where to see my paintings in 2017

I'm not going to fib, this has been a long difficult winter and continues to be a trying time in general.  However, I am happy to say that painting is bringing me a sense of purpose and joy, especially as I continue to explore subjects that are close to my heart.  This is a studio painting (there it is...! in my studio...!) I made early this spring, from memory, of the full moon rising over the treeline near the cabin I stay in on Bear Island in Penobscot Bay.  I saw this happen last summer and carried the image with me until the time felt right to try and paint it.  And one day, when nothing else was insisting on being done first, that moment finally arrived - 18 x 24", oil on canvas:

I suppose we could call the finished painting an ode to Payne's Gray, one of my favorite colors to both paint with and mix other colors from.  My palette tells the tale, doesn't it!  About the search for how to paint that evening-time, when any color in the landscape reads as near-black, and yet isn't, at all.  Wonderful to think about the eerie magic of a midsummer island night, this time of year.  Here's another new painting, from late-winter - also made in my studio, but this one from life, by looking out the window and down the hill we live on, to the ocean, about a mile away:  

Snow fell the night before, and the wind was whipping up the cove and the fat clouds overhead.  This one is a 12 x 9" panel, a familiar size I love to paint on.  The cloud shadows on the water and the snow on the far hills, mmm.  Every winter for the past few years I've made many paintings of this view, either zooming way in or widening out to encompass more space.  

​Another of my ongoing painting obsessions remains my love of Mount Desert Island and Schoodic.  And I'm so happy to say that Landing Gallery in Rockland, Maine is once again having a solo show of my work this year - Water and Stone: Schoodic and Mount Desert Island.  I will deliver around 60 paintings to the gallery in mid-May.  The show dates are May 26th - June 25th, and the official opening is during the First Friday Art Walk on June 2nd, from 5-8 p.m.  I have been working on this show for several years and many of the paintings in it are from my time as an artist-in-residence at Acadia National Park.  I was born in Bar Harbor and lived there as a child before moving away, and I have to say that painting in that area, now, as an adult, has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my life.  It feels like a full-circle journey.  Paintings in the show range in size from very small (5 x 7") to large (40 x 64").  There will be a catalogue available, with images of 23 of the paintings.  This painting (already sold) is on the front cover - Blue and gold day, the corner, Schoodic Point, Maine, oil/canvas, 18 x 18":    

I also have work in a few group shows around the state this summer.  The first is the season opener at Landing Gallery, the 2017 Invitational, alongside works from Scott Baltz, Andrew Anderson-Bell, Roberta Baumann, Bruce Busko,Tom Curry, Brian Krebs, Monique Lazard, Marlene Loznicka, Bill Mayher, David Peterson, Björn Runquist, Robert Stebleton, Liliana Thelander, Jill Valliere, and J.M. Wilde.  The opening is Friday evening May 5th, from 5-8 p.m.  One of my paintings in this show is Morning view to North Haven, from Pendleton Point, Islesboro, Maine, oil/linen, 16 x 14":  

Then, two small paintings of mine are in the summer season show, Maine Wood(s), at the L.C. Bates Museum in Fairfield.  The show opening is May 4th from 5:30-7:30 p.m.  I am not going to be able to be in two places at once, unfortunately, so I won't be at the opening myself (I will be in Rockland at Landing Gallery instead).  I have not seen a list of the other artists included in this show, but did see some of the work when I dropped off my paintings last week, and it looks fantastic so far.  It will be up through mid-October.

Lastly, some of my work has been selected for the August exhibit Island Light at the Blue Hill Public Library.  This show is curated by Jennifer Mitchell-Nevin and Marcia Stremlau, and I am thrilled to be a part of it.  It opens on Friday, August 4th and runs through September 1st.  This is an important fundraiser for the library and I'm so happy to participate, to help support literacy, books, and artists all at once.  Again, I haven't seen a list of the other artists yet, although I do know that the amazing painter Louise Bourne will have work there too.  And three of my paintings will be in the show, including this one - Penobscot Bay fog bank, from Islesboro, Maine, oil/canvas, 20 x 20":​

Whew,  I think that's all for now!  One of the great things about being indoors working all winter is this:  as soon as the warmer weather returns, I find myself caught up with everything - ready for summer shows, work framed and photographed and labelled - and thus free to pack up my painting basket and head outside to make new work!  Last week I painted on Deer Isle and also in Lincolnville.  It's so wonderful to sit by the edge of the ocean and, as if you couldn't tell from most of the paintings above, observe and try to paint the light.  As far as I'm concerned, an excellent thing to focus on, now or at any time.

​Thanks for reading - I hope to see you at an opening this summer!