Well I bring you all of that and more with these two new works which are winging their way out west to Gallery 1261 in Denver Colorado. My garden friends are floating out there on whisps of thistles and gossiping among the sunflower petals with stories of color and light from the new studio.
The show opens soon… November 11, 2023 and runs through the beginning of December. Perfect for holiday viewing and brightening up these shortening days.
Sending you all manner of light and love from the warm and cozy autumn studio… me.
Has it really been over two months since we last visited ? Well how’ve ya been ? I hope well and that you are still being safe out there. Please tell me you’ve been vaccinated. I hope you are enjoying the benefits of some time with old friends and new adventures.
We are taking baby steps as we navigate the brave new world. Visits outside with the fully jabbed and picking bunches of beautiful flowers growing in the gardens.
INside however the pace has been anything but slow and cautious. With all three galleries back open and eager for new work the brushes have been flying. Though we are not, once again due to the pandemic, traveling north to Martha’s Vineyard, the Granary Gallery is going on with the show so the paintings had to make a run for it.
The best part of last year’s painting delivery nightmare was meeting our driver Nathan and this year he once again has came to our rescue and all the paintings for this year’s show are safe and snug in a studio in Western MA awaiting the second leg of their journey when the gallery van will pick them up and tote them to the island. We are jealous that they will feel those ocean breezes but thrilled to have made an enduring friendship with Nathan, his wife Thanh and their new pup Ali.
Here’s a snap of Ali listening to Pat’s stories…and her heart.
And here she is riding shotgun on the painting delivery.
But before we begin the annual rollout of all those Granary pieces I’m pleased to share two NEW paintings which are, as I write, winging their way out to Denver.
Gallery 1261 is having a Small Works show which opens on August 14, and the New Paintings may arrive in time for them to take to the LA Art Fair this summer.
Without further ado I give you… Onion Moon Rising – 12 x 13
You seasoned patrons and friends will by now have checked out the new website features and be able to swiftly navigate to the Portfolio section and down to the Painter’s Notes to read the backstory on these little teacup mysteries.
While you do that I’m going to get back to work editing the images of the next batch of paintings which my camera managed to capture before they were framed and packaged for their road trip.
May your summer be full of rose sniffs and your kitchen filled with zucchini.
The new exhibition getting ready to open at Gallery 1261 in Denver, CO.
This new painting, Master Violet Ray #11, has been shipped out west for the show…which opens June 29th.
In case you are not familiar with exactly what a Master Violet Ray is… you might enjoy reading the Painter’s Notes for this one. Click HERE for the link.
The Current show at Gallery 1261 features this little play on the theme… Finding Abstraction
The set up for this was crazy. I wanted to use a real Jackson Pollock painting as reference and found one in my old college Art History text book which I scanned and printed out so I could enlarge it and make it look like a postcard with torn edges. Then Pat found me an old paint can from the stash in the garage and after I rigged them up I taped a canvas to an old fedex box and started to drip.
I remembered the scene in the movie Pollock where Ed Harris takes house paint and starts to drip it on the floor. Turns out there is a learning curve which involves refining the dilution of the paint and the movement of the brushwork. More of a slow dripline than a splatter. I was aiming for verisimilitude but my need for immediate gratification left me impatient with the process. Yes, I could fake it… but I eventually found the right consistency and made up four jars of color and then I dribbled one layer at a time with the panel flat on the floor and walked away while it dried (that was the hard part). Since I was using oil paint instead of acrylic, it had to dry completely between colors or else I ended up with an oily blooming mess.
Then there was the fun of trying to get the magnifying glass to stay on that teacup.
I was just about finished with the painting when, sitting at my easel, I felt everything start to shake. When you work with a Bernese Mt. Dog at your feet this occasionally happens so I yelled at Finn to stop. It kept on shaking so I turned around and yelled at her again…but she was asleep. Then my phone beeped and I read the breaking news that there was an earthquake in DC. Yep, that felt about right.
I looked around the studio and a couple of the paintings were hanging off kilter but the only real damage was to this still life… the postcard had fallen off of the brush that I had rigged to hold it up (I did fake that nail and tile background).
So there’s the rest of the story as they say… stop by if you’re in Denver and check it out.
It’s time to move on to something artsy and not covered in mud…so I’d like to welcome you to the fall line up of shows which are going to be taking place in Denver, Co.
Gallery 1261 in Denver, Co. opened their Small Works Show last night…you can take a virtual tour of the artwork on their website…unless you are lucky enough to be strolling the streets in Denver this weekend…
A frosty december day here in Manchester. Spent the whole morning cleaning out the office and now we could hold a barn dance in here.
Gallery 1261 invited me to have some work in their upcoming Small Works Show. It opens on December 10th out in Denver with an opening reception from 5 – 7 pm.
Here’s a sneak peak at a new painting that will be headed out west for that show…
By Design
Oil on Panel 16″ x 12″
Another in the Teacup Series this little one is jam packed with props that I have had stored in the Prop Room for years now. When I went up there to snoop around for some inspiration they, one by one, jumped into the old suitcase.
Take full advantage of nature’s drying oven and….make panels !
The studio yard doubles as workshop in order to get a jumpstart on a batch of smaller panels. Day one – Dibond cut to size. Day two – Portrait grade cotton canvas wrapped and adhered with acrylic matte gel. Day three (morning) – Call Pat on her way home from market and ask her to detour to pick up some Liquitex acrylic gesso… use plastic putty knife to paint backside of panels. Day Three (afternoon) – use same putty knife to paint front side of panels. Day Four (today) – second coat on front with Liquitex.
Let the sun do its thing today and they will be ready tomorrow for the first coat of ArtBoard Gesso. I’ve written about it before when first trying it out and after months of working with it…it’s become my gesso of choice. The beautiful chalky surface is easily and quickly worked into a smooth paste using a fine sanding sponge and a little bit of water. I can control the texture and even when it’s glassy smooth there is still plenty of tooth to hold the first coat of oils. It is pricey enough that it would be wasted on the primer coats, but well worth the expense for the finished product.
I’ve got two more shows this year and want to have new works in both so there is no down time in the studio for this artist. I’ll be posting the expanded exhibition schedule soon…but in the meantime mark your calendar for these two dates…
The Big Dipper Oil on Panel 16 x 20
The Organist’s Daughter Oil on Panel 24 x 36
Suspended Oil on Panel 20 x 16
