A Wonderful Opening Reception

Thanks to everyone who came out to make this a great celebration!

Sprinkler Factory Gallery, West
38 Harlow St., Worcester, MA

Gallery Hours:  Saturdays & Sundays 1-4 pm
Show closes June 4th

The Last Week: Anamnesis of Place at Oxbow Gallery

The opening was a wonderful event.  Thanks to everyone who braved the oppressive heat and humidity!

People have been drifting in all month, but now the show is in its last week.
This Thursday through Sunday
 noon until five p.m. and then its all over.

Catch it now!

Oxbow Gallery

275 Pleasant Street

Northampton, MA

New Works: Anamnesis of Place at The Oxbow Gallery

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.

An Uncertain Geometry
2015
4x4 inches
mixed media:  collage, oil, graphite on paper mounted on board


This is a wee little thing, but it pleases me.

I made it during a totally exhilarating,  sometimes nearly chaotic, workshop at Castle Hill in Truro, Massachusetts.

The class was called Working the Surface and was taught by Bonney Goldstein.

I have long admired her work, and she was great fun to learn from.  A real fireball, she is!

There was a lot of experimentation with materials, and techniques.  For example, I used more collage elements than is usual for me.

Another Great Workshop

Last weekend I went to R&F Paints in Kingston, NY for an oil stick, er pardon me, pigment stick workshop with Lisa Pressman.

If you aren't familiar with Lisa Pressman, she is a terrific artist who works in both oil and encaustic.
She has an exhibit in both media right now at the gallery at R&F.

Lisa is one of those rare people who is both gifted at making art and coaching others.

She does demos etc. of her own techniques, but has this uncanny ability to sense where you are in your artistic life and with a very "light touch" offer some words of insight to nudge you on, deeper, beyond old habits and fall-back imagery.

She kicked off the workshop with an exercise, using 6x6 squares of paper.  The rest of the time we were working mostly on our own.

Even though they are "quickies" (or maybe particularly because they are "quickies"), I am enjoying some of them.  It was also fun, back here at home to group them together.

Oil stick and graphite on prepared paper
6x6
2015



More of the larger pieces to come.
Also, next time I will get into how awesome R&F is.

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.

Solo Show Opens This Friday

Expression, Abstraction and the Meta-landscape

May 9 - May 31, 2014

Imagine Gallery

70 Main Street, 2nd floor

Northampton, MA

Artist reception on May 9th 5:30-8:30 p.m.

free to the public

refreshments

My first solo exhibition opens this week in Northampton, MA.

Curator Tricia McDermott selected thirty pieces in a range of media for this show.

The opening is a part of Arts Night Out Northampton, so there will be lots to see all around town.

Hope to see you there!

Gallery hours:  Fridays 6-9

                            Saturdays 3-9

and by appointment 413-585-5830

Paper pieces, pieces of paper

Untitled
2013
10x7
mixed media
monotype

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.

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.

Mmm.... More Mixed Media

Sleep Cycle
2013
12x18
monotype with mixed media


This is a monotype print on paper that I later drew and painted into using acrylics, charcoal, pastel and conte crayon.
I love the layering of processes.

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.

Dilemma
2012
30x22
mixed media on paper