Eric Green. Wow, his paintings are so unusual. All tell a story. They are paintings that you can really spend time looking at… the kind where you always see something new that you didn’t notice the last time you looked. I love that. Eric is part of a fabulous show at the Dowling Walsh Gallery located in Rockland, Maine. If you’re anywhere near the area, do stop by, you will be in for a treat!

Read a bit about Eric from the Dowling Walsh website:

Eric Green went to RISD on a full scholarship at the age of sixteen. After attending the school for a week, he left to ride freights across the country, spending four years on the road.

In addition to painting for thirty years, he has worked in a frame shop, assembled pulp testers, traveled with a carnival, restored houses, painted industrial buildings from a hanging scaffold, designed two labels for Brazilian beers, written four novels and a column for the local paper. He has had two solo exhibitions in SoHo and Chelsea, received three grants, and a merit award from the National Academy of Design.

In New England, Eric’s paintings have been exhibited at the Ogunquit Museum, Brattleboro Museum, Robert Hull Fleming Museum, and the Portland Museum.

Also read a bit about the time diptychs from DowlingWalsh.com

Artist Statement: Time Diptychs

“This latest series is an attempt to capture time, or the poetic phrase, “the sad beauty of time passing,” something I believe we all experience in life, an emotion that gives existence much of its intensity and meaning.  It’s not an easy sensation to describe, so I’m hoping this work will allow the viewer to experience it in a clarified visual form.

The work portrays sections of the interior of our house that I’ve spent the last seventeen years adjusting, a work of art in itself.  (Reference: Against the Grain by J. K. Huysmans.)  I’m actually drawing a place I’ve carefully created and arranged, so in a way, the image is generated twice.  Each diptych is comprised of two panels of the same basic view altered only by the passage of time.  What I find interesting is that the art itself can only exist in the viewer’s mind.  It is the amalgamation or comparison of the two images that creates the specific emotion, not each individual panel.  Gauging and balancing this convergence is everything.

On the 12 by 16 inch cradled hardboard panels, the images are rendered initially with a pencil grisaille, then by layers of sprayed UV varnish and colored pencil, allowing multiple colors to overlap, similar to what we see in nature.  All the pencil colors are pure bright hues.  Grays and browns are formed by the overlapping tones.  The wood color, for instance, is comprised of blues, purples, greens, reds, and yellows, no brown; the wall color in certain sections is eight different hues.”

Image courtesy of DowlingWalsh.com, used with permission…

Catch you back here tomorrow!

George Shattuck. Gifted Photographer. Stunning scenes shown in an entirely different light. George’s photographs appear as paintings. They have such a unique and peaceful quality to them. They remind me of somewhere wonderful that I’ve been, a place that has conjured up wonderful memories.

Ooooh, you should see the winter image, the snow, the trees… magical! Check out George’s website!

Peaceful. Serene. I could just look at this all day. The harmony of the colors, the softness of the blues and that fabulous green… so much like a well executed painting! It’s hard to believe this is a photograph! George is represented by the Iris Gallery of Fine Art located in Boston, MA and Aspen, CO, if you’re in the area, do pop in and see his work in person!

Read a bit about his photographs … from George’s website:

About the Imagery

Most of my images are created while moving the camera with the shutter open. The exact extent of that movement depends upon many variables and how the elements that affect the normal mechanics of capturing an image (choosing ISO, aperture and shutter speed) come into play. Ultimately it has become a process based upon years of experience along with plenty of trial & error. I am often inspired by the flight of birds or the motion of the tides as a guide in deciding how much movement to use; each shoot is unique in that way. Sometimes the movement is sweeping; creating dramatic minimalist shapes and colors while at other times, the movement is more contained; which creates imagery that project impressionistic qualities. The images that I enjoy creating the most are those that rely on emotional response and perception rather than the reality of the scene. I often work with long exposures in order to reduce what is before me into elemental graphic shapes & colors. I enjoy isolating the details of a scene, often to the point of abstraction; eliminating unnecessary elements in order to emphasize the subject I am working with. The images as you see them are captured in-camera, in the field and in the moment and are not subjected to elaborate post-processing techniques. The colors are offered by nature; most often just before sunrise or before sunset (but not always). I shoot with Nikon digital camera equipment. Ambient light is critical in the process and I utilize an assortment of light-blocking, polarizing and warming filters from Singh-Ray, B&W and others to achieve the results you see.

About George… from his website:

I bought my first camera in 1978 while living on the island of Maui at age 22. It was the highly regarded Rolleiflex 35; a compact range-finder camera with manual controls. It was with that camera that I first became familiar with the triangular relationship between film speed, shutter speed and f-stop. The Hawaiian landscape gave me plenty of creative opportunities to focus on and explore; bamboo jungles, tropical waterfalls, sublime high-altitude sunrises and pristine beaches, all requiring a different set of skills to capture the image authentically. I didn’t know it then, but that period of my young life was the genesis of a life-long relationship with landscape photography. Although largely self-taught as a photographer, I have been mentored through the years by many talented photographers most notably by my friend and author, Bill Tipper. Based in Salisbury, Connecticut, I travel extensively along the New England coast and islands, the Caribbean and more recently within the Berkshires to find the land and seascapes that will respond to my vision and technique. My work is represented by The Iris Gallery of Fine Art Photography; Boston and Great Barrington, Massachusetts. For Inquiries, please visit http://www.irisgallery.net.

All images via www.georgeshattuck.com, used with permission…

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Sarah McRae Morton – Wow. Such interesting subject matter. Her paintings are phenomenal and it shows by the number that has sold. There is a show for Sarah at the Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockland, Maine. It began on September 5 and runs through September 27, 2014 – if you’re in the vicinity, try to make it! See Sarah’s paintings in person. Experience one of the most amazing galleries ever.

From the Dowling Walsh website:

CURRENT SHOW: “The Impossible Sight of a Ship” – SEPTEMBER 5-27, 2014

A family tie brought me to Maine. I have returned, following windy curiosity to see whereseafarers fed my favorite painters, find the “Grim and Wild Maine” described by Thoreau, follow water veins he coursed with Penobscot guides, and hear the wrath of the ocean onthe fortress walls of Monhegan.

The subjects in “The Impossible Sight of a Ship” are the people from whom I am descended, by blood or by the “marrow of artistic tradition”, all of whom led me to a place and time in Maine. The present, as a culmination of chances, is one lock of a braided theme joining pieces in this suite of work. The other two lineages of the binding braid are the history of a family, and that of a string of artists. From each I have inherited substance to make paintings.

These paintings are maps of retraced steps, records of the roads taken to try to capture images of people long gone. They are invented portraits of the shells of tenacious spirits who have survived because their stories are transmitted around campfires, between rocking chairs, and under moth eaten black skies. They had memorable lives or unforgettable brushes with death and left enough legacy, artifacts or genetic residue to retell their stories. What they all have in common is me, a common descendant.

As there is an optimal viewing distance for every painting, it seems true of history too – perspective clarifies some facts and can obscure what we wish not to see. It’s a metaphor I elude to by rendering some detail finely while blurring other passages within the same frame.

My paintings mimic American academic construction. The compositions draw from a canon of western paintings where a common goal was to deceive the viewer- to build a believable window view to an invented scene by an alchemic process using dirt, stone oil, sap, gems and flax. The style of the pieces varies according to the prevalent style of art during each character’s lifetime, displaying facets of aesthetic traditions, or challenges to convention that made American art history.

The process of learning to see gave me the title of the show, “The Impossible Sight of a Ship” .It has been theorized that when European vessels first appeared on the horizon of the Americas, native people could not “see” the ships. Having never laid eyes on such objects before, they were not primed to recognize the shapes of the bow, hull and sails…or see the apparition as portent of a storm.

The concept that it is an acquired ability to recognize objects, illusions, constructions, pictures is a useful analogy for my process of painting. My work is a continuation of the endeavors of others. The ship is impossible for me to see without the ghosts of earlier images on my retinas. I relied on the work of the Wyeths, Homer, Peal, Sully, Eakins to compose these pictures.

Read a bit about Sarah from the Dowling Walsh website (I love bios that tell a story!):

I began painting in a barn loft turned studio when I was eight. The surrounding Amish farmed fields, livestock, barn raisings and quilt auctions were my repeated subjects. Creating pictures led me to an understanding of my place adjacent to that world, and it was art that inspired me to move away from it. Reading through a trove of art history books in the barn ignited my curiosity to pursue art seriously. During and after my high school years I studied drawing and color theory with Myron Barnstone in Coplay, Pennsylvania. For four years I attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and took history courses at The University of Pennsylvania. When I was awarded a PAFA fellowship to travel to Europe in 2006 I took the opportunity to study art restoration and conservation in Rome. Then, in Norway, I studied with painter Odd Nerdrum.

When I returned from abroad I settled in a coal mining region of West Virginia to create a body of work about the local history. Based on these paintings, I was awarded a Matisse Foundation Fellowship to attend the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine in 2008. Since then, I have painted series in Cerillos, New Mexico; Carmel, California; Baltimore, Maryland;  Freiburg, Germany; and Johnson Vermont at Vermont Studio Center. Painting is my means to relay stories and share ideas. I depend on themes and symbols from western art history to create allegory. When I paint about events I am ever aware of how my lens has been curved, my point of view determined by travel, books, past artists and new meetings. I currently live in Cologne, Germany, but my paintings undoubtedly reflect the setting of my upbringing in rural Pennsylvania. I often return to work in my childhood studio above the horse stalls.

Image via DowlingWalsh.com, used with permission…

Catch you back here tomorrow!

FAC – the Fine Art Collaborative – what an opportunity. Do you see all these wonderful artists? Each so talented and highly sought after for workshops… Guess what? There is another workshop coming up with ALL OF THEM! I’ll feature a few this week and for the next few weeks… Don’t miss out! Sign up while there is still a spot available!

Click HERE to sign up for any of these workshops!

Leslie Saeta. Everyone has heard of Leslie, she’s done very well marketing her art and really making a name for herself. Have you listened to the Artists Helping Artists Blog Radio show? It’s fabulous! She interviews an artist once a week, along with a cohost. The interviews are full of information, and so entertaining! You can listen to past episodes, so check it out! In this lecture, Leslie is going to talk about promoting your art. Who doesn’t need that? Learn from the master!

I get so much out of a demo. I can see how the artists approaches the subject, what they do first, what they don’t do. Sometimes its the little things that make the biggest difference! This lecture and demo is sure to be a hit! Michelle Dunaway‘s portraits just come to life! Don’t miss this chance. I would sign up for as many workshops as I could fit in! So many great artists, all offering a workshop of one type or another, but act quickly, the workshop begins in three weeks!!

Catch you back here tomorrow!