Off to New Hampshire

Pine Grove Farm, 2006, Oil on Panel, 30x30










I am slowly getting back into the groove of painting. It feels good yet is slightly painful as I maybe would have enjoyed another week or so off. But I am on a very relaxed schedule, with time to have lunch with friends, chat with the guys who are working on our porch, take my 3 mile walk each day, bake cookies and basically sit around a bit more than I usually do.

Today I have to finish up and deliver six small pieces to the Cooperstown Art Association for their annual Holiday Member Show & Sale. My local sales have tapered off a bit (I think most of the people in our small town who like my work have already bought one or more pieces) but I still like to support the local arts if I can. I am also going to do the underpaintings for the show I have coming up in January. If I get a good start now I actually think that I can take some serious time off in December. I will be doing 25 or so medium sized pieces, plus maybe a couple of larger ones, in the 24x36 range. While that might sound like a lot, after the last few months it seems like child's play to me!

I won't be posting tomorrow or Friday, as I am off to Concord, NH. The opening reception for the show that will include the eight barn paintings (including the one above) that I did in September, is on Thursday night and I thought I should attend. I wish Doug could come with me but he has to stay with the kids (now there's a switch, usually usually I am the one at home while he is gallivanting around the country), plus he and I are going there next week for another opening and staying overnight, so for this one I am going by myself. With the exception of the fact that I will probably spend much time standing around awkwardly at the reception, I am looking forward to having a few days by myself, even if I will be driving for much of each day (it's a 5 hour drive each way and I am so grateful to the person who invented satellite radio!).

The show will be at 2 Pillsbury Street in Concord, which is a newly renovated historic office building. The Anderson-Soule Gallery, which represents my work in Concord has opened a second space in the lobby of the building named appropriately, The Gallery. The show is called Old Barns/New Perspectives and the other artists whose work will be featured are Richard Gombar and Heather Stearns. The show will be on display until the end of January. The organizers of the reception chose this image to be on the front of the invitation for the event and so I am very flattered by that. I was also asked to participate in a radio interview on the Thursday afternoon and I pretty much declined that (my schedule IS pretty tight that day, as I am not sure when I will get to town). I know that interviews are very important and I don't mind doing them for print, but radio and TV are pretty far beyond my comfort zone. I think that I will be able to do them at some point, however I am not there yet.

This event is open to the public of course, and so if anybody out there is nearby please come and save me from looking like a pathetic loner at this social event. Oh yeah, and you can check out some art and probably eat some food too.