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Showing posts from September, 2018

New Group Exhibition - River Arts Damriscotta

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Time Together - Acrylic on Canvas Aiden LaSalle $325.00 The above canvas by Aiden LaSalle will be included in the juried group exhibition at River Arts opening Friday September 21 in Damriscotta. Aiden has been painting for decades and has paintings in numerous private collections throughout New England.  It's rare for any of his paintings to get by his family and clients but at age 82 he thought he'd try something a little different and enter a juried competition. Aiden comes from a family of artists.  His father, Edward LaSalle, was an illustrator in the 20's and 30's and he sold his paintings privately throughout the next five decades.  His Uncle, Charles LaSalle and his cousin Aiden Lassell Ripley were highly successful artists who won awards nationally and are still highly collectable artists to this day.   His mother, Vivian LaSalle was a fashion artist for Palmer's Department Store and a portraitist in pastels. Aiden has also spent a

Evans Notch, Revisited

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While readying paintings for submission to a juried competition, I decided to take a break to make some painting notes. In short, as I've painted over the years I've gradually moved from a frenetic non-process of painting on location and,thanks to haphazard storage, I seemed to spend as much time looking for my materials than I did painting, to a fairly consistent process.  I've written about the development on my preferred working method over time, if you are interested in that topic, I've included some links below. This particular notebook is a small portfolio that I've not written about before.  Each page of the portfolio is filled with index cards.  Each card has its own idea for a painting.  In some cases its just a quick phrase scribbled down (Orange Moonrise / Trees illuminated from behind).  In others there are no words and just a quick pencil sketch of a composition.  In other cases the card references other studies to utilize to complete a new su

Fishing the rapids II

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Fishing the Rapids  Acrylic 18" x 24" Sometimes an idea for a painting kicks around in my head for awhile.  Then it reaches a point where I have to get it out and onto canvas or paper and occasionally in the form of notes or poems.  More often than not I feel like a passenger on that ride rather than the pilot. In this case, the version of the picture to the left was my first pass.  I've talked before about how I will often get a painting to a point of partial completion and simply set it aside for awhile.  There was always something about this painting that hadn't set quite right with me.  Despite the fact that family, friends, and even an impartial critic who selected the painting for a juried show liked the painting as it was. Some of the differences between the two are do doubt because of different lighting.  While I made small additions and corrections throughout much of the picture - a small brush stroke and color adjustment here and there. th

Group Exhibitions and Juried Competitions

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I currently have three works on display at the Crooker Gallery in the Topsham Public Library as part of a combined show for award winners of the 10th annual Joy of Art and Joy of the Lense exhibitions.  The show runs through September 20th.  If you are interested in purchasing any of these paintings please private message me. Acrylic - 12 x 16 Cape Elizabeth Painted on Location Lisbon Farm Watercolor 8" x 10" Painted on Location Stroudwater Colonial Charcoal on Paper 12" x 16" The painting below is currently on display at River Arts Gallery in Damriscotta as part of a juried exhibition - local color.  This exhibition runs through the next two weeks. Lisbon Farm Acrylic 18" x 24" I also have submitted two paintings for a juried exhibition ArtinME in Boothbay, ME.  Fingers crossed that one will make the cut!   Am trying to live and take risks according to the motto "Go Big or Go Home!"
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This charcoal is an elaboration of an on location watercolor sketch of a farm in Bowdoin.  Haying has begun in the foreground.   One of the things that impresses me most about the farms in Maine is how farmers utilize nearly every inch of arable land, be it for Hay, Corn, or other crops.   Hay fields in various shapes and sizes are tucked away alongside roads as in this case. I may well take the view of Mt Washington from Lisbon and add it to this scene in an alternate composition.

Pembroke Stone Bridge

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Here is one of two large charcoals I've begun since my return from a trip Down East.  This is a stone bridge in my mother's hometown of Pembroke Maine.    The river is the Pennamaquan river which drains Pennamaquan Lake into Cobscook Bay.   As a child I spent many hours playing by the river.  When the tide was outgoing the river flowed rapidly through the stone arch ways.   I used to launch "Boats" that I found throughout the woods.  The river flowed so rapidly in fact, that the waves created by the flow of the river reminded me of the wake of my uncles boat on Sebago Lake.   When the tide was incoming, there were many small whirlpools formed as the saltwater and the freshwater collided forming intricate designs of flotsom and foam on the surface of the river.  On windy days, the river foam would be blown rapidly upriver, sometimes on the surface, at other times taking flight. I never fished, not sure why,  but the fishing was good as evidenced by the ba