Above photo credit: Jaylyn McFadden
On the Easel
Walker Hill, Fable Farm, and More Swallows
In February I traveled to Kochi in Kerala, India, for 10 days of bold color, rich connections, and a renewed appreciation for leaping out of my comfort zone. I came home to mud season and sent pictures of snow and frozen rivers to new friends. They sent me pictures of a parade of elephants. How this trip will manifest in my artwork, I cannot tell you. But I’m sure it will.
I came home and got right to work finishing some new work for the Members Show at the Bryan Memorial Gallery which opens on Saturday, March 9 from 3-6. If you want to take a weekend roadtrip, grab a friend and come on up. We have to do things like this (roadtrips) while we wait for the snow to melt and the dirt roads to dry out. It’s muddy out here in East Barnard.
My studio is the former taproom in an 1830s brick house in rural Vermont.
But my favorite studio is under the sky where I get started on most of my paintings. The French call this en plein air, meaning in the open air. My brother gave me an old easel and it accompanies me around the back roads and hillsides near my home. In 2022 I started painting from the bed of our old pickup truck (I saw the Irish artist Elizabeth Cope doing this on the pages of Faire magazine and had to try it). I spend the winter months finishing my summer paintings, and creating dreamscapes that are composites of the places I’ve been fortunate to go. I work in slow-dry acrylics by Golden Paints and use wide hardware store brushes and Rosemary artist brushes. Just love them!
register!
Spring Classes & Workshops
These in-person classes and workshops will be held in Pomfret, Vermont, at Artistree Community Art Center.
3-part Class: Painting with Bigger Brushes, April 23, 30 and May 7 / 6-8:30 pm
Mix, Mingle and Make, FREE workshop, April 18 / 6-7:30 (register to participate)
Paint, snap, write,
design, teach
Let’s work together!
Do you want to learn to paint, draw or sew?
Would you like to commission a painting?
Can I paint some patterns or birds on your walls, or restore damaged wallpaper (yes, I do this).
Do you need branding or photography for your business?
From my journal
The Pleasant Consequence of Interruptions
Memory flashback: June 7. I set up my easel at the corner on Belknap Brook Rd and Dairy Hill in Tunbridge, Vermont. Morning breeze keeps the black flies in check (sort of) and the farmhouse just up the meadow from me is lit in filtered sun. Chervil is...
Someday It Will Be Us
Autumn dusk is hitting its prime. Walking the dog back home I see lights coming up in the village windows. It brings to mind the ones who inhabited these houses before my time. Their benevolent spirits linger throughout this valley and its hilltops in the...
Contemplating Hugs
On a waterfront plaza in Kingston, Ontario, last week our family of three saw a women with a Free Hugs sign. The woman was in her 60s and was with another friend. No one was taking her up on the offer, and I casually suggested to my daughter that she get a...
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