It's October already! This year has been almost unbelievable, on so many levels. A few highlights: the solo show of my work at Landing Gallery in Rockland this summer very nearly sold out, and the weather has been consistently amazing for outdoor painting, so I've been out there as much as possible. I experienced immersive, productive painting retreats - ten days on Bear Island in June, and a week on Islesboro in September - and soon I will be heading off to the Schoodic peninsula for a residency at Acadia National Park. This week I've been sanding and gessoing panels and preparing to stretch canvases of all sizes to be ready for whatever I encounter there, from quick small sketches to larger more developed paintings. I also want to do some drawing, and perhaps watercolors too. I think with all the stuff I'll be bringing along I could open a small art supply shop for the duration of the residency.
;O)
In other news, I will have work in two upcoming shows and wanted to share the details. First, from October 3rd through November 30th, six paintings of mine will be at our great library here in town, the Stockton Springs Community Library, alongside paintings from six other local artists. Some of the paintings are very close to home, like this one, painted while looking out the living room window at the neighbor's house across the street:
;O)
In other news, I will have work in two upcoming shows and wanted to share the details. First, from October 3rd through November 30th, six paintings of mine will be at our great library here in town, the Stockton Springs Community Library, alongside paintings from six other local artists. Some of the paintings are very close to home, like this one, painted while looking out the living room window at the neighbor's house across the street:
This was a freezing snowy January day, but there was warm light on the south side of the house and it all felt very glowy against the blue shadows - the painting is 12 x 18", oil on canvas. I wanted to be outside painting, truly, but here in Maine in the middle of winter, well, we do what we can do!
The second show I'll have work in this fall will be at Landing Gallery in Rockland again, from mid-November through the holidays. Five or six gallery artists, including me, will be showing around ten paintings each, all still life. I'm excited about the opportunity to exhibit some of my other work besides the miles-wide landscapes that are my current preoccupation. I've written here before about how still life was my first painting love, when I learned to paint in college and for years after that, and I return to still life painting a few times a year, even now. It's all about the close looking, really, and love of form, attempts at description, and compositional choices. And of course color, and the paint itself - all of it! Most of the paintings I'm taking to Rockland are quite small - flowers in a vase, tomatoes on a plate - but this one is a bit larger:
The second show I'll have work in this fall will be at Landing Gallery in Rockland again, from mid-November through the holidays. Five or six gallery artists, including me, will be showing around ten paintings each, all still life. I'm excited about the opportunity to exhibit some of my other work besides the miles-wide landscapes that are my current preoccupation. I've written here before about how still life was my first painting love, when I learned to paint in college and for years after that, and I return to still life painting a few times a year, even now. It's all about the close looking, really, and love of form, attempts at description, and compositional choices. And of course color, and the paint itself - all of it! Most of the paintings I'm taking to Rockland are quite small - flowers in a vase, tomatoes on a plate - but this one is a bit larger:
A pail of delphiniums - oil on canvas, 18 x 18" - in a corner of our dining room. The delphiniums had all blown over in a high wind and I brought them inside. They asked to be painted until I finally gave in and said Okay, okay! and set up my easel in the dining room. For a few days. The other members of the household (husband, cat) approved and were generally patient and understanding. Here's a close-up of the pail:
I can't even say what a pleasure it was to paint this metal pail. I kept adding stripes of color to it as the rest of the painting developed, and by the time I was finished with everything else, the pail was finished too. When I was first drawing and painting in college art classes, highly reflective surfaces were among my true loves, so returning to this theme in paint felt great. Should I have put my own reflection in there, I wonder? Lots of painters do, but to me the painting already feels like something of a self-portrait (as do all paintings, it seems - I mean, painters can't help it - you paint, and there you are! which can be both a blessing and a curse), so I didn't need to be any more descriptive than I wanted to be at that particular moment.
The framed painting in the background isn't one of mine, by the way - it was painted a few decades ago by a dear friend. It was a great exercise, painting a smaller simplified version of her painting, and makes me want to go to museums to set up my easel and paint versions of some of my favorite paintings by other people. I've always read that there's no better way to learn from the masters, and I have done some quick sketches before, in pencil or pen. But, that will have to wait for the time being. I've got enough on my plate for the upcoming months, and besides, I'll be outside, learning from that other great master - nature.
In conclusion, some words of thanks. The interest in my paintings over the last year has been such a blessing, and helps lift me up and out the door, with blank canvases in hand. So, THANK YOU. It means the world to me to be able to continue to do what I most love to do.
The framed painting in the background isn't one of mine, by the way - it was painted a few decades ago by a dear friend. It was a great exercise, painting a smaller simplified version of her painting, and makes me want to go to museums to set up my easel and paint versions of some of my favorite paintings by other people. I've always read that there's no better way to learn from the masters, and I have done some quick sketches before, in pencil or pen. But, that will have to wait for the time being. I've got enough on my plate for the upcoming months, and besides, I'll be outside, learning from that other great master - nature.
In conclusion, some words of thanks. The interest in my paintings over the last year has been such a blessing, and helps lift me up and out the door, with blank canvases in hand. So, THANK YOU. It means the world to me to be able to continue to do what I most love to do.
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