Tag: Heather Neill

Save the Date…

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Time.

It flys by when you are sitting at the easel.

Head down and brushes flying.

And since my last blog entry was over 8 months ago, I’d say it’s time to re-enter the sphere of social communication and see how everyone is doing out there.

It’s a sizzling summer and by now, most of you who are under the massive dome of excessive heat have at least one new way to keep cool. You gardeners out there are definitely getting creative with watering techniques. The/We Boomers amongst us have finally given in to comfortable orthopedic shoes and jar openers. The great grandbabies of we boomers are proudly parading in their Pride onesies. And our canine companions are slowly beating their tails to a different drummer just to keep their cool vibes going.

Here in the studio things are also heating up.

The annual Granary Gallery Show date is visible on the calendar and we are getting excited. For the first time since the pandemic shifted all our worlds Herself and myself….and Maggie will be attending the show opening in person !

None of this virtual phoning in nonsense. We are looking forward to seeing all of you and reminding you just how much your support, friendship and patronage means to us.

The Muses threw a curveball right around spring training time and gave me a theme to work with for this year’s show.

Seeing It Through

I’ve had some months now to work with this creative challenge and am going to see if I can convey the journey in the Painter’s Notes. Keep an eye out for them in the coming weeks.

The annual rollout of new paintings will happen early this year so stay tuned for that as well.

In the meantime here is a teaser…

Stay frosty out there and we’ll see you soon,

H

Gallery 1261 – Small Works Show

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Ready for some new paintings ?

A bit of garden graces ?

Some teacup love ?

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.

All the Gossip – 18 x 14

Thistle Whisps – 14 x 18

Multum in Parvo

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It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon…

Was it only a week ago that we were gathering here in anticipation of the Granary Show Opening …

I’m up in the office loft writing this post and listening to WMVY, the Vineyard Radio station, and of course after composing that last sentence they began playing the Dead’s Uncle John’s Band…oh oh oh where does the time go ?

Those silly Muses…Ted being the most funnest among them.

I’m happy to report that the news from the gallery is delightful with red dots accumulating and generously positive comments from viewers. There seems to be particular interest in one very small detail…a single drop of water…

Photo Credit Barbarella Fokos… and here’s a pic of Barb and David and his mom at the opening…

Photo Credit Katie Morse (Gallerista)

Barb also drew my attention to the section of my website, The Road, which features their Feature Film…Visions of Home and which had one of those broken link things. Happy to report I have fixed that this morning so here again is the proper link to view a trailer and have the option to rent or buy the film…just click on the image below.

WMVY has moved on to Robert Cray’s “The forecast calls for pain” …well it’s been a cloudy morning with spits of rain so…

I’m going to address the mountain of paperwork just to the left of this keyboard now but out of the corner of my eye I can see the library below with the studio motto hanging in gold leaf above the hearth
which is the all and the only thing to say about that single drop of water…

Have a wonderful late summer day and enjoy the littlest of details.

It’s Showtime !!!

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A grand good morning to all of you readers friends and patrons alike…

It dawns bright here in the studio with some cooler weather drifting in so we can throw open the windows and clear out the cobwebs. With the first cup of coffee firing up the neurons I’m heading out to the garden to find a shady spot to weed. Glory days.

It’s hard to be here and not there, on the island, ironing my show shirt and getting ready to see well loved faces at the show opening and a surprise wave of sadness washed over me last night. We are so grateful for the beloved gallery family who I know will be there for us to represent and to shine a light as they do for all their artists. if you are on the Vineyard and headed to the gallery please give them each a hug for us. They are good huggers.

This morning I’m going to wipe away those tears and go to the happy place of tending to the tenders outside. Time to get a jump on starting the fall crops. Maggie wants to start with the mountain of dirt that we’ve been slowly shoveling into the new kitchen beds. Sounds good to me. Then when the sun moves a bit we can settle in to clear the asparagus bed of all that creeping Charlie.

Herself is clearing off the porch so we can enjoy a fresh tomato sandwich for lunch. Our pal Maureen is coming with an armful of cheeses and while those two watch the tennis match Maggie and I may just spend the afternoon at the easel listening for the whisper of Muses.

Wherever these words and paintings find you I hope there is a bushel of light, a wheelbarrow full of laughter and teacup full of peace.

My Sweet Pea

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A word of gratitude before the Painter’s Notes…

for YOU…

All of you who took the time to send me support and love in response to the roll out of this years’ Granary Gallery show…

It is not a throw aside gesture to say that it makes all the difference
because to me it absolutely does.
We won’t be able to attend the opening in person
but from here in the late summer studio
I can feel the hugs and see the smiling faces virtually via your likes and comments
which goes such a long way towards affirmation and your kindness is contagious.

Maggie and I got some tomatoes gathered this morning
and in this hottest part of the year
the tall bushy green beans are apparently not as special a treat
as her long gone sweet peas
but our girl has bunnies to chase
and a field of wild clover to roll in
and we send you all a bucket of thank yous …
may your teacups overflow with sweetness.

My Sweet Pea

This was all Maggie’s idea.

Originally the intent was to have this composition
focus up close on my hands
shelling those beautiful peas
into a teacup.

I had the panel prepped
and the frame ordered
and it was the very last
of the paintings
for this years’ Granary Gallery show.

But when it came time to sketch it out
I couldn’t quite get the positioning of the hands right
just by drawing them in front of a mirror.

So I set things up in the new studio
and called Herself over late one night
to push the button on my camera.

She brought Maggie
who upon seeing the pea pod
came hurtling to devour the treat.

This has been Maggie’s first year in the garden
and after a crazy hot spell of a start to the season
when I feared the loss of all of the cool weather crops
we had a glorious run with the peas.

Both snow and shelling peas took off
and it became clear that Maggie LOVES peas.
She would sit patiently next to the trellis
waiting for me to catch up on our walks
and reach over the fence to grab her a handful of pods.

Just melted this old gardeners’ heart.

Back in the late night studio photo shoot
we managed to convince Maggie
to lay quietly beside Pat
as she snapped pics of my hands in different positions.

I sent them home when I climbed up to the loft office space
to look at the photos and see if I could work from them.
I needed one more take so back they came.

Something was amiss with the focusing on the camera
and the extra fussing must have annoyed the pup
because as I settled back onto my stool
and tried to hold my hands extra still
that little bundle of whiteness crept up
and came over to my side
and ever so gently she layed herself down
just as you see her here

with one paw on my boot
waiting patiently
my sweet pea
for her sweet pea.

Library Dreams

Posted on by heather • 1 Comment on Library Dreams

Welcome to my new studio
this is one corner of the library
my dream library
where all of the books
and props
and collections of treasures
have finally gotten a place
to play together.

It is a deeply meaningful space
designed after the Trinity library in Dublin
with ebony stained graduating shelves
and gold leafed alphabet letters
climbing next to tall fluted columns.

To sit in this space
in an early morning light
with the stove lit and beginning to warm
surrounded by my familiars
is dreaming my biggest dream.

To make something of an overture
and by way of marking new adventures
the Muses chose Moby Dick
as the very first book to pull from the shelves.

Sitting in my captains chair
tucked inside of this literary snug
felt the very essence of being inside of a whaleship
and I was every full measure
of CS Lewis’ “Surprised by Joy”
each morning as I read.

Here’s a peek behind the curtain
at my Library Dreams
sitting in
my dream library
which is sorta fun.

A Gift of Purple

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The generosity of the Morse family knows no edges
and the quiet gesture of handing Herself this little purple vase
is what I’m talking about…tender kindnesses

And when she filled it with water
to place into it the daffodils
which they told her it was ok to pick
from their front yard
and the water leaked out all over the counter…

it was that second of the purple vases
which was offered to her that really spoke to their hearts.

The daffodils as theme
was a gift of its own in the studio for this years’ Granary show
and putting the three blooms which grew in our home yard
into one of those purple vases was a perfect foil
for Aunt Imy’s lilac teacup
resting on one of Polly’s hand sewn handkerchiefs
which she embroidered with violets.

But it was the muses I have to thank
who stepped in
to stop me
just before
I tried to give those flowers
a drink.

The whispers of clover are my own tiny celebration
of having finally moved out of the  “heavy construction” phase
of our rebuild and now every day
a little bit more of what was the mud and straw strewn yard
that surrounds our home and studio
is growing lush and green with our new lawn of clover.

So much to be grateful for.

Little Lady

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Another gift from my early spring wanderings
this familiar peek behind the fishing shacks
in Menemsha was brought into a different kind of focus
which only a winter of island weather could provide.

I’ve taken hundreds of photos from this vantage point
over the decades but in the three growing seasons of the year
that bank across the water is a wall of green vines and scrub oak
which all but obscures the old wooden stairways
and hides most of the foundations and some of the porches.

On this day in late March
there was the barest hint of warming sap beginning to run
into the tips of the shrubbery and the capillaries of the tree branches
a glowing harbinger of the promises of spring.

I wrote in the Coast Guards notes of the peaceful solitude
that accompanied me on the walk around the harbor that day
I was able to stand in this scalloped niche
for an extended time of totally uninterrupted observation
watching and listening to the light play with the reflections
and the water lapping the mossy pilings
the breeze whispering through the rigging
and the ropes slackening
then pulling taught
over and over and over again
in a rhythm as old as the sea itself.

Coast Guards

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One unexpected gift
of being on the island of Martha’s Vineyard in March
is the season of solitude.

While winter has snuggled the humans
behind closed doors
the verdant thickets of vegetation
along stone walled roadways
have fallen back to sleep
throwing open an early spring curtain
to reveal new and ever deepening
glimpses into old and familiar views.

And with those newly opened views
came the added blessing
of exploring the island in deep silence and peace.

The contrast of the bustling tourist season
with the quiet stillness of the winter
was sublime.

Happening upon this Menemsha moment
is the perfect example.

With Pat and Jane and Maggie
safely tucked into their recliners
I walked the sandy road
down to the beach
where the lifeguard chair
was the sole onlooker
back down the wooden dock
where the only sound
was the basin water lapping on the boats
up and over Crick’s hill
then out back of the Galley
where the every single post and rooftop
rail and piling had one seagull
sitting or lying as if on their lunch breaks.

Full disclosure
I cheated a bit here
In the real world
on that late March morning
there was one other human to be seen
I came upon him when I had drifted
further out that dock
just past the coast guard station
as I was looking back across the water
he was behind me coming ashore
from a morning of scalloping
I nodded
he said it was a beautiful day
and that was that
except that here
I turned him around.

When I started this painting
it was all about the solitude
and that peace
and quiet
with only the gulls standing guard
but it is a working village
and one lone fisherman
enjoying the sun and the sea
and a peaceful walk to work
seemed to tell a better story.

Middle Road Shadows

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“Chance favors the prepared mind.”
John Fowles, The Magus

This is a throw back
and a throw forward.

We spent most of the fall of 2018 on the island.
The extended stay allowed for deep diving into painting subjects
as well as the opportunity for serendipity to come out and play.

I wrote a bit about this in the Painter’s Notes for The Flock which was painted shortly after that fall visit.
After years of chasing the right light to capture the iconic view of sheep grazing on the farm field overlooking Lucy Vincent Beach, chance favored this artiste with an almost biblical parting of the storm filled skies to open up shafts of dramatic autumn colored sunlight just as I was driving past the overlook.

It took my breath away and I quickly captured the moment with camera and sketchpad.

 I had been making a daily loop at sunset circling up island roads in a random pattern watching and waiting.
To be in the right place at the right time you have to keep showing up in the wrong times.
A lot. In this case for decades. And you have to be open to taking chances.

So, after I had enough to be going on with for the sheep composition, I figured might as well finish the loop. I drove back to Beetlebung Corner and took a right onto Middle Road. I’d been studying those cows and trying to come upon them grazing       closer to the road to get a better look and to give some foreground to the vast composition of field and sliver of sea. In the 6 minutes of light remaining from that epic sheep view, the cows who were grazing in that same light and only a few fields away were smack up against the wooden fence as I drove by.
I zipped right back around at the gas pump and caught them looking.

But here’s where the Muses like to tease.
Back home in the studio there was a choice of which painting to start off with and I decided to go big and all out with the sheep. I hoisted an 8 foot panel up on the easel and set out to try and portray the grandeur of the light on the vista and the grace in the peacefulness of the flock. It was a marathon and took up the remaining time I had to prepare for that year’s show so the idea of a twin companion painting of the herd was put on what I thought would be a brief hold.

Until it got thrown forward 5 years to today.
Painting now in my new studio, the Muses said wait a minute…remember those cows ?
If, as they were originally meant to do, the flock and the herd ever got to hang side by side
you could stand in the middle and be that glorious sunlight.

You, dear patrons, are my serendipity.