Resolve to try something new

Village

2011

24x18

mixed drawing media

A new year is nearly upon us, and with it new opportunities and experiences open up right before us.

I have been asked to teach a class at the Post Road Art Center!

For my first foray into teaching, I am offering a one-day workshop called Drawing on the Imagination: Experiments in Expressive Drawing.

This will be a lot of fun, non-judgmental, and appropriate for beginners, as well as pros.

Class will be held on Saturday, February 11, 2012 at Post Road Art Center, Marlborough, MA.

Visit http://postroadartcenter.com/index.html for more information on this workshop, other class offerings and registration.

Happy Season of Light!

I think I'm done, now...

Waiting

2011

oil

40x30

Okay, so you might recognize this painting. I started it in January, 2011, reworked it a few times and thought I was done. I posted it at that point on February 8th, 2011.

Recently I launched back into it, and I am now much happier with it.

I seem to always need to have a "stewing" period with my paintings, at least the larger ones.

Untitled

2010

10x8

oil on panel

Red Circle, Rising

2011

10x8

encaustic

I find encaustic paintings really hard to photograph. It is so hard to catch the depth of the layers.

Also, you can't smell the beeswax.

So you will just have to see (and sniff) this in person at Post Road Art Center.

Miniature show opens this Thursday, December 13th, 2011

5:30-8:00 p.m.

1 Boston Post Road East, Marlborough, MA

On display until December 28th (unless some buys it!)

http://postroadartcenter.com/

Untitled

2011

acrylic

6x6

Rudbeckia

2011

5x7

encaustic

This small painting is going to be for sale at

The Holiday Originals Exhibition & Sale at the Concord Art Association

December 1-22, 2011

Open House: December 4th, 2-4 p.m.

37 Lexington Rd., Concord, MA http://www.concordart.org/ for more information & hours

2011 Winter Sprinkler Factory Exhibition

January Thaw

2011

30x40

oil

No Theme -- No Limits

Juried show of work from Worcester area artists, including my painting, shown here.

Exhibition will run from December 2nd, 2011 through January 14, 2012

at the Sprinkler Factory, 38 Harlow St., Worcester, MA

Please join us for the opening reception:

Saturday, December 3rd from 5-8p.m.

check their website for gallery hours and more information

http://www.sprinklerfactory.com/

Woman with Flower

2011

charcoal

Keeping with the Floral Theme

Hydrangea

2011

5x7

encaustic

Garden in July

2011

7x5

encaustic

This cheery little painting is going in one of those holiday sale/mini art shows that pop up in December.

I'll keep you posted!

On Drawing

Three studies of broken tree trunk.

1,) Charcoal

2,) Graphite

3.) Conte Crayon

This past winter a lovely little Japanese Maple broke under excessive snow weight. I saved the trunk, that to me is very suggestive of the figure. I would like use it to make a sculpture, which is kind of silly; I'm not sure I could improve upon what is already there.

Thought it would be wise to draw from it for a while first. There is no better way to get to know something fully, and learn about yourself in the process, than by drawing.

Inside/Outside

My new studio.

It still leaks, but I am trying to get started working in here, anyhow.

No regrets.

I remain optimistic that a new roof will be in place shortly.

Click on the photo to enlarge, so you can see the fun interplay of reflections. No, the semi is not really parked on the roof. Looks that way though, huh?

Tool

2011

24x18

mixed drawing media

on paper

Snows & Shows

Kelly

2011

conte crayon

12x9

Drew this last week in the life drawing group that meets at the Sprinkler Factory, Thursday nights.

Since then, our neck of the woods have been "blessed" with nearly two feet of heavy wet snow, unheard of in October, and causing a mess, to say the least. No power, phone, internet, but still, not nearly as bad as the ice storm December, 2008.

Nevertheless, the show, or shows in this case, must go on!

This weekend in Gardner, MA is the GALA Fall show. Art and Live Music Friday - Sunday

visit http://www.galagardner.org/ for details.

Also opening this Thursday 5:30-8 p.m. at the Post Road Art Center, Marlborough, MA is the Abstract Show, 2011, juried by Bob Collins of the Danforth Museum. Two of my paintings are among the 42 pieces on view until November 30, 2011.

Please visit http://postroadartcenter.com/ for full details.

The Nature of Identity

Shadow

2011

oil

20x16

This was done this past summer with Randy LeSage at the Worcester Art Museum. The class was called the Nature of Identity, and the assignment was (loosely) a self portrait.

I didn't want to get bogged down by features and likeness; I wanted to address a deeper identity than appearance. I decided that the way I paint is the best expression of my identity.

So as not to be distracted by facial details, I took a photo of my shadow, and worked from that (see above).

The shadow seemed like a perfect vehicle for the slippery topic of identity: always shifting, without substance, distorting, but also unapologetically honest.

We dance back and forth between revealing and hiding, imitating and projecting, and then are prone to despair when we feel no one truly knows us.

I am disappointed how this photographed. Maybe I will try again, later.

Anyhow, I just wanted to post a reminder that tomorrow, Saturday Oct 22, 2011, at 7 p.m. is the reception for the Blanche Ames National Juried Art Exhibit at the Ames Mansion, Borderland State Park, North Easton, MA.

There will be live music, food, and champagne, art will be for sale, as well as color catalogs.

If a nighttime soiree isn't your thing, the park is a really lovely place with acres to explore and the mansion is a gorgeous stone structure filled with the original, sumptuous furnishings.

The woman for whom this competition is named, Blanche Ames, had an incredible, full life and a mind I wish I had a fraction of. She was an artist, and inventor, an engineer, a pioneer of woman's rights, a mother, a philanthropist.

Show runs until November 5th.

Another View

New Braintree Farm Land

2010

oil

19x25

Look familiar? This is the same view as The Fields at Utley Road. Still stylized, but more literal. Whimsical, but more subdued.

Princeton Portrait Group

Every so often I get to the Princeton Portrait Group and give a shot at painting a portrait. It is not really my passion, but it is a good exercise, and for me, plenty challenging. Here is a work in process from this summer.

Landscape show at Post Road Art Center

The Fields at Utley Road

2011

oil

36x36

I know you've seen this painting here before, but it was just accepted into the landscape show at the Post Road Art Center, Marlborough, MA

The juror was Elizabeth Geller, Head of the Corporate Program at the DeCordova Museum.

Here's a snap shot of Utley Road. I did not work from photo, but thought it might be interesting for you to see how the painting connects to "reality" and where it becomes abstracted with the hopes of conveying something about the sense of the place, beyond a mere visual record.

There are 27 pieces in many different media in this show through October 26, 2011.

Opening reception will be October 6th, 5:30-8 p.m.

Post Road Art Center

1 Boston Post Road, Marlborough, MA

508-485-2580

http://postroadartcenter.com/

My traditional side

Arjen's Fields

2010

oil on panel

7x9

Arjen & Jaap are two guys from the Netherlands who grow perennial plants in Deerfield, MA for the wholesale market. Their fields can be a gorgeous sight, when you catch things in peak bloom. This year, their business, Pioneer Gardens, was badly flooded by the Deerfield River due to Hurricane Irene.

This painting is atypical of my usual approach: rather tradional, representational, and worked from a photograph.

Blanche Ames National Juried Art Exhibition

Tablet

2011

12x12x2

plaster and encaustic

My piece, Tablet, has been selected by Juror David Lang to be included in the 9th Annual Blanche Ames National Juried Art Exhibition.

I am really pleased, as this is my first national competition! There will be a printed catalog of all accepted works.

Where: Borderland State Park, North Easton, MA

When: October 18- November 5, 2011 11 a.m.-3 p.m. except Mondays

Admission is free, parking $2.00

Opening reception: Saturday, October 22nd, 7-10 p.m. in the Ames Mansion Library

More information at: http://www.friendsofborderland.org/Home.html or call 508-238-6566

Incidentally, the juror, artist David Lang, has an exhibit at the Boston Sculptors Gallery until October 2nd.

12th Annual Frances N. Roddy Open Competition

Young Man, Seated

2011

conte crayon

32x22, framed

Concord Art Association

September 14-October 16, 2011

Reception: Thursday, September 15, 6-8p.m.

Juror: Ellen Miller, Ellen Miller Gallery, Boston, MA

I am so pleased to have this piece to be included in this competitive show. There were 585 submissions and only 89 selections. This is just my second time, since 2006, that I have gotten a piece in. I am looking forward to the show, and encourage any of you who may be in the area to come. The Concord Art Association has a lovely gallery space in the center of town.

37 Lexington Road, Concord, MA

Free and open to the public

Tuesday through Saturday 10-4:30p.m., Sundays Noon-4:00p.m.

Visit http://www.concordart.org/ or call 978-369-2578 for more information.

Falling, Floating

Untitled Female Figure

2011

24x18

charcoal with pastel

I've been going, almost weekly, to figure drawing at the Sprinkler Factory in Worcester, MA.

Here, I exaggerated the pose into a sort of ecstatic fall.

For information on the drawing group, please visit

http://luisworks.weebly.com

So Long, Room E!

Not the blog, mind you.

I have moved from the space that has been my studio for the past two and a half years.

Happily, Room E is now

even Room E-er.

Once the boxes are unpacked and I get settled, I will show you my new (and even bigger) digs, and more importantly, get back to making some art!

La Viuda (The Widow)

La Viuda

2011

9x9x2

encaustic on plaster

This is my third time working with this combination of materials, and I really enjoy them. They both have such a great feel.

The title for this piece refers to this work by Ramon Casas. And while there is no borrowing of literal images, I feel a similarity. See how his painted folds of white fabric and appears in my piece as the edges of the plaster, for example?

Show at the Sprinkler Factory

Angela,

2011

conte crayon

10x8

The Worcester Life Drawing Group Is having a show at the Sprinkler Factory this September 1st through the 25th.

There will be an artists reception on Friday, September 9th, 2011 from 6-9 p.m.

This group has been meeting for something like 35 years at various locations around Worcester, and some of the original group still attend. I've been drawing with them, with spotty attendance, for the past three years.

Here's one of the pieces I hope to include in the show.

I'm not sure exactly who will be exhibiting, but mostly likely there will be works by some of the Worcester area arts stalwarts like Sid Solomon, Elly Beatty, Sam Lalos, Randy LeSage, Don McCabe, Michel Merle, to name a few.

self portrait

self portrait

2011

9x9x2

encaustic on plaster

Are We There Yet?

The Fields at Utley Road

2011

36x36

oil on canvas

I have been working on this painting for a year.

I think I am done.

But I haven't signed it yet!

Echinacea

2011

8x8

acrylic on paper

If you come here often, you know I don't usually work with still life.

This was fun, though. Uncharacteristically for me, I worked out the composition and colors first, then I went out to my garden to find some pink flowers, and came back with these echinacea (purple cone flowers, if you prefer).

The challenge then was to take something so intentionally designed and make it fresh, loose, gestural. There was some struggle and doubt, but I think I got there, more or less.

I cannot understate the usefulness of the advice I got last year from Jon Imber who encouraged pushing compositions off the edge, and for me, specifically, to use more neutrals.

I am nuts for color, but using neutral tones, really makes them sing. It is like balancing flavors when you cook.

2011

19x16

acrylic on paper

There is something about the lack of specificity in this portrait that feels more to the point, more sincere than my trying to illustrate facial features.

2011

20x16

acrylic on canvas

I painted this last night in a class at Worcester Art Museum with Randy LeSage called "Painting the Figure:

the Nature of Identity".

The colors & light feels like the coast in southern California.......

On the Threshold

2011

24x18

oil on canvas

Return to the Figure

June, 2011

mixed drawing media

24x18

2 x 4's

A pair of eight foot long 2x4's in cast concrete bases.

I made these this past winter in a contemporary sculpture class with Lynn Simmons.

The assignment was to take a 2 x4 and "transform" it. Pretty open ended. My attempt was to revert it to it's primal, tree- self. The method, which was with a hatchet, was as important to me as the end result. My own physical effort was very primitive and primal and I felt imbued the piece with that raw energy.

The shards that came off the lumber were equally important to me, and were used in the second manifestation of this project which I call PV Trees. They can be seen on the Worcester Art Museum's sculpture blog http://wamsculpture.blogspot.com/ scroll to the April 4th, 2011 entry.

To see my instructor's work please visit her website http://www.lynnsimmons.com/lynnsimmons_working/home.html

Fitchburg Art Museum

Tablet

2011

12x12x2

Encaustic on plaster

I just got word that this piece of mine has been accepted into the 76th Regional Exhibition of Art & Craft at the Fitchburg Art Museum. This is the first time I have submitted a three dimensional piece into a juried show, so I am very pleased it got in!

Jurors were: Candace Casey, Worcester Center for Crafts

Nick Johnson, New England School of Photography

Mary Ann Kearns, 119 Gallery, Lowell

Opening Reception is this Sunday, 26th of June 1-3 p.m.

Show runs until September 04, 2011

This is an art museum, so there is a fee for admission.

Members & kids under 12 get in free. Some public libraries may have passes AND the first Thursday of every month from 4-8 p.m. is free for everyone!

Fitchburg Art Museum is located at 25 Merriam Parkway, Fitchburg, MA

978-345-4207

http://www.fitchburgartmuseum.org/

for hours & directions

Rockin' Out

Another plein air abstraction from my trip to Biddeford Pool, Maine.

I was really excited by all the different kinds of rock formations. This spot had very angular, jutting forms.

The painting is 12x12, oil on canvas

Family

2011

beach stones,

Maine coast

So, is it art? I don't really think so, but some would argue.....

I was just getting awfully tired of looking at the last post, and haven't had the chance to photograph any paintings.

Today I have the time, but no sun! I might try under artificial lights and see how that goes.

More from Maine

Untitled

2011

9x12

acrylic on paper

One overcast morning in Maine a few of us gathered on the porch to work on some non-objective paintings. This is my favorite of the ones I made. I think there is a landscape in there.

Storyteller

2011

18x24

mixed drawing media

The Maine Abstraction

Tidal Pool, Maine

2011

12x12

oil on canvas

Took a trip to Biddeford Pool, Maine with a group of talented painters from Worcester, Massachusetts, and spent several days painting at the rocky shoreline.

This was the final painting I did there which was a loose abstraction of a tidal pool. I thought you might enjoy the snapshot of what I was actually looking at. You can see where I wanted to be faithful to the forms, and where I made my departures. There comes a point when getting the forms and colors on the canvas in the way you want them takes precedence over simply recording what is in front of you.