I was taking the first look at the newest addition to the studio library, STAR WARS Art: Visions published by Abrams, (the cheap version). It’s a stellar collection of Star Wars inspired art by contemporary artists.
And it occurred to me that I had done a Star Wars painting too…
While it wasn’t commissioned by George Lucas, that little McDonald’s Toy version of Yoda has been a constant muse since the very early days of the saga and sits ever vigilant by my easel watching… and whispering…
Kudos to the artists whose work fills the new book…I’ll enjoy dipping into that this winter…
It’s a pleasure to be in the company of these three strong and seasoned artists for this upcoming show. And it’s in our backyard so those of you who live nearby can hopefully join us for the festivities. The show opens this weekend with two receptions, Saturday from 5-7 and Sunday from 2-4. The next weekend, November 21st at 2pm there will be a panel discussion with all 4 artists and the weekend after that, November 28th a gallery walk, touring the show with the artists.
I’ve got a trailer full of originals packed for delivery and for this show I’ll also have studio prints for sale.
The show is at the York Art Association, 220 S. Marshall St. York, PA 17402 – 717 755-0028.
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 !
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 !
There was a major fire in the fishing village of Menemsha yesterday. The coast guard boathouse and several docks burned down to the waterline. It happened quickly and as of this morning there are no reports of major injuries. The other miracle of this story is that the wind was blowing out to sea. Within a few feet of the burning structure on the inland side are the historic fishing shacks that line the basin. They are bare wooden shacks, many of which are simply standing wooden tinderboxes…and most of which are working boathouses for the few remaining commercial fishermen on the island. Had the wind turned, they all would have been gone and with them the history and charm of that tiny island village.
There are reports of bravery this morning of fisherman who towed flaming but untethered boats out of danger and away from the gas station on the other side of the harbor, and firefighters who managed to control and contain the blaze, and townspeople who set up watering and cooling stations and helped to clear the roads for emergency vehicles.
This is the Vineyard. They know how to take care of each other.
Shortly after the fire began there were reports filtering onto Facebook and via local TV stations. Pat got the news and came over to the studio to let me know. Earlier that morning we had picked up the big paintings for this summer’s show from the photographer and I was in the process of framing this…
For most of the winter the shacks and boats and birds and scenery of Menemsha were my companions as I took care to faithfully render the rigging and shingles and horizon full of houses.
Like many generations of artists, I have been drawn to the historic charm and beauty of the fishing village. My own tastes tend to run toward the somewhat grittier side of the working aspects of the place. The way the detritis of the commercial fishermen, their boats and gear and comings and goings, make for a constantly evolving composition. Lobster pots and long lines, bouys and traps, pulpits and netting all get tossed around by the wind, the tides and the human hands that haul them to bring in the catch of the day.
And if you hang around long enough, and show up when the tourists have left for the day…or the season… the light that is so strong and ever changing on that island will reveal hidden treasures of beauty. For the last couple years I have concentrated on trying to capture some of what I see there and have used the challenge of the large canvas to find my way into the corners, behind the boathouses, and between the shadows of Menemsha.
As I look back now, the focus has been pulling outward…
from the closeup of the swordfishing troller Strider’s Surrender…
to the larger view of the boats and shacks Out Back O’ The Galley…
and opening wide up to the basin as seen from the top of Crick Hill just after dawn on a late October morning…
And in all of those paintings the Coastguard Boathouse can be seen. At first just a hint of the end of the dock to the left of the Strider. Then a sliver of white with the famous red shingled roof at the end of the road to the left of the big shack Out back of the Galley.
And this year, sadly the final portrait… it is the first building to catch the full morning sun at the far right of the painting and, weighed down by the gaggle of seabirds, it serves as an anchor.
The second in the series of traveling summer shows is opening this sunday at the Granary Gallery. The theme continues with…Vegetable…
My entry is titled Heirlooms and features some heirlooms from our dear friend Polly Mienelt who graced this planet and the island of Martha’s Vineyard for 95 years. Her husband Ted gave me that photo of her making a daisy chain and a collection of her handkerchiefs. The rest are heirlooms of a different sort that have found their way into my keeping…and the tomato…was delicious !
On the island of Martha’s Vienyard, one of the earliest signs of spring…is the sound of its tiniest harbinger…the Pinkletink. Known to the rest of the world as a tree frog, the island is the only place you will hear someone call it by that name.
I have just spent the morning packing this little guy up and he’s on his way north to the Granary Gallery for the first of their traveling summer trilogy … Animal, Vegetable, Mineral.
You can click on the painting above and follow the link to see all of the work and where each of the three shows will be exhibiting…
Now it’s back to the easel…one…maybe two ???? more paintings to go.
Every so often I rotate the stack of reference books in the stacks on my studio kitchen table and dip into old volumes to find new treasures. In that way I always find something that I’ve overlooked or was not ready to see before and a window is opened for the muses to shove me through.
Such was the case last month when I was paging through…
I came across a watercolor that my leaky memory has no memory of ever seeing before… Baron Philippe (1981)…
Something clicked and I began to sketch out an idea for a response….
I’ve been working on a series of studio still lifes and this gave me a chance to pull together some of the old props that have been living in the old studio (now renamed the POD ).
The oil lamp was Cousin Ed’s and one of the few treasures of his we were able to purchase back from the auction of his posessions. The empty wine bottle is courtesy of our holiday feast with D and S. The ladies handkerchief was one of Polly’s. The teacup is from Sue’s grandmother. The chair was from the old farmhouse across the road and is a very old shaker style ladderback that somewhere along the way had the rockers sawed off of so it is now a slipper chair. The little porcelain doll in her silky purple gown is a gift from Chris. The cane was a flea market find and has the whisper of a serpent carved in the handle. The bottle was from an antique store purchased on the day we went to the Amish country to pick out Finnegan. The uniform has appeared in several other paintings and was an old hollywood costume found on Ebay years ago. The shell is from Sengy pond on the Vineyard. I don’t remember from whence the table came but the old wooden floor is the very foundation of my new studio. And the rest… is pure folly.
There are homages here to all three generations of Wyeths and I humbly submit my tribute to them… The Baroness.
It is deep cold winter now and when I leave the studio at night the furnace is turned low and I shut off every light except the string of tiny white lights that wind from the porch … along the picket fence…up over the garage … and down the path to light my way home.
When my eager apprentice wakes me in the early morning it is night black dark as we make our way to work and those lights are there to welcome us like hundreds of tiny muses.
This morning, like all the others, while waiting for me to get our breakfast ready, Finnegan went to get the paints out for the day’s palette … but she came running into the kitchen with a surprised look on her face.
…this is what she found…
Now I have always known that the muses have a keen sense of humor. And I have often come across evidence of “night play” in the studio. But this little tableaux shows some promise… and I may just see where this road takes us.
and thanks to the many who chimed in to help as well…
I decided to bring the panel into the kitchen to provide better light and warmth and set up a spot light at a raking angle, then started with a thin sanding sponge. Some grit on one side and sponge only on the other. Dipped in a little water it quickly brought up a slurry of gesso and in seconds had repaired an imperfection. The key turned out to be starting with the grit side and water…just a little bit…and then wiping in a broader circle with the sponge side which quickly smoothed it back down.
The panel is 32″ x 48″ which is a lot of real estate when you are bending over and squinting and it took almost 2 hours of work to reach a satisfactory surface. I was apparently gloating for just a moment and when I took it outside so I could clean up the studio kitchen the wind knocked it over onto Finnegan’s water dish. UGH. Another 15 minutes of repairing those dings and it was back in shape.
Now safely returned to the warmth of the studio I am going to let it dry overnight before proceeding with the oil out that I do as the next step. It will be interesting to see if the surface is not too smooth or if this gesso will provide enough tooth. I’d hate to have to take an abrasive back to it.
So this morning…
Night Games…It’s currently up at the Granary Gallery
