Return to Monhegan Island

 After a decade long hiatus from visiting the island, I returned at the invitation of a painter friend, Jill. We stayed 5 days  at the Cracked Mug B&B sharing a 2 twin bed room.  

After a 2.5 hour drive, I boarded the New Harbor, Maine ferry for a ten mile trip to Monhegan. No cars are allowed on the island but there will be plenty of old jalopy trucks waiting at the wharf to portage our trunks to the rental.

Melanie Tucker, owner of the B&B was a most fun loving, gracious host who was the absolutely best breakfast chef I have ever experienced.  Oh she makes one, powerful Moscow Mule too!  Being an early riser, there was French pressed coffee and homemade coffee cakes each morning when I rose at 5:30AM. One particular morning, I was on the porch watching Melanie in the backyard smoking fresh salmon for our breakfast.😋 Here's smiling Melanie and her 6 month old pup, Sammy.

On a couple of evenings, the guests were encouraged to help in hand churning ice cream; strawberry one night and Girl Scout chocolate mint cookies on the other.  here's 3 year old Juniper leaning her strong arm in for the job. 

Jill and I initiated this adventure as an island painting trip unaware of the culinary adventure we were about to experience as well.  Never left the table hungry. We didnt have to sleep in the bedroom with our gear and wet painting panels. NO.  We set up our gear in Melanie's boathouse. In addition, there was an outside utility sink for cleaning up brushes and hands. All hands on deck...let's paint.

Weather was exceptional on the first day; crystal clear skies, pleasant temperature. Then as the week preceded, the weather deteriorated a bit with rain, then fog and on Sunday 35mph winds. Oh woolen sweaters were needed for the cool mornings and evenings.  All hands on deck... Let's paint.

OK.   When I wasn't painting plein air,  I delighted in drawing in charcoal on Strathmore Mixed Media paper cut in a variety of sizes. My favorite drawing supplies are General's charcoal pencils and compressed sticks, and a dash of charcoal dust. The paper surface can be wetted with brush and water and then drawn directly in with charcoal pencil. Tonal values can be accomplished with a waterr wash and charcoal dust.

and to end the day with beautiful sunsets like these. Photos taken by Jillian. Hoping to return to Monhegan again because it is such a special place esp for artists. 

 

How to make a 'collagraph' Valentine's Day Greeting

Here is an instructional video I made for a Valentine's Day Greeting by creating a collagraph print.  Easy instructions.  Give it try and send me your creations....with love of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uu5cLyldfg&feature=youtu.be

New Work for the 2020 Holiday Season

13FOREST Gallery

167A Mass Ave, Arlington, MA

https://13forest.com/plenty-2020

13th Annual Holiday Exhibition

Plenty 2020, starts November 21

Madonna of the Purple Rhodys

Winter Sun

Reduction linoleum prints

Francesca Anderson Fine Art Gallery

56 Adams Street, Lexington, MA

PortraitsNorth.com

36th Almost Miniatures Exhibit 

November 20-January 24th, 2021 

4 linoleum prints from 'The Comfort' series

Loading Dock Gallery

Western Ave Studios

122 Western Ave. Lowell, MA

http://www.theloadingdockgallery.com/

"Winter Lights"

December 1- December 31, 2020

                                                                                                        Winter Barn, monoprint

Hen House, acrylic

Newburyport Art Association

65 Water Street, Newburyport, MA

Holiday Pop-Up Show

"Celebrate! Miniatures, Ornaments and Fine Crafts"

'Joyful Lobster' ornaments
two-color, linoleum prints

Lowell Boat Shop

459 Main Street, Amesbury, MA

http://lowellsboatshop.com/

"Virtual Holiday Open House"

December 1-6, 2020

On-Line Auction goes live December 1st at 9am

Framed, 12x16 plein air painting of LBS docks and dories


SUPPORT LOCAL ART AND ARTISTS

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

In the Gardens with Madeleine

Wednesday was a holiday, Veteran's Day, a no school day.  In the morning, my grand daughter and I traveled to The Trustee's Long Hill Gardens in Beverly for some outdoor art making together.

We enjoyed the warmish but grey sky day sitting among the falling leaves.

 She concentrated on painting a white pine and a yellow tree in the thickets using acrylic paints.

I worked on small, 9x12 inch mixed media drawings: conte, charcoal, pastel, china marker, gesso.

Beach Camping at Horseneck Beach, September 13-16

 

During this COVID isolation I had to have a change of scenery with another summertime camping trip. This time I made reservations at Horseneck Beach State Reservation near Westport in Southwestern Massachusetts. This coastline area has the most beautiful old stone walls lining the countryside roads, meandering across properties and marking pasture land borders. 

Charlotte's Yard, 12x16

These stones, described more like medium sized, round granite rocks, covered the beaches as well. At high tide when the waves hit the beach and pulled back to the ocean, a sound of rolling marbles knocking about was very soothing and musical. Some of these beach stones were transported back to camp to weigh down the picnic table clothes to prevent them from flying away.

Morning High Tide, 8x10

I think a couple of Green crabs flew in as well either by the winds or dropped by a sea gull.  One was found hiking along the asphalt road near my camper.   At Demarest Lloyd State Park in Dartmouth, I had to pardon myself and gingerly tip toe through a large colony of Fiddler Crabs. Perhaps hundreds were mucking about on a path I was on to get to a painting site along a canal.

Demarest Lloyd State Park

And while painting at another beach, I chatted with a gal jeweler who stopped to admire my painting and to talk shop.  In her hands were the most beautiful, large Blue Crab claws she had found while beach scavenging: a color blend of red, white and blue.  I later learned female claw tips are colored a bright cadmium red…like painted fingernails I thought.

Crab Carapaces, charcoal/conte drawings

During this camping/painting trip I had to endure the gusty winds that never seemed to subside. One morning at 3am, I awoke to feel my camper being pummeled back and forth. These horrific winds died down after more than an hour of rocking.  Most of my cooking time was spent shielding my propane stove with my body from the winds. One morning I had to forgo a thermos of hot tea.  The water in the metal pot wouldn’t boil because the heat from the flames quickly dissipated into thin air from the winds. And these pesky winds made painting a bit of a challenge too with one hand holding onto canvases so they wouldn’t sail away from the easel.

Paquachuck Inn, 12x16

During this painting get away, the area's sunrises and sunsets were a bit peculiar in color caused by the  smoke particles caught up in the upper atmosphere emitted from the ferocious forest fires of California and other western states. No cerulean blue skies during the day as well.  So the paintings were a bit on the grey side of the color spectrum but no less interesting to paint.

             Farm for Sale, 8x10                                                        Westport Rivers Vineyard, 8x10                                            

 

 

Get out of town.

Recently I made a camping reservation in a Massachusetts State Park. Since I own a T@G trailer, it would be easy to get out of town for a few days. My scheduled travel plans, a June tour trip through Newfoundland, to see icebergs and puffins was cancelled due to COVID. I was on-line three days after the state open its booking platform, and almost all sites were already booked. Geeez, I guess others had the same idea. Also the scarcity of sites was due to 50% site closures due to in compliance to COVID regulations. After much searching I finally found a site for three days in row at the Mohawk Trail State Park located between the Cold River and Deerfield River in Charlemont.

During my get away, Massachusetts was having a heat wave and the weather was hot and humid even in the Berkshire Hills  Here's my self portrait I painted one afternoon using a hand held mirror. Notice the wet, clumpy strands of hair and lack of cheerfulness.  Oh well.  It was good to be out of the house.  During one special night there, I heard a Barred owl and her three owlets.  Her baby owls whistle not hoot like their mom.

 

On the first day of painting, I naturally selected the Cold River river basin which was filled with huge rounded boulders, hundreds of water washed rocks and numerous intimate pools.  I had to scramble down a wall of rocks and stones to get to the river base and set up my easel.  Once set up, I enjoyed the sound of water trickling over the bed rocks as I painted.

Campers enjoy floating in these pools and to cool down esp in this humid weather. The Cold River during the summer months has a restful nature. Children like to build small dams by piling up the rocks making deeper pools of water were they can splash about or sit on inner tubes.

Second day of painting, I was given permission from the Ranger to enter a closed area where there were a pile of logs which were moss covered, split bark, piles of saw dust and had a background of light filled green woods. She came over where I was painting during her lunch break to check out what had piqued my interest.

"Hey, do you ever paint fungi?" she asked. No, not yet but I have painted Jack in the Pulpits and Ferns en plein air.

Be well.

meat tray printmaking

I have been looking at my recycle bin a lot lately and asking the question: what recycled material could be reused in making a print.  Not that I eat a lot of meat but over some time, a minimal number of meat trays began to stack up.   Styrofoam meat tray is not a new material used in making prints. Most elementary school age children are introduced to the principles of printmaking with the cutting and/or carving into these meat trays.

So during some COVID-19 free time, I amused myself by creating images with meat trays as a printing substrate.

The following six small paintings were painted en plein air in the NH White Mountains, the pre-pandemic winter and I wanted to re work these images into small prints.

The overlapping planes defining the hillsides were not complex forms.  There was no sun light when I painted and so the landscape's planal shapes were flatten. I choose the upper left image to work from.  Below are the 9 foam shapes I worked with for the printing of the images

Exact-o blades and blunt end pencils were used to cut out the shapes. The Styrofoam surface has lots of air holes.  When this surface is rolled lightly with printing inks and printed on paper, an atmospheric illusion of fog or mist is created.  Incising the foam surface with lines drawn with a pencil will give linear details and textures.

To keep the printing paper in place while switching out inked shapes for over printing, I used a clip board with a right angle taped to the board to help maintain proper positioning of the shapes.  I used a limited palette of pre-mixed Caligo inks (water soluble), very similar in color as the original painting.

I had a very enjoyable afternoon working in the studio experimenting with a limited number of shapes and colors to find multiple solutions. I plan to use my other small NH paintings as a start point for other prints using Styrofoam meat trays as the substrate. And maybe sometime in the future they could be further enhanced by working the printed surface with other media such oil pastels or collage.