TRALA ITS MAY

Well this blog page has a new look and its time to negotiate another learning curve. ah well. I have two paintings ready to go to framer and then to possible exhibits, one at the Hardy, their annual juried  floor to ceiling show, (has it been a year?) and the Ridges exhibit which is in late June through July, early August. I was not happy with my studies for the Ridges, but finally sat down and got out a painting of the range light station, the local icon, beacon of light,  in Baileys Harbor, as portrayed above. The day I went with my gear it was sunny but chilly, then I did some photos there a few weeks later and this painting is a result of several visits, 2 small studies and a photo image on the lap top,  I was happy with the light in this, shadows were long and dark. Reading the Ridges exhibit  will be at the Door Community Auditorium and will feature area artists invited to submit their impressions, at the Link Gallery opening on July 1 with a special reception. I was in this exhibit a few years ago when I did a painting of networked tree branches and a winter wren, this painting is quite different from the Winter Wren. I do not define myself as a landscape artist or a plein air painter, but these labels apply within a larger definition of my inquiring eye.

ANTICIPATING SUMMER

Its April, hmmm, looks like May but feels like March right now, on the lake side of the peninsula. The flocks of swans have come and gone, and each morning I step outside, walk with the dog to the shore of Kangaroo Lake and have a look at what might be going on there, a small gathering of divers, the bufflehead merganser types. I wonder if they'll stick around. Also, I am wondering why I haven't been a more regular blogger lately. I finished painting my gray frozen views of ice and snow, then in mid March buds started to swell on the lilac bushes, temperatures lured me outside, I went to the Ridges to paint the Range Light Station; I have been asked to be in an exhibit this summer called Reading the Ridges, which is a repeat of an exhibit they did at a space in the Gibraltar School Auditorium gallery space called The Link 2 years ago - I spent months preparing for it. This year I have spent months thinking about it and not doing much painting, so off to the Ridges I went again last week with my camera and last month, with my 6"x 8" pochade and folding chair, a warm day in March. So far I have two studies done, but keep thinking of entering older work that references the forest floor pathways i painted a year ago. I know others who go out with their gear all the time, painting in cold, in fog, in wind, I can't do that. I am happy if I can just pull up the side of the road and look at the view, let alone pack in gear to some off the road spot that might hold a treasure, but I just can't get to it because I am feeling some pain and weakening in the knees and hip joints, it is becoming harder to do the things I wanted to do at this stage of my life, but I got out and I walked, I shot images, I painted images, I went back home a few hours later feeling righteous and full of purpose, than I got achey and low. Now the sun is out again after a few days of gray and rain, wind and fog. I have had enough of that stuff, I want flowers and color and I want to feel myself walk without wincing, there are meds for that, but I am noticing that I don't think about it if I am looking at a canvas, sitting there painting what is in front of me- bring on spring and warmer weather, bring on the flies and mozzies and give me my bottle of Aleve and I will be there ready to fulfill my obligations, and hopefully have a painting I liked doing, for Reading the Ridges exhibit this summer, and the Land trust exhibit this fall at the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay, and while I am at it, I should do a portrait for my upcoming Door Prize for Portraits opening at my place Chez Cheryl Art Space in late June. There is a lot going on this summer, Door Prize for Portraits, Art by Diane Foster from west central Iowa,in August, and in September I have two workshops I am offering with artist instructor Emmett Johns, doing plein air painting for three days, followed by Chicago artist Ken Klopack, for three days painting the interior, exploring the figure in the interior space. There is also the garden to tend, and the chickens to feed and the dog to walk, the lake calls to us to put the canoe in- the county starts to fill up with seasonal tourists and residence and summer workers. Chez Cheryl Art Space will be open and ready for it's close-up.

January Grey

Today is Australia Day, and for the third year in a row, I am not observing it in Australia. I miss the color and sultry currents that filled my senses there. The flora and fauna and the sounds of it all permeated my thoughts, and spilled out to the canvas and journal for years. But in Wisconsin there is another current blowing, the water froze further out in the harbor of Baileys this year, and the geese stuck around but were further out as well, but today its barely freezing, still very cloudy and that Wisconsin grey has numbed my paint box, this is obvious if you look at the last three painting studies I posted today. The snow is dingy and shallow, with patches of ice lurking in criminal corners, waiting for someone to take a misstep.

These three little paintings are record of the work I pursued this month after a 3 month hiatus from painting. After the fall workshop with Bonnie Paruch, painting plein air nocturnes, and the two days painting with Mary Ulm Mayhew in mid September, I found myself in a lull. Not from lack in the workshops, just too many distractions. Holidays came and went, I scolded myself for not painting, went to several critiques, entered a few paintings in an exhibit at the Miller Art Museum SPIRIT OF THE SEASON exhibit with the Door County Art League. (old work) and then the Peninsula School of Art had their Janaury SALON, which offered up hundreds of art works by area artists, a big show, a good party and a few people I know even sold work there. I put three works in that show, and had good comments from people whose opinions I respect. One of the paintings I will have to photograph and post soon, it is full of color, and I realize it is a cousin of a painting I did in Australia, and it was made last summer at the height of rural color, flowers and birds everywhere, a celebration of color is hanging in the wings for me right now. Its all about painting snow, but we have none. Not yet anyway.

Working on a 6"x8" panel on a small pochade, mounted on a tripod. I never paint buildings, architecture is daunting.

Small Plein Air painting of the area across from the Maritime Museum in Manitowac WI.