Category: New Paintings

Working in the studio kitchen…and a bit about packing…

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Every inch of this studio is at this moment filled with framed paintings. Yesterday I finished the last of them and wrapped them up for travel as I went along. There has been a bumpy learning curve over the last decade as I tried several different ways of securing the paintings for long distance transport.

One memorable year, when I still had my old Toyota pickup, circa 1982, I decided to stack the framed paintings horizontally…one on top of the other…with sheets of matboard and cardboard in between. After the 12 hour drive to Martha’s Vineyard, in steamy summer heat, I was dismayed to discover that some of the cardboard sheets had wilted and sagged enough to touch the surface of the paintings and actually “etch” a faint series of lines into the varnish. A hectic and sweaty few hours ensued wherein I had to transport them to a garage large enough to lay them out and then unframe and revarnish. NOT something an artist wants to have to do the day before a big show !!!

But, as I said, memorable and lesson securely learned. Nothing, absolutely NOTHING ever touches the surfaces of the paintings again. Now think about that. When they are framed, the frames provide a measure of protection by standing proud above the surface of the panels. Some are deeper than others but all of them give a bit of room for air to circulate when a board is placed on top or between frames.

But remember the sagging ordeal. Even a rigid foamcore board can bow enough in the heat and humidity to touch the surface even when packed upright. So I have sheets of ultra thin plywood which are wrapped in cotton sheeting in the trailer. They provide a rigid barrier in between the largest of the paintings and will not warp under stress.

So I have evolved to the current packing method which involved cutting foamcore corners and wrapping clear plastic packing film around the frames only. The plastic can touch the frame but usually stretches tight and doesn’t but either way it won’t leave a mark and lots of air can circulate around it. This makes it easier to handle the frames as they go in and out of the trailer.

 

Pat’s coming over later to help me wrap the two largest ones but in the meantime here’s a look at the finished carved frame which I showed you in progress a few days ago…

And because I spent most of yesterday working in the studio kitchen…

today’s painting is of one corner of that very room…

#13 – Swept Away  18 x 26

Gay Head Lily

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Here’s a fun one…

#12- Gay Head Lily  26 x 19

This is another that was inspired…insisted upon is more like it…by Ted.

He asked me three years ago if I had ever seen the Gay Head Lily and wasn’t satisfied with my answer so he took me on an adventure one afternoon over to a field out back of a friends house where they were blooming by the acre.

He found the perfect specimen…

And insisted on holding it so I could see all sides…

We chat once or twice a week, more when I’m on island, and every single time he has asked me if I have painted that lily yet. I was originally going to paint him holding it pretty much just as you see above. But it wasn’t working for me until I decided to turn it on its trompe l’oueille head. I wanted to tie it into the other paintings this year which feature those beach stones and you get the idea.

It was fun to paint but not as much fun as the phone call telling him it was finally finished. We’ll see you in less than a week now Ted…the show opening is on his 96th birthday. Now that’s sorta fun.

 

Calling all in free….

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We hooked up the trailer early and headed up to the photographers’…John Corcoran, my digital magician. Check out his website for some amazing examples of his work.

He and Pat always have a yuck yuck…even while helping me to load massive paintings into the trailer…

It’s the middle of the afternoon now and all the paintings are safely home in the studio and together for the first time in months. I mean ALL the paintings…and ALL the frames. There is barely enough room for me to walk let alone frame but that’s what needs to be done so I’m winging it. They say the effects of this kind of a heat wave are cumulative and I have been feeling it today but we are among the lucky ones who have power and cool air inside.

So a break here to chill down and let you see today’s addition to the Granary Show lineup…

#9 – Skillet Apple Pie   24 x 29.5

Yes, another in the apple series paintings…and this year’s Recipe Series entry. You can read more including the original recipe in the Painter’s Notes.
No more goofing off for me…it’s back to the framing.

Toodles

Trinity…

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#7- Trinity   34 x 39

This one goes a little deeper…
and as the Painter’s Notes reveal even deeper than I thought.

The Trinity

 I’m listening to Paul Winter as I write this.

His song, Belly of the Whale from his Earth Music Album.

If you were here and we were both sitting in front of this painting listening to it together…
I wonder if it would expand your thoughts about it,
the painting that is, too.

His saxophone is tilting in a graceful arc above the water
while a clear soulful whale song bubbles up from the ocean deep.
They meet a hair’s breath below the surface
in a gentle but haunting cello solo…and dance.

There is darkness and pain which flows into a brilliant blue tenderness.
A compassion that makes me weep,
and one or two notes that are all I need of joy.

I never would have chosen any of those words to describe this painting.
I’m not sure why I’m including them now.
But I do know that this painting was a mystery from day one.
It does not appear in any form in any sketchbook I’ve kept.
The objects are as far apart from each other in the studio as it is possible to be.

I remember picking up the clarinet
in order to adjust the string that was holding it askew on the wall.
Then taking the painting of Ted, which hangs facing the easel,
off the wall so I could hang it there.
Seeing the yellow of the whale oil strainer from across the room…
and then noticing the morning light catch the tip of the seagull feather in the driftwood.
How I got them all to stay like that on the wall and how that window got there I don’t know.

During the weeks I painted this Pat was away caring for a critically ill Uncle and his wife.
We weren’t expecting it and the separation was disconcerting.
 I suppose the muses knew I needed a meaningful distraction.
And so they brought me to the edge of this latest in the spirit vessel series.

And I suppose they are at it again…

choosing tonight, as I write,
to have Paul Winter’s Saxophone to fill the studio, my heart, and my spirit

I love it when they surprise me like that.

 

 

 

A fine morning to carve…

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As the heatwave nestles into the valley I was disuaded from my early morning weeding by the ever watchful apprentice who decided that we should heed the air quality warnings and head inside to the cooler chambers of the studio.

So I’m getting an early start on the frame carving…

It’s been a while since I have done one of these and I’m loving the chance to get out the woodworking tools and make some tiny shavings. I mentioned earlier that the first painting, “All this and more”…

was based on an NC Wyeth quote and so that’s what is being carved into its frame. I spent all day yesterday getting the words onto the wood. Years ago I created a digital alphabet by first drawing out each letter on graph paper and then scanning it into Publisher and then laboriously cutting and pasting separate files for each letter. That allowed me to open a new file and cut and paste the letters as needed to form the words in each quote. Then I size them to the frame, print out and transfer with graphite paper to the wood itself.

A large part of the morning yesterday was spent trying to FIND that file which was buried on my old harddrive. Ugh. But once I got it on the new computer it worked like a breeze. Still laborious but way easier than the way I did it before, drawing it all out by hand several times until I got the spacing right. Difference of hours vs. days.

But I have to back up a step…the frame really starts with a trip to the local lumber yard…where my trusty assistant volunteered to let the poplar boards rest on her lap rather than on top of the roof for the ride home.

I didn’t get a photo of him but the next step is hauling the boards up to the frame shop, Artworks in Mechanicsburg, PA,( my heros),  and back to John Weist, my super hero. He chops the moulding and the poplar boards at the same time and then joins them seperately so I can work on it assembled which makes it much easier to design.

What I end up with is this…

Then I cut out the words, lay them out on the boards, tape them down and use the graphite paper to transfer lines to the boards.

Clean up the lines…

and break out the tools…

Raking light is essential to see where the cuts need to be trimmed and refined…

and then it’s all about the fun and challenge of removing the wood that doesn’t want to be there.

I’m headed back to the tools now… but first…

for those who are here to see today’s painting…

a happy little number and one of my favorites…

#5- Beach Rose  14″ x 20″ 

Stay cool out there now…

 

Censorship

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I was going to continue with the Apple Series for the unveiling of today’s painting but …there’s an outrageous assault on artistic expression raging on Facebook as I write so I’m switching gears a bit.

Last night John O’Hern posted this photo on Facebook which is the announcement for his latest Re-Presenting the Nude show at Evoke Gallery in Santa Fe.Re-Presenting the Nude ll

Within minutes of his posting… facebook removed the image from his page. Yes, that’s right…censored. A few of us were able to repost it on our FB pages and the Evoke Gallery responded by posting the individual images of the paintings up on their website starting last night. I just got word from John that the Evoke Gallery has now been blocked from posting for 24 hrs.
Below is John’s posted response to the initial censoring on his page…
It amazes me that an organization like Facebook, begun by people of obvious intelligence and sophistication, should hire creatures who have only recently slithered onto the shore to control its department of censorship. I’m grateful for the many “Likes” and good wishes posted in support of the artists in my exhibition “Re-presenting the Nude II” before the announcement (with pictures!) was removed… from my profile page. The Roman poet Juvenal wrote in his Satires: “Quis Custodiet ipsos custodies?” (“Who will guard the guards themselves?”) It’s a question that is as true today as it was then. Who knows what Neanderthal censors might have ordered their artist kin to scrape off the wall? When more secure people occupied the ranks of those directing our society, the historian Henry Steele Commager wrote: “Censorship always defeats it own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.” Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart wrote: “Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.” More chillingly, the African American scholar Henry Louis Gates wrote: “Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.” I’ll give the last word to someone who knew the subject well, the buxom bombshell Mae West, who said: “I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.” May all Facebook-censored artists do so as well. (And the curators.)
The original reason I signed up for Facebook was to keep track of the fast paced thoughts and lives of our grandchildren. It has become a valuable resource for connecting me to friends, family, and ideas and is an integral part in promoting my artwork and keeping in touch with patrons and introducing me to new artists and their work. Frankly I’m shocked that their “censors” have decided that any of these artistic representations of the human figure are too risky for us to lay eyes upon…when they so freely allow the children to post obscene and offensive language defining the explicit parts and usage of those parts of that same human figure.

So… my response to the environment of repression, discrimination and censorship in this year of political discord… is this…

#3 – The Tea Party   24 x 36

Countdown…

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This year’s show at the Granary Gallery will mark 10 years of representation there for me. I can still remember walking out of the gallery after Chris had said, “Yes, we’ll take all the paintings you’ve got.”…and being shell shocked and unable to speak until we got to the Black Dog and sat down and my heart stopped pounding.

It has been a dream come true of a decade and I am grateful every single day for the chance they took on this wannabe artist. Because they are so good at doing their jobs…I get to paint for my living and that still takes my breath away.

Though I have grown comfortable walking through the red barn doors and being welcomed by hugs of friendship, it is not because I am one in their stable of artists… this is the way that they treat everyone. It’s a gift and it flows from the top down which I attribute to Chris and Shiela Morse’s spirit of character and community. It’s a family affair and we are honored to be a small part.

The show is now a little over two weeks away, opening is July 15th, and I thought I’d do something different this year by rolling out the new paintings one at a time. This year there are 18 which will be making their debuts in the annual summer show so that will take us right up until the day we pack the trailer and haul them up the eastern coast…island bound.

I’ve continued the “theme” idea begun last year and there are a few overlapping ones this year… Apples is the big one, Seagulls get to play politics, Garden Graces make an appearance, and the first of many planned paintings of a special and seldom glimpsed corner of the Vineyard, James Pond, make the scene.

I hope it will be fun to follow along and see what each new day has to offer as I work in the background getting the frames put together and the painter’s notes written…in between harvesting and weeding the burgeoning garden !

So here we go…

#1 – All this and More…   28″ x 36″

This painting was inspired by a quote from NC Wyeth, “I have all this and more, yet how I would like to relax; to be content with a wheelbarrow, a rake, an apple basket, a pipe.” From his letters, September 19, 1910.

I’ll be picking up the wood for the frame tomorrow and I’m going to carve that quote around it. And yes, I’ll be content with my carving knife, a pile of shavings…and maybe even a slice of apple.