Camden Harbor

"Camden Harbor", Joe Godleski, oil, 2011

Alex and I find ourselves visiting up the Maine coast from time to time and Camden is one of our favorite spots. When we can, we climb up Camden Hills for the view of the harbor and surrounding seascape. It is always a wonderful vista. Well, I finally sketched out a view of the harbor from the visits and resulting photos. I painted the view on DaVinci panel in 24" by 18" format. It's such a seemingly calm, organized locale to be the backdrop for a movie such as "Peyton Place."  You never know.

Carlo Pittore - Day of 1,000 Drawings

Last Saturday, the Carlo Pittore Foundation held a sale and silent auction of 1000 of the late artist's works on paper.  It took up the entire area at Fort Andross in Brunswick where the Winter Farmer's Market (see below) is held.  It was dizzying in scope, quantity and quality.  I first became familiar with Carlo Pittore's work when I submitted "Pastor Philip" for a portrait show at the Merrymeeting Arts Center in Bowdoinham few years back, and they hung my work right next to one of Carlo Pittore's.  It was a thrill.  He was at the forefront of postcard art and was quite prolific, the 1000 drawings being a small fraction of his total legacy.  My personal haul from the the day's event are shown in the pictures above.  I am especially happy about getting one of the boxers that were up for sale.  It was a good day.  To find out more about the Carlo Pittore Foundation, click here.

3 for 3 at 10 by 10

Across Frenchman Bay, Oil, Joe Godleski

View From Camden Hills, Oil, Joe Godleski

Last Friday night's 10 by 10 show benefitting Arts Are Elementary was really something.  Brunswick merchants and restauranteurs donated an abundance of very good munchies that this chow hound "appreciated" to the max.  The crowd was festive and generous.  The volunteers kept everything moving smoothly.  And all three of the paintings I entered were sold - November Morning, Old Pumper, Heading for Cover!  So, I've been working on a couple of mountain/waterscapes, and they are shown above.  The palette and detail for these were scaled back from my usual work, as a change of pace.  Next show upcoming is the Yarmouth Arts Festival at Saint Bart's, October 19 - 22.  The Coastal Garden Rhododendron was juried in.  I'm looking forward to the artist's reception Oct. 20, 6 - 8 pm.

Hanging Out in Portland

Dock Fore, Portland Head Light

Dock Fore, Day is Done grouping

A little while ago, Shaun McCarthy of the Dock Fore pub in the Old Port put out a call for artists to show in his establishment and to participate in the Portland Art Walk.   That led to my paintings and prints hanging in Dock Fore for the Portland First Friday Art Walk in October through to October 29th.  Dock Fore is cozy joint and I think my pictures work there.  Plus, it'll be fun to check out the Portland Art Walk.  So, with my pictures hanging elsewhere, there's empty spaces in the Brunswick studio that need to be filled.  The newly finished "Late November" will help.  I had gotten such positive feedback for "November Morn" which will be in the September 30th 10 by 10 show, that I decided to paint a larger variation, and I dig painting those rocks, using a lot of wet-on-wet technique.

Late November, Joe Godleski

November Morn, Joe Godleski

Dogging It

Maggie, Joe Godleski, Oil on Board

Foxy, Joe Godleski, Oil on Canvas

Here's a couple of portraits of family dogs - Foxy and Maggie.  Foxy's portrait was originally a much bigger canvas but upon further review, the interesting part could be distilled down to a 10" by 10" window, and so with scissors  and new stretchers, it was.  Maggie's portrait is done on gessoed Elephant board, which turned out to be a much smoother medium to work with versus trying to traverse the hills and dales of canvas.  I'll be using more board moving forward.  On another note, the Bowdoin season has resumed.  The lecture / slide presentation by Mark Wethli on his public art documented his efforts to complete a work, Civitas, for the Muskie School of Public Service.  Mr. Wethli abstracted Lorenzetti's 14th century fresco, Effects of Good Government on City Life for this work. The walkthrough from idea to design to build for this project provided a behind-the-scenes insight into the soon-to-be finished work of art.

The 10 by 10 September 30th

"Boothbay Harbor",
Joe Godleski, oil

"Old Pumper", Joe Godleski, oil

This past Saturday morning, the check-in was held for the annual 10 by 10 show at the Curtis Memorial Library here in Brunswick. The web posting of the works submitted gives some indication of the variety and quality to be available at the show. It will be a pretty cool show, preview September 29 and 30, show September 30, 5 to 8. My third 10 by 10, "Old Pumper," is shown to the left. I also finished another work in water-based oil, "Boothbay Harbor." It's the first vertical painting I've done in a while, measuring 24" high by 8" wide. And lastly, kudos to the Thornton Oaks folks for the set up, most wonderful opening and ongoing show (until September 22, 2011) of "Community Paints."

A Week at Chautauqua

Alex and I recently spent a very active week at Chautauqua NY. Besides lectures, music, dance, and great weather, there was a goodly amount of art to take in. At the Strohl Art Center were three shows: 1) "Out of the Blue" on the first floor which presented works all using blue as a unifier of sorts, 2) "Abstraction in America: Forties to Sixties" on the second floor in conjunction with Albright-Knox which had a heavyweight representation of artists of the period but which left me wondering how the same works would be received today, and 3) "Bilateral Trace: Four Emerging Artists from Iran" which let us in on the recent works of four woman artists from Iran. This third show was the more adventurous and interesting of the 3. One of the artists (work "Tantalized" shown above), Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi, gave an insightful lecture later in the week outlining her accelerating artistic journey and providing shots of fellow artist Roshanak Tehrani on a trip back to Iran. The student show at the Fowler-Kellogg across from the Strohl was as outstanding as last year, with the majority of the art marked sold - always a good sign. I also took a daily figure drawing course at Chautauqua led by visiting artist Antonio Petracca which turned out to be time really well spent. "Focus on the core. Focus on the core." Aye, will do.