Plein Air - Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

"Early Azaleas" in early progress

"Early Azaleas" nearly done

 Along with 100+ other artists, I took advantage of the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens week of open admission to artists for plein air painting on the Gardens grounds.  It was Memorial Day week and a few of the days were washed out but a few of the days were just fine for setting up and painting.  The problem was there was just so much to choose from.  I settled on a little tableau off the Steep Trail where early azaleas were in bloom.  Working in acrylic and fighting the mosquitoes, on day two I completed "Early Azaleas."  After the week of painting, over 70 artists submitted a work for the Gardens plein air show and the resulting show was wonderful, with a lot of good value art.  My "Early Azaleas" managed to sell (yay).  I forgot to take a picture of the final work (boo).  The Gardens are always a great visit.

Brunswick Art Walk 2012

Don's Piglets

All Species Parade

The 2nd Friday Art Walk season kicked off this past Friday in Brunswick with a flourish.  The All Species parade organized by Spindleworks got things rolling down Maine Street with a spirited marching band leading marchers sporting innovative and smile-provoking "species-wear."  (As an unintended tribute to the All Species parade, I just finished a new soft block print, Don's Piglets.)  The weather held up quite nicely and Art Walkers were rewarded with an expanded Art Walk including many pop-up artists showing a wide variety of art and wares.  In my new studio location in the Lincoln Building, there was a steady stream of Art Walkers enjoying the evening.  Outside my studio door, Paulus Fine Furniture set up a display of extraordinarily beautiful and artful chairs, tables and stands.  It was quite an entryway into my studio.  Finally, major props to my studio neighbor, Connie Lundquist, who worked purposefully with Five River Arts Alliance, area businesses and artists in setting up the Art Walk for this year.  A job extremely well done!!

New Work, New Digs

"Muscolo", oil on canvas

"Cushion Spurge", oil on linen

Here's the two latest completed pieces.  "Cushion Spurge" is a ground cover flowering plant in the poinsettia family that I found at the Boothbay Coastal Garden a couple years back.  What appealed to me for the painting were the shadows and shapes combined with all the variations found in the green, yellow, black palette.  On the other hand, "Muscolo" is comprised entirely of different sized and shaped triangles working to "approximate the curve" throughout the image, exploring the triangle's ability to intersect and interact.  Well, I moved uptown and got my own studio on Brunswick's Maine Street in the Lincoln Building, 2nd Floor, across the hall from Connie Lundquist's studio.  The space is roomier, the light (east north east) is great and the sound of traffic and street goings-on works for me.

The view from the Met Rooftop

After setting this one aside a couple of times, I finally completed the painting shown above - Met Roof Garden.  It was Fourth of July weekend two years ago, and the rooftop of the Metropolitan Art Museum offered a crystal clear view of NYC over Central Park tree tops.  It was also wicked hot and getting up there took some climbing as the elevator was reserved for special use.  The panorama was painted from a composite of 7 photos taken as I spun slowly left to right.  I think it will be a while before I try to paint so many building windows.  On another note, Alex and I attended a presentation by visiting artist, Nancy Blum, at Bowdoin today.  She was captivating and her work was just amazing.  She works very artfully in large scale drawings, sculpture and public art.  We are so glad we didn't miss her talk.

Creature Great and Small

"Selby Gardens Egret", Joe Godleski,
Oil

"Stranger", Joe Godleski,
Prismacolor and Graphite

My latest work is shown here.  The "Selby Gardens Egret" was done in water-miscible oil on canvas, 12 inch by 16 inch, and was based on an egret we saw at the Selby Gardens in Sarasota, FL.  The egret was doing a strange, undulating walk and did not seem at all put off by the humans strolling the garden grounds, which were quite beautiful.  I took several snaps and then sketched out the painting from the reference snaps.  I used a rich palette and was not bashful about applying the paint wet-on-wet.  The bug called "Stranger" was done in Prismacolor and graphite pencil on paper, 20 inch by 20 inch.  The bug was discovered last summer here in Maine sitting attached to the door of Alex's black car in the sun.  I took a couple of snaps and gridded out one of them.  Then using a limited set of Prismacolor and graphite pencils, I formed the image from multiple shape and size triangles to produce a crystalline effect.  Two creatures, two different locations, approaches and results.

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.