Bloghttp://www.isalosfineart.com/gallery-blog/en-US2008-07-24T05:25:05ZSquarespace Site Server v5.0.0 (http://www.squarespace.com/)7/20: "Friends"http://www.isalosfineart.com/gallery-blog/2008/7/20/720-friends.htmlisalos fine art2008-07-20T23:58:27ZIt's a July Sunday evening. We've had some rain and the air feels cool, has that low tide stink that I don't usually notice anymore... or maybe it's just the dying lobsters from some nearby restaurant. Today was Fisherman's Day, which means a lot of festivities down at the pier. Rebecca went down there and ate a lobster, brought back a piece of cheese pizza for me, which i ate quickly, between visitors. It was good.

Jennifer Lee Morrow, Climbing Out Of The Garden

I should be working on the Jennifer Lee Morrow catalogue, but here I am, upstairs, in Rebecca's studio, looking out over the harbor, listening to the hum of diners across the street at the Maritime Cafe. Van Morrison is on the stereo. Tonight, Rebecca begins a two-week workshop at Haystack with Eric Hopkins. Despite the fact that we're behind on the catalogue, I'd say life is good. I can smell greasey food from... where? Maybe the Fisherman's Friend.

A few nights ago, I was hanging the Hopkins show and Bill dropped in, late. Somehow, while he was here, I joined Facebook. Amazingly, within a short time, I discovered that I had many 'friends." It continues. Sort of fun. If you ever wondered if you had any friends, now we can just see how the computer tallies-up our relations.

]]>7/17: New Vaino Kola Paintinghttp://www.isalosfineart.com/gallery-blog/2008/7/17/717-new-vaino-kola-painting.htmlisalos fine art2008-07-17T19:04:25Z

Vaino Kola, Dusk, oil on canvas, 36" x 56"

It's always a big event when Vaino Kola finishes a new painting. In Dusk, he approaches a familiar subject- in fact, the subject of several of his other paintings: rocks. I don't mean rocks in general, but these rocks. As always, he doesn't copy directly from nature, but makes a few things up to suit the painting. I'll let you guess which parts he made up for this one.

One might think it would be more interesting to go out and find different rocks to paint, maybe include a bit more of the landscape, but this isn't so for Kola. The more focused his scope, the more he sees and paints every detail, and it's an entirely different painting from others of the same rocks: different angle, different time of day and season... different mood. Thoreau stated that he had traveled extensively in Concord. The same is true of Kola: he has traveled extensively in his back yard. We're fortunate that we can go on that journey with him.

]]>7/13: Sundayhttp://www.isalosfineart.com/gallery-blog/2008/7/13/713-sunday.htmlisalos fine art2008-07-13T20:44:10ZI'm sitting in the gallery at the end of a Sunday in July. It's been a long, good day. At seven I went out in the kayak, paddling over to Old Quarry to meet a friend, then out to a nearby island through some waves and very gusty wind. I came back as the lobster boat races were starting, the town lively and noisy. Though I wouldn't characterize the race crowd on the whole as people with much interest in art, our visitors were mostly people who really looked, asked questions and enjoyed the art. Outside there were the usual shirtless guys carrying cartons of beer, and the races went on, rumbling in the background.

Rebecca Daugherty Yellow Float, oil on canvas, 24" x 24", $2,000

We finally photographed Rebecca's show, and now have it here online, so if you see something you'd like, let me know. We've been pretty busy prepraring for our upcoming shows. The catalogue for Eric Hopkins: Out and About is in progress and should be available in a week or so. His show will be online within the next few days, so you can get a sneak preview before the show is hung.

After the races were over, the town quieted-down. The wind continues, with whitecaps out on the Thorofare, and though Main Street feels subdued, people continue to come into the gallery, even now, at 6:30, but it's time to call it a day.

]]>7/12: Eric Hopkins: Out and Abouthttp://www.isalosfineart.com/gallery-blog/2008/7/12/712-eric-hopkins-out-and-about.htmlisalos fine art2008-07-12T16:43:38Z

Eric Hopkins Water and Sky Currents, 6/24/08, watercolor, gouache & crayon, 22" x 30"

(photographed by William Thuss)

Our next show, Eric Hopkins: Out & About will hang from July 18 through the 31st, with an artist's reception on Friday, July 25th from 5 - 7 PM.

In the spring of 1984, Eric Hopkins kept his studio in a drafty old building on the North Haven waterfront. After earning a considerable reputation as a glass artist, he gave-up the New York gallery scene to return to the island where he’d grown up. Now, instead of creating glass sculptures of shell forms that sold predictably well, he turned to painting, looking for something he felt was missing from his work in glass. It had been three years since his last solo exhibition. The Caldbeck Gallery planned a show for him in the fall that was to include paintings and sculptures, as well as glass, and his studio was crowded with paintings created in the fervor of rediscovering himself as an artist.

A friend and I, while visiting North Haven, went to his studio because we’d seen some of his small landscapes at our B&B. We were unprepared for the scope of his work. Art in progress crowded the rustic walls: big, bold aerial views on canvas, “pyrographics” made from flung molten glass, watercolors, and even a few sculptures he’d been at work on with a chainsaw. His dogs slept on the rug while we looked through stacks of paintings on paper.

We left his studio with a small school of fish paintings. I was hooked.

Eric Hopkins Fish, 2/27/84, 5" x 7", watercolor & ink (private collection)

Since that time, Eric Hopkins made a huge impression on me. His painting style suggests the freedom of flight and a yearning to experience his island, and even the planet as completely as possible. For a better perspective, he might paint from a boat. Even gravity is a small obstacle. He flies in small airplanes and if possible would certainly leave the planet for a better view of it. He is obviously deeply engaged in his pursuit, committed to a degree that, even now, I have observed in few people.

]]>7/6: The Fourth of Julyhttp://www.isalosfineart.com/gallery-blog/2008/7/6/76-the-fourth-of-july.htmlisalos fine art2008-07-06T21:28:46Z

I took this snapshot during a calm moment before Thursday night's opening. Just as I took it, the first visitor arrived and the evening began. Usually, we don't have Thursday openings, but with Independence Day on Friday, thought it might be best to spread it out over two days. It worked out well, with good crowds both evenings.

Of course the Fourth of July is always busy here in downtown Stonington, with the festivities on the pier and the fireworks over the harbor. I had learned to almost dread the crowd that filtered in and out of the gallery; many carried drinks and fried food, and seemed to care little about art. And as the evening wore on, the crowd- especially the younger local crowd, became drunker and rowdier. On our first Fourth of July here, the police left early and the crowd blocked Main Street. Fights broke out, and eventually someone chained the bench from the Harbor Cafe to the bumper of a pick-up truck and dragged it down the street, smashing into parked cars along the way.

This year though, our visitors seemed to be in the gallery to look at art. The crowd outside felt a bit smaller and more subdued than usual, and the fireworks went off without a hitch. We had two nights of great openings, and we've got red dots beside paintings to show for it. We closed at 10:30 Friday night after two very long days, and went upstairs to breathe a sigh of relief.

We could hear parties continuing at a few downtown residences, and around midnight, a group of girls walked down the street and yelled up at a neighboring apartment, trying to get themselves invited to a party. "We're from Camden," one shouted, "let us in." But they didn't get in. Someone inside turned the music down, and pulled the curtains shut.

]]>Keepin' Busyhttp://www.isalosfineart.com/gallery-blog/2008/6/9/keepin-busy.htmlisalos fine art2008-06-09T17:55:07Z

We've made a few changes in the gallery this spring, and it continues to evolve. People seem to like the new floor plan, with my desk in the rear center of the gallery, where visitors see me right away, as opposed to that sneaky spot in the front corner I've occupied for the last few years. We've eliminated one storage unit and built a smaller, more efficient cabinet, and I'm still at work (see above) on the new print bins, which will occupy a place on the main floor, rather than the back room. We're trying-out a new shade of white for most of the gallery, which will require a couple more evenings to finish. It never really ends, I guess.

Town has the usual June influx of visitors, which at first feels like a lot, after many months of not seeing too many strangers here. It never fails though; a week into June everyone starts complaining about traffic being slow. Theories and predictions are passed around, usually involving the price of gas, the weak dollar, the fact that wealthy people are still wealthy, or the odds that poor to middle class people will stay home and invest their money into something called a 52-inch plasma (I think it's a new type of hybrid car).

Wendy Turner, Schoodic I, oil, 30" x 20"

We've been getting some exciting new art. Wendy Turner was here to do some painting and dropped off a new collection of oils, some of which hang in the front window. Philip Koch was visiting from Baltimore for a few days of painting. We had dense fog while he was here, so it will be interesting to see what he comes up with. We have a couple new George Goebel paintings, new photographs from Bryan Gagner and some new woodcuts from Jacqueline Wilson. There's more to come soon. Vaino Kola will bring us some etchings, and very soon, his newest painting. Rebecca is working hard to prepare for her show opening here on July 3rd.

It's time for me to get back to building print bins.

]]>3/16: Philip Koch Updatehttp://www.isalosfineart.com/gallery-blog/2008/3/16/316-philip-koch-update.htmlisalos fine art2008-03-16T15:31:26Z

Philip Koch, The Whisper II, oil on panel, 12" x 16", $2,800

Philip Koch has been busy. His mid-career retrospective, "Unbroken Thread: Nature Paintings and the American Imagination" will start a five-museum tour:

The University of Maryland University College (May 4 through June 22)

The Maryland Institute College of Art ( February - March, 2009)

The Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA (June - August 2009)

The Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, IN (June - September, 2010)

Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw, MI (early 2011)

Of course, you can see his work here at Isalos, too. If that's not enough, there's a great article about him in the April issue of Fine Art Connoisseur. There he is, right next to an article about Wayne Thiebaud. I'll admit, I'd never seen this magazine before, but it's beautiful and the articles are well-written and readable. (I get some of the other art magazines, but I look at the pictures and fall asleep while reading the articles).

It's business as usual here in Stonington. It snows, the snow melts, the melodramas come and go. Occasionally we see cars with out of state plates, usually pulling up at the real estate offices. The roads are treacherous with frost heaves, and the harbor is still full of fishing boats, some rigged with scallop gear. Our oil bills have been outrageous, and I hear plenty of complaints about winter. Still, I have to admit, every time it starts to snow, I love watching those flakes come down. Maybe it would be different if we had television reception (I think it's a good reason not to have it).

]]>1/30: Late Afternoon Walkhttp://www.isalosfineart.com/gallery-blog/2008/1/31/130-late-afternoon-walk.htmlisalos fine art2008-01-31T01:29:12Z

Lately, we try to get out for a walk when we can, usually in late afternoon: up to Indian Point Road, to Ames Pond and back. Last summer we did a show about Ames Pond. We could easily do a show based on what's between us and the pond (but we won't). Today we went after the rain stopped, when the wind was strong and the eastern sky glowed with a weird light.

It's hard not to notice how many houses are empty. We've noticed it coming back from kayaking: all those houses, but only a light here and there. Indian Point Road is no exception. Between the Catholic Church and Ames Pond, we counted 32 houses visible from the road. Only six are currently occupied.

6 out of 32 houses. We could have even counted a few more empty ones that aren't really visible from the road. That's about 18% occupancy. One walks through neighborhoods of empty houses which are apparently worth small fortunes, despite their humble appearances. Real estate signs decorate lawns: the ranch house that almost has a great view of the Thorofare for nearly a half-million, the one across the street that was flipped in less than a year.

Whatever. Despite the 82% decline in households spending their money here, I suppose I might benefit from the whole scenario. I've been doing construction work again lately. It's good work; I enjoy it. Maybe it's like enjoying the storms at least as much as the easy weather. If you live here, it helps to get that feeling of excitement when the wind and waves pick up and the sky looks like something out of the Wizard of Oz, or maybe the Book of Revelations. Life would be a bit dull without the storms.

]]>1/18: Philip Koch Videohttp://www.isalosfineart.com/gallery-blog/2008/1/18/118-philip-koch-video.htmlisalos fine art2008-01-18T16:04:19Z

Philip Koch has a three and a half-minute video from an interview he did with Maryland Public Television. It features scenes of him painting in his studio and a number of his paintings, narrated with personal comments about his work. I appreciate his story of how the aroma of oil paints drew him away from his more academic direction and into the studio.

I like that fresh paint smell as well. Almost exactly twenty years ago, at college, I followed that aroma into Rebecca's painting studio. Joseph Campbell instructs us to follow our bliss. Sometimes that means following your nose.

]]>1/15: Morning After The Stormhttp://www.isalosfineart.com/gallery-blog/2008/1/15/115-morning-after-the-storm.htmlisalos fine art2008-01-15T15:10:06Z

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