Always Circling Back to Watercolors

I love the texture and smell of my oil paints. Thick fat color I can mix and layer. But a few times a year I sit with my watercolors and work on series inspired by my walks in Westport. Sometimes it feels like I'm conducting music. I just put a new series up on Etsy titled River Lentement. A french tern used in music to describe slowly but surely. 

Forge Pond and waterfall with Levi

Landscapes for Saturday Sale

It recently occurred to me that most of the work I'll have at my sale this weekend has never been in a show or even hung on a wall together. It will be a reunion of colors that came to me, I played with for awhile and then packed away. When I finish a body of work, I like putting it away in a dry place to cure. Sometimes months and months go by before I see them again. And this weekend it feels like I'm sharing a year (almost two years) of colors that have been my imaginary friends. Come by and meet them. July 20-21 Southcoast Artist Open Studio Tour. 579 Old County Rd, Westport, MA. 02790 Kids and their imaginary friends are welcome too.

What Makes Me Paint Today

I find that observing rather than recording what I see works much better for me when I paint. What's on my daily observation list today? I get lost in the water in the shower, rain coming off the roof, puddling in the driveway, little gems on the spider web and the river a walk away, as it goes back and forth to the ocean. Here's some work that's come out of past observations. Some of this will be available as prints at my sale on July 20-21.

My Little Barn Show is Coming Along

Big Show in the Little Barn July 20+21
579 Old County Rd, Westport MA

I'm part of the South Coast Artists Open Studio Tour this year, the weekend of July 20+21. The 10th year it's been around, there are over 50 artists from Dartmouth, Little Compton, Tiverton and Westport participating. Many of the artists have works in progress to see or demos to participate in. You can download a brochure, complete with map, here. I'm converting our little barn into a gallery and will have work ranging from $30 to $1,200 in all the mediums I work in. Watercolor, oils and digital prints will be available to take a look at and purchase. I've got a lot to do in the next week and a half and will feed you bits of progress as it comes together. This will be a kid friendly event so bring the whole family.

2' x 2' Poppyseed oil on birch plywood.
Landscape No. 10,  2012   Photo by Eric Gould

2' x 2' Poppyseed oil on birch plywood.
Landscape No.5, 2012  Photo by Eric Gould

2' x 2' Poppyseed oil on birch plywood.
Landscape No.23, 2012  Photo by Eric Gould

Feather In My Cap

I love the Curatorium on Wickenden in Providence. Owned (and curated) by industrial designer, Matt Bird, the store and Matt are always a delight, a surprise and inspiration. It is very difficult to leave his store empty handed. There is something there for E V E R Y ONE. I'm working on a few cloth hats for two spring weddings and these parrot feathers might be what I build them around. Naturally shed, (please, please birdies drop a few more) they raise money for the New England Exotic Wildlife Sanctuary. He doesn't always carry them and they go fast. I also thought you would like to see the work of Olympia Washington artist, Chris Maynard. Hmmmm I wonder what one of his feathers would look like in a hat?

Did I mention they are reversible?

Baby Water World Print Give Away and Sale

Beebee Eau Monde No.1

It seems like it's time for those little babies to start arriving. The daffodil buds are teasing us, the first little peepers are starting to peep in the ponds and friends are becoming mamas and papas. My friend Hannah just announced the arrival of her little Tristan Skye. To celebrate Tristan and all the new beanies, I'm offering some of my Beebee Eau Monde watercolors as prints. Two paintings to choose from, in two sizes. Printed on acid free, mould-made Hahnemuhle German Etching paper, the prints come in 8" x 8" for $75. and 15"x15" for $125. Perfect gift for your new favorite wee one. Plan on a two week delivery time with your choice of shipping separate.
AND to make the arrival of green buds even sweeter, I'll give away an 8"x8" print to the person who brings me the most new blog followers by April 1. 

Beebee Eau Monde No.2

Pics of Trafford's Restaurant on Warren's Waterfront

Here are some views of the new restaurant I designed in Warren RI. The art on the walls is by both Paul and I.  There's a complete set to cruise on my flickr page here. And I've pasted a few highlights below. Try and get over there this summer if you can. Reserve a table upstairs for the best view and make sure you try Trafford's oysters or his lobster bolo sandwich.

Pssssst... Trafford's is having a soft opening tonight

Yes, the much awaited (quiet) opening of Traffords happens tonight. Paul and I have been there the last few nights installing over thirty pieces of art and sampling some of the amazing food Trafford has dreamed up for the menu. It really is a spectacular place with three views of the water (upstairs and down), two bars, one on the waterside deck, lots of friendly zippy staff and of course the genius of the Kane family. Bill, Maggie, Trafford, Heather will take the lead with lots of help from part owner, Russ Gaudet and bar manager, Jeanne-Marie Manning. I'm always amazed at how talented the whole family is and all members pitch in. As his dad stained a bench, his uncle installed a bar tv, four year old William handed me a level just when I needed it last night. I promise lots of picks from Paul but if you want the real thing with a great sunset and an incredible bite or two, head over to 285 Water Street in Warren tonight.

Summer Shoot

Warm weather is really coming. I just finished art directing a summer supplement for Swarovski's Touchstone Crystal devision. My pals at Hornick Rivlin were my shooting team and the very talented Joji Goto styled us up big time. The focus for this new collection is bright pink, purple and green enameled flowers with Swarovski Crystals set in them. We went with soft neutrals and bright whites for wardrobe and used some of my watercolor out takes for backgrounds. The bold brights with the delicate watercolor palette was a beautiful combination. It should be going to the printer next week. It took a great team to pull off an incredible amount of work in just a few days. Thank you so much to Sandy, Rick, Joji, Steve, Cathy, Laura and Kacie. 
Hornick Rivlin Photography
Hair and make by Kacie Corbelle from Ennis
Styling Joji Goto
Touchstone Crystal Jewelry
Our lovely model Laura from Maggie in Boston

Throat clearing at my new studio

I just started working in my new painting studio. Trying to make it a daily practice to get in there. To keep a rhythm going with whatever it is that's starting to pop up. The beginning is always the hardest for me. The fluorescent lights have gotta go but I love the neighborhood. Roseberry Winn Pottery, Jenna Goldberg, Beehive Kitchenware are a few peeps down the hall. The work for Trafford Restaurant is beginning again and here are the early attempts to bring together a few ideas. Not sure where it's going, but that's always the best way, yes?

Hi again friend

O.K. It's been awhile. And I'm back. In the last month my show went up and came down,  Paul and I built a magical set and did a lovely video shoot in an antique barn, I finished the design for packaging and web for Mole Hollow Candles, the AS220 signage project is underway (Arley and I found some one to paint much of the design in gold leaf on storefronts!) and now I'm in the middle of a 64 page jewelry catalogue that I can't wait to show you. I'm not complaining just amazed that so many wonderful projects have made their way to and out my door in the last month. But I have missed you.

Here's a little amazement from Mary Oliver-

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

Art Show Opening September 16

My latest collection of abstract watercolors will be shown at Crowell's Gallery in New Bedford, MA September 16 through October 9. If you're nearby, please stop by for the opening reception September 16 from 6-9. Vivipary is what I call this body of work and you can definitely feel the labor pains around here as Kate, Paul and I pull the last bits together for the show. For those of you that have helped grow my list of followers, thank you so much. Great job. I'd love to send out some more free tiny art and you have till the 15th so nudge those online pals. If there is anyone I've missed please let me know. It's easy to loose track with peeps introducing themselves through email, facebook, tweetie birds.

8.16.10 Poem for Monday

New landscape for show opening September 16 at Crowel's Fine Art
 A Lemon
-Pablo Neruda
Out of lemon flowers
loosed
on the moonlight, love's
lashed and insatiable
essences,
sodden with fragrance,
the lemon tree's yellow
emerges,
the lemons
move down
from the tree's planetarium

Delicate merchandise!
The harbors are big with it-
bazaars
for the light and the
barbarous gold.
We open
the halves
of a miracle,
and a clotting of acids
brims
into the starry
divisions:
creation's
original juices,
irreducible, changeless,
alive:
so the freshness lives on
in a lemon,
in the sweet-smelling house of the rind,
the proportions, arcane and acerb.

Cutting the lemon
the knife
leaves a little cathedral:
alcoves unguessed by the eye
that open acidulous glass
to the light; topazes
riding the droplets,
altars,
aromatic facades.

So, while the hand
holds the cut of the lemon,
half a world
on a trencher,
the gold of the universe
wells
to your touch:
a cup yellow
with miracles,
a breast and a nipple
perfuming the earth;
a flashing made fruitage,
the diminutive fire of a planet.