Busy, busy, busy!

Detail from new work

I am busy working towards two upcoming shows.

In May I will be joining five dear friends who have all worked and exhibited together over the past five years in Worcester.

This is always a very stimulating group for me to be involved with as my fellow artists do such amazing work with sculpture, printmaking, installation, video, and even occasionally paint!

Our newest production, Continuum:  Five Years On, will open at the Sprinkler Factory, West Gallery on May 13th 2017.

The image above is a section of a large piece (74x63), oil on un-stretched canvas that I will include in  this show.

More news to come.  Check back for updates!

Paper Work

oil and graphite on paper
2015










I am working these days with a specific solo show in mind.

The work will all be oil on paper.  There will be a bit of a range of scale, this being a example of a small one (note push pins for an idea of the size).

There is something about working on paper that feels so natural, so familiar, and very freeing.  You know, like what’s the big deal if you make something “bad”?  Don’t get your panties in a bunch, it’s just a piece of paper!

Many of the recent pieces have bits of older paintings in them.

Fields of Blue

2015
acrylic on canvas
24x36



I am finally wising up to the fact that when I ask friends and fellow artists to weigh in on a painting, it means I am not done, not fully satisfied that I have pushed it as far as I can.

It is as if I am hoping someone’s words will make me feel the way I feel when I know a painting is completed to the best of my ability.

This is probably the most critical thing for any artist to learn:  to learn listen to and trust in their own barometer.  Might actually be the most important thing for any human to learn!

Despite that, I do thank the people who looked at and shared their thoughts on this piece in its last iteration (see last post).

Talking with people you trust about your work can help you develop your inner listening.

Now all I need is a title…….

Workshop

Palimpsest
2015
24x18
ink and charcoal on paper











Here's a piece from the workshop I lead today on "Experimental Mark-making"

Some of the work, including many collaborative pieces, are on exhibit at the GALA gallery at
205 School Street, Gardner, MA.
Visit GALA's website for hours and more information

Also on exhibit is a body of work by Fitchburg artist  C.M. Judge.

Experimental Mark-making Workshop

The Tangled Undergrowth of Memory (detail)
2014
graphite, charcoal and oil stick on wax prepared paper
30x22







Sunday, January 18th I will be facilitating a workshop, a  playshop, at the GALA Art Center in Gardner, Massachusetts.

Emphasis will be on experimentation and collaboration.  And fun.  Remember fun?

We will meet in GALA's space at 205 School Street from 1p.m till 4 p.m.

Free for members, $5.00 for nonmembers.  All proceeds to benefit the GALA Art Center.
Pre-registration required as space is limited.  Visit GALA's event page for registration.

Diptych

The Afterlife of Clouds
2013
36x48
acrylic on canvas




Historically, diptychs were two equal, hinged panels most frequently for Christian imagery.

Royalty  sometimes had portraits of husband and wife painted in this manner.

In contemporary art, the hinge has become optional, and the panels are not always the same size.
What they share with their predecessors is that while there is a thematic and visual relationship, each panel can stand on its own as a painting.

In other words, putting two canvases next to each other and painting one big painting on them does not automatically make a diptych.

This was my first try at this format.  It was a good challenge!

Paper pieces, pieces of paper

Untitled
2013
10x7
mixed media
monotype

Forces at Play
2013
20x16
oil on panel






Everytime I work on a panel I realize how much I prefer them to canvas,

 but to paint panels the size I prefer (larger than this) they are going to get both expensive and heavy!

The solid support does work better from me, though, given how I like to work the surface.

I used a new (to me) medium with this piece:
a gel medium which keeps the body of the oils nice and thick, but has great translucency and is glossier than the cold wax.

The Bather: a skinny-dipper by another name

Skinny-dipper (The Bather)
2013
44x48
oil on canvas

My take on "The Bather".
Here, the figure, the environment and the activity all merge into one visual expression.

As is fairly typical for me, I am more interested in conveying the full sensory experience from my  memory (or imagination) than from observation at the time of painting.

This allows me to be more fully present in the landscape, and therefore keenly aware of it, and equally aware and present as I paint.  This kind of focus works well for me.

Cezanne's masterpiece, The Bather 1885

Interesting note:
Cezanne painted this from a photograph of a model in a studio.

Water Into Wine

Water Into Wine
2013
14x10
Monotype

I Should Be Excited....

For Joan
2013
18x13
mixed media on paper












I should be excited, but I am not.

My painting, Sutured, was accepted by Katherine French into the "Community of Artists" show at the Danforth Museum, but something about the whole experience has left me feeling a little empty.

Maybe I need a break from all these juried shows.

Anywhoooo,
this piece here I did after a wonderful workshop taught by Randy LeSage at the Worcester Art Museum.  We spent a day looking into the life (whooo-ee) and work of Joan Mitchell.

I was previously unaware of her as a printmaker, so that was interesting.

This work is a monotype that I worked into with pastels.

Torii
2013
7x7
monotype on rice paper











Torii are those iconic Japanese gates that were originally put at Shinto shrines to demarcate the boundary between the sacred and profane worlds.

Right now I seem to be turning over in my mind the concept of change, transition.

Whether it be in space or time, there is something magic about the moment the shift occurs when one moment you're in one season or world or state of mind, and the next, you are completely in another.

Forsythia
2013
60x20
oil on canvas












Don't misunderstand, I don't think Forsythia are particularly gorgeous shrubs, but they are so very emblematic of Spring, at least here in New England.

One minute the world is very grey, roadsides are downing in road sand and freshly revealed trash, and the next, the Forsythia burst on the scene with their brash, assertive yellow sprays of blossoms.

By the time their flowers have faded, the landscape is fully roused from its winter slumber, and everything is growing, greening, blooming at a manic pace.

New Landscape

March Wind Across the Hills
2013
15x45
oil on canvas



This piece is about transition and movement.

The hills of Central Massachusetts in March are lit by the much stronger spring sunlight, animated by the still chilly and wild North wind, and colored by dry grasses, patches of lingering snow, and low areas of rich mud.
Green growth has not yet begun to push, but you know it is there, just below the surface.
In a few warm days the whole scene changes, like when The Wizard of Oz goes to color.

So, yes, it is a landscape, but really, it is a lifescape:  transition and movement.

The Journal Series Continues

You Gonna Tell Me
What Control Device I Must Develop To Be A Human?
2013
acrylic
36x36


I am still working away at this found journal series.

See the explanation back on Jan 17, 2013 if you don't know what I am referring to.

 I intersperse this work with oil painting and printmaking because it is so intense and emotionally draining.  Very rewarding, though.

2013
13x10
monotype with oil pastel
















I really enjoy this process of press-free printmaking.
As a matter of fact, I went out and picked up a jar of the oil-based ink in sepia, just like we used in class so I could do more on my own.

Go See Art, Now!

Measurement of the Necessary
2013
40x30
acrylic


















I have been continuing my work with the discarded journal I found many years ago.
This page also contained a list that I loved:
paint
ladder
mIrror   
                                                 
To date I have completed eight paintings in this series.
My plan is to just keep going with it until I can't.
Could be a long trip!

Lots of art to see this weekend.  Central Massachusetts is hopping with Spring shows, despite the prediction of more snow tonight.

I have a figure drawing in Vision as Voice at the House of Art in Monson, MA.

And, for one weekend only, the Gardner Area League of Artists will have their spring show at the PACC in Gardner, MA.

Follow the links for all the details!

Brush Gallery Massachusetts Artists Biennial

Untitled
2013
18x12
mixed media on paper















This Saturday, March 16th, is the opening for Massachusetts Artists 2013 Biennial at the Brush Gallery in Lowell, MA.

All three of my submissions were accepted by juror Dina Deitsch, curator of contemporary art at DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.  She chose only 34 pieces from the nearly 200 submitted.

I am honored and excited!

As for the piece above:  hot off the presses!  Well, actually no presses involved, although there were some printmaking techniques used.

This came out of a terrific workshop I attended last weekend in Holyoke.  Taught by Dean Nimmer (of Art from Intuition fame), we explored monotype printmaking, printing over painted surfaces and drawing into prints.

I came away energized and with a mess of prints that I am looking forward to working with.

The Classics

Penelope's Work
2013
30x22
mixed media on paper
















I can honestly say that Homer's Odyssey remains one of my favorite sagas.

Penelope is generally interpreted as a paragon of fidelity and domesticity, but I love her for her cunning  ability to protect herself, even as a person with few rights and little power.

As you may recall, she  buys some time by promising to choose one of the many unwelcome suitors who have descended upon her home to be her new husband as soon as she finishes weaving a shroud for her father-in -law.
Every day she works at her loom, and every night she secretly slips back and undoes her day's progress.

She does this for three years before they figure out what she has ben up to.

I find something powerful and poetic about that concept of weaving and unweaving the same thing for day after day to preserve yourself.

You Have Nerves

You Have Nerves That End in Ideas
2013
36x48
acrylic

This is the latest in the Found Journal Series.  This has been a complex and totally gratifying project.

I am enjoying the acrylics more than I ever thought I would,