Isalos Fine Art

Time for a new blog, I guess. This morning I got up at 5:30, made my tea and an egg sandwich (and a thermos of bloody marys) and by 6:30, Todd and I were in our kayaks, headed south. It was a beautiful morning, clear and calm, and we had no particular destination in mind. Fog Island seemed to be calling us, though. Last week we'd gone around Merchants Island, and we seem to be working up to a round Isle au Haut paddle, so getting to Fog, on the other side of the island, seemed a natural choice.

 At McGlathery, we hesitated a moment, eyeing the distant island, wondering if those trees were normal-sized, or beat-down by the elements. 45 minutes later, we were there, 2.8 miles on the GPS ( the trees were plenty big). The wind and waves had picked up a bit half way across, so it seemed prudent to be on our way, especially since we both had to get to work before it got too late, but at eight a.m. we stood on this wild island, looking back over the water we'd covered. What a morning. Drank the bloody marys on the beach on Wreck Island and headed back to get to work. Had an awesome day in the gallery and now I am totally beat.

One of these days I'll get a waterproof camera and share some of these images with the two or so loyal subscribers to my blog. 

We've been thinking about shows  for next year. I've thought about not doing a theme show with a number  of  artists, largely because that sort of  show is a lot of work. I was leaning more in that direction in the  days leading up to our Black + White show, but once the show was hung , and I saw how well the great variety of work went together, I couldn't help thinking about doing another one.

                                                           Rebecca Daugherty photo 

On our morning or evening walks up to Ames Pond on Indian Point, we often toss around ideas for the gallery. We sometimes see Stephen and Pam Pace strolling to the pond from their house, looking much the way they do in Stephen's paintings: Pam in her bright red hat, Stephen leaning over a tall walking stick, moving slowly beneath the  spruces. Ames Pond has inspired plenty of artists over the years, from Emily Muir to the artist of the day who happens to set up an easel on its shore. So we're planning an Ames Pond show for sometime next summer. Among  the entries, I expect we'll get our share of plein aire landscape paintings, but I would also hope we'll see some innovative and surprising responses to give the show some variety. Watch our call for entries page for further details.

It's been a bit hot, and today seems to be sort of day in which I get a lot of visitors who stroll quickly through the gallery without removing their sunglasses. The Victory Chimes (schooner) brought people who inquired about the desolate nature of the  winters here, and they didn't seem to believe me when I said I didn't think it was desolate at all. Lately, I've been doing plenty of kayaking, which has occasionally taken precedence over my evening open hours. A couple evenings ago after work, we paddled out to McGlathery Island as an imposing fogbank rolled toward us, enveloping us and the schooner Heritage as we arrived at the island. The sun shone from behind us, creating a fog-bow over the schooner, a visual effect that I'm sure some gallery visitors would assume to be some sort of computerized manipulation. That's the good thing  about getting out there; sometimes you have to see it to believe it.

The gallery is in transition from the Black + White show, back to a sampling of our usual artists. Of course, there's nothing usual about Vaino Kola's paintings, which have just returned from their long exhibition at the State House in Augusta.

 Vaino Kola, Lichen-Covered Ancient Mound, oil on canvas,  40" x 54", $6,800

"Lichen-Covered Ancient Mound" was painted in 2000, and like most of his paintings, appears intensely realistic from a distance, but thickly textured close-up. It feels as though you've been walking through a thick forest and the trees  have parted slightly to reveal a mysterious mound. Beyond, the trees go on infinitely.

This is how the front of the gallery looked all yesterday afternoon, including the first forty minutes of Stonington Galleries Open Gallery Night. We asked if they could park the truck somewhere else, and they did- only to replace it with another one. It was an auspicious beginning to an event we've been planning over the winter, and has involved quite a bit of work and money. We had three visitors to the gallery in our first hour. Traffic picked-up after that, and most of the people were doing the gallery circuit. We had calls from out of  town- people on Mount Desert Island and elsewhere, so I think the event and our collaborative advertising with other galleries is working... slowly, but working.

Yes, the paint on the building looks awful. That's the reason I still have a dark, wintery photo on our main page. The painters have been held-off by bad weather.  Of course, countless visitors seem to think the lack of paint on the building across the street is charming, so if we hold-off on painting for another year or two, we can rationalize it as an image adjustment. We can be the quaint (albeit rotting) gallery.

 June Kellog, Blues in Black and White, mixed media, 24" x 24", $600

The Black + White show has gone well. I was a trifle concerned early on, when I observed the following response:

Visitor: (after about ten seconds in the first room)  Oh... this is all black and white. Are there any color galleries around?

I of course directed them to the galleries of color. 

Otherwise, the quality of life here in Stonington has been improved by our new Stonington Speedbumps kayak storage facility, just steps from the Colwell public boat launch. This week we've been paddling as much as we can, including observing the July 5 (the 4th was foggy) fireworks while floating out near Round Island, listening to the rumbling echo, the fireworks doubled on the water surface. 

We had a nice turnout for the Black + White show opening. We'd hoped to really be on  the ball for this show and not need to stay up late the night before and  have get up early to finish, but no... Those red walls needed more paint, and the grey walls some touching-up. And as usual, once we had all the art unpacked, we wondered how it could possibly all fit together. Well, it came together. The wine flowed, the munchies munched, and the red dots appeared on the price tags.

Getting blurry: Jaqueline Wilson, Vaino Kola, Eugene Koch, Stuart Kestenbaum, Susan Webster

This seems like a good time to mention next Friday, which will be the first First Friday Stonington Galleries Open Gallery Night. We've joined up with the other galleries and artist's studios in town- thirteen in all- for this event. This is a good opportunity to stop in at all those places you've wondered about, but have never had the (time, courage, curiosity.... insert excuse here) to venture into. There's plenty of nice surprises out there. Check them out at stoningtongalleries.com.

And, if you're planning on imbibing much of that complimentary wine some galleries provide, you might think about taking the gallery tour via Eddie's Island Taxi and Tours. They're planning on doing gallery tours, on Open Gallery Nights  or anytime.