This is the rough in for my new painting. For now the title is ‘Horse in Barn’. I will update soon with the progress from another sitting. I thought you might be interested in seeing how an artist progresses through the stages of a painting. This is still rough and the details of the horse are wrong at this point and need to be refined.
WHAT A THRILL! I was one of 10 national artists selected to go to the Fairfield Porter Family’s Great Spruce Head Island Art Week, developed and managed by family member and artist Anina Porter Fuller. It was a dream come true to be amongst such interesting, inspiring, and creative folks from all over the USA exploring their craft of painting, sketching, writing, and photographing. All we had to do was spend the hours in creative thought, experimentation and critique. No cooking – Barney and Chip took care of all the meals – all we artists had to do was create! What could be better!
Here are some glimpses of the week.
Arrived at Deer Isle Yacht Club to catch the mail boat with Capt Carl from MN and Capt Bob from Eagle Island. Bob’s family has owned Eagle Island for over 200 years. After a 30 min boat ride we arrived at GSHI.
Mail boat comes each day to drop off mail to surrounding islands as well as GSHI
After unloading fireman style into the Big House , unpacking and exploring the main island, we gathered to the bell for a delicious supper of Halibut, salad, and corn. All of our meals were enjoyed at the great table on the porch. We each had a schedule for kitchen duty which meant that four of us at each meal helped set the table, serve the meals, and clean up afterwards. Our cooks, Barney and Chip were culinary wizards!
The Big House interior is as it was when Fairfield Porter resided there each summer. (I did a plein air painting of the big house from a location similar to that shown in the picture above. See my plein air oil painting of this scene below.) My room was on the second floor of the fireplace wing overlooking a forest from my bedroom room window and the ocean from my porch view. Anina Porter Fuller was my roommate in the wonderfully rustic surrounds. We rarely spent time in our room unless it was to paint the interior view with our green twin beds, windows wide open, curtains blowing from gentle breezes.
Each day we would rise to the 8 am chow bell (or rather for me the coffee bell). I would be painting in various locations around the island from about 845 on ’till the next food bell. One lunch we had lobster and clams which we gathered at low tide! YUM !! After lunch- back out to do more plein air painting.
I wheeled the red wheelbarrow ( “Island Work Horse”) all around the island- carrying supplies and also used it as a painting seat – just like Fairfield.
After a leisurely dinner, we all convened by the fireplace for poetry or literary readings, guitar and banjo sing-a-longs or stories of GSHI Art Week gone by late into the night. The next day was always refreshingly the same- finding a new spot to explore and paint- photographing- keeping a watercolor diary and just having an exceptionally creative day inspired by all participating artists.
I am excited to have the Northport Landing Gallery representing and showing some of my paintings. The art gallery is in Northport, just north of Camden, Maine.
Northport Landing Gallery is a bit north of Camden en route to Isleboro and Deer Isle, Maine
Dottie and Howard
14″ x 18″
Here is a commissioned oil portrait of Howard and Dottie. I have also done a portrait of Howard in casual clothes with their dog Gibson, a basset hound.
During the course of January through May, I participated in four art shows; Fairhaven (Sykesville), Hebrew Community ( Baltimore), Gibson Island and Art of the Mill (Virginia) and sold the following works.
Surprise gift for Christmas! And a BIG surprise it was for best pals!
A friend commissioned me to do a portait of her husband and their beloved basset hound. The picture cuts off part of the painting. That basset hound had so much expression and personality. He was a pleasure to do a portrait of.
Luke Cole seemed to like seeing himself all framed in time for Thanksgiving.
Christmas Eve surprise went off without a hitch.
Here is a picture of Luke examining his portrait that I was commissioned to paint.
This oil painting of the Headmaster’s House at Gilman School was commissioned as a surprise gift.
Festive one day event at the beautiful Tides Inn in Irvington, VA attended by hotel guests , tourists and townsfolk alike. The Tides Inn, named Virginia’s #1 Resort by Travel and Leisure was decorated so beautifully for the Holidays! www.tidesinn.com
You can see from this picture the booth/table we had set up at the Tides Inn Art Show and Art Sale. If you haven’t been there, the Tides Inn in Irvington, VA is an absolutely beautiful hotel / inn right on the water. I chose a range of different oil paintings that I had done, including some animal paintings, landscape paintings, and maritime paintings. The animal paintings included dogs, hounds, cows, foxes and even a tiger.
About one week to go before the art show opening night. I just picked up one of my paintings from the photographer, “Pride of Baltimore”. Off to framer now! To compare this oil painting of the Pride, click here to see the photo it was painted from taken while we were sailing in Baltimore Harbor. If you are wondering why I had it at the photographer, he has a professional studio and takes very high quality and high pixel count pictures. This way when you make a giclee print it looks almost like the original oil painting. To really appreciate this painting unfortunately you need to see a larger size than in this blog post.
Love them O’s ! Great series and great anticipation for next year! Spent my birthday with my daughter Whitney on the Eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay for a delightful and memorable day… Chestertown, St. Michaels, Oxford and Easton, Maryland. My camera clicked non-stop.
Whitney treated me to a very delicious lunch at the Lemon Leaf Cafe’ in Chestertown. Service, food and ambiance couldn’t have been more perfect. Onto St. Michael’s for a few photo ops at the Maritime Museum before departing on the Bellevue-Oxford Ferry. After visiting Oxford’s quaint mystery bookshop, we enjoyed happy hour at the Robert Morris Inn as the sunset rolled down. The day ended at Mason’s in Easton for a birthday dinner of sea scallops at Mason’s. YUM! What a memorable day!
As you can see, we got some wonderful photographs. Expect to see some paintings of the sunset, ducks and other maritime scenes.
A group of us, all artists, ventured by bus to NYC for the day. First stop: The William Secord Gallery, Inc @ 52 East 76th Street for a personal tour of the exquisite animal gallery. WHAT A VISUAL FEAST! We enjoyed a personal tour of the second floor gallery of sculpture with the gallery director, Galina. I enjoyed learning more about Rosa Bonheur and of course seeing her magn
ificent and noble lion titled ” An Old Monarch” c.1879, who captivated a large corner of the main gallery. His eyes were so translucent and seemed to follow you around the room .
Another rare treat was seeing Sir Edwin Landseer’s emotive painting on the left, “Retriever and Woodcock”
c. 1846.I dream of the day I would be associated with a gallery like the William Secord Gallery.
Our second stop, conveniently located around the corner from the Secord Gallery, was The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the new American Wing. 
The enclosed courtyard was such an inviting entrance to the exquisite new wing. I particularly enjoyed my friend’s daughter’s private tour of the furniture collections. I highly recommend a visit, and especially to the third floor where you can see all the items in storage, not on display. Fascinating exhibit!
