The Painter's Assistant

I've just finished a large painting for this summer's show at Dowling Walsh Gallery. The 76” x 58” piece is an aerial view of a model and my younger son daydreaming as they lie on their backs on the blacktop of a local schoolyard. They're surrounded by bits of lazy summer life: discarded shoes, a bicycle, a cootie catcher (remember those?). And they're inscribed with chalk drawings that make the scene more fanciful. As I was working on the final details for the piece, I sought inspiration for the chalk drawings. I asked Corin to doodle on the lower portion of the canvas with some sidewalk chalk. I wiped out many of his drawings, but kept a couple of them and copied them over in paint before erasing his originals. Should the piece sell, I have a feeling I will owe him a few ice cream cones as compensation.  

Taking Stock

Thanksgiving week featured the return of Sarah and the boys from a trip to Pennsylvania, the emergency installation of an oven in a friend's kitchen so that he could cook turkey for 40 people, the aforementioned feast for 40, and a victory by my beloved (and this year, beleaguered) AC Milan team. It didn't feature as much painting as I'd hoped, but it did give me time to plan for the coming months.

There are still some pieces at Dowling Walsh from my October show. Quidley & Company has a few paintings, including two that they took to November's Boston International Art Fine Art Show. Yesterday I shipped Clear to Gallery Henoch in New York for their upcoming group show. I recently finished a commission for a family in Philadelphia and am in the midst of a commission for a couple in southern Maine. And believe it or not, I've already started to work on paintings for my July 2014 solo show at Dowling Walsh. Nothing helps a Mainer get through a cold winter like plans for the coming summer.

Clear, 2013, oil on linen mounted on panel, 15 1/2 x 28 inches

Of Magnets and Mowing

It's been a quiet couple of days of cleaning up my studio, puttering around the house, catching up on European soccer and mowing the lawn. Getting ready for a show tends to require me to put the rest of the world on “pause”. Sarah and the boys are exempt from “pause” status. Lawn mowing is not.


On Monday, Jake Dowling, owner of Dowling Walsh Gallery, brought his big blue truck and his impeccably dressed two year old son to Hancock Point. He picked up the last of my work for my show. Sarah the-trusty-studio-manager had made two trips in recent weeks to drop off work at the gallery in Rockland. But even Sarah's optimism and my ingenuity couldn't engineer a way to transport an 81 x 60 inch high drawing in one of our average-sized cars. So Jake and his son made the two hour trip to Hancock to pick up my as of yet untitled, but truly enormous drawing and four smaller pieces.

As a technical aside, mounting the drawing on a board and framing it was quite a challenging project. In the end I used neodymium magnets (pull force over 25lbs!!) to hold the drawing in place. Once those babies snapped into place, there was no going back.

The show opens this Friday, October 4. There's a reception from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m., so if you find yourself in mid-coast Maine, please stop by Dowling Walsh to see the show. Jake, Mary, Kirsten and Gus always put on a great opening with good food and drinks. I'll be there, joined by Sarah and surrounded by 30 of my drawings.  

Three (take 2)

I think I may need to put a revolving door on my studio.  Group shows in August and September followed by a solo show in October have meant that artwork and framing supplies have been coming in and out of the studio at a dizzying pace. August was a small works show at Artemis Gallery in Bar Harbor, Maine. The gallery owners also allowed me to offer a first glimpse of the painting The Sea and The Shore to Mount Desert Island collectors before shipping the painting to midcoast Maine.

The Sea and The Shore, oil on linen, 30 x 44 inches

Two of my paintings are in Philadelphia gallery Gross McCleaf's September show Tonalism. Wrapping up the roster of 2013 shows will be an exhibition of my drawings at Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockland, Maine.

A.S.H., graphite on paper, 15 x 16 inches

The show opens on October 4^th and will be up for the month of October. This is the first time I've had a show of drawings. It's a great opportunity to share a different side of my creative process.  There will be nearly thirty pieces in the show, ranging from the 10 x 10 ½ inch study for Sparrow to the about-to-take-over-my-studio 72 x 55 ½ inch drawing tentatively titled Asphalt. A few paintings did sneak into the show, including the aforementioned The Sea and the Shore and a just-finished painting of my sons.

Detail from Untitled

Given the busy nature of work these days, I'm grateful to have hired my first assistant. This summer my wife Sarah left the world of higher education administration to take on a number of new projects, including working as my studio manager. She is more than happy to leave the creative work to me and I am glad to be able to turn over the organizational work to her. The hope is that this will provide me with more time to paint. Time – and this blog – will tell . . .

Study for Sparrow, graphite on paper, 10 x 10 1/2 inches
(although you could also call it Study of the New Studio Manager)

Three

Here's a snap of 3 paintings: one framed and ready to go to Boston, a portrait that I'm just finishing up this week, and a new painting that I just started the other day.

The painting in the frame (another lovely Stafford frame) is entitled "Bluet" and is in the exhibition "In Good Company" at Quidley & Co. on Newbury Street in Boston.

Promises

Study of A.H., graphite on paper, 22 x 30 inches

My latest order of panels from New Traditions Art Panels is set to arrive early next week. I can't wait to get started on a few new projects. At the head of the line is a portrait project; but once that's underway I'll be turning my attention to a painting based on this drawing.

Helium

"Leap Day", oil on linen 30 x 49 inches

Well, Leap Day is a few years away (or a year ago...) but of course celebrating such a day seems a perfect excuse to buy helium filled balloons. And, yes, the boys and I did inhale the helium after I was done with the painting--science and silliness, what's not to like?  Add all that to a masochistic desire to paint snow fencing and ta-da!!

This painting is off to Dowling Walsh later today. I'll be driving it down myself. I'm looking forward to the drive as today the weather is simply amazing AND there are a few places along Route 1 that I've noticed lately with the thought of setting a painting. So, I've got some music (a fantastic new album by Phosphorescent) and some podcasts ready to go along for the afternoon (Slate's Culture Gabfest...btw, last week's episode about the work habits of creative people was fascinating).

The last few weeks have been full of inspiration with ideas for new paintings fast accumulating. I'm working through sketches and scribbles trying to get them all down lest I forget them. Any readers of this blog well know I'm not the best at posting, but I'll make an effort to post some of the drawings as I finish them. Promise.