Cob Cottage Studio

Friday, April 6, 2012

Tell Me A Story

The weather has been gray. My computers ....BOTH computers....were on the fritz and I have been feeling alone, isolated and out of touch from the world!!! But good things do happen and my desktop PC is back ....and I am painting and the weather seems to be warming up a bit. So all is not lost!!!

I have two shows opening [and opened] in Lexington,KY. where my work is hanging. The American Academy of Equine Art has their Spring Invitational show "The Horse In Fine Art" exhibited in the wonderful old Spindletop Hall. The show will be hanging until May 26th ...if you are in the Lexington area check it out. You will not be disappointed...this years show is stellar and I am very happy to have my oil painting "Angels and Horses" hanging in the show.Work is for sale in this exhibit...and it is a great chance to add you art collection!!

I also have work in a show opening next week at Gallery B in Lexington proper....but I will post about that in a bit................

Now I am working on a casein on Ampersand Claybord...a neat substrate to work on. Almost as slick as oil on copper , but the clay gesso sucks up the paint and it all dries to a lovely matte finish. So back to the drawing board for this...I am working on my drawing table because the paint would dribble if I worked on my easel. ... I work as if I am working in watercolor on this claybord. So back to the proverbial drawing-board!!!!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

New Landscape In Casein

The past week was like summer...and I spent the greater part of my days working in the gardens, but I have to limit my time in the garden, so I did retreat to my studio for a part of each day and I completed 2 caseins....a small crow painting on canvas on board and a larger landscape work on paper. I had a copper panel ready and waiting on an easel, but never actually got to it until this weekend....more on that later.

The old light house where the keeper of the Port Clyde harbor light lived, is an awesome house standing big and white and imposing on the winter bare Marshall Point. It was a cold windy day when we went there and I was taken with the starkness of the house and terrain and the white bright sun light on the house. I hope I have captured that here....in my casein on 300 lb Sennelier watercolor paper.This landscape is available on my website in the Landscape Collection. 'The Crowing Crabby #4" painting will be up on my Small Works Collection page.

I have been asked to show how I do my casein work, such as the above landscape above, from start to finish. I will make a point of explaining that soon....I promise!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Spring Comes.... Fast

Today the weather is warm,sun-filled and a light breeze blows from the east...a sea breeze we call it. We enjoyed breakfast listening to the spring antics of a flock of turkeys who had decided to feed and display their plumage in our fields.We can often see wildlife from feeding ,playing or crossing our fields,from the comfort of our house or our deck.It is as if we have a view from the tree-tops.The rest of our day has been busy with the start of spring clean,the gardens,the yard,the brush around the field pond.It feels so good to work,with the sun warming one's back,face....to do the dance to spring....with rake and clippers in hand, relishing the day......the weather.

This type of weather is rare for March in Maine. We will take it without complaint. I do feel a bit of guilt for not being in the studio working....but it will pass. Today I will enjoy enjoy enjoy!!

The casein painting of a Cob mare standing against the yellow barn door is done.I am so in love with that red of the bay mare contrasting the yellow of the door.
While working on it though, I came up with another idea…and do want to entertain that with another version of this painting, but done in oil…..but that is another story!

Now back to the barn....Nell needs to go mousing!!!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

New Painting In The Works

Spring seems to have arrived. Nell and I have been taking walks out into the back pastures and I have been inundated with ideas for new paintings, all inspired by our farm, our horses, my world. This casein on canvas pictured above is the first .....and I have a copper panel ready for an oil landscape. I know that soon [ if the weather cooperates ] I will be called outside to prepare gardens and dig in the dirt. I can't wait! So I am driven to create more now, so I can garden later!!

My work has been invited into the American Academy of Equine Art's Invitational Exhibit "The Horse In Fine Art" to be hung in Lexington,KY at the historic Spindletop Hall. The show opens April 2 and hangs through May 26, 2012.

I will also be having work again in the 10th Annual "Festival of Art" in Belfast, Maine at The University of Maine's Hutchinson Center. This show opens May 10th with thier reception and then runs through the 13th. These are two are some the many shows I am particapating in this spring ...more to come this summer. So I guess I need to keep focused and painting..... so hard when spring starts calling!!!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Keeneland Study

I have been looking through photos for reference material for new paintings. I have just finished [?] this small 6 x8" study in oil of a Keeneland Paddock scene. I was planning on maybe doing it bigger ,and more involved. I love the colors in this. I tried to keep it loose...keep it simple. The oil is giving off a glare now,and so I will get a better shot when things dry a bit. This is done on canvas on board, so it will take longer to dry than my oils on copper panels do. I will probably put it on my website when done.

The studio smells of oil paint and medium.... so Nell and I took a walk into our fields that are now open, with only snow around the woods line. The sun shines brightly today, with a nippy March wind that is refreshing after a morning in the studio. What a blessing to have this spot to walk in, explore and enjoy. There was so much I saw in this short walk that I want to paint. God willing. So back to the paint.

Monday, March 5, 2012

The Good Times Revisited

After painting in oil, for a while my sinuses need a break....so I got into my casein paint and finished up a carriage driving scene painting that had been sitting here in my studio for a long time...but never finished. I finally got the urge to actually finish it ....and the above is the finished product. The scene is of two whips, having a conversation during a lunch break when driving on the grassy Rockefeller Carriage Roads in Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island in Maine. Years ago the coaching crowd used to meet at Wildwood Stables each fall to have a vacation of daily coaching drives, with grooms, delicious packed lunches and with full bars .......and with lucky guests invited. At that time I worked as a groom each summer and fall for Mr and Mrs Stacy Lloyd of Berryville,VA. I loved the coaching group.....and the lovely turned-out horses and carriages....and it is no secret that I love to paint carriage driving images. This 'now finished' painting can be added to my portfolio of driving paintings and will be added to my website.

I have so many wonderful memories of those years....and I will try to make a point of telling some of the fun stories about those years... not today. But soon.
Today it is snowing again.....isn't spring supposed to happen some day soon?

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Changes

Snow blankets the look-in-to garden.

We thought that spring had come but winter charged back in with biting wind and snow. The horses were starting to shed, but when the weather changed, I think they now are appreciating their winter coats. Over the weekend we awoke to a fresh blanket of winter white.....lovely to look at and not so deep that we had to spend hours shoveling. If but all the storms would be like this!!!

And while the weather took a turn for the worst I Moved my office to my studio….pc and desk and files…..this change will make it easier for me to take care of business. It also allows me the use of my larger monitor for reference of images while I paint. Easier on my eyes!! My studio is finally put back together, after days of bedlam …sort of. I am working again, doing some drawing and working on some new paintings. I have my summer galleries plans laid out…..and need to get ‘to work’ on new work. This is good. I also will be doing some painting demonstrations this summer…..all in the works.

And locally in Maine, I have 2 paintings hanging in the Aarhus Gallery’s "44n 69w Radius Belfast" show which runs March 1^st - April 1^st. The opening reception is March 2, 5-8pm. Their openings are always packed and entertaining. Aarhus is a lovely Belfast Maine Gallery. This all-encompassing show, featuring work by Maine artists, celebrates the vast creative local community. From the sales of this show, the gallery donates 20% of proceeds to food banks within a thirty-mile radius of Belfast. This is wonderful, especially this year….the way things are. I am happy to take part!!

Now.....back to my drawing.....and the changed around studio. [I think I do this every year at this time....change things around!!] Back to work!!!!

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