Happy New Year!

January has been busy;

* there was a ton of drawing to do; a half marathon, weekly portrait classes, life drawing class and then just everyday sketching and drawing...and 12 months of drawings to sort, store and photograph, followed by a trip to recycling.

*there were resolutions to make (and a whole month all ready in which to break most of them).  One that still has a chance is my determination to finish The Fifty State Plein Air Painting Project...only seven states left...flight reservations have been made for Louisiana in March...any suggestions as to specifics? things not to miss while my daughter and I are there for a week? On to Nevada, Utah, California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska later in the year.

*12 little pastel nocturnes had to be put into their fussy little shadowbox frames...which was made more complicated by the lack of adequate heat in my studio (cold fingers are not nimble).

...all to tell you I have had a productive first month of 2014...even though no blogging. I hope you are getting some things accomplished, too. 

Pen and ink, charcoal or pencil.

Season's Greetings

We are getting our first real snow tonight...6"-12" they say. This will make fellow Vermonters happy. I will try to appreciate the beauty of having my world transformed overnight. It is always a magical event and made even better by a little sunshine! If your December is a dark gray gloomy one, here are some rays for you. 4pm Winter Garden.

This large pastel is finally in the frame after a particularly long gestation period in which it just hung around and hung around my studio...sort of like the snowdrops...wishing won't do it...one must just wait until the time is right. Not sure where it's next stop is, but I think I will enjoy it for awhile in it's finished state.

Family at Cottonmill

Saturday December 7 10-6
Sunday December 8 10-5
2013
FREE!!! 
74 Cotton Mill Hill, Brattleboro, VT

15th Annual Cotton Mill Open Studios and Holiday Sale!

Zoe Tilley Poster and I are guests in Michael Poster's Photography studio for the BIG weekend. There will be over 60 artists, artisans and small businesses showing their work or opening their doors as part of this vibrant community at 74 Cotton Mill Hill, Brattleboro, VT. Michael will be showing some of his recent photographs. Zoe's illustrations, cards, prints and shirts of various beasts drawn in graphite. I will have some 2013 selections from my Fifty State Plein Air Painting Project up on the wall.

Not only is the food by Entera (Tristan Toleno) but there will be Caricatures by Chas. Rak. That's in addition to circus acts, marquetry, blown glass, felted wool, really huge ceramic vessels, owl food, sterling silver jewelry, framed sports and music memorabilia, turned wood, jazz, custom furniture and MORE, way more cool items that may just delight someone on your list. Did I mention caramels and jam...and  the best granola ever? Crepe paper flowers and skin creams. Dance and.....sugarplums? 

 Michael and I would love to have you stop by. The Cotton Mill seems to have a changing intriguing cast of characters. Come visit your faves and see who's new in 2013.

Beware, there's a chance you might want to run away and join the circus.

Happy Thanksgiving

There are many, many things to be thankful for today...one of the small things is that there are still sheep in Vermont. I just love sheep...what is it about them?  There is a whole flock of brown ones on Western Avenue in Brattleboro. They were freshly shorn when they arrived at Solar Hill in September. and I thought they were goats. I should not have hesitated to paint them...who knows where they will be by spring. Maybe I will still get a chance this fall.

I hope your Thanksgiving is a warm and safe one. Eat hardy. Be nice.

This is the painting I fell on Halloween week. I think I actually improved it and with a bit of tidying up it turned out better than I had thought before the tumble/smearing.  

Two Finnsheep 12 x 16 soft pastel on Wallis Belgian Mist board framed and for sale on a wall near you soon.

Calendar Features my Painting

 The Historical Society of Cheshire County is producing a calendar featuring 12 art works from the 2013 exhibit 64 Miles; Along the Ashuelot River in New Hampshire. My plein air pastel painting, is one of those chosen.

Ashuelot River Homes

Drawing Marathon

Twice a year River Gallery School puts on a 12 hour life drawing event. Ten AM found 12 plus artists from New England and NYC lined up at our easels, shuffling palettes, chalks, pencils. With the first model on the stand quiet descended and the rhythm of the day took shape. There was music and scratching on paper and three very different models...they posed for quick 1 minute poses to "get acquainted", then a couple 5 minute and a 10 minute and a 20 minute pose. Then several 30 minute poses, until their 3 hour stint was up and a different model replaced them. I am happy to say that about 4 artists finished out the day. I was not one of them...my recent hand injury cramped my style after 9 hours, but I am all ready looking forward to spring 2014 to the next marathon.

That much time and that many poses lets one explore a new medium or a fresh idea.  I worked in charcoal most of the day, trying to express how I felt about each pose...and trying not to make the same familiar miscalculations over and over; trying to let the drawing flow out of me unhindered by my own criticisms and crutches; guiding with a light touch.

Sargent's Watercolors

 John Singer Sargent's Watercolors at The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston did not fail to leave me starry-eyed. 90 of my favorite paintings ever!...and sort of old best friends. The first real artist's monograph I ever owned was Donaldson F. Hoopes Sargent Watercolors pub. 1970 Watson Gupthill. I scrutinized those images for hundreds of hours at the time I was learning to paint in watercolor. As is always the case, the actual paintings are dazzling. Seeing them in the extensive purple galleries, perfectly lighted made for an unforgettable experience.

The colors! The strokes! The composition! The draftsmanship! The light! Masterful!

I know many of you saw this exhibit in NYC. The story of how the Broooklyn Museum and Museum of Fine Art came to purchase the bulk of Sargent's watercolor paintings a hundred years ago is an interesting one. They have aged superbly...relevant now in their abstract picture form and spontaneous paint handling. His sparsely painted figures live and breath with the merest of gesture and feature. He considered his watercolors to be a body of work in it's own right...not as staging or support of his monumental oils.

The galleries are arranged by subject; Venice, Mountains, Alpine Streams, Figures, Carera Marble Quarries with workmen, Gardens, Bedouins. It is worth braving Boston traffic to see. Take two friends. I did.