Mother and Child

Recently, the Wocester Museum of Art had on view the Rouault print series entitled, Miserere et Guerre.  The etchings were composed as cathedral stain glass windows but instead of light infused colorful jewels, they were drawn in heavy black lines similiar to the metal structures that hold stain glass together.  As I moved from print to print, each images was a visual homily about human nature and morality.

Unfortunately, my museum visit added to the general pathos I had retreated into, assisting in the recall of past painful events like the massacre of the innocents at Newtown, Connecticut on December 14th, or the Taliban's attempted assassination shooting of Malala Yousufzai, age 14, in the head and other heart wrenching world headlines.

As I moved from gallery to gallery, I was especially drawn to Rouault's images of nurturing mothers cradling their children but their respective titles were very perplexing.  Titles such as "It would be so Sweet to Love" or "Wars: Dread of all Mothers" gave me pause.  Traditionally, the mother and child bond has been honored and revered for centuries in major religions and in artstic works.  In the Catholic Church's iconology there is a great adoration for the Virigin Mary and the Christ Child.  The American painter and printmaker, Mary Cassatt devoted much of her genius and time giving homage to motherhood through her artworks. 

The love between mother and child is universally admired.

In the Rouault's images though the sweetness and tenderness of love were present, these feelings were tempered with the reflections on the unpleasant realities of what living in this world can hold: of love and fear, generousity and greed, health and illness, peace and war.




I found some respite when I returned home.  I spent some time looking through family photos. I selected a few of my favorite photos of my daughter with her baby daughter and rendered them in chalk.  Describing the shelter we make for our children cradling them in our strong arms and warm body, offering protection from all evil present and future. In drawing these mother/child images, I felt comforted and my pain from worldly knowledge was relieved.

Like Frosting a Cake

I frosted two canvases last Saturday at a MCA workshop, "Seeing the Forest for the Trees", http://www.paintingpersonalandpowerful.com/2010/08/blog-post.html
held at the Arnold Arboretum http://arboretum.harvard.edu/visit/ .  Wielding a palette knife, similar to a trowel used in masonry, I thickly layered my canvases.  In the eight years of plein air painting, I have never applied so much paint to a single 12X16 panel.  At times after squeezing another long tootsie roll of paint to recharge my palette, I would calculate the cost per paint tube. For example, a 200ml tube of Cobalt Blue cost around $58.00.

But heck, I was there for a new painting experience...so I smeared 4 colors (phthalo green, Alizarin Crimson, cobalt blue and cadmium yellow) into slippery striations, swirling mark making, palette knife daubs here and there; buttery, at times unbeaten.  Soon, I began to smell the essence of color: mossy forest floor green, Sunkist orange, melty dark chocolate.

For the other canvas, I scraped up two complementary pigments, cadmium orange and French-ultramarine blue and mixed them together with dollops of titanium white yielding the color of mushrooms: cremini, oyster, porchini, shiitaki, Chanterelles.

Ooo la, la- a juicy sensuality and physicality spread across the surface.

This freshly applied paint was my new seducer.

Bon Painting!

Cedar Point Trail

Inhale the weather
Buckets of salted fishy cold
Silver beach blankets grind
While tidal waves roll the fluid edges.



I enjoyed the solitude of my painting at the Crane's Estate in Essex http://www.thetrustees.org/crane-estate/  this past Thursday.


My walk from the parking lot along Cedar Point Trail was a hardy, heart pounding journey exacerbated by my over-loaded painting cart pulling from behind.  I trudged; first down a winding stony road, then along a flat dirt path which divided the expansive marsh grasses undulating on either side, then onward through the valley of brightly lit sand dunes.  At last, I could hear the ocean waves.  I leaned into my last steps with my cart cutting a deep granular path of two, parallel deep troughs.

*One hiker of the day wondered at such pecular scars carved into the sandy path as she walked along... she thought perhaps two bicycles?  "No! Now I understand,"she said aloud to me as she glanced upon my painting set-up after descending her last dune to the beach.  "Enjoy this good day!" we said to each other.

Standing at the end of the trail, I observed first how cold the wind was, the deep blue of the waters, then the brightness of the sand beach and the brilliant whiteness of the cottages tucked in the dark greeness of foliage; how bright the autumnal sun was reflected.  There I painted; in four hours the tidal waters found my planted soles and painting easel.


My walk back to my car was a reflective activity rather than a physical one.  I carried my back pack where it belonged... on my back, making a lighter load of my rolling cart.  I recorded my return journey's observation through the lens of my camera. 





Please go to

http://www.flickr.com/photos/printmaker_who_paints_plein_air/sets/72157631592464761/

to see the marsh flora and fauna of that particular day.

Bon Painting!

The Great Paint Out

Dan Shaw, Bud Smith, Marjet Lesk, Betsy Lewis and I joined the Plein Air Painters of Maine for the 8th Annual "Great Paint Out" sponsored by the Oil Painters of America. http://www.oilpaintersofamerica.com/index.cfm   Painters from all across the United States will be plein air painting at their own venues throughout the month.  There were 15 participants who painted at Grimes Cove which is located along the scenic Ocean Point Road in East Boothbay Maine.  The weather was glorious and Grimes Cove is such a beautiful place to paint!



Dan (left) and Bud at Grimes Cove 

We had our group portrait taken by the photographer from the Boothbay Register newspaper.  Many new artist friends were made including Carlton Plummer (of the rocks) http://www.plummergallery.com/carlton.html and Bobbi Heath of Westford. MA http://www.bobbiheath.com/  and who I enjoyed meeting and talking to. My friends and I visited area galleries including Corrine McIntyre's Ocean Point Gallery, who was the organizer for this year's paint out.  http://www.oceanpointstudio.com/  

Donning ocean creature hats before dinner

We lodged at Sprucewold Lodge http://www.sprucewoldlodge.com/ where we ate delicious family-styled breakfasts and dinners.  Each evening we relaxed in front of the stone fireplace while enjoying a glass of wine and chatted about art matters, circulated art books and critiqued each other's daily work.






To the right are a few of the plein air paintings I completed during my two day stay in Boothbay.

Also, it is well worth the time and effort to sketch a little drawing to deconstruct the scene and compose the painting's layout before beginning the painting  Below are two of my quick sketches used in the paintings. I tore them out of my book and taped them to my easel support for easy reference.  There's not much details but the quickly drawn shapes and lines help me to contain and simplify the complex scene.
    

A couple of Summer Shows

Now through August 4, I'll have prints on display in the 9^th annual “Making an Impression” print show at the Newburyport Art Association on 65 Water Street.  13 member printmakers of the Association will be exhibiting in the main gallery and the upstairs Hartson Gallery.

“Hadley Tobacco Barns” and “Forging a Silhouette of Indestructability” are two, new prints I am exhibiting as well as a number of other reduction linoleum prints.

There will be an Artists Reception Sunday July 29 , 5-7PM and print demonstrations on Saturday, July 28^th from 1-3PM.  The public is invited. 

On Friday evening of July 27 at the McGowan Fines Arts Gallery in Concord, New Hampshire there will be an opening for “Summer Selections” show.  “Winter Sentries” and “Blue Skies, Pink Boughs”, both reduction linoleum prints will be exhibited on the gallery walls as well as a small selection of other linoleum prints.  To see show, https://www.facebook.com/mcgowanfineart?bookmark_t=page#!/photo.php?fbid=258805915437&set=a.10150306346990438.553279.258784260437&type=1&theater

Also, "Antique Bottle; Strawberry Milk" was juried into the 3rd Biennial "footprint" International Exhibition at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, CT. The show runs through September 2, 2012 http://www.contemprints.org/ccp-exhibitions

Development of the etching series, "Mountain Byways"

I have returned from Zea Mays Print Studio in Florence, MA http://zeamaysprintmaking.com/ where I was hard at work on a three plate color etching, the first in a series being planned called "Mountain Byways" during a five day workshop conducted by Lousie Kohrman. http://www.louisekohrman.com/

Here is my first plate called the key plate.  A simple etched line image was developed and printed in black.  This printed image was then transferred to the two remaining  plates by printing the wet print onto de-greased copper plates using proper registration methods on the press bed.

After the image was transferred to the two plates, I developed one using a deep bite etching technique with the idea of inking up the relief with a hard roller.  The other plate was developed using aquatints for tonal values.  The key plate remained the same.

This image is the first color proof I pulled printing the three inked plates consecutively.  I reversed the order the three plates were developed by printing the aquatint plate first, the deep bite plate second and the key plate last.




The next day, I changed my ink palette to blues, reds and yellows (primary colors) An umber intaglio was used in the deep bite plate.  I also re-etched my deep bite plate for additional line development to the image's middle ground.  And on the aquatint plate, instead of a single color inking, I used a la poupe method to introduce a range of colors in selected areas.  Key plate was inked in blue intaglio.

I like this second color proof very much. So to document the printing process and colors used, I printed each plate separately.  These images would be used as a reference for future printings.

Eureka!  An Epiphany!  What I had printed was not only a record of the plate image but... also the image transfer from the previous printing.  In other words I have another unique image.  (Note: the aquatint plate had no transfer image because it is the first plate to print on a blank paper.)  This is the same technique used in transferring the key plate to the other plates. 

  

The first image is the key plate with transfers of deep bite and aquatint plates.

The second image is the deep bite plate with aquatint transfer (no key plate transfer).

*Something to think about...these two softer versions (ghost image with previous plate image transfer) could perhaps be printed as an edition as well.

Are you a Rusticator?

Late in the afternoon after painting at Grimes Cove in Boothbay, I arrived at Sprucewold Lodge located on the quiet side of Boothbay Harbor, Maine.  I had no interest in staying on the heavily commercial side of Boothbay.  My only lodging pleasure was to be deep in the spruce woods.  Besides, I was only a few minutes' drive from the wharfs and harbor for painting pleasure.  But if material needs arose, there was access to the bustling town via a sturdy pedestrian bridge which offers great views of the scenic and lobster boat packed harbor.

While staying at Sprucewold for two nights, I had experienced a Rusticator's get away.  Rusticator is a word which defines the summer urban tourist from Boston and NYC who between 1840 and 1920's traveled by train, boarded steamboats to sample a few weeks of rustic country life and a whiff of fresh air along coastal Maine.  The lodge, Sprucewold, built in the early 1920's is one of the last remaining Rusticator lodges east of the Mississippi.  Think of western US lodges built by the Great National Railroad in the early 1900's to entice tourists to the Rocky Mountains and away from traveling abroad to see the Great Alps of Europe.  Although Sprucewold is much, much smaller in scale of concept and design, it is alluring and relevant enough to want to re-live a bit of Maine's coastal history with a lodging reservation.

Many 19th century Victorians obtained their first sampling of the area's scenic beauty from attending the big cities exhibitions of paintings by the likes of Thomas Cole, Frederick Church, Fritz Henry Lane and other famed Hudson River Painters who painted along the Maine's coast especially Mt Desert, Cranberry Island, and Monhegan Island. 

Just as the Victorians brought along their butlers, maids, nannies to support their accustom urban way of life while at the same time enjoying the benefits of the ''rustic' life, I too was treated to a pot of coffee served on the porch each morning, a delicious cooked breakfast of my choosing (blueberry pancakes, yum!) as well as the availability of Wi-Fi, cell phone coverage, and 70" wide, hi-def television for watching the Red Sox battle the Miami Marlins in the evenings.  I also enjoyed being surrounded by rustic architectural features of hand-hewed beams and logs, white birch chandeliers, bent wood furnishings and a vast collection of antique games and other household bric-brac.

...and while sipping my morning coffee on the open porch each morning, I delighted in the sightings of a flock of wild turkeys foraging in the under-brush nearby.



CLYDE FARRIN'S HOUSE,corner of Lobster Cove Road and Atlantic

With the beautiful weather and scenic Boothbay at my call, I painted outdoors during the day and dined in the evening at the wharf eating freshly shucked oysters and boiled lobsters while enjoying the sun setting over the harbor from the quiet side of Boothbay.

HARBOR SUNSET from Boothbay Lobster Wharf

http://www.sprucewoldlodge.com/Pages/about_us.html for info regardng Sprucewold Lodge

A must read:
The Lobster Coast, Rusticators and the Struggle for a Forgotten Coast by Colin Woodard
  http://www.colinwoodard.com/lobstercoast.html