A New Year of Painting

House on Howe Avenue, Shelton, CT, Oil on Canvas, 36″ x 36″, Work in Progress

It’s a new year, full of hope and promise, just like an empty canvas. For one of my last shows of 2011, I painted a series of 12 small (8″ x 8″) building tops (please see my October 23, 2011 post Small Works Show at Ulla Surland’s Design Boutique & Gallery). After the show’s opening, I ended up painting a 13th canvas of a great old house in Shelton, CT. I then wondered what it would be like to do a large roof top. Really large. So I started a version of #13 on a 36″ x 36″ canvas. House on Howe Avenue, Shelton, CT is a work in progress, my first painting of the new year, and I really like how it’s turning out.

I’m working towards a fall solo show, scheduled for September through October. I have my work cut out for me. More news on my progress in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned!

Postcard Show at Chester Gallery

Buildings in Fairfiled, CT, Oil on Masonite, 4″ x 6″

I will be participating in the Postcard Show at Chester Gallery (76 Main St., Chester, CT) during the month of December with four building-scapes. Each painting is postcard size at 4″ x 6″. The show opens Friday, December 2, 5 – 7pm, and continues on through mid-January. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm.

Small Works Show at Ulla Surland’s Design Boutique & Gallery

I will be participating in a small works group show, opening on November 5, 2011, 6:30 – 9pm, at Ulla Surland’s Design Boutique & Gallery in Fairfield, CT. Each of the 16 artists in the show will be showing multiple works. If you are in the vicinity, I hope you will check it out. The show runs through the end of December 2011.

Below are 6 of 12 pieces I prepared for the show. Each piece is oil on canvas, 8″x 8″. The challenge was to create a series, basing all 12 pieces on a unifying theme of my own choice. It was a great project to work on.

Faces of Fairfield

My entry, a cropped image of my painting She Came by Water, was selected to be a part of the Fairfield Arts Center’s 2011 Banner Project “Faces of Fairfield.” It’s located right outside Beach Bum Tanning on the corner of Post Road and Unquowa Place, and you can see it while traveling west on Post Road. For five years now, FAC, with local merchant sponsoring, has been displaying art by local artists on lamp post banners all around Fairfield Center. They will be up all summer long, so come down to Fairfield and check them out!

Forsythia and Japanese Maple

Forsythia and Japanese Maple, Oil on Canvas, 24″ x 12″

This painting is a portrait landscape (a landscape that has a portrait orientation) with a composition of stacked triangles. The scene is right outside my sister-in-law’s house in New Hartford, CT, and depicts the day (May 8th) on which all the trees decided to release their pollen. Beautiful day, miserable allergies.

Still Life: Party of Empties

Party of Empties, Oil on Board, 19″ x 24″

I started this still life a couple of years ago with a good “block in” but didn’t work on it after that. Full of hope and promise, it just hung around my studio, mostly behind the door. Recently, I decided to put it back on the easel and go to work on it. Maybe it was spring cleaning or maybe is was just a reactionary scream, showing that I’m really not in a “brown and gray” phase as my latest postings would suggest. The empties are 3 sake bottles, 1 vase, and 1 bowl.

Spectrum 2011

My painting Hibernation (Please see my April 14 posting) has been included in Spectrum 2011, an annual juried art exhibition presented by the New Canaan Society for the Arts at the Betty Barker Gallery (The Carriage Barn Arts Center) in New Canaan, CT. The exhibition runs May 1 – June 12, 2011, with an opening reception on Sunday, May 1, 4 – 6 PM. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Friday , 12 – 4 PM, Saturdays and Sundays, 1 – 5 PM. Address and directions can be found on the Carriage Barn Arts Center website: www.carriagebarn.org. I scrambled last weekend to make a frame for it. So glad I did!

Hibernation

Hibernation, Oil on Board, 30″ x 24″

Winter is like an unlit light bulb, sleeping, waiting, in no hurry to light up into spring, and our winter here in Connecticut was particularly long this year. This old fixture hangs from the ceiling of my studio. I was inspired to make a painting of it by north light two days before the first day of spring. After painting it on a 14″ x 12″ piece of Masonite, I thought it needed more space around it, so I inserted it into another board with the help of my good friend Rich who made some very nice, precise cuts. Now the piece is more cave-like, and I love how the drip patterns of the two boards relate in some places.

Woman

Woman, Oil on Board, 18″ x 12″

My painting Woman sold today at the Junior League of Eastern Fairfield County’s 19th Annual Art Show. I made it a few years ago, and it was the very first in a series of monochromatic figures. I still enjoy painting  this way (See my March 3, 2011 post Captive Thought) because of its intensity and focus on form.

I am very happy that Woman has a new home!

The Junior League of Eastern Fairfield County’s 19th Annual Art Show

I will be participating in the Junior League’s Art Show this year with 7 paintings: 5 still lifes and 2 figures. Use this gallery card for a $2 discount on admission!