Tag: Heather Neill

Healing

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A sunny crisp winter morning greets me here in the studio after a long quiet month of healing days. Slow and steady progress finds me able to negotiate the short commute across the lane to the studio yard and to catch up on the piles of paperwork and take short naps in the warming sunshine.

Now that the new body parts are settling in it is time to rouse the sleeping muses. It is a somewhat disconcerting phenomenon that the creative energy levels have been slow to resurface and I’m just going to have to try and trick those atrophied muscles back into gear. Perhaps just sitting in my easel chair will spark something. Or maybe aroma therapy ? sniffing an open jar of turpentine ?

Well, while my muses have been on vacation… some of my favorite artist friends have been working hard and I wanted to pass along news of these spectacular shows that are must sees…

Robert Jackson
Bob’s crazy quirky humor is on display in a group of stunning new works at the Gallery Henoch in NYC. This show was delayed due to flooding in the Chelsea Art District after Hurricane Sandy and it is winding up now but well worth a look to see the fun that his boxes have gotten up to lately.

Scott Fraser
Oh the pleasures of viewing new works by Scott. In a few days, Dec. 15, his solo show will open at the Jenkins Johnson Gallery in SF. Below is a photo of the invitation which was slightly bruised in transit by the US postal system but it will provide a link for you to see more of the current work.

Michael Allen and JD Wissler
A study in… studies. These two friends have been part of a group of plein air artists who have spent hours and indeed years together out in the wilds of central Pennsylvania capturing the atmospheres on canvas. Their work has been featured in an article in the current issue of Plein Air Magazine.

My idle brushes are lifted to them all and with a bit more

New Works in Small Sizes

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Gallery 1261 is about to open their Small Works show. It will be running from November 16th through December 31st…but I thought you might like a little preview…

A couple little sketches from the studio garden…

Green Bean Tea

Cadmium Harvest

And this one…Spent… which features Polly’s antique cigarettes and that ever faithful red pump…

I’ll be offline for a while…gotta go see a man about a new knee.
So, while I’m recovering…just talk amongst yourselves…and I’ll catch up with you just as soon as I’m able to manage the 50 ft. commute from log cabin to studio.

Stay frosty out there !

There goes Follansbee again…

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While on Martha’s Vineyard earlier this month, we had the great pleasure of spending a day with our favorite little shavers, Rose and Daniel, and their groovy grey haired parents Maureen and Peter. Hanging with the Follansbee family is just about the most fun a person can have and I’m still smiling…

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater
Rose and Daniel display their pumpkin art at the Granary Gallery

Looking back on these pictures prompted me to check out Peter’s Blog and I see that his latest video is out. This will make a great holiday gift for the woodworker in your life and I’m gonna have a blast watching him make shavings.

Here’s a link to his website information about the DVD…http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/joined-chest-dvd-now-available/ and while you are there check out the spoons that he is now selling. As my readers know, every time he even mentions spoons in his blog or on the phone or sitting on my studio porch… I have to get out the hatchet.

Today is no exception and if this keeps up I just may have a few of my own to offer up for sale here on my blog soon.

It’s been a while…

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and the muses are calling…
calling me back to the studio…
the brushes are flirting with me as I walk by them from kitchen to office and back again… oh how the empty panels stacked up alongside the easel do tease.

I am listening, but there are a few more tasks to be swept away before I can return to my easel. Today, for instance, I have added some new prints to the website shop. Here’s a quick peek…

 

There are over 40 prints listed on the site now but if you have a particular favorite which you do not see there please contact me and I’ll let you know if it is available.

And remember…shipping and handling is… FREE ! 

 

Small works in a big way…

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All hail the return of civilized weather. When that first waft of cool air hit my lungs I all but fell to weeping. The edges of my soul were beginning to get crispy and my eyes felt like thickly glazed donuts.

With the earlier sunsets and the thin carpet of leaves, the studio is poised for a hiatus. We are once again returning to Martha’s Vineyard for an autumn sabbatical and an opportunity to work among the gulls and the waves in person.

But I haven’t been idle in the last few weeks. My brushes have been flying in pursuit of some smaller panels but no less meaningful gestures. I will shortly be loading the car to bring up new works to fill spaces on the walls at the Granary Gallery…and will be sending a parcel of new paintings out to Denver, to Gallery 1261, for their upcoming small works show in November.

Meanwhile, I thought I’d give you dear readers a sneak peek. Here, for your perusal, are the latest musings from the studio… I hope you will enjoy them with a fresh mug of  cider…or warm cup of tea.

                             

Moving in Day…

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Every woman needs a retreat. A place to be where the creative muses can find her while her hands are busy and her soul is at rest. For me, that place is my garden. And now, a sanctuary within that sanctuary…my greenhouse is finished !

 

Three days of hard work to finish the carpentry and then stain and paint and today Pat helped me to carry the books and seeds over to start filling the shelves…

 Now I can cast about the studio and cabin to find some things to make it homey, and make cushions for the wicker chair I found and a few hangers for hats and jackets, and some sort of solar powered lamp. It feels so good to complete something as fanciful as this. My garden folly. Now to find the windex !

 

 

 

Creative Maturity

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An imaginative and beautifully designed magazine, Martha’s Vineyard Arts and Ideas, is the creative brainchild of Patrick Phillips. A few months ago we spoke about including my work as one of the featured artist profiles and it has been published in this month’s issue.

http://www.mvartsandideas.com/arts/artist-profiles/heather-neill

When I spoke to Patrick earlier this summer I was preparing to work on a painting which had the title, Aren’t we aging well…which I wrote about in the last blog entry.

The musings in MV Arts and Ideas, about “aging into creative maturity”, were in part a reflection on how I was going to interpret the title for this intimate portrait of myself and Pat…but were also part of a current dialogue that I have been having with the muses about how, even as a mid-career artist…read, she’s gone through enough sketchbooks and pencils to fill a spaceship…there are still daily moments of uncertainty as I sit in front of the easel.

I expect that most of you artists out there who are of a certain age are also still balancing the confidences of craft with the moments of dreadful doubt…especially since so much of what happens between the brush and the panel is a mystery. I’d love to hear how well all of you are “aging”.

 

Granary and Garden

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We’ve been home for over a week now and the re-entry hubub has settled down and I am back at the easel in earnest. And back in the garden as well but not so earnestly as the summer heat wave continues. But this is all good because I am getting my garden fix early in the cooler morning hours and then the rest of the day spent at the air-conditioned studio easel feels like a spa.

Time then to post some photos from the Granary show. The opening was wonderful…a sea of art lovers with many new faces and lots of kind words of support. I took some photos after the crowds had cleared to show you blog readers the installation.

And not to be left out… a few snaps from this morning’s raid of one of the potato bags.

I’m in the mood for some vichysoisse and decided to dig around for some spuds. A task which I approach like an archeological expedition… gently brushing aside layers of dirt to reveal the brightly colored treasures. It’s just magical. Though I’m not too impressed with the yield so far. I welcome any advice from all my master gardener pals on how to improve next year’s crop.

In the coming weeks I’m going to look back and show a couple “paintings in progress” photos I took while working this spring. And I’ve got a slew of panels ready for a series of smaller paintings which will be headed out to Denver for the Gallery 1261 small works show in November/December.

Meanwhile I finished this piece the other day…(here’s an unvarnished studio shot)

It’s title is “Aren’t We Aging Well”…from the title of that wonderful Dar Williams song. I’ve carried just the title forward through several sketch books and when I decided on a visual interpretation it was originally supposed to be an anonymous couple, though always two women. But after Pat and I posed together in the studio yard…I used the remote shutter release on the camera to sneak some shots from behind the chairs…and I looked at the pictures, I realized that we were in no way anonymous. And then it became so deeply personal that I took it out of the Granary roster and put it aside to work on after the show.

I’m so glad now to have it finished …and have cleared some wall space in the studio to hang it after it dries, is varnished and photographed…just for us.

It has been years since I allowed myself to do a painting that wasn’t destined for a gallery or show. It’s good, as the song says, to “steal out with my paints and my brushes”…and paint as if nobody is watching.

But now…I’ve got to be getting on with the current still life. A few of the familiar props are making another appearance like the red stiletto, the silk camisole, and is that one of Polly’s cigarettes ? Really ?

Patience dear reader…all will be revealed…in good time.

 

 

 

And for the finale…

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It has been a blast to post these images one day at a time and has forced me to learn the new website admin navigation and to explore worlds deep withing this machine that I am now using on a daily basis to lighten the load of the business side of the artworld. And it has been an opportunity to look at each painting as an individual entry in the larger show and remember what drew me to paint them in the first place. All good.

Over a year’s worth of work lined up for your consideration…and now we’ve reached the final painting.

I give you…

#18 – James Pond 92 x 48

There is a deceptively simple peace that comes from looking out over this pond. Peaceful in that air and land and wind and water come together seemlessly and you can melt away the burdens of the world in one rustling of a leaf. Deceptive in that there is so much going on in those elements that your calmly gazing self might be the only still thing around.

All manner of wildlife are in constant motion. The water never stops. The leaves and clouds dance around you like fairies. And the chorus of birds and bugs and lapping waves are gentle background to it all.

But my favorite part of this corner of the planet is that it changes. I have spent many weeks here and no two reference photos are the same. It was part of the challenge in choosing to paint this spot. Which season? which sky? which time of day? The blue of that water can be fifty different hues in one given hour. The constantly revolving collection of cormorants on that single rock alone can make one’s brushes spin.

To settle on all those choices is to make everything…come to a …stop.

And then, once stopped, to try and give each element an accurate rendering and slowly build the layers of background melting into middle distance and finally detailed foreground and tease each strand together and hope that they vibrate as a whole and at least give the hint that all is in motion.

I hope that you have enjoyed this adventure as much as I have. And I hope to see some of you this Sunday at the Red Barn as we unveil the 2012 Granary Gallery show.

Thanks for checking in and, as always, thank you for your support !

Now go outside and play.

 

On the road again…

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Now this is sorta fun…

When this post hits the airwaves I hope to be somewhere around New London, Ct. in the car, hauling the trailer, headed for the island.

But today, as I write this while procrastinating instead of packing the trailer, I have two more paintings to wrap up and a whole lotta last minute packing to do so let’s get right down to it.

I’ve saved the biggest for the last two and today I give you….

#17 – Up Island Morning  40 x 90

A little slice of Chilmark heaven. Our destination this week is just over the hill from here and right on the edge of the planet. Zoe will not need the sheep whose internal music player lulls her to sleep with the sound of ocean waves…because they will be right out the window !

May you all find peace in whatever slice of heaven you wake up to this morning…