First, the exemplary Landing Gallery now has all the work for my new solo show, Tree and Cloud. The opening is Friday evening June 1st from 5:00 - 8:00, and the show will be up through the month of June (the gallery also keeps a selection of my work up all summer, so please stop by even if you can't make it in to see the whole show). Catalogues are available at the gallery, and from me.
In July, I will be painting around downeast Maine, and also heading inland for a few days to take a workshop with artist Alan Bray, at Monson Arts. It's been a long time since I've taken a class but I have been yearning to paint in the woods lately and have admired Alan Bray's paintings for years, so this is a great opportunity! To say I'm really looking forward to it is an understatement. I'm already preparing some canvases and panels to bring with me.
In August, six paintings of mine will be in a group show at the Blue Hill Public Library: Points of View, curated by Marcia Stremlau and Susan Webster, opening Friday August 3rd from 4:30 - 7:00 p.m. Part of the proceeds of sales from the show goes to support this wonderful library and their community programming. I'm very happy to be partipating in this fantastic annual exhibit again.
Then in the fall, Betts Gallery at the Belfast Framer will have three of my paintings in a group show on the timeless theme of Trees - Maine is the Pine Tree State and trees are a major theme in Maine art and in my art too. The show opens on Friday September 28th, from 5:30 - 8 p.m., and runs through November 2nd.
And, I also have ten paintings hanging up right down the street - we have new neighbors who moved to town this spring and just opened a restaurant in their gorgeous historic house. The Hichborn - their food looks amazing and "will follow the seasons of Maine." Charlie and Kirk, the owners, a chef and artist respectively, want local artwork on the walls and asked me and several other artists from here in Stockton Springs to show paintings together. It's great to have some work up with neighbor-painters Scott Moore, Peter Walls, and Fredrick Kuhn!
One more item of note - let's talk about books for a minute! For the past few years one of my winter projects has entailed putting together two small books of my watercolors. I love oil painting and that is my primary pursuit, but watercolor is also a great joy. I scanned some of my favorites, put them together in a 10 x 8" hardcover, and printed the book online, via Blurb. A Maine Coast Sketchbook shows 23 watercolors, plus 2 on the front and back covers, and a few mussel shell sketches for good measure. I'm very happy with the color reproductions and archival paper. Bonus: I am painting small watercolors inside the front cover of each copy, and signing them, and offering copies for sale here on my website. That's the first book - the second one is longer, at around 100 pages, and is a poetic reverie about a day on the coast of Maine - morning, noon, afternoon, and evening - with brief text and sketches of the coast and of beach finds throughout. Tidelines: a reverie is a 7 x 7" hardcover with a dust jacket, also printed on archival paper. I am making a small drawing inside the cover of each copy of this book, too, and signing them. Copies are only available to buy from me directly (contact me at [email protected]). The catalogues from my three solo shows of the last three years are also available for sale. Please take a look at my available work page for more details.
Thanks for reading all this! I'll sign off for now, with a painting. This is one of the bigger paintings from my Tree and Cloud solo show, at 24 x 36". Moonlight, starlight, from the harbor, Great Spruce Head Island, Maine - oil on canvas, 2017. Seeing it again is making me think of island nights and the paintings that I hope to make, this summer. Stars, fireflies, phosphorescence, rising suns and moons - luminosity in the midst of darkness - an ongoing exploration and endeavor, always. My best wishes for the seasons ahead!