Above photo credit: Jaylyn McFadden
Flax Art
In early September I curated a flax art exhibit in the historic church in East Barnard, Vermont. I’ll be working to find more places to exhibit this unusual and beautiful collection of work made by 11 artists (self included). We learned the signature methods for felting and sculpting with flax from master Belgian artist Germana Tack.
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!
From my journal
You Will Hear Music
Who will be the future apprentices—the ones who will put in the time? Hammer the metal one thousand blows to make the perfect horseshoe? These are things I think about when I despair about smart phones and sound bytes and plastic debris filling the oceans....
Bicycles, and Hello to My Younger Self
Last night we grabbed bicycles and took a little spin down the road and back. After years of living on mountaintops, we live in a fairly flat valley now. An evening jaunt on a bicycle is a pleasure instead of a distressing, heart-attack-inducing grind. My...
Pretending
So much of adulthood is about responsibility and making good impressions. Setting an example. It's been dreary and rainy day upon day, week upon week. When the sun shines it's when I've needed to keep butt in seat, face to a screen. By this morning I am...
See Original Art Here
- First Branch Coffee
- Artistree Gallery, Pomfret, Vermont— Five pieces in Small Works exhibit, open through December 21
- In my home studio by appointment
Registeration Open!
- Experiment with Watercolor - 3 part class in January 2025, Pomfret, VT
- Abstracted Landscape with Acrylics - 1 day workshop, February 2, Pomfret, VT
Follow Along
Want a little blue sky in your inbox?
I send emails when the stars align (every so often).