The New Studio

The process of having the new studio built has been daunting. Over a year in the works, it is almost ready. The construction itself has not taken that long, about 2 months, it was all of the other stuff from working with the architect last summer to going through the hell (and high cost) of dealing with the township to get the permits and zoning variance to have this built.

It looks like I'll be moving into the studio sometime next week. There are a few finishing touches to be completed, and of course the occupancy inspection (more township stuff . . .) before I can shift all my easels, paints, etc. into this new space. I'm lucky enough to have North light in this space, which is about 16 x 20, so I have lots of room to move around.

The first level will be your standard "garage" - car, motorcycle, and all the normal nonsense that needs to be stored, the second level is my studio.

The Next Adventure . . .

The trip to Cape Cod was wonderful - the weather was a bit more than uncooperative for the last few days, but I came back with a large number of field studies and about 200 photos to work with in the studio. Currently, I'm working on several large paintings and a few few smaller ones. That's the way I work - for some reason I work on anywhere between 3 and 7 paintings at a time - go figure. As the works are completed, I'll get them posted here on the blog and on the website.

On August 01, I leave for Wyoming - two weeks in the wilderness - painting and horseback riding through the mountains. I've posted a few photos from one of my prior trips so that you can get an idea of how "out there" and how magnificent the area is.

Traveling as an oil painter poses a few challenges. First, you cannot fly with your materials - they are potentially explosive so I ship them out via ground about 2 weeks prior to my trip. I'm lucky in that I have a permanent easel out there, so I don't need to worry about that . . . In Wyoming, at the "base camp" we are at about 7500 foot elevation - so the sun is very strong and it is technically desert due to the low rainfall and humidity. This means that everything dries fast, sometimes too fast, so I cut my medium with poppy oil a bit so that the paint is "open" long enough for me to work it. Poppy oil oil takes forever to dry - used alone it would takes months, or even up to a year to dry, but cutting it with another medium, such as linseed oil, makes it much more manageable to work with and in this case, is a benefit in the very dry and hot environment.

Top photo is the view from a mountain ridge, second photo down is the view from the same ridge facing out to the the mountains,and you can just barely make out the glacier that feeds the lakes in photo one, and the last photo is a view of the ranch dining hall, about 3/4 way down the same mountain. It's pretty awesome . . .

Heading up to the Cape

At last! I felt the beginning of this trip would never come, I feel like a kid at Christmastime. Today I drive up to Cape Cod for a week of painting, a bit of rest and fun.

The truck is packed with tons of painting panels and plein air art supplies, the necessary "techie" stuff (gps, cell phone etc.) and enough clothes to get me through the week.

The drive is long, about 6 hours with a straight shot through, but with gas, bathroom and food breaks, it will take about 8 hours. On the other side of this trip, is my gracious host and dear friend, Doug and I'll be staying with him all week. He's a real Cape Cod guy, and knows the place like the back of his hand. No doubt, we will be eating plenty of lobster and oysters this week.

I hope to be able to post photos of the Cape as well as photos of paintings as they come along. This painting is from last year on the Cape. Sunsets are tough because you cannot work it fully "from life" - this final version was created from a very quick study I had done (and lots of hand written field notes) as well as a photograph.

Will the rain ever end???

I don't know about the rest of the country, but here in PA, we had have an incredible amount of rain. This means that I've been spending a lot of time in the studio working on still life work and larger paintings from the plein aire studies I've done when the weather was nice.

This is the most current still life I've been working on - it is a work in progress, it has quite a bit more to go. The original intention was to put a branch of white dogwood on the right side of the painting, but I missed the window of opportunity and the dogwood flowers are now long gone - so on to plan two. I'm still working on plan two . . .

The size of the support is very unusual, 9 inches high by 24 inches long. I had to plan carefully and chart out a "golden mean" graph on the support before I began painting so that everything held together design wise.

Titles of paintings don't come until they are finished, so this is just a plain old "still life with ginger jar" right now.

New on the easel / View frm Truro

Last fall when I was in Cape Cod, we stayed in a little town just outside of Provincetown called Truro. One morning I woke up very early to catch some beautiful light, grabbed my paints and the little painting "Beach Path" was born. So many people commented on that work that I decided to do a larger version, but this time the view is from right on the beach, not way back at the cottage. It will be available through the Artists Gallery.

Title: View from Truro
Oil on Canvas
Size: 22 x 30 inches

Painting Trips

The show at The Artists Gallery was really great, thank you to everyone who attended and most especially to those who purchased paintings! : ) Also, there are 4 paintings at the Bucks County Designer Showhouse in Solebury (3 are sold), I will be at the showhouse on Thursday, May 21st between 4 and 6 pm to see the work of designer Cailen Ascher, who is featuring my work. Thanks Cailen!

I have two painting trips plannned for this summer. My first trip is planned for mid to late June, and I'll be heading up to Cape Cod for about a week of intensive painting. My trip up there last September was very productive and there's just something about the light up there that is magical. I also hope to grab the ferry over to Martha's Vineyard for a day trip. The Vineyard is a very special place for me and has given me incredible inspiration and gifts.

The second trip will be in August. For two weeks, I'll be in a remote (and I really mean remote!) part of Wyoming on a private ranch. Located in the Wind River Valley, about 100 miles from Yellowstone Park and Jackson Hole, the ranch is surrounded by 3 completely different mountain ranges and the lakes around the ranch are fed by a glacier high up on one of these mountains. This is ancient American Indian territory, with huge skies, bold, saturated colours and views that take your breath away. Although there are lots of beautiful views on the ranch, I am looking forward to the excursions on horseback, up into the mountains, to get more of the "behind the scenes" views.

So later this summer and early in the fall, there will be a host of new works from these trips, along with the local scenes of Bucks and the surrounding areas. I will keep you posted on the new works as they are finished.

Prisms of Perception

Prisms of Perception is the 2 person show I have with fellow artist, Charles Katzenbach. The show opens on Friday, April 10th, and we will be holding our Artists Reception on Saturday, April 18th from 6 to 9 pm at the Gallery.

When Chuck and I were paired for this show, it seemed a bit of a conundrum - he paints abstract works on glass and mirrors, and I'm a realist. But as we worked together, we found some amazing similarities in our approach to why and how we paint. In particular, we both are inspired by the shifting light and atmospheric effects in nature, and we both work to achieve the illusion and feeling of these through multiple and shifting layers of light.

I'm offering a series of landscape and still life work that focuses how these light effects convey a particular mood, sense of place and time.

Prisims of Perception: Charles Katzenbach and Materese Roche runs from Friday, April 10th through Sunday, May 3rd. Artists Reception is being held Saturday, April 18th from 6 to 9 pm. The Artists Gallery, 32 Coryell Street, Lambertville, NJ. website link: The Artists Gallery, Lambertville, NJ

Images:

Charles Katzenback
Title: Struck
Oil on Glass


Materese Roche
Title: Still Life with Zinc
11 x 14
Oil on Canvas / Professionally Framed

$650

Available at the Artists Gallery or by contacting me directly

Pinot to Picasso at Princeton University

The Pinot to Picasso event at Princeton University is an annual fundraiser / high end social event which raises money for the Anne Reeves Artists in Residence program. The program provides studio and workspace for artists of exceptional talent. Last year, over 500 people were in attendance and they raised about $500,000 for the program.

Each year the committee hand selects 80 artists from the Bucks and Hunterdon County region to participate. This year, I'm one of those lucky artists. The work you see here is what I've donated.

This is a high end social event, lots of great wines, fabulous food and of course the art auction. To learn more, and see the works of the participating artists you can click on this link and then click on Pinot to Picasso, on the right side navigation bar. It will also give you info on how to buy tickets.

Hope to see you there!

Title: Ripe
Size: 36" x 24"
Oil on Canvas

SOLD

Upcoming Events

April promises to be a very busy month. As mentioned in an earlier post, Charles Katzenback and I are having our 2 person show at The Artists Gallery in April. The show opens Friday, April 10th, and we will be having our artists reception on Saturday, April 18th.

The Arts Council of Princeton University invited me to participate in what they describe as the "hippest" (?! ) art event in Princeton - the 4th annual Pinot to Picasso event. There is not much information on their website yet, but in short they select 80 artists from the region to participate in this fundraiser. It's all about art, wine and food - tickets are pricey, $275 per person to get into this event. It should be interesting . . . and I'll keep you posted.

And there are two juried competitions I hope to enter, the 146th Annual Small Oils Show at the Philadelphia Sketch club and a new one for me - the 27th Ellarslie Open juried show at the Trenton City Museum. Not sure if I am going to have the time or the work (so much is going into the 2 person show) for either of these events, but they are on my "wish list".

So it will be quiet on here for the next couple of weeks as I continue to get ready for all of this!

Image:

Title: Waiting For Spring
Size: 6 x 9
Oil on Wood Panel / Professionally framed


SOLD

Title: Harbor View, Morning
Size: 6 x 9
Medium: Oil on Panel

SOLD