A Busy Upcoming Week

creativewkshpDara Pannebaker and the AGC (Artist’s Group of Charlestown) sponsored by Spaulding Partners Continuing Care and in collaboration with the Charlestown Coalition, developed a terrific community centered Creative Workshop program for people at risk and in recovery. The paintings produced by our new artists will be exhibited at the StoveFactory Gallery in Charlestown. Last night Channel 5 arrived with a video camera and reporter while we were hanging the paintings – you’ll be able to catch the interviews on TV on Tuesday, September 27th.  I was strictly in the background. Get all the details about the Creative Workshop Exhibition hours and silent auction.

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I’ve been meaning to spend more time painting downtown, and on Sunday I’ll have that opportunity in the canyons of Downtown Crossing. I’ll be on Avenue de Lafayette with a  Taste of Downtown Crossing from noon until 4. Hope you can drop by. The food should be spectacular! and the forecast is sunny and cool. Great day an urban stroll. More info and tickets here

 

 

 

Bennington Green at the 17th Annual Frances Roddy Competition

benningtongreenBennington Green has been selected for Concord Art’s 17th Annual Frances Roddy Competition. I’m delighted! The show runs from September 15 – October 20, with the opening reception from 6-8 on Thursday, the 15th. Learn more about Concord Art.

Grey Skies, Saturday Morning


Oil on canvas, 11×14 inches. Thanks to Tish for getting me out to Spy Pond in Arlington, after years of driving by, I finally had an opportunity to paint. Very family friendly but felt like out in nature for this urbanite. The morning included very light sprinkles of rain.

And when the weather finally turns to Spring, I’m back outside.

Found this in the drafts folder – from April 16, 2016. Gorgeous day in Boston – after last weeks late snow, the magnolias are mostly very sad but the cherry blossoms are bursting out. I used the water miscible paints on this.

Feels like old times

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Summit Hill, July 2016

First, this is the top of Summit Hill, Brookline, not a vista from one of our more northerly rural states. Dense foliage covers a lot. And a lovely time was had with Elissa and Andy.

A year after my close encounter with vertigo, and subsequently staying far away from solvents, I was still  using cooking oil to swish the paint off the brushes (using more brushes than ever), trying water-miscible oils, using many different solvent-free painting  medium and staying far away from the phthalos pigments that magically get into everything. I knew what I missed most: the loose, lean, initial washes for the initial blocking in of values. I felt like a toddler who skipped his nap and is no longer fit to be in public. Missing this step was a big problem with plein air; in the studio where I work more slowly and have more tools at hand, not so much.

It was time for a test, I slipped some odorless turp into a portion of stand oil, I obsessively kept the cap on when not using it and set up at a nice breezy point on the top of the hill. Hallelujah! It worked.