Signaling Home

To officially launch the New Paintings for this year’s Granary Gallery show…

I am going back to the beginning…

Signaling Home – 24 x 36

And…to experience that ocean breeze just a little closer to you…just visit my YouTube channel and enjoy this short video which tells the story behind this painting.

Postcards from the Ledge – 26

We have come to the final new painting for this year’s Granary Gallery show…

Morning Menemsha – 48″ x 92″

In this day and age it is hard to keep things on the Q-T, and when you quietly post your first ever YouTube video so that you can practice with how to do that…

and then you decide it looks sorta cool so you tell one or two friends that it’s up…but please don’t share it publicly yet…

and then you tell a few more people and swear them to secrecy, knowing that you want it to be saved for the big finish in the website rollout of new paintings…

because you hope that someone out there actually reads these blog posts and enjoys the anticipation each year as much as you do…

and then you get the green light from the gallery that the paintings arrived safely and the word is getting around…as it does on an island…and people are trickling in to SEE this painting…

and then you are peeling potatoes in the studio kitchen and check in with your phone and see that your WIFE has actually gone ahead and posted the video ON FACEBOOK…

well…drumroll… you’ve been scooped.

So without further ado…

here is a little fly by video I made so you can get up close and personal with my painting…Morning Menemsha

Postcards from the Ledge – 25

It’s a wonderful day in the studio…

and I’m happy to report that the paintings have arrived safely at The Granary Gallery and all who helped along that journey are also safe and sound. Bless you all.

The lightness and positive energy I am feeling now clues me in to just how anxious I had been. It’s always a pretty stressful time as a self-employed artist to pack up your entire year’s worth of work and haul it hundreds of miles…across land…and sea…but…throw in economic uncertainty, civil unrest, cultural upheaval, political warfare and top that all off with a PANDEMIC …well it’s been a stressful time for us all hasn’t it.

Which makes it all the more wonderful today and I’m going to celebrate the positives…

AND…

I’ve got one very special positive to share with you today…

Jack the Lad – 26 x 30

I give you Jack..
the Lad…
and his pal Graham.

Let’s Zoom in a little…

There they are.

I’ll have a lot more to say about this in the Painter’s Notes…but after much anticipation on both our parts…Graham and Jack finally got to see their painting today…

It fills my heart to share the delightfully tender and upbeat energy those two souls exude.

Sure wish I could have been there for the unveiling Graham but this photo is all I need to see. May we all enjoy a bit of this happiness today.

 

Postcards from the Ledge – 24

Today that should read…postcards from the EDGE OF MY SEAT…

as I’m writing this I am eagerly awaiting news that our hero Nathan has arrived in Massachusetts at the rendezvous point…the studio of fellow Granary artist Mary Sipp Green…click here to see her wonderful paintings.

Gallarista Adam pulled in to her driveway a few minutes ago where the plan is to load up both Mary’s work and mine into the Art Van to return to the island of Martha’s Vineyard for our upcoming summer shows. A big thank you to Chris Morse, owner of The Granary Gallery, for helping to arrange this Pandemic Pickup.

And tremendous thanks to Adam and Nathan for taking the risks involved to make that trip for we studio-bound artists.

It takes a village.

And that is a perfect segue to today’s new painting reveal…

A Fisher of Men  –  36″ x 48″

This portrait of our dear friend Arthur walking in his calm powerful grace has been a comfort leaning against the wall in the studio lo these many weeks since it came off the easel. It has been hard not to be able to gather for our evenings of conversation and frivolity in the midst of the pandemic…when we could all desperately use that fellowship.

More on Arthur later…

The phone just beeped the good news that Nathan has arrived safely, Adam has almost finished loading Mary’s work and then we’re up.

My next deep breath won’t come until he pulls safely back into my studio driveway…so Pat is instructed to continue her novena a little bit longer.

Now I can move on to writing all those Painter’s Notes. Good inside work for these beastly hot days.

Postcards from the Ledge – 23

The intense emotions and recalculations of this roller coaster of a week have left us dazed…but we are closing it out in a much better place thanks in no small part to the true kindness of friends.

And honestly…that could describe every single week of this year so far…probably for each one of us.

So…Onward !

While this particular morning rings in a foggy soupy kind of summer day…

In this next painting, I want to take you to another kind of summer’s day…

The Morning Bell  –  24 x 30

A bright and colorful familiar along the Menemsha dock.

What I wouldn’t give to be sitting on a bench there now.

You all stay safe out there…

 

Postcards from the Ledge – 22

I remember this heart piercing quiet now.
In Finnegan’s wake the studio may feel empty…
but it is full of paintings.

The logistics have all been ironed out for this year’s Granary Gallery show to travel on up to the island.

With the wicked virus floating around, we are most gratefully relying on the helpers in our world to make it safe for us to manage the parts of this workflow that require contact with the outside world. This week the frames arrive, thank you Julie and Kory. Next week the trailer gets loaded, thank you Matt and Paul. And then it gets hooked up and driven north.

Now all those thank yous are in advance and it will take some powerful angel to sync these steps smoothly into place…
luckily we have a brand new one.

Seems fitting then to show you today’s painting…

In the Derby’s Wake  –  16 x 20

Finnegan Loretta Neill

This morning her smile was every bit as bright as the day we met.

She loved us so deep
and for eleven and a half wonderful years
this sweet girl filled every minute of those days with that love.

Herself said we would never ever ever be ready for this.
But this week Finnegan let us know that she was.

I’m going to keep this picture
of her last smile
and thank Finn every day for being here.