Fine Art
Sold
This is a oil painting of skaters on the Frog Pond near Beacon Hill. I am posting it to begin getting this site in the Christmas season with a link to the gallery where it is available.
The Elizabeth Rowley Gallery has an opening today from 4-6pm to showcase new paintings for Christmas time.
I will be there to discuss the recent work, and the public is welcome.
I am pleased to announce my monotype entry “Inauguration Day Parade” has been selected for the New Hampshire Institute of Art‘s Biennial Exhibition 2009. It was one of 44 selected out of over 400 entries. The exhibition runs November 9 – December 4, 2009.
For more information
please contact:
New Hampshire Institute of Art
Alison Williams, Gallery Director
148 Concord St.
Manchester, NH 03104
603-836-2573
awilliams@nhia.edu
www.nhia.edu
Wheelchair accessible
The New Hampshire
Institute of Art is pleased to
announce Biennial 2009, a
regional juried exhibition for New England
artists. This exhibition of painting, drawing,
printmaking, photography, and illustration
will be on display in both the French
Building Gallery and Amherst Gallery,
where 12- 16 exhibitions are presented
annually.
ABOUT THE INSTITUTE
The New Hampshire Institute of Art was
established as the Manchester Institute of
Arts and Sciences since 1898.
“Inauguration Day Parade” image size 18×22″
Monotype in oils $1800.00 For purchase information, click below.
Continue reading ‘New Hampshire Institute of Art’s Regional Juried Exhibition Of Contemporary Art’
Painting what you love is the artists job. To take the activities and places that move you, and capture them in paint is what it is all about. Whether it is color combination’s you want to experiment with, or new techniques you are excited to try, this is where it is at for the creative mind. It does not matter if you are an abstract painter or a representational artist of some sort, get excited.
My life has morphed into one big painting. I love to examine the day to day and edit this for the canvas. Lately I have been revisiting a favorite subject from my past. There is a fresh renewed interest in my minds eye for… the interior, not just any interior, no, for the PUB.
I have done a lot of research in this area, which I will dutifully continue, because it’s my job. Seeking out the small intimate gatherings of the locals is the first step. Framing my subject and capturing the the spirit of a place while I am there is important, so that when I am back in my studio painting, even if it is months later, or years, I can hear that rooms echo. Feel that days vibe. Smell the party.
“After Work, Brooklyn” 2009 8×10″
Painting on location scares artists. Or I should say the thought, scares artists that don’t have a lot of experience painting outside. Years from now, I will look back on my life’s work and it will be the on- location work that sticks in my memory, not the studio days.
The wind, the bugs, the tourists; what fun! The days where your canvas focal point sails away from the pier mid- painting. The days where your painting goes bad with the enthralled crowd behind you wondering where is she looking?
But you keep working, scraping down, rubbing out, wiping, fighting with the oils till finally… you think, to heck with it. Why don’t I just wipe it out right here? Save this canvas for another day.
But don’t.
Never, ever, wipe your painting out while on location. Because, your art will never compare while you are still outside. Nature will always win. Wait, and take it home to the studio. I guarantee it will look better. Take it inside and study it then. Often times you will be pleasantly surprised with the days efforts.
Boston: Charles River Study on location.
I met tourists from South Korea, avoided joggers and watched MIT students lunch. Boston, it’s all there.
sold
Last week, I pulled my paintings from my Cape gallery after twenty three years, to change things up.
Now I am represented in Orleans by the Elizabeth Rowley Gallery.
This gallery features very strong impressionist landscape artists, heavy on the Provincetown connection. This is really appealing to me. My oils are loose and getting looser. Capturing a mood or a fleeting moment is what I am striving for at the easel. More and more I am occupied with achieving an elevated energy on my canvas, by capturing my time. Artists that stay true to their time with their painting are excited artists. Their life is their work and they know each new day holds the potential for success.
So please check out the Rowley Gallery which is featuring my new urban paintings of Paris, New York City, and Boston. I will be there on September 19th 5-7, and September 20th 4-6 for a painting demonstration.
I am sure my collectors will appreciate her enthusiasm and knowledge as much as I do.
I was going to just post this recent shot of my studio without comment. Because I just really want to get painting this morning. Then I thought, most people are not used to seeing this kind of organized chaos. Maybe a short post would be more sufficient.
It looks like this, because I always walk past the files, books, and notes to head right for the palette. The other things are not important, not really.
What’s important, is the work. Is there enough paint on the palette? Am I working on the same painting that is still on the easel from yesterday?
I will look around the studio and contemplate which painting has the best chance for improvement right now. What painting do I have the answers for this dark morning? A storm off the coast, and a final Sox score not worth reading. I am not painting Fenway today.
See the thing about painting landscapes is, in a moment , I am going to walk into that studio and put something on the big easel and it will take me right away. My imagination leaves stormy Cape Cod for wherever that piece is.
It might be the Left Bank this morning along the Seine. It might be Menemsha, or Brooklyn Heights. Or maybe I will go in there and really get everything organized for once.
No, not today.
I know Cape Cod pretty well having lived here most of my life. There are so many beautiful areas, from Chatham where I grew up to Wellfleet where I still have family. Ocean-side Wellfleet and Eastham anytime of year is just outstanding and can be wild and loud with surf. Bay side here is great too at low tide where you can walk out on the flats forever.
Woods Hole, so small and intimate, with the flurry of ferries and movement constant. The drawbridge is a big motif for me here.
Provincetown at the Cape tip, is just consistently wonderful and the real artist mecca of this region. Or Sandy neck where I go out in my Jeep whenever I can spend a day relaxing. Where I want to take my first swim of the season in the cold surf to feel alive.
So what is it about Buzzards Bay that keeps me so…enthralled?
It’s depressed. It’s run down. Even Jimmy Buffet sings about not wanting to be here. It is lacking in so many respects. But I miss it when I do not get here, and I do not get here often.
This is the gateway to the Cape. You can see ships from all over the world cutting under the bridges through the canal. It is where I go when I want to go antiquing. It is now where I go when I want to get Thai food. It is where many people go to spend the day fishing along the canal in a current so swift you would not want to fall into it. There is something about Buzzards Bay. What is it? I have a large night painting of tugs on the canal here that has been in progress for…years! I love it. It is a strong piece but I just can’t finish it. Can’t bring myself to put it on the easel.
Last night I chanced the heavy Sunday evening traffic to visit friends that are staying along the Scusset, and I was jealous as they talked about the different things they have discovered in this area. And how quiet and beautiful it looks at six o’clock in the morning.
How here you can see along the coastal paths men riding bikes all rigged up with fishing poles picking there spot, or later riding there bikes while balancing a 30″ striper.
This area called Buzzards Bay is the last stronghold of the OLD Cape. That is what attracks me. Progress has passed it by and I am glad.
Last night I brought my camera to take some shots there, but it never came out of my bag. Which is very unusal, but there is something about Buzzards Bay. But you can picture in your imagination; the swift tides, thick salty air and dingy small Capes selling second hand items under the towering bridges that carry the masses that no longer stop here.
Sometimes you notice a couple random colors against each other somewhere and a new painting can come to you.
These could be two colors on a blouse. Two colors on my palette or on a scrap of someones old discarded paper. A deep green against a deeper blue and it takes me instantly back to Gloucester Harbor nights .
I don’t always want to be painting the big attempt; the big effort. Sometimes it is just as worthy to explore a smidgen of an idea, a glimpse of a new direction takes you before you know it, and you are excited about a new series.
The smallest fresh combination of colors can lift you to a fresh direction if you are open to it.
This is a painting of Esty Street down near Hyannis Harbor. It is a Barnstable Land Trust property. A small preserved parcel between the Nantucket Sound and old bungalow cottages. This painting is of a small example of Cape Cod’s small wet lands that are often filled in by developers. The air is rife with birds and salt marsh life.
This is a project that is near to my heart. I grew up on the Cape to the sounds of hammers and bulldozers clearing lots in the most wonderful Chatham woods. But it does not matter which towns you love on the Cape, the realities of over development are abundant. Anytime the opportunity arises to save open space we must seize it. Please support the Barnstable Land Trust.
Please check out the BLT exhibition opening July 8, 2009 at the Cotuit Center for the Arts. I will be there. For more information about the art benefit please click here
My students are doing very good work. I can line up 12-20 studies by them done in class, and they are all different and they all have supreme potential.
Do you know when you are painting well?
Do you know when you are in trouble?
Do you know when it’s time to take it up a notch with your work?
A few weeks ago I had an idea for a class where I would have all the students work the same size; 18×24.” So… after we laid them all in we could put each students painting in my 24k gold leaf frame. Then I could show them that it is not enough to paint well, you must package it well for the galleries too. Meaning no dark thick signatures , no cheap frames, no cardboard canvas.
We started a Tuscany painting that day and everyone got “it.” Everyone had a strong start and proudly I put each and every students painting into the frame from my studio. A professional, beautiful frame. And we took the time to discuss the importance of each frame choice. Especially since some of my students recently getting new, great gallery representation and the others soon will. I pointed out how a gold leaf frame will elevate ones work and how an inferior frame will bring you down. Which way do you want to go?
Needless to say as a teacher and educator it was a fine day for me. Sometimes teaching can be so rewarding. I feel it was an important class for my students too, because they saw the future, they saw their own potential as artists. The had the chance to see their good efforts elevated with the fine framing.
Sometimes when you are spending money, you are actually making an investment.
Next advanced oil painting class starts June 29, 2009 at the Cape Cod Art Association
Recent Comments