I have a new painting on exhibit in the State of the Art Gallery Salon for the month of April. It is the last plain air painting from Fall 2014: The Cottonwood Grove – 14×18, oil on stretched canvas. October 1 that year was warm and sunny, an unexpected last gift of summer. I grabbed up my painting equipment and went down through Cass Park, past the Marina, to the first grove of trees in the wetlands. My goal was to paint the red poison Ivy leaves climbing the cotton woods contrasting with their green leaves. Sunlight slanted through the trunks, as the sun was already getting low in the fall sky. There was an incredible wind blowing that made me steady the easel with one hand and paint with the other. My goal was to get all that wild weather onto the canvas. I was a little afraid that the wind would bring down a branch, so when my nerve gave out, I left with the painting unfinished. During the next year and a half, I continued to ponder the unfinished painting that seemed to want something more from me. I wound up being free with the color and shapes in order to manifest the wild weather, abstracting the trees. With a painting like that, I usually take a long time to observe and think about it, revisit it many times, and then live with it until it either asks something more from me or I declare it to be finished. This week I declared it finished. I will post an image of it when it is photographed
I have two paintings up at CSMA for the month of April in the show, A Sense of Place: Exploring Ithaca’s Built Environment. For this show, I chose Ice: the Cornell Boat House, and the Cascadilla Ice Jam at the Haunt. It will run April 1- 29, 2016.
Treman Marina August, 12×12″ oil on canvas
I also have paintings up at Transformations Hair and Skin Salon until April 15. This collection of paintings is a combination of some of my most recent work and some old favorites. Landscapes and images of nature can be soothing, and uplifting. They can bring sunlight and fresh air indoors. I chose these to compliment the delightful mellow atmosphere of this Salon.
Fissures and Basins, 18×37, oil on canvas
