I almost forgot to post today’s painting in the midst of all this packing. We have one more day to get all this together and I’m suddenly WAY behind schedule…
So, without further ado here ya go…
#15 – The Canoe Trip 24 x 36
Another look at James Pond
but this time from Gulliver’s perspective.
She was a wonderful dog.
Shy around some, she chose her humans carefully.
As Saren will tell you,
if you were lucky enough to have Gulliver trust you,
it was a rare gift of grace.
And Gully was loyal.
Beyond measure or equal.
So that when her best buddy Pat,
and pack members Jon and Tonya,
decided to take a sunset canoe trip on the pond…
those loyalties were surely tested.
Paddle alongside them to make sure their passage was safe…
or stay on shore guarding me,
the one who is mostly unsure of the water
and boats
and a reluctant swimmer.
You can see
that she chose to wait and watch
and I will forever be grateful to her
for that gift.
She watches over us all now and is ringing her chimes as I write.
The Granary Gallery show opening is exactly one week from today !
And I seem to be aware of that on a cellular level. My frazzled brain is tingling with firing neurons and my body is leaning into the promise of an ocean breeze. So it didn’t surprise me at all when, after watching a video on the New York Times website about preparing squash blossoms for an appetizer I went out to the yard and took some photos for the blog of the very blossoms I plan to put on a plate this evening…
I am in a bit of garden angst at the thought of leaving my tenders behind for our week on the island…just as the fruits of our labors are…well…blossoming. I have the drip irrigation system up and running and a timer installed yesterday seems to be working just fine…but if you have ever raised a raised bed full of veggies you know the rewards that are reaped from constant vigilance.
Anyway, I thought that stumbling upon that recipe was kismet since I now have lots of blossoms that, if left alone, will grow into fruit that I won’t be here to pick. So…much against my usual judgement, I’m a gonna pluck the best of the lot and nibble on them tonight.
Then I come in to write today’s blog and go to the folder where I keep all the show images to see what is left on the list and… wait for it…
#14 – Blosson 14 x 20
You’re all gonna think I planned this but remember that frazzled state ? There is no extra room for such detail…this is pure garden grace at its finest.
So here we go… into the final countdown. Painter’s Notes must be finished today. Then a host of other computer work and some studio clean up and a whole lot of packing. Oh, I remember the days when a trip to the Vineyard meant throwing some clothes and books in a napsack. Now it’s the station wagon, the dog and the trailer…all packed to the gills.
I’m going to go with Boursin, since I don’t think Burrata could be found within 50 miles of here on a Sunday, and a basil/garlic tapenadey thing. I’ll let you know how they come out.
Meanwhile, go take a walk in your garden and breathe deeply of the beauty.
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…
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.
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.
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
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.
On this, the day when the supreme court handed down an historic verdict, it seems appropriate to continue the political theme by bringing you today’s painting…
