Only last week…

It was a stellar time on Martha’s Vineyard. A magnificent gallery opening with wall to wall kind and generous patrons of the arts, bookended by two amazing weeks on the wildly changed and stunningly brilliant Chilmark bluff.

I’ll have more to say about that and this, but for now, I have to kick the studio up into high gear to get ready for the next show…stay tuned.

Here are just a couple pics of the exhibition and smiling faces of dear ones who shared our island hearts…

4 Featured Artists, Wendy, Don, Heather and David, as we get ready to shake some hands.
4 Featured Artists, Wendy, Don, Heather and David, as we get ready to shake some hands.

gallery2 gallery6 gallery7 gallery 1  gallery 4

Wendy, Herself and David making everyone feel welcome.
Wendy, Herself and David making everyone feel welcome.
Mr. Morse plying his trade.
Mr. Morse plying his trade.
Ted, wouldn't have missed it.
Ted, wouldn’t have missed it.
Family traditions ...
Family traditions …
The gallery's next generation...
The gallery’s next generation…
The Follansbee Family full of fun.
The Follansbee Family full of fun.
And a wonderful whirlwind reunion with Goddaughter Emily.
And a wonderful whirlwind reunion with Goddaughter Emily.

Notably missing are photos of the rest of the Granary Crew, Sheila, Adam, Sara, Nancy and Adam, the second, who were far too busy working hard to keep that place hopping. We are deeply grateful for everyone’s support up there…both humble and proud to be a part of their stable…as it were.

More to come as I sort through the ten thousand or more photos taken. The camera is still smokin’.
For now…I gotta go hit the brushes…
Be happy all.

 

 

 

 

Looking forward

A cup of chowder out back of Larsen’s on a perfect vineyard day. Show opens tomorrow night and the buzz is going around the island. I’m getting excited. May you all have a safe happy weekend full of art!

 

Barrage…

Well art fans,
we have a few last minute crisis to find work arounds for here in the studio today…
and the trailer is scheduled to roll outta here in less that 40 hours…

SO, the first thing to give is gonna be this high falootin’, wait-for-it, three at a time…roll-out -the- paintings, production thingy.

Framed and wrapped and taking up a LOT of space in the studio now, are all 16 paintings…waiting for the weather to cooperate so they can be loaded into the trailer for the big haul northeast.
You have seen the first six, and here, all together now, are the remaining ones…

Considered for your approval…The Granary Gallery Show 2014

Chambered Linens  –  36 x 24

Chambered Linens

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The Road Race  –  20 x 16

The Road Race

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The Carriage House  –  18 x 24

The Carriage House

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King’s Highway Deep  –  18 x 24

Kings Highway Deep

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Looking Back  –  92 x 48

Looking Back

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Coast Guard Crow  –  40 x 30

Coat Guard Crow

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The Wreck of The Betty  –  36 x 24

The Wreck of The Betty

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Squibnocket Sunset  –  36 x 18

Squibnocket Sunset

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Laylines  –  46 x 32

Lay Lines

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The Watch  –  24 x 16

The Watch

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And there ya go…
We will be at the opening on Sunday night July 20th from 5-7pm
at The Granary Gallery in West Tisbury on the island of Martha’s Vineyard.

Thank you all for viewing and for your continuing support.

It means more than I can ever say.

Yours in a flurry,

Heather

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vernissage 2 …

My first solo show, way back in 2001, was titled, Vernissage.

Wiki defines it thusly…A vernissage (varnishing, from French) is a term used for a preview of an art exhibition, which may be private, before the formal opening.Guests may be served canapés and wine as they discuss with artists and others the works in the exhibition.

Right about now I’d love to serve you up some canapes and wine but, since we are here in cyberspace, this will be a Virtual Vernissage.

You are cordially invited to preview the new paintings which will be exhibited two weeks from tonight at the Granary Gallery !

This year I am going to launch the new work in groups.

As I sat last winter, with sketchbook in hand and snowflakes flying outside the studio, and began to pare down the list of compositions, some distinct and new series began to take shape. Try as I might to fit them all under the umbrella of one theme, they pushed back and up and out and I gave up worrying about it and just kept painting.
What emerged after several months of work were a few smaller grouped ideas with the occasional common thread. I’m not sure if anyone but me will see those threads, but I’ll point them out along the way.

We start, yes, at the beginning.
The first three paintings I did were studies of barns, and wood, animals and earth.
So…from the ground up…here we go

Stable Light  –  24 x 30

Stable Light

Click on this logo below each painting to read their Painter’s Notes – 

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The Hay Whisperers  –  24 x 36

The Hay Whisperer

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Angle of Repose  –  60 x 40

Angle of Repose

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Time now for a bit of my own repose…
tomorrow the journey continues…

Granary Gallery Season 2014

The exhibition of summer shows at the Granary Gallery opens tomorrow night…and I’m sending all manner of good art vibes to my pals who will start the season off with a bang…

Ken Vincent – Morning Has Broken  24 x 8 Oil on Panel

David Wallis  –  Morgan Whaleboat  28 x 39  Watercolor

Alison Shaw  –  Whaleboat, Gannon & Benjamin Boat Yard 2013

Dan West  –  Kingfisher  12×10 x 7 Sculpture

And a nod to our fellow art night pal John Hagen whose work is on display at the Granary and who will hopefully be ready to show new work very soon…

John Hagen  –  Plein Air Path to Edgartown Light  14 x 11 Oil on Canvas

In “depend” ence

Threads

Not sure if this is true for you
but as time marches on
I struggle less for independence
and tug more on the threads
that pull us all together…
Travel safe this weekend my friends…

so much depends

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

William Carlos Williams

 

Ted and Pete as Muses

Ted and Pete have made quite a splash in their Cover debut on the American Art Collector Magazine this month, and I thought you would like to see some of their other inspirations as Muses.
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Over the years, they each gave me the great gift of seeing the island of Martha’s Vineyard through their eyes. Both had DNA spread liberally across generations and rolling fields and they had an eager student of island history in my eager ears.

Ted and his wife Polly sent me wandering down many a sandy trail through brambles and over rocky rutted roads in pursuit of hidden landmarks and relics of island lore. After Polly left us, Ted rode shotgun on those adventures and navigated us to some seriously back-of-the-beyond treasures.

One such romp was to find the elusive Gay Head Lily. We ended up announcing ourselves in this lovely woman’s yard at the end of a long lane and out Ted, the celebrated head of the island garden club, waltzed to her dock along the pond to show me the flowers. Stunning. As I look back today, his hand seems far more delicate than those petals, but oh the wonders, that magician that he was, our Ted, could pull out of his hat.

Here’s a link to the original blog entry describing this painting…Click Here.

ted holding lily

ted on dock

Gay Head Lily

Another fine day found Ted and PG Harris and I bouncing along an old carriage path in my truck in search of The Brickyard. Ted thought it would be sorta fun to see it, and introduced me to PG whose family owned the property, and, after a couple hours of historical lecture on the area…off we three drove…I mean there we were in the middle of three glorious old fields surrounded by ancient stone walls and PG points to a small break in the stone and says, “Just drive over and through there and we’ll see.”
The Painter’s Notes give the rest of the story…click here… but suffice it to say, now that they are both floating somewhere high above that island…that adventure was one of my all time favorite memories.

Brick Yard Tea

Now, Peter Darling, well…he was just Pete. We called him the Admiral because he always had binoculars around his neck and was ever watchful from his deck. Not nothing, not no one, got past his old farm house on Greenhouse Lane without Pete knowin’ about it. Many a stranded sailor was rescued by the coast guard that Pete had hailed after spying their distress from his perch on top of those bluff steps. And every feather of the nesting osprey was monitored by their stalwart steward of a neighbor.

There is a tiny knoll in the long lane, right by his house, and I took to honking my horn with each passage so as to let oncoming traffic be wary, (and just between you and me…to keep the Admiral on his toes !). The very last time I heard from Pete, he had brought out a great big foghorn to his porch and answered my heralding call with his own. I really loved that.

grillmaster pete

These two views of Pete’s house give you an idea of the depth of beauty that surrounds the Darling’s farmhouse. His wife Della is there now and I’m eager to see her next week to give her a big hug and hear how life on the lane is faring this season. Della is a great fisherman and a lover of walks. In her travels, she has worn a path all along the perimeter of those old stone walls. I hear that some daisies grow there to welcome her in the late spring. She has earned them.

The-Clearing

Pete's-Peat-House

A couple of years ago…the year of the Apple Series, I spent the winter listening to the double trouble musings of Ted and Pete.
Pete was a tremendous trove of knowledge of Up Island lore and indeed history of all flavors. He loaned me a couple old tin coffee pots, the kind that were used over campfires by campers and travelers to cook up the early morning brew. The dear little one that made it into the Skillet Apple Pie painting was my favorite. Looking back, I should have blown some smoke out of that thing. Pete woulda loved that.

skillet apple pie

The core of this series, (written before the pun hit me, sorry), was the modeling session with Ted in the Magnuson’s Tiasquin Orchard…which all started with Chris’s suggestion…and the rest of that story is in these Painter’s Notes…click here.

Windfall

Tiasquin Orchard

And the man himself…
The Muse

who sits in this chair across from my easel
and reminds me, every day,
that I am all the better
for knowing that twinkle
in his mishcievous
and loving eye.

Teacozy

Never trust a man,
who when left alone
in a room with a teacozy,
does’t try it on.

Billy Connolly