Happy Solstice and I got a gift!

My favorite holiday is here again...dark and gloomy, as usual. The sun, on it's rare and brief appearances here in Vermont,  has barely been able to peer over the distant tree tops during the last week. But what I like about winter solstice is that it is the turning point; ever so slowly the days will lengthen and light will strengthen.  May there be some bright cold sunny days right around the corner?

photograph by Michael Poster

Look who I found at Windham County Humane Society...what a lucky day for me! He's 16 pounds of cuddles. And he is obviously a painter's cat...look at the bold black brush stroke under his nose. He has not been named yet...any suggestions? He's a laid back guy, only slightly perturbed at a rambunctious cattle dog who is monitoring his very move.

In 2012 our two old cats, Harley (19) & Norton (13) left us six months apart. Many knew Harley who loved an Open Studio for all the attention she would garner from visitors. She never tired of guests. Norton was her exact opposite. At the first sign of a stranger at our door Norton would run and hide, a very private fellow.

Sketching Group

I have been an avid sketcher since high school. It is fun. It appeals to my industrious nature. I get better at it over time (unlike many other things which I seem to get worse at...like lifting heavy objects or walking fast or remembering proper nouns). Sketching seems to help put the world in order on a personal history kind of level.

Birds of a feather occasionally flock together and this often happens over coffee somewhere on Main Street in Brattleboro, Vermont. We talk. We check out each others new pens, pencils and sketchbooks. We stop talking and start scratching quietly on paper. We try not to be too obvious in scrutinizing  our hopefully unsuspecting fellow coffee drinkers while they eat their lunch or work on their laptops or commiserate over their parents or toddlers. We complain when our 'model' leaves the scene. Sometimes we decide still life is easier.  For a couple hours a week we enjoy the company of other sketchers.

For those artists who think it feels weird to draw in public, I say it is one of the nicer things people do in cafes. Most people are too busy text-ing to notice what or how well you draw. Why not join us? Or assemble a sketching group wherever you are.

 

Our coordinator and organizing guru wears two pairs of glasses - at once. She is an accomplished sketcher (and has X-ray vision).

These recent sketches were done in a watercolor moleskine landscape format  (5 x 8.5")with Prismacolor Premier fine line markers

Aegis Art Works Exhibit

I've been invited to show my pastel paintings during the Cotton Mill Open Studio and Holiday Sale. My work will be on the 3rd floor filling the exhibition space at Aegis Art Works. Come up and have a look...there is room for all of you! Suite A354, 74 Cotton Mill Hill,  Brattleboro, VT.
Friday, Nov. 30, 10-7
Saturday, Dec. 1, 10-6
Sunday, Dec. 2, 10-5

Check out Michael Poster's Photographs on the second floor in his huge brand new studio(!), as well as two dozen other artists and fine crafts workers all over the building; blown glass, woodworking, furniture, ceramics, circus, dance, music, film, garden sculpture, jewelry, books, bodywork, jams, candles - shopping, performances, demonstrations, food, fun....plenty of parking.

Aegis Art Works handles fine art - crating, installation, transport, exhibition and storage.

Butternut Gallery and Second Story Books

One of the best things about my hometown, Montrose, PA is the Butternut Gallery and Second Story Books. The proprietors, a husband and wife team, Betty Bryden and Tom Canouse, show a continually changing selection of fine art and craft. Their collection of lightly used books never ceases to amaze me; always something I'm interested in. This place is a treasure in the community. How lucky to have this enduring business and cultural addition right in the center of town. They regularly show the work of over twenty artists.

I  moved away from the hometown of my life. I now live in Vermont, but I return to the Butternut several times a year and I bring my new paintings there. Stop in during the holidays for some good cheer,  new art,  unique gifts and good reads...children's books, too. 570-278-4011

Why draw?

Why not?

Sometimes you just want to draw - motivation!  So, I looked around my house with pencil in hand for the subject. Ah, those adorable squashes (and one pumpkin)! They taste great, but so far have looked too good to cook. After all, I had purchased them for their appearance. Having a block of two hours, I strung them out on my smooth maple dining room table adding an item destined for my husband's lunch.  The cherished vase, made by Ray Kaplan of Philadelphia, has been sitting on the table alone for several weeks since Ray gave it to us.

This is a subtle and delicate pencil wash drawing...if I was using pastels I may have given these objects a very different treatment. Moleskine Folio A4 Watercolor Album (12 x 8.5 inches), Derwent Sketching Wash pencils (light and bold), brushes, water, sharpener and erasers (dogs snoring under table optional).

River Gallery Exhibit

First Friday in Brattleboro, Vermont is a wild time: bars, stores and restaurants on Main Street and beyond are displaying new art exhibits; exuberant gangs of thirteen year-olds clog the sidewalks; parents supervise their kids' teams selling baked goods; live music abounds---first Friday of the month-12 times a year! Those who came for Gallery Night duck into art exhibits and are rewarded by seeing original art. 

This year I have been part of a group that meets twice a month at River Gallery School of Art. Independent Study is comprised of 8 artists and Lydia Thomson, artistic director of the school. We discuss our works in progress and offer critique. Our oil paintings and eclectic works on paper are truly worth seeing. Hope you will stop in during November and check out fresh new individual works by:

Jillian Farwell
Basha Freudenberg 
Carol Graham 
Hollie Landfried 
Joan Lovell  
Jennifer Meehl
Isabel Murphy 
Rodrica Tilley

First Friday celebration is 5:30 to 8:30pm Nov. 2nd. The River Gallery is on the second floor of 32 Main Street AND there is an elevator!

Garden Triptych

These three pastel paintings started in the garden on an easel set up in the driveway....en plein air. Then, months later, they moved to the studio to be finished. It was a wonderfully successful garden of annuals with a few exotic tropicals thrown in; castor bean plant,  dahlias, cannas. This little garden was alive with butterflies, bees and hummingbirds all summer. It's all over now; their frost-blackened bodies pushed into my compost bins.  Situated right in the middle of a rather tight driveway, I spent the summer defending my plants' right to exist in proximity to concrete trucks, numerous building crews, weed whacking kamikaze teenagers and the speed-demon UPS man. Survive it did and bloomed brilliantly right up to October 13th....and 27 degrees!

SOLD  10 x 10, 10 x 14, 10 x 10in. (25.4 x 25.4, 25.4 x 35, 25.4 x 25.4cm)

Now I am trying to decide how to frame these three paintings; separately? together? color frame? Some paintings paint themselves...not these 3 and they're not going to jump into stock frames, either.... decisions, decisions, decisions. Any ideas? Tell me what you think...and thanks for looking.