Year: 2010

Calling all mystery lovers…

Posted on by heather • 1 Comment on Calling all mystery lovers…

All you who read, write and love to listen to finely crafted and cleverly plotted mysteries…

Most of you wonderful readers of this blog know that I listen to audiobooks while painting…and most of them are mystery novels…and my most favorite writer of those novels is…Laurie R. King. But what you don’t know…yet…is that the diabolical diva Herself wrote to me this summer with a fabulously fun and witty request.

Every year there is a gathering of the most famous and successful mystery writers of our time which is called the Boucheron. This year it is being held in San Francisco and the literary guest of honor is… LRK !

Boucheron By The Bay will take place this October 14 – 17 and, since she is to be the queen for those days, she and her publishers are sponsoring the “Coffee and Tea” table at the host hotel. So…she gets this idea…(may I humbly say a brilliant one)… that it might be fun to have a backdrop to the table… and somehow remembers that I have this Teacup Series thing going on…and one email led to another and …poof !!!    This is what will be on the banner hanging over the sippers’ silver services…

My excitement is exceeded only by my gratitude for her generous offer to play along with the gang. It looks like a wild and crazy weekend of literary fun is promised out there and I hope if any of you who read this are planning to attend that you’ll raise a cup along with us to the Honoree !

And the rest of us can at least share in the flavor and find a comfy chair, a good mystery, and pour ourselves a steaming cuppa….intrigue.

Ta L.

PS – you can order your very own print of this painting for your coffee and tea tables …here.

American Art Collector Magazine

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…is featuring the 1261 Gallery Show which opens in Denver on October 15th. The magazine has a preview of some of the artwork which is on the newstands now and … Oils on Canvas made the cut…

It’s a late night in the studio…just me and the crickets.

A crazy busy autumn around here and I’ve noticed that there are many other familiar bloggers who have been absent from the cyberwaves lately. I suppose this is a sign that we are all busy and perhaps that is in response to some economic upturn. We can always hope.

For me… I just really don’t have much new to contribute…and I’m tired.

Later I guess.

Reality Boost …

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I’m still reeling from a power packed weekend of art and artists and curators and interviews and new and old friends and a studio filled with all that and then some.

The Brandywine River Museum show was spectacular. The opening was mobbed but there were enough spaces in the crowd to get to meet all of my Realist heroes. The museum has put the paintings up on their website in an online catalogue version. It’s a nice way to have access to the images but I long for the old days when you could buy a nicely bound book to bring home and peruse at your leisure and revisit the images over the years.

With gracious appreciation to Bob Jackson, Pat and I were invited to join the artists and museum staff at a dinner following the reception and a luncheon the next day following a panel discussion. Both opportunities were pure gold and I will live on the fruits of those many conversations for months.

It was also a chance to meet many of the artists with whom I’ll be showing next month at the 1261 Gallery in Denver.

I’ve been painting round the clock to have some new works to show them and this morning the gallery director said yes to them all so …. off to the photographers and the framers went Pat today and I’ll be shipping them out early next week.

Here’s a preview of one of the paintings that will be in that show… Oils on Canvas

They too will have an online version of the show and I’ll post that link when it’s up.

The show is titled, Reality Boost and will be featured in the October issue of American Art Collector Magazine so check your bookstores or mailboxes for that…

and….

stay tuned for an artist’s profile on yours truly that will appear in the AAC Mag sometime in the near future… Contributing author, curator and all around man of the arts…John O’Hern… was in town for the Brandywine show and spent the rest of the weekend visiting here in the studio and interviewed me for his upcoming article. It was a once in a lifetime experience to share our space with him and the gift of so much of his time, depth of knowledge, and rapier like wit and charm.

John’s genius is well documented in the years of Re-presenting Realism series of shows which he curated while leading the Arnot Art Museum in Elmira, NY. But it is perhaps his current creative incarnation as a freelance curator, writer and consultant that may leave a more indelible mark on the artworld.

His most recent work was to collaborate with EVOKE Contemporary Gallery in Santa Fe and curate the show…Re-presenting the Nude. You can view their online catalogue version by clicking here. It’s a powerful collection of work and I’ve been spinning off of the catalogue to research artist after artist whose work he has now introduced me to.

Spinning is indeed the operative word for my head right now…

Add to all of the above a stellar week of sales at the Granary Gallery and we are holding on tight to this wave of positive energy flowing around us… it’s certainly nice to have good things to report on and we’re not taking one second of it for granted.

Now it’s back to the easel for me…  and you all get out and take a walk in this crisp clean air !

REALITY Check

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After a stressful and busy month I am sooooo looking forward to this weekend. Some of my most favorite living artists are being featured in a show at the Brandywine River Museum which opens on friday night for members and saturday for the public.

Bob Jackson has been working tirelessly to help pull the show and the artists to the forefront and the museum is hosting a panel discussion with the artists on saturday. His painting Target the Artist, 2009 Oil on Linen, seen below, is just one of his works that will be shown. The list of other artists is a who’s who of the top realists working today in this country. I encourage everyone to try and get to see the show and my congratulations go out to the museum and curator Audrey Lewis  for bringing these works together in such a fine venue.

Congrats Bob, we can’t wait to raise a toast to your success tomorrow night !

Getting Ready…

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It’s a lovely cool rainy day here in the neighborhood and Pat and I are starting to get things in order for our next visitors. The Follansbee family is coming !

Regular readers will remember our adventures with Rose and Daniel and Mama Maureen here in the studio over the years…and the many references here on the blog to Peter’s woodworking and our overlapping interests in all things traditional that produce shavings.

On Peter’s blog today he has the announcement for the DVD that he has been working on with Lie-Nielsen. It will showcase his extraordinary carving abilities and the 17th century techniques, tools and patterns that he uses in his day job at the Plimoth Plantation.

It’s scheduled to be available this fall but he has a preview posted on the blog… I thought you would enjoy it as well. Can’t wait for my signed copy…I’m sharpening my chisels now !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9HBXBnt-e4

Having a heat wave ?

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Take full advantage of nature’s drying oven and….make panels !

The studio yard doubles as workshop in order to get a jumpstart on a batch of smaller panels.   Day one – Dibond cut to size.    Day two –  Portrait grade cotton canvas wrapped and adhered with acrylic matte gel.    Day three (morning) – Call Pat on her way home from market and ask her to detour to pick up some Liquitex acrylic gesso… use plastic putty knife to paint backside of panels.    Day Three (afternoon) – use same putty knife to paint front side of panels.    Day Four (today) – second coat on front with Liquitex.

Let the sun do its thing today and they will be ready tomorrow for the first coat of ArtBoard Gesso. I’ve written about it before when first trying it out and after months of working with it…it’s become my gesso of choice. The beautiful chalky surface is easily and quickly worked into a smooth paste using a fine sanding sponge and a little bit of water. I can control the texture and even when it’s glassy smooth there is still plenty of tooth to hold the first coat of oils. It is pricey enough that it would be wasted on the primer coats, but well worth the expense for the finished product.

I’ve got two more shows this year and want to have new works in both so there is no down time in the studio for this artist.  I’ll be posting the expanded exhibition schedule soon…but in the meantime mark your calendar for these two dates…

1261 Gallery     Denver, CO.

Group Show     Opening October 15th

and

4 Women Paint   York, PA

Opening  November 13th, 14th

Artist Talks the following weekend.

Back to the easel for me… stay frosty out there !

Here on MV

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Another summer storm has moved over the island and the steamy air is warming up again…as we head over to Menemsha to pick up some lobsters for supper tonight we found a copy of this week’s MV Times. Front page photo of the Menemsha Basin painting which will be featured in tomorrow’s show at the Granary Gallery.

Here’s a look at the article they wrote … http://www.mvtimes.com/marthas-vineyard/article.php?id=1697

The excitement is building and we’re going to try and spend tomorrow staying cool in preparation for the evening opening.

You do likewise my friends, H

Updates and upgrades…

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Please excuse the mess…My apprentice and I are putting the finishing touches on some upgrades to the website. The big summer show is a good opportunity to refresh and reconnect with patrons and friends and the website is the focus for the launch of the new paintings….soooo it’s time for a mini makeover.

Most of the improvements are happening in the background, thanks to my webmaster Ross !  He’s making it more user friendly for me to load images and select options. It’s making my job so much easier in this season of deadlines. I’ve added a new look to the boring lines of type that provide links to and fro within the site, and we are including some video and revamping a new studio tour…coming soon !

Check it out !

This week it’s all about the show. As of yesterday afternoon all of the paintings are back here in the studio. Half of them are framed and half…not. There are painters notes to be written, files from the photographer to be cleaned up and sized for the website and the gallery’s use, art supplies and equipment to be packed…and oh yeah…the trailer vent which failed and had to be ripped out and sent back to the factory…ugh…has been replaced with a new one which arrived yesterday…in the pouring rain…so that has to be reinstalled before any of these babies get loaded.

But we’re on the positive side of this adventure and …all shall be well.

New paintings will be launched on the website on Saturday…I hope !

Stay tuned… and stay cool,

h