Marshall Point Light

Having been encouraged by a number of folk to work on another block print after "Harbormaster's Workshop," I looked for a suitable subject in my hundreds of photos.  The picture needed to have an interesting geometry and to be able to resolve itself into black and white with some accounting for shading.  A photo I took last year of Marshall Point Light in Port Clyde (where the Monhegan Island ferry docks) seemed to qualify.  After sketching the photo onto the block using the grid method, I took knife to block then ink to block and the initial Artist Proof is shown above.  It is very satisfying to see the initial proof run validate the hours of cutting and trimming and all the big and little decisions of where to cut and how to cut.  Once cut, there is no un-cut process.  This afternoon I trimmed to size the paper for "Marshall Point Light" and prints will be available in an edition of 25. 

Cundy's Harbor - Harbor Works Gallery

The Block and Tackle restaurant in Cundy's Harbor was having their lobster specials again this week, so Alex and I headed down there for the $9.99 lobster platters - very delicious. Once dinner was done, we moved on to the harbor proper and visited the Harbor Works Gallery. There were two outstanding photography shows there - William Anderson's portraits of African-American life in the South in the 1970s and Lesley MacVane (photos) and Roger Berle (words) portraits of fishing life on Cliff Island Maine. Both shows were quite personal and moving. The view from the gallery of the harbor was outstanding as well. The show ends October 3rd so if you can, try to visit it. It is worthwhile.

Ten States + DC in 12 Days

On a 12 day road trip, Alex and I visited friends and family in NY, VA and NJ, toured lots of good art, and ate just a little too much "good" food.  Pictures of our road trip are found here.  On our way out of New England at the start of the trip, we stopped at the Worcester Art Museum which featured "pardon our appearance" galleries and only select elevators that worked. We were not enchanted.  However we were enchanted by the shows at the Visual Arts Center in Chautauqua NY, where the highlights were Steve McCurry's pphotography and the student art show.  Also enjoyable was the North Carolina Dance Theatre who are in residence at Chautauqua for the summer.  Then it was on to DC for the Chuck Close show at the Corcoran, an in-depth look at multiple processes of print making used by Mr. Close.  The sped-up video of the hand applied ink stenciling process for the Roy Lichtenstein portrait drew a crowd.  The Corcoran was free on Saturdays, yay.  And as luck would have it, there was another show of Chuck Close work at the VFMA in Richmond VA, some of which were the end product of the processes shown at the Corcoran.  The VFMA also had an excellent collection of Art Nouveau and Art Deco.  To cap the art portion of the road trip off, we visited the Crossroads Art Center in Richmond and caught a roomful of wonderful found metal and lighted wall sculptures (see picture above) by Kris Krull.  A lot of miles and worthwhile art.

A Blackbird and some Blueberry Blast

I've finished one last 10 inch by 10 inch for 2010 - "Red-winged Blackbird." Alex and I were returning from the Wolfe Neck Arts Festival in June, when we saw the water lily pond roadside with lilies in bloom. I hopped out to take some snaps and Mr. Blackbird just sat and posed as I clicked away. In painting the scene, the lily pond was a bit more intricate than Mr. Blackbird, but hopefully the juxtaposition works. As a sidenote, we found Jack's Relish at Wolfe Neck. I bought a jar of Blueberry Blast - a blueberry jam with harbonero pepper sauce mixed in, excellent on cream cheese and crackers - yahoo!! Alex bought a relish that she claims was the best ever, and has long since been finished off.

Workshop Saturday

This past Saturday, my neighbor and studio mate, Alan Mast, and I attended on all day workshop at the Maine College of Art (MECA) on Image Transfer and Copies led by Jill Dalton. We spent the day being instructed in, trying out and mostly bungling mechanisms for transferring images from paper copies to various surfaces via oils and artist mediums. The jury is out on whether any of the techniques will prove useful in further work. More experimentation is needed. The image above on the left is a transfer where the inkjet photocopy bled and produced the weird ghostly effect - interesting?? I don't know. Perhaps the highlight of the day was when Alan and I visited the June Fitzpatrick Gallery next to MECA after the workshop was over and viewed the art on display there. The quality and crispness of the work were striking after a day of struggling in the workshop. Noa Warren's pieces (one is shown above on the right) were especially noteworthy, and required a detailed explanation by the gallery manager as to how they were produced - Belgian linen, multiple coats of clear acrylic, pencil drawing of mesh-like image, precise exacto knife work on the drawing and filling in the knife notches with acrylic paint to give the illusion of a folded mesh embedded in clear plastic. No fumbling or bumbling there.

Two More 10 by 10s

I've completed two more 10 by 10 inch paintings. The flower is entitled "Summer Snow," a type of Japanese Tree Lilac that Alex and I saw at the Coastal Botanical Gardens earlier this year. I really enjoy using the water-mixable oil paints to get the colors to work with and flow into each other on the canvas. The other painting is "The Harp," a scene from the warmup for a MidCoast Symphony performance.

On another note, the Brunswick Art Walk this past Friday was quite busy for my studio mate, Alan Mast, and myself. We had a solid number of visitors and much enjoyable discussion. It was quite energizing.

New York, New York

Alex and I had a whirlwind Fourth of July holiday weekend in New York City. Click here for pics of our NYC trip. It was exhausting and exhilirating. It left us grateful to be able to return home to Maine. We arrived Saturday afternoon and careened via cab directly to the Metropolitan Art Museum. The Met is huge and confusing. We think we caught everything we wanted to, skipping Picasso and Tut's funeral (not big fans) which were elbow-to-elbow, but doing the Rooftop Garden's installation, the Women's fashion exhibit, the Arms and Armor collection and the standing galleries of 19th and 20th century art. We walked around Times Square which was not-quite-a-mosh-pit and one of NYC's finest pointed us to a Two Brothers pizza two blocks off the main drag for $1 a slice pie - outstanding. On Sunday morning, I took a walk to the Hell's Kitchen flea market - not exactly hopping. Then we went to the Times Square Church - an experience to be sure; the choir rocked. Then we were off to MOMA which was 5 floors well organized. The Women's photography show was very compelling. Concept art seemed the focus for other exhibits - to me, kind of scratchy and not very warm. Then it was fireworks cruise time on the Spirit of New York - singing wait staff, endless buffet, endless DJ, DHS everywhere, cruise up the Hudson and back and twenty minutes of Macy's fireworks from 5 barges. On Monday morning, we found a Gourmet Deli and had them fix us a cheese sub which we ate on the way out of the city - the best sub in years. NYC - nice to visit, plenty left over to see next time.