And The Living is Easy?

Yes, it is summertime and in some ways the living is easy.  No snow to shovel, no oil bills to pay, no morning scrambles to get the boys off to school.  But there's a lot going on for the Baker family this summer and while much of it is good, I'm finding it hard to get in much painting.

We are undergoing a major home renovation.  My studio is becoming the kitchen and the kitchen is becoming my studio.  The light was wrong for these two spaces: the studio got lots of southern light and was often too bright, while the kitchen had the steady - but darker seeming - northern light.  The project is stretching out over at least five months.  While the work is being done I am working out of a third floor bedroom that's tiny with less-than-ideal lighting; it also gets wicked hot on summer days.  In the long run, I will get an amazing studio out of this renovation so I'm not grumbling too much.  But my productivity has waned a bit.

It's likely that your summer is relaxing, but busy, but should you find yourself with time to visit a gallery or two, there are several spots where I have work this summer.  I just dropped this painting off last week at Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockland, Maine.

February, Oil on linen mounted on panel, 25 1/4 x 38 inches, 2015

I also have work at Artemis Gallery in Northeast Harbor, Maine.  This is a great spot with a collection of numerous Maine-based artists.  It's tucked just off the main street of beautiful bustling Northeast Harbor with a shaded courtyard that offers respite on a summer's day. And if you are lucky enough to be on Nantucket this summer, Quidley & Company has two of my paintings in their summer show.

About Those Tire Tracks

In the last post I ended with a tease about an upcoming post.  I hinted at images of a Ferris wheel and tire tracks.  And while I may be slow to post, I am at least a man of my word.  Here are two recent paintings.

Our World's Fair, oil on linen on panel, 22 x 45 inches, 2015

It's not unusual to see yards in Maine with old boats and cars as part of the landscape.  It is unusual to see an old Ferris wheel in someone's yard.  Along Route 1 between Sullivan and Steuben there is a house with such a lawn ornament.  It is awesome and odd and always catches my eye. "Our World's Fair" uses this scene with favorite model Lauren and younger son Corin in the foreground.

Town Hall, oil on linen on panel, 22 x 45 inches, 2015

Thanks to miles of isolated pavement and the need to find creative outlets, one can find some intriguing tire mark patterns throughout the state.  Several years ago a documentary was made about this art form.  "Town Hall" feature's a parking lot in the town of Sullivan and a local model named Victoria wearing a yard sale prom dress and my wife's winter hat.  The painting was just delivered to Quidley & Company's Nantucket gallery.

Digging Out

While it's April on the calendar, winter hangs on in Maine with few signs that spring is actually coming around this year.  It's snowed twice this week and this part of Maine has set records for annual snow accumulation and sustained cold temperatures.  It was a good winter to lay low.  And if wintery weather wasn't enough of a reason to take it easy, a torn ACL in a soccer game led to surgery in December and several months of limited activity and rehab.  I'm not back to playing soccer yet but I've returned to full days of painting and am excited about several of the projects that I've recently completed, along with those currently on the easel.

Three portrait commissions filled my studio time just after the new year.  Other completed works include Mid-September and a painting of my older son in his natural habitat titled Reader, Morning Light.  I'll post some "work in progress" photos in upcoming blog entries.  There may be tire tracks and a ferris wheel for you to see.  Until then, check out the aforementioned completed paintings AND my redesigned website.  

Mid-September, Oil on linen mounted on panel, 16″ x 20″

Reader, Morning Light, Oil on linen mounted on aluminum panel, 14” x 14”

Pictures at an Exhibition

A solo show of my work is up at Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockland, Maine through July 26, 2014.  The opening on July 5th was a terrific event.  I was able to see old friends and longtime collectors and meet some wonderful new folks.  Noticing Jamie Wyeth look at my paintings was a quiet thrill for me.  As always, the gallery space looked beautiful, the paintings were hung and lit expertly, and the food and drinks offered at the opening were delicious.  While I can't offer you a bacon-wrapped scallop here on the blog, I can offer you some shots of my work in the gallery.  

Independence Day

Fireworks and lobster are the usual hallmarks of a 4th of July weekend in Maine.  This summer I'm adding a gallery opening to the mix.  And if you're in Maine, I encourage you to do the same.  My solo show at Dowling Walsh in Rockland, Maine opens this week and lasts for the month of July.  The opening reception is on Saturday, July 5 from 5 to 7 p.m..  The gallery is easy to find on Main Street, as it's just across from the gift shop entrance of the Farnsworth Art Museum.  More than a dozen of my new paintings will be on display.  You'll recognize some of my usual models, including my wife Sarah and boys Finn and Corin.  I even sneak into one of the paintings as a model.  Anna B. McCoy, granddaughter of N.C. Wyeth, is having a show at Dowling Walsh Gallery at the same time so if you make it to the gallery, you'll be able to lose yourself in the lines and colors of contemporary realist painting at its finest.  

Projector, oil on linen, 43" x 64"

Succession, oil on linen, 36" x 64"

Accumulation

Winter is still clinging on here in Maine. Yesterday's snow and today's frosty morning are evidence of its tenacious grasp. Nonetheless, the sun is out and the days are lengthening--both are good things for a painter.

I'm still hard at work as I prepare for my exhibition this summer.  As you can see, paintings are accumulating in my studio. As always,  I wish I had more storage space for the finished pieces.  I'm constantly warning the boys to be careful as they wander in after school. Thankfully, there have been no accidents so far. Perhaps it's time to get frames started so that I can deliver a few paintings to Dowling Walsh?  Though I'm on schedule (and by some miracle maybe even a little ahead), I've got a few more pieces to go before I can begin to relax.

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.

Maple

As some of you know I get easily sidetracked, and though there is plenty of painting happening, currently my major distraction is tapping the maple trees on our property to collect sap. I've tapped some of the trees in the past, but this year I've gone all in: tapped about 20 trees and tracked down a used evaporator pan. The weather has been great for sap flow which also means that Spring is really starting to make itself seem like a possibility. That said, I'm sure Maine's infamous mud-season will insert itself in the next month. The last few days have yielded nearly 40 gallons of sap--a critical number as the ratio of sap to syrup is about 40:1. The boys and I are looking forward to boiling the sap this weekend.  There's nothing like a raging fire to attract the attention of Finn and Corin (or any boy for that matter). [or girl!!! --Sarah edit]

"Castle", 2013, oil on linen mounted on panel, 24 x 26 inches

So, back to painting... I just sent a piece down to Gallery Henoch in New York. It's been a while since I've sent them anything, so if you're in NYC and are missing DGB, you should pop in and see this new piece. The painting evolved from a single figure on the bed to the two figures cozied up. There are lots of little details including a bed sheet with a frog pattern that puts a little bit of humor in the painting. In my typical tangled way, I've drawn on themes of loneliness, longing, and love (the three L' s of all good painting and country songs) added some real life detail (exposed box spring and photos taped to the wall), not to mention a dash of princesses; costumes; and, for good measure, a mini-vanitas still life set-up on the bookshelf.

I've also started a few other projects and am looking forward to sharing the images, but for now I'm going to wait. Upcoming are a couple of large canvases, a new triptych, and a portrait.

....and two thank yous:

Britta Konau featured Scott Kelley, Devon Dobrowolski, and me in "The Canvas" in Maine Home + Design.

Rick Beerhorst did an on-line interview with me on Monday March 4th for his fantastic (daily!!) blog.

Evidence of Industry -- Happy New Year

Though to some it may seem that I  have fallen into a distant rabbit hole, there are (trust me) others who know that I have been hard at work. I did just enjoy a fairly e-mail free Christmas week in which I painted not a lick, but otherwise I have been working quite hard.  I'm told that from time too time restorative weeks such as last week are in order.  I am inclined to believe them, especially as more and more of the creative work of image making happens away from the easel. Well, I am back at it today. I'm finishing up a painting of Sarah that is similar to the painting form last year entitled "Sparrow".  In this one she is seen from behind, so the scant details in the painting are of her neck, earlobe, and hair elastics. I'll post a picture soon.
     In the spirit of cleaning off my desk, I thought I'd post a few my final paintings of last year. I'll go in reverse chronological order, starting with a portrait triptych that I finished just before Christmas. Troy Stafford did a lovely job on the frame:

Mallory triptych, oil on three panels, 17" x 65" (total length)

And before the portrait (which, by the way, was an enormously fun project in which I was given free rein) I painted this largish figurative piece and the accompanying study.

Sidereal Day, oil on linen, 36" x 60"

"Study for Sidereal Day", oil on panel, 9" x 12" 

And one final image: this was painted in September just after my exhibition in Rockland.

"Causeway", oil on linen, 24" x 40"

Installation Pictures

Thank you to all who managed to make it to Rockland for my exhibition.  Special thank you to Jake, Mary, Gus and Kirsten at Dowling Walsh who (again) did an amazing job presenting my work. If you didn't make it to the show, here are some installation shots to give you a sense of it.

The absolute success of the show was more than I could have hoped for.  As a result, my studio is empty of work and so I've been busy with much needed tidying and retooling. New subjects are  percolating at the periphery of my consciousness--with some already starting to make their way into sketches. I have a busy winter of painting ahead, so I'll try and post images as they come.

Oh, and there was a review of my show that you can read here.

Exhibition This Week

"Sparrow", oil on linen mounted on panel, 14" x 19"

I am just dotting i's and crossing t's at this point. I've finishing touches on two paintings to take care of and a bit of frame finishing to go. All this is in preparation for my exhibition at Dowling Walsh that opens on Friday the 31st.  Most of the work has been delivered to the gallery, so if you're in Rockland you can stop by and have a preview. If you do not happen to be lucky enough to be enjoying a perfect summer day in Maine, you can just check out their website. They've recently updated my page  with the new images.

Speaking of websites, my very own site just underwent a facelift--complete with rollovers and slideshows!  My friend Dani Meier was the creative and tech force behind it. I chose to simplify and cut out many of the older paintings. Dropping the portrait section has caused the most comments. The reason for this is that though I still do take commissions, I've had the luxury of being able to be more fussy about which projects to take on so I'm not advertising that part of my painting life quite as much.

The above painting (with the awesome frame--thank you Troy!) is already at the gallery. It has a really magical presence that gives me great pleasure whenever I see it. And I'll have to add that as lovely as I think it is in this digital presentation, it seriously glows when seen in person.

So, I'll get back to my easel for final details. I hope to see some of you this Friday in Rockland.

Frames and Details

Well, the rain finally stopped here in Hancock so that means.... frame delivery!  This morning  I am anxiously awaiting the delivery of 4 frames from Williams Cabinetry. The large frame for the painting of the figure in the dinghy I am especially looking forward to seeing. The painting is just about finished and I plan to do some tweaking and glazing once  I have the frame here. Here's a detail:

Detail of Untitled, 2012, oil on linen, 86 x 60 inches

I did take a break from the big painting (still untitled) to work on another piece--that does have a title that I particularly like. It's called Hunters and Rabbits.... Here's a peek:

Detail of Hunters and Rabbits, 2012, oil on linen 36 x 36 inches

And for a bit of a historical reference/influence, when I look at his detail of my painting, I can't help but think about Mr. Eakins' lovely painting of his wife and their Setter.....

Almost Finished

As you can see, I'm almost finished with this painting. I've got a few paintings going all at once as I head into the home stretch for my exhibition at Dowling Walsh in Rockland. This painting still has several hours of painting grass as well as final day of glazing/fussing to go.  I can't quite bring myself to finish it in one fell swoop (see Character flaws, et al.) and have jumped into some other paintings. I'm a junkie for the excitement of the first few days of a painting, so when I felt my energy and confidence flagging last week, I knew it was time to start another piece while promising myself that I'd chip away at the details of this big painting. I'm still unsure of the title for this one, but hope to have it resolved soon. Happily though, the frame is underway--I can't wait to see this framed. It'll be a lovely cherry frame with a gold liner. Williams Cabinetry is again building the frame, I'll do the gilding and then we'll put it all together.

84? 82? 86! Monday

Deciding how big to make a painting is something that I still struggle with.  How does one  know whether an image should be realized as a small painting, a large painting, or any size in between? As a painter, one can develop a comfort zone, and I for one am aware of this.  Many of my paintings are about 18 x 24 inches. From time to time I challenge myself by working on a larger canvas, but still the question lingers: Is this idea really a six foot idea, or just a modest 18 inches?  In addition too the implicit artistic issues that accompany the decision, there are also  mundane logistic issues to tend to: Will it fit on the easel? How heavy will the finished product be? Do I have enough paint? Is there a collector who shares my enthusiasm enough AND has a wall big enough? And then, perhaps none more obvious than transportation. Often the deciding factor is the size of one's car. Well, I have a normal sized station wagon which doesn't accommodate more than a 40 inch wide painting--not bad, but it is a bit limiting, so I've resolved to not even take that into account.

This past week as I worked on an idea for a painting, and it started to scream big...I mean BIG! Once committed to go with it, I needed to settle on a size. The first drawing was 84 inches (7 feet!) tall, the second scaled down to 82 inches (I know it seems like a small difference, but the model's hands seemed much too small...) OK, so, yeah, I went the other direction and settled on 86 inches... and 60 inches wide. I loved how when I finished my snow angel painting last year, it hovered over me as I worked. Perhaps I needed another angel right about now, but in the end my thinking on this was as simple as "if not now, when?" (Mandy that's for you!)

So here I've post the original scribbly sketch from my little 8" x 10" sketch book, a picture of my studio with the drawing taped to a pink rigid foam insulation board and leaning on the 86" x 60" stretcher bars, and a detail from the large study.  I am being a bit secretive about paintings, as I mentioned in my last post, but I'll be sure to post another detail or two along the way.....on your marks, get set, Monday.