Thursday, May 04, 2006
Another slow week
Customer-wise, that is. Spring is an odd retail season, at least around here. If the weather is decent, everyone is starved for the outdoors and leaves town for the coast, or works on their yards, and no one spends any time (or money) in bookshops. Rainy days are another matter. Of course, on the really fine days, I'm often outside too... Here's a photo from last fall, a particularly glorious stretch of sunny days during which I packed up, hung my closed-due-to-good-weather sign on the shop door, and spent some time hiking and painting on an island in Penobscot Bay:
If there is a heaven on earth, this is close to it. I could set up a little tent in the shadow of these spruce trees and live there for the rest of my life. The only practical problem: Where to put my books? I love painting outside and do it when I can - the photo shows a little two-panel painting, oil on canvas, that I'd worked on for two hours or so.
I've been painting on and off for the past few days (hence no blogging) - when no one, really, no one, comes in at all I often work on paintings at the shop, during business hours. I work from photos and sketches, if I can't get outside myself. I'm taking a few new paintings to a gallery on the coast next week, for inclusion in a group show which opens in late May and runs through the end of June. I hope some of my local friends can make it! The painting of mine on the gallery site is one of the two or three canvases I'll have in the show (I am trying to overlook the spelling of my name under the image - trying, I tell you - with my last name, I've seen much worse). This will be my first time showing work in a commercial gallery - after college I had a few shows here and there, at restaurants and such, but I hated the marketing aspect of it all, so I got into selling books for a business instead, and continued to make art for pleasure (love, not money - the story of my life, thus far). Now that time has passed and I've had an especially prolific painting year, I'm thinking of trying it out again. I've got to fund my book habit somehow.
If there is a heaven on earth, this is close to it. I could set up a little tent in the shadow of these spruce trees and live there for the rest of my life. The only practical problem: Where to put my books? I love painting outside and do it when I can - the photo shows a little two-panel painting, oil on canvas, that I'd worked on for two hours or so.I've been painting on and off for the past few days (hence no blogging) - when no one, really, no one, comes in at all I often work on paintings at the shop, during business hours. I work from photos and sketches, if I can't get outside myself. I'm taking a few new paintings to a gallery on the coast next week, for inclusion in a group show which opens in late May and runs through the end of June. I hope some of my local friends can make it! The painting of mine on the gallery site is one of the two or three canvases I'll have in the show (I am trying to overlook the spelling of my name under the image - trying, I tell you - with my last name, I've seen much worse). This will be my first time showing work in a commercial gallery - after college I had a few shows here and there, at restaurants and such, but I hated the marketing aspect of it all, so I got into selling books for a business instead, and continued to make art for pleasure (love, not money - the story of my life, thus far). Now that time has passed and I've had an especially prolific painting year, I'm thinking of trying it out again. I've got to fund my book habit somehow.
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Congrats on the art show! Looks like you're in good company there. Do you always paint in oils? My dad loved oil painting but later on,had to switch back to watercolors due to his health.
I've had both my first and last names spelled six ways to Sunday so I know how you feel:)
I've had both my first and last names spelled six ways to Sunday so I know how you feel:)
Anon - Yep, that's my painting.
Lady T - I learned with oil paint, then got away from it for a number of years, and when I started again I switched to the new water-soluble oils (don't need turp or paint thinner either for painting or clean-up). I was concerned about toxicity, too. I also use watercolors from time to time.
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Lady T - I learned with oil paint, then got away from it for a number of years, and when I started again I switched to the new water-soluble oils (don't need turp or paint thinner either for painting or clean-up). I was concerned about toxicity, too. I also use watercolors from time to time.
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