came into being. It was a beautifully foggy morning. The fog was lifting slowly and brightening, the tide was rising, and it seemed as if all the life clinging to this huge granite erratic was breathing with happiness - barnacles, seaweed, algae, and tiny whelks and periwinkles. I worked quickly to indicate as much as I could before the tide came up to the edge of the sun-bleached top of the rock (and I had to move back from the water's edge, myself, on the nearby beach). This is 16" x 20", oil on canvas, one of my favorite sizes to paint on. I completed 90% of the painting on site and finished the final 10% back in my studio.
In other news, I am also very pleased to be participating in the final exhibit of the summer - the annual Penobscot Potluck - next week at the Islesboro Historical Society and Museum, from Friday August 22nd through Wednesday the 27th. Details and directions are here. I will have around fifteen paintings in this group show, made on Islesboro, around Penobscot Bay, and beyond.
And, of course, I've been making the most of these too-brief summer months by painting outside as much as I am able - I've spent time working on Bear Island and Great Spruce Head Island, in Winter Harbor, out at Schoodic Point, and in Brooklin, where this new painting (pictured below) recently came into being. It was a beautifully foggy morning. The fog was lifting slowly and brightening, the tide was rising, and it seemed as if all the life clinging to this huge granite erratic was breathing with happiness - barnacles, seaweed, algae, and tiny whelks and periwinkles. I worked quickly to indicate as much as I could before the tide came up to the edge of the sun-bleached top of the rock (and I had to move back from the water's edge, myself, on the nearby beach). This is 16" x 20", oil on canvas, one of my favorite sizes to paint on. I completed 90% of the painting on site and finished the final 10% back in my studio.
Usually I will try to complete a painting on site, all in one go, but often circumstances dictate otherwise. In this case, I had the essentials from the scene and wanted to address the painting itself, away from the scene, to see what it needed to be complete. This is such an intuitive thing, in my case, but quite definite nonetheless. And it's a lovely moment - when whatever it is inside you says Done, that's it... and you set the brush down. It feels like reading the last page in a satisfying book, or hearing a latch click shut on a garden gate. But at the same time, it doesn't feel like an ending - more like a recognition of completeness. In this case, it's a high tide feeling, a quiet brimming. Hard to describe, but one of the many reasons I keep painting!
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