"Weybridge, Wet Spring"9x12, pastel, en plein air
Winner, Outstanding Genre Award
4th Annual Northeast National Pastel Exhibition, Old Forge NY
1 May 2008
Welshpool, Campobello Island
I'm fresh back from Goffstown, New Hampshire, where I gave a four-day workshop for New Hampshire Plein Air. Spring really hit hard that week! Our first day of painting saw 84 degrees, and the spring peepers that night were thunderous. Now I'm back on the island, where spring looks a few weeks late. The forsythia hasn't even started to bloom yet.
I've also had lots of good news in recent weeks:
- My painting "Weybridge Wet Spring" was given the "Outstanding Genre Award" at the 2008 Fourth Annual Northeast National Pastel Exhibition at Arts Center/Old Forge in Old Forge, NY. The exhibit runs from May 10-June 8.
- Nature Trust of New Brunswick has commissioned me to paint two endangered natural areas, the Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve and Navy Island, both near St Andrews, NB. One of the paintings will be used for promotional materials; the other will be sold at auction later this summer.
- Oil Painters of America awarded me a Shirl Smithson Scholarship for 2008. I'll be using this to take a workshop with Lois Griffel. I've always admired Lois' work, and I'm looking forward to studying with someone who learned from Henry Hensche and, through Hensche, Charles Hawthorne.
- The Sedona Plein Air Festival has invited me back for a third year, an invitation which I have gladly accepted. The Festival runs from October 19-26.
Besides the exhibition in Old Forge, I have works in two more shows running at the moment. These are:
- Two oil paintings in the "Something Fishy" show at the Maine Art Gallery in Wiscasset, Maine. The show runs from May 1 to June 2.
- Two oil paintings in the "Far & Near Horizons" World Tour of Contemporary Artists show. The show is currently at the Link Gallery in Door County, Wisconsin. The show runs through May 21.
By the way, I want to mention a special season of workshops coming up next winter. These will be "mentoring" workshops for the advanced student in oil or pastel, which I will hold in Sedona, Arizona, from January through March 2009. The workshops will be based on my popular Campobello Island format of five half-days. We work for half a day, which leaves you the rest of the day to either paint on your own or explore Sedona. What's more, in addition to mentoring, you'll get lodging and two meals a day! Cost of the workshop is a very reasonable $1000 for one person and only $250 for a second sharing the same room. For more information, please visit www.paintsedona.com. Size of the classes will be very small, and I expect them to fill quickly.
That's enough for now. Please see my website for other upcoming events and workshops. Have a great May!
Michael
