The Night Before

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Winter can be a tough opponent for many artists and I am one who sees winter as both a challenge and an opponent. I most often enjoy painting color and passion often in combination if I am inspired by something. Winter is not so much color as it is illusion and shadow, at least in the way I see it and would prefer to render it. I spent some time.. a couple years in fact thinking about painting winter before I actually took action and started working. For myself I am compelled to paint winter as a passion... in part because I find that those who enjoy it most are passionate about it. Skiers, hikers, and get away winter vacationers as well as hard core "all four season" people.. are lovers of winter. Personally, I enjoy winter most when there is snow, and just as I love a good summer storm, I also love a good winter tempest as well. So most of my work of winter is, and I imagine most often always will be, infused with as much passion as I can find to express in it...

This particular work was inspired by the first true storm of winter when the leaves of autumn are still rustling about the ground. It's a storm that in its first hours combines a beautiful blend of swirling wind rushes and blinding white gusts, chasing fallen leaves off the ground, creating an autumn winter mix before one's eyes. It's a storm that ushers out the autumn and proclaims the coming of a new season with a beauty and passion all its own... one that is crisp and fresh, cold and white.

I have depicted this ushering storm as one of night. For me, that is when winter storms are their most beautiful. The night in upper New England is quiet and the skies are bright and while there are many incredible places to view the passion of a winter storm, this is one of my favorites... at the edge of a forest.

Tree at my window

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One of my more recent works...

I sometimes find myself involved in small excursions of learning or revisits of learning from my past... Most often these bursts are related to things that I feel relate to work that I am doing... Sometimes it's music and sometimes it may be writings or philosophy. I have gone on a number of passion quests reading poetry from past and present poets; however, I find I often come back to those poets who have well established themselves in time.

In this case I found myself drawn to the poet Robert Frost and his work "Tree at My Window" which I found very compelling. I think perhaps because it notes the bond that can often occur between humans and our wooded brethren. There are few things of which we can claim such kinship as trees... from the dawn of our time to our present day they have given us shelter, warmth, and protection like no other natural entity. Robert Frost is just one of many poets who has spoken of this often unspoken bond we feel and carrying forth his words, my work is for me what I see through his words.

TREE AT MY WINDOW by Robert Frost

Tree at my window, window tree,
My sash is lowered when night comes on;
But let there never be curtain drawn
Between you and me.

Vague dream head lifted out of the ground,
And thing next most diffuse to cloud,
Not all your light tongues talking aloud
Could be profound.

But tree, I have seen you taken and tossed,
And if you have seen me when I slept,
You have seen me when I was taken and swept
And all but lost.

That day she put our heads together,
Fate had her imagination about her,
Your head so much concerned with outer,
Mine with inner, weather.

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Currier Museum Show

After the flurry of finalizing some works including this one, I finally got a chance at the show opening to take a few images of the accepted work I submitted... The opening went very well, the Currier is a beautiful museum recently expanded with a very good collection of works... My wife and I got to see and enjoy works by Monet, Benton, Hassam, Carot, Georgia O Keefe, two beautiful large Neil Welliver works, Picasso and many more famous artists of the past as well as and prominent living artists as well...

Sheli Petersen's work Turkey Clan, (Prisma color, soot and coffee on paper)... was the first place award for the show... it was a beautiful piece of work with great perspective, concept and execution... Some other artist I enjoyed were... William Turner's "Winged Warrior" ... Melissa Turner's untitled work which reminded me of Georgia O Keefe's work... Nancy Davis Johnson "Island Ledge garden" was another beautifully rendered work which one could look into and enjoy timelessly... All in all the show had a great mix of work to satisfy many different tastes.

For those who wold like to view the show catalog, see below:

http://www.currier.org/uploadedFiles/Exhibitions/NHAA%20catalog%202011.pdf

SHOW JURORS: Jen Mergel, Senior Curator of Contemporary art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston & Dina Dietsch, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art deCordova sculpture Park and Museum. The Jurors selected 47 works from a body of 239 submitted entries.

The show is open Jan. 29th thru march 6th If you're in the area, it's a museum well worth the visit they've done a great job with the expansion... It was one of the best orchestrated show openings we've attended.

Cahoon Museum of American Art

"Blue Corn Moon" w32" x h54"

I am pleased to post that I will be exhibiting "Blue Corn Moon" in the "Moonstruck show"at the Cahoon Museum of American Art. The Moonstruck show will be exhibiting from September 21st through November 7th...

http://www.cahoonmuseum.org/

Brushstrokes Exhibition

Betula Shadows... 40" x 48"

This is a work in black and white with blue hues throughout... I am often intrigued by the effects that photography can create and thought I might work some of my own color effects into some works and see what evolves.

Danforth Museum Show

The above work "Silence," will be exhibiting at the Danforth Museum's annual juried exhibition. Each summer the Danforth hosts two shows... "Off the Wall" and "A Community of Artists"--these shows will run concurrently at the museum this year from June 12th through August 8th.

Below I have attached links to the Danforth Museum page outlining the show/s as well as a Boston Globe article from last year's show.

http://www.danforthmuseum.org/annual_members2010.html

http://www.boston.com/ae/events/articles/2009/06/04/danforth_showcases_regions_best/

Last Minute Impulse

Birch Tempest H48' X W 68"

The above work "Birch Tempest" was exhibited and awarded first prize at the 24 Annual Omer T. Lassande juried exhibition at the Levy Gallery in Portsmouth. The juror for the show was Katherine French of the Danforth Museum in Framingham Ma.

See attached local news post:

http://knox.villagesoup.com/ae/story/camden-artist-takes-first-place/318666