Paintings at Blue Heron


Six paintings on exhibit at The Gallery at Blue Heron, State Street, Bangor 
from March 1 until May 1. 




Paintings in Public Space

I recently hung six paintings dating from 1989 to 2005 at 11 Central in Bangor for the months of March and April. It's always satisfying to have the work out to be seen by others in the community. 

 Morning Sequence, 30x86, oil on canvas, 1998

 Penobscot River, August Heat Wave, 36x48, oil on canvas, 1989

 Distant Katahdin in March, 19x62, oil on canvas, 1999

 Approaching Storm, 40x30, oil on canvas, 2005

Island in Morning Fog, 42x53, oil on canvas, 2003

From the Kayak, In the Cove, 21x33, oil on canvas, 2004

Backfield Evening

At the end of a clear August day I visited a favorite spot on Beals Island to observe the onset of evening.




















Tour of my studio with paintings in progress




I am happy to be back to my fall schedule, working at the studio several days a week. Since September I have reworked some of the aerial landscapes from last spring and have started a series based on a very memorable summer experience, Evening at the Backfield. 

Here is a glimpse of my studio space in autumn, urban aerial landscape paintings in one room, coastal landscapes in the other, and views out my window where five roads feed into one intersection at the bottom of a hill.  






Aerial Lanscapes

Having taken a break from the aerial landscapes that I was painting last spring, I have returned to that project to rework the old and to start new paintings. Here are some recent results.








Revision and Resolution

I have been working on revising work form the summer.  See earlier states in last months post.


Chaos Reigns, 20x20,  revised 2/13



Oceans Absorb, 12x12, revised 2/13


Entering Paintings


Defining a sense of place in my paintings marks my place and connects me to my environment. It identifies the spaces where I live and travel. I paint variations with preference for certain coves, islands, estuaries, fragments of horizon, surfaces of water, and curves of shoreline. 


It is not just the structure of these places, but the way in which they reflect light and suggest color that interests me.


Painting these places repeatedly is the way in which I represent the continuity of my life, the way I see, and the wonder of seeing specific, familiar locations in different formats.


Painting allows me to explore varied light and perspectives of one subject. I often return to the same island as I walk along the shore, or to the same erratic boulder as I kayak. 




I revisit the landmarks of my paintings, as I would call upon friends. I set my eyes upon them once again to see if they offer new insights, and to inspect the physical place that I have reinvented in the painting. I enjoy being in my painting spaces, and relating the concrete life to the visual concept.






While taking a train from New York to New Jersey a few months ago, I caught a glimpse of a familiar large white convoluted structure, a soccer stadium that had been a part of a series of New Jersey aerial landscape paintings that I had recently completed. 


I looked out the opposite window and recognized the cluster of reflective high-rise buildings that I had painted behind the stadium. Instead of seeing small buildings below from the plane as I had painted them, I now saw them as a towering and imposing skyline reflecting the morning sun. Almost as if I had entered a storybook, I inhabited a visual space that I had painted. I felt as though I had shrunk, and had become a part of the loosely painted diagonal line on the right side of the canvas between Harrison and Newark; a smudge that had represented the railway, the light glinting off the train. I was in that smudge. I occupied that highlight.


During the same trip, while driving on the Garden State Parkway during a particularly congested time of day, I had a similar flash of recognition, and joked with my husband when he complained about the traffic, that we were simply revisiting another painting as we do when we kayak in Maine. 
                                     
                             

                             


Studio Painting in Winter

It's great to be back on a more balanced schedule, teaching two days, and working at the studio whenever possible throughout the rest of the week. Although my interest in the aerial paintings continues, I have taken a break to get back to my Maine subjects.















Drawing on the Wall, Lord Hall Gallery, Orono, Maine

In September, 2011, eight artists were invited to draw directly on the wall in the Lord Hall Gallery at the University of Maine. I worked on the wall during two weeks to complete this drawing in charcoal; making marks, rubbing, erasing, and redrawing. The surface of the wall is very different than that of paper, and presented new challenges.

Descent into Newark






Flying to New Jersey, Summer 2011

For the past few years I have been flying back and forth to New Jersey to see family, and have documented the views along the way. This summer I began a series of drawings and paintings about the journey home, and about experiencing the landscape from the air.




Public Art at 19 Union Street, Augusta, Maine




In the spring of 2011, I hung four paintings at 19 Union Street, in Augusta. They were selected as part of the Maine Percent for Art Program for the lobbies of the building that houses the Maine State Planning Office, Department of Audit, and Maine Human Rights Commission.

Penobscot Judicial Center Public Art Project

These six triptychs, titled Penobscot Intersections, were completed between 2008 and 2011, commissioned for the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor under the Maine Percent for Art Act, administered by the Maine Arts Commission.

The Penobscot River intersects rural and urban communities in Penobscot County, Maine, and these varied landscapes became the subject for the courthouse. I had been painting Penobscot River landscapes since 1985 with a bridge construction and power plant series, so felt that I had been preparing for this project for a long time.

Greenbush Launch, 2011

Greenbush Launch, oil on linen, 32x178 inches, 2011



Greenbush Launch, left panel

Penobscot Winter Power, 2011







Penobscot Winter Power, 2011

Penobscot Winter Power, right panel


Penobscot Winter Power, left panel

Old Town, Milford Dam - 2010


Old Town, Milford Dam, oil on linen, 32x178 inches, 2010


Center panel, Old Town - Milford Dam - 2010