More Snow

Since it's snowing here in New Hampshire, I thought it would be a good time to post "Snowscape" (4.75" x 8.25", oil-based inks on Japanese Mulberry paper), a woodcut I did for a print exchange. The theme was typography. I had a giant wooden dollar-sign block that I got at a letterpress fair last summer (see the previous steam roller printing post) and used that as a jumping-off place for a design. I wanted to use the block just as an abstract design element, with no reference to money, the economy, etc. It looks quite plain, but I used 3 Shina plywood blocks, plus the $, and five colors to make the print. There's a version of it hanging in the "Prints of the Year" show at the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord NH until April 2, 2010.

Exciting Sighting

Today I was just sitting down to eat lunch and saw a movement outside, dark against the snow. A second look: it was a fisher (a.k.a. fisher cat), coming down from up near the garden! I grabbed the camera (handily on the table, as I'd just come back from a morning painting trip) and Steve opened the door. Out of the four photos, this is the only one that really shows the fisher. I saw one up north about 10 years ago and thought it was once-in-a-lifetime. Woo hoo!

Snowcamp photos

Here are some pics from Snowcamp, just to give you an idea of what it was like for us, painting in the beyond-freezing cold. There's one of Stape giving a demo, with Mt Lafayette resting in the crook of his arm. Another shows my setup, a Judson's box, with the mountain painting on it. There's a group of us watching Stape, so bundled we could hardly move, me in green fiddling with my camera. I took the aerial view of the other folks watching the demo from my third-floor window, the half-day I was laid low from eating some allergen or other. The last pic is of Renee Lammers, who took the photo with me in it. She has lots more on her blog at http://reneelammers.com/blog if you'd like to check it out.

Snowcamp

Well, I'm back. And one or more of my previous posts has (have) disappeared; I have no idea why. But, the exciting news is that I've just returned from a three-day outdoor painting workshop with Stapleton Kearns and eight other painters in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire. It was an adventure, to be sure! We stayed at the friendly Sunset Hill House, where the heat went off the first night and the water pipes froze. Why? Because the next morning, when we all went out to paint, it was 10 below zero! Fahrenheit. At least the sun was shining. No one died or got frostbite and everyone managed to paint until about 4:00 p.m.

The views were spectacular: Mounts Washington and Lafayette, with other presidents and Cannon also nearby. We could see the snow guns working on Cannon for the skiers from our back yard. I did three paintings over the long weekend, one of Lafayette (the second one above; 11 X 14, oil on panel), which may or may not be salvageable, another of the inn's "annex" building, where we almost had to move in the middle of the night (a decent start, I think; 12 x 16 oil on panel), plus a "wiper," that will never see the light of day, never mind be on this blog.

It was a great experience; I now feel able to paint in just about any weather; I met a bunch of really nice people and got a jolt of confidence.

An in-depth version of our experience can be seen on our instructor Stape's blog: http://www.stapletonkearns.blogspot.com/. Be sure to let him know if you think he looks good in the orange hat.

Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion

McGowan Fine Art is hosting a paintout this coming weekend at the Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion Historic Site in Portsmouth, NH (more info at www.nhstateparks.org/state-parks/alphabetical-order/wentworth-coolidge-mansion/). Steve and I went there today so I could "case" the place and give some of the NH Plein Air Painters (www.nhpleinair.com/) who'll be painting there a sneak peek. It's a very odd-looking building, right on the water, surrounded by rather sad dried-up gardens. The strange configuration is apparently because Governor Wentworth had all of the smaller buildings on the property brought together and assembled into one big one. We didn't take the tour, so I can't tell you about the inside, but the building and its surroundings are wonderful. The yellow building is the W-C mansion; the white one is Creek Farm, right next door and the last pic is of the island right across from the mansion, with a few sea kayakers posing/paddling by.

Come and watch the artists (I'll be there!) paint on Saturday, August 8, from 10 to 4 and on Sunday the 9th from 11 to 3. Right after that, on Sunday, there's a wet paint sale from 3 until 5 at the Coolidge Center for the Arts, on the grounds near the Mansion.

Garden Sheds

In spite of all the rain, I've been out to paint a few times. Here's a little study I did of the garden sheds at Canterbury Shaker Village on one of our recent sunny days. I'll use it as reference for a larger painting later. It's 6" x 8" in oils on RayMar linen panel.

Steamroller Printing

Last Sunday, Steve and I went to the Printing Arts Fair in North Andover, Massachusetts. Even though the weather was pretty bad, it was still fun, as most of the action was indoors. The steamroller folks set up a tent outside and made prints in spite of the rain. I'll squeeze as many of the photos as I can here to show you of one of the linocuts that were printed that day.