Celebrating the season of long winter nights and welcomingly fragrant evergreens, a grateful return to my seat at the easel, the twinkling of colored lights, newsletters from loved ones, the trail of cookie crumbs from studio to cabin…and back, and the sparkle in the eyes of our sweet lapdog Finnegan who is thoroughly enjoying the frosty morning walks with her buddy.
Wishing you all manner of love and laughter and light…
Pat, Heather and Finn
A sunny crisp winter morning greets me here in the studio after a long quiet month of healing days. Slow and steady progress finds me able to negotiate the short commute across the lane to the studio yard and to catch up on the piles of paperwork and take short naps in the warming sunshine.
Now that the new body parts are settling in it is time to rouse the sleeping muses. It is a somewhat disconcerting phenomenon that the creative energy levels have been slow to resurface and I’m just going to have to try and trick those atrophied muscles back into gear. Perhaps just sitting in my easel chair will spark something. Or maybe aroma therapy ? sniffing an open jar of turpentine ?
Well, while my muses have been on vacation… some of my favorite artist friends have been working hard and I wanted to pass along news of these spectacular shows that are must sees…
Robert Jackson
Bob’s crazy quirky humor is on display in a group of stunning new works at the Gallery Henoch in NYC. This show was delayed due to flooding in the Chelsea Art District after Hurricane Sandy and it is winding up now but well worth a look to see the fun that his boxes have gotten up to lately.
Scott Fraser
Oh the pleasures of viewing new works by Scott. In a few days, Dec. 15, his solo show will open at the Jenkins Johnson Gallery in SF. Below is a photo of the invitation which was slightly bruised in transit by the US postal system but it will provide a link for you to see more of the current work.
Michael Allen and JD Wissler
A study in… studies. These two friends have been part of a group of plein air artists who have spent hours and indeed years together out in the wilds of central Pennsylvania capturing the atmospheres on canvas. Their work has been featured in an article in the current issue of Plein Air Magazine.
My idle brushes are lifted to them all and with a bit more
Gallery 1261 is about to open their Small Works show. It will be running from November 16th through December 31st…but I thought you might like a little preview…
A couple little sketches from the studio garden…
Green Bean Tea
Cadmium Harvest
And this one…Spent… which features Polly’s antique cigarettes and that ever faithful red pump…
I’ll be offline for a while…gotta go see a man about a new knee.
So, while I’m recovering…just talk amongst yourselves…and I’ll catch up with you just as soon as I’m able to manage the 50 ft. commute from log cabin to studio.
Stay frosty out there !
While on Martha’s Vineyard earlier this month, we had the great pleasure of spending a day with our favorite little shavers, Rose and Daniel, and their groovy grey haired parents Maureen and Peter. Hanging with the Follansbee family is just about the most fun a person can have and I’m still smiling…
Looking back on these pictures prompted me to check out Peter’s Blog and I see that his latest video is out. This will make a great holiday gift for the woodworker in your life and I’m gonna have a blast watching him make shavings.
Here’s a link to his website information about the DVD…http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/joined-chest-dvd-now-available/ and while you are there check out the spoons that he is now selling. As my readers know, every time he even mentions spoons in his blog or on the phone or sitting on my studio porch… I have to get out the hatchet.
Today is no exception and if this keeps up I just may have a few of my own to offer up for sale here on my blog soon.
and the muses are calling…
calling me back to the studio…
the brushes are flirting with me as I walk by them from kitchen to office and back again… oh how the empty panels stacked up alongside the easel do tease.
I am listening, but there are a few more tasks to be swept away before I can return to my easel. Today, for instance, I have added some new prints to the website shop. Here’s a quick peek…
There are over 40 prints listed on the site now but if you have a particular favorite which you do not see there please contact me and I’ll let you know if it is available.
And remember…shipping and handling is… FREE !
All hail the return of civilized weather. When that first waft of cool air hit my lungs I all but fell to weeping. The edges of my soul were beginning to get crispy and my eyes felt like thickly glazed donuts.
With the earlier sunsets and the thin carpet of leaves, the studio is poised for a hiatus. We are once again returning to Martha’s Vineyard for an autumn sabbatical and an opportunity to work among the gulls and the waves in person.
But I haven’t been idle in the last few weeks. My brushes have been flying in pursuit of some smaller panels but no less meaningful gestures. I will shortly be loading the car to bring up new works to fill spaces on the walls at the Granary Gallery…and will be sending a parcel of new paintings out to Denver, to Gallery 1261, for their upcoming small works show in November.
Meanwhile, I thought I’d give you dear readers a sneak peek. Here, for your perusal, are the latest musings from the studio… I hope you will enjoy them with a fresh mug of cider…or warm cup of tea.
Every woman needs a retreat. A place to be where the creative muses can find her while her hands are busy and her soul is at rest. For me, that place is my garden. And now, a sanctuary within that sanctuary…my greenhouse is finished !
Three days of hard work to finish the carpentry and then stain and paint and today Pat helped me to carry the books and seeds over to start filling the shelves…
Now I can cast about the studio and cabin to find some things to make it homey, and make cushions for the wicker chair I found and a few hangers for hats and jackets, and some sort of solar powered lamp. It feels so good to complete something as fanciful as this. My garden folly. Now to find the windex !
It’s been a while since I sat down at the computer let alone taken the time to post a blog, but the last few days of intensive de-cluttering, yarn sorting and power-washing have taken a toll on the knees…so a few hours of catching up with the blog and the bills feels like a blessing right now.
I’ve been busy at the easel as well since our return from the summer MV show and have a collection of paintings ready to ship to Denver for Gallery 1261’s small works show in November and some new ones to send up to the Granary as well. I’ll be unveiling them soon but here’s a sneak preview of one whose title came to me as I awoke one morning, “The fragile delicacy of paper thin truths”…
Ah, the wistful days of late summer, when my creative and physical energy is at its lowest ebb and it’s still too hot to feel enthusiastic about planting the winter crops, and all of the easy, fun and inside chores have been crossed off the list and the already aching joints are staring at the yet-to-be-completed tasks like…
Finish laying the stones in the patio.
Clean and sort the entire garage.
Organize all the tools in the shed.
Finish the greenhouse and move all the garden books and tools inside.
Trim the trees and overgrown shrubbery back in both yards.
Fill the woodshed with firewood.
Prepare panels for the coming year’s paintings…which can’t be done until you go back to the “clean and sort the entire garage” entry .
So today I will rest and maybe I’ll regain the energy to cross off one of these tasks tomorrow…but they are calling for more 90 degree days this week…so…maybe not so much.
You all stay safe and cool out there…
An imaginative and beautifully designed magazine, Martha’s Vineyard Arts and Ideas, is the creative brainchild of Patrick Phillips. A few months ago we spoke about including my work as one of the featured artist profiles and it has been published in this month’s issue.
http://www.mvartsandideas.com/arts/artist-profiles/heather-neill
When I spoke to Patrick earlier this summer I was preparing to work on a painting which had the title, Aren’t we aging well…which I wrote about in the last blog entry.
The musings in MV Arts and Ideas, about “aging into creative maturity”, were in part a reflection on how I was going to interpret the title for this intimate portrait of myself and Pat…but were also part of a current dialogue that I have been having with the muses about how, even as a mid-career artist…read, she’s gone through enough sketchbooks and pencils to fill a spaceship…there are still daily moments of uncertainty as I sit in front of the easel.
I expect that most of you artists out there who are of a certain age are also still balancing the confidences of craft with the moments of dreadful doubt…especially since so much of what happens between the brush and the panel is a mystery. I’d love to hear how well all of you are “aging”.
We’ve been home for over a week now and the re-entry hubub has settled down and I am back at the easel in earnest. And back in the garden as well but not so earnestly as the summer heat wave continues. But this is all good because I am getting my garden fix early in the cooler morning hours and then the rest of the day spent at the air-conditioned studio easel feels like a spa.
Time then to post some photos from the Granary show. The opening was wonderful…a sea of art lovers with many new faces and lots of kind words of support. I took some photos after the crowds had cleared to show you blog readers the installation.
And not to be left out… a few snaps from this morning’s raid of one of the potato bags.
I’m in the mood for some vichysoisse and decided to dig around for some spuds. A task which I approach like an archeological expedition… gently brushing aside layers of dirt to reveal the brightly colored treasures. It’s just magical. Though I’m not too impressed with the yield so far. I welcome any advice from all my master gardener pals on how to improve next year’s crop.
In the coming weeks I’m going to look back and show a couple “paintings in progress” photos I took while working this spring. And I’ve got a slew of panels ready for a series of smaller paintings which will be headed out to Denver for the Gallery 1261 small works show in November/December.
Meanwhile I finished this piece the other day…(here’s an unvarnished studio shot)
It’s title is “Aren’t We Aging Well”…from the title of that wonderful Dar Williams song. I’ve carried just the title forward through several sketch books and when I decided on a visual interpretation it was originally supposed to be an anonymous couple, though always two women. But after Pat and I posed together in the studio yard…I used the remote shutter release on the camera to sneak some shots from behind the chairs…and I looked at the pictures, I realized that we were in no way anonymous. And then it became so deeply personal that I took it out of the Granary roster and put it aside to work on after the show.
I’m so glad now to have it finished …and have cleared some wall space in the studio to hang it after it dries, is varnished and photographed…just for us.
It has been years since I allowed myself to do a painting that wasn’t destined for a gallery or show. It’s good, as the song says, to “steal out with my paints and my brushes”…and paint as if nobody is watching.
But now…I’ve got to be getting on with the current still life. A few of the familiar props are making another appearance like the red stiletto, the silk camisole, and is that one of Polly’s cigarettes ? Really ?
Patience dear reader…all will be revealed…in good time.