IN TRYING TIMES

By JANICE WITTMER

This is a challenging time, what with the threat of the coronavirus.

Although it has only been two weeks of "staying at home" and "social distancing"....

I miss being with people.

Creating art has always been an important part of my life, and a positive way to focus my energy.

Because when I paint or draw, it is not possible to think about anything else, even the coronavirus.

For now, while we can't be with other people, instead I will draw and paint them.

Be smart, be healthy, enjoy art, nature-- and of course, wash your hands.

"IMAGINE ALL THE PEOPLE LIVING LIFE IN PEACE..."

"AND THE WORLD WILL BE AS ONE"

 JOHN LENNON

 KICKSTARTING THE MOJO

By Terry Heinzmann

After a really, really long dry spell, like not painting AT ALL for more than a year, I finally put myself back in a class which is the only way I know how to get back into painting.

This class is about painting a still life in oil and is taught by Jeanne Duval, an artist who lives and works in Jaffrey, NH.

  In her small studio, seven or eight of us crowd around three different still life arrangements and do our best to capture the set-up.

  Jeanne is tough, demanding and relentless in teaching us to paint what we see, not what we think we see.  The work is hard, challenging and requires great patience.  Thankfully, Jeanne has a terrific sense of humor, so we all laugh a lot at our efforts.

One of the best part of the class is how I feel after a three+-hour session of struggling with the process.  Inevitably, I feel happy, energized, and peaceful on my drive back home. It’s not necessarily because I like what I’ve done, but more because I gave 100% to accomplish something that I find very difficult (and, yes, I often am pleased with the result, too!).

This painting shows the set up as well as my almost-finished painting.  

WINTER STUDIO MUSINGS!

By MARY RUEDIG

While sitting in my studio, in the dark of winter, I am painting

 scenes from my memory.

I know these views of Lake Sunapee by 

heart but since I’m not looking at them as I 

paint, I am able to play with the line, value 

and colors.







I end up with paintings that remind me of 

my favorite landscapes, but they are very different from the actual 

scenes.

I never know what the painting will look like

 when I start, and am constantly excited and 

surprised by what happens when water mixes 

with paint or ink.










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NOTES IN ADDITION …….


I am thinking of making some ceramic tiles for the wall behind our 

stove. 

These veggies are sketches of what I might put


 on the tiles.

I am trying to keep the lines and colors simple 

to simplify the glazing.

Hello wonderful Merrimack River Painters

AND Hello 2020

By DUSTAN KNIGHT

This has been a year of growth and creativity for many of us. Sometimes we have produced great art work and sometimes we have just gotten better as people. Hopefully both.

I have gotten excited about a new process that has become quite popular on the internet called "pouring acrylics". Simply put, it is mixing acrylic paint with an extender (painting medium) and drips of silicon. The silicon resists the paint and creates lovely 'cells' of complementary colors.

 It's a look that is difficult to control and visually enchanting. 

Naturally, after doing a hundred or more of these - I became restless and began to actually pour the paint! Inspired by one of my favorite artists Pat Steir (Greenwich Village, NYC).

It's pretty darned much crazy fun!

This approach is a nice contrast to the heavily impasto 'Birch Series' I worked on last winter. I have filled cheap ketchup and mustard squeeze bottles with various color mixtures of paint and extra medium - and the process of applying the paint is delightful and bold.

The 'Back Channel' Series combined the impasto with the pouring methods. The actual surface of the artwork becomes a symphonic combination of fast, slow, controlled and random elements.

It has been a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to creating artwork never seen before during this new year. 

WORKING IN THE ABSTRACT

By Ann Saunderson

I started working with cold wax maybe a year ago.

I’ve been working toward abstraction for quite a while and actually it’s been pretty frustrating the abstraction, but the cold wax really pushed me over the top.

Just what I needed!



I think I am just a sucker for new materials. 



I like the experimentation, the not knowing what’s going to happen.

I could have taken a workshop and learned all the tricks, but I really needed to do it by myself.

Every discovery is my own and sticks in my brain.

The bad part, clean up and TITLES. Titles for abstract work always seems so random, cheesy, and lame, but without titles I can’t identify them.

 Pathetic reason, really.

PAINTING POSSIBILITIES

By Susan Levenson

I love to paint with watercolors. Their free spirit keeps me happy and passionate. Not knowing what the fluidity of the paint is going to bring is what surprises me, and then my head fills with infinite possibilities, that I would never have been able to create in any other way.

As we age our minds sometimes form a creative block. We get "stage fright" when confronted with a blank sheet of paper. I used to put away my painting things when this happened, and try again later. 

However, now I have created a game where I save discarded and inferior work, ordinarily headed to the trash, to play with. Sometimes the results are dreadful, but frequently the losers turn into winners.

Here are examples of some winners.

This painting was a bad start. I kept playing with brush strokes making them connect with the sky to become pilings. Over time I added the small boat, raft, more pilings and a yellow wash over the water. Finally, I added a squiggle here and there. It became one of my most successful transformations, even though it took close to a year to complete. 

A prominent gallery owner once told me that house paintings were of no interest to patrons unless the people lived in them. To this boring painting, of a popular restaurant and inn, I added the foot traffic to create some passion.  

Originally this 12" x 12" painting was a small section in the corner of a 15" x 22" throwaway. I liked this part of the original painting. I cut out this piece into this square format and created a painting that works. 

Several sheets of experimental texture exercises on YUPO paper had been hanging around my studio for years. YUPO is erasable so I began experimenting using these textures as a backdrop for something else. This Gull chick, from a photo I took on Appledore Island, hit the spot. 

The possibilities of watercolor are infinite. I had to decide whether or not I should make 2 or 3 paintings from this one by cutting it into 3 pieces. Originally I had cut it into 2, but now I realize it should have been 3.

I know use this photo as inspiration, and model of my work, depicting the architecture of the coast of Maine.

BRANCHING OUT

By MARILYN EIMON

NUBBLE

This year I have done some branching out. Creating a website, www.marilyneimon.com, as well as having note cards and gift cards of my paintings printed.
 To my surprise they are doing very well. 

It was a daunting experience to get up the courage to contact shops to carry my artwork in the first place.

ICE CREAM TREAT

What a pleasant surprise to see the enthusiastic reception they have received in the various shops.

LOADED 2 BEACH

Now others are recommending places to contact, and I have been amazed that most of them have decided to carry them.

OGUNQUIT BEACH DAY

When I made the brazen decision to contact the Ogunquit Museum of American Art to see if they would be willing to carry my book in their gift shop. It was very exciting to learn that they decided to take it on!

MABEL 50 SHADES GREY

Now they also have my notecards, which I am pleased to say, are selling quite well.

SEASIDE CONDOS

I am humbled by the fact that the cards are in seven other shops in Ogunquit, ME, as well as Tulips American Handcraft in Portsmouth, NH and Maine Craft, Portland, ME.

LOVE IS IN THE AIR

Thank you Dustan Knight and the Merrimack River Painters for your support.

OGUNQUIT SUMMERTIME TRAFFIC