Well, I finally did it! My goal this year was to have a solo showing of my artwork, and it has finally happened. I always make myself a realistic long term goal every New Years Eve (thereabouts), and so far, it has worked out pretty well for me. One of my scary goals in the past was to start a Meetup group in Lowell, to meet new friends, and to learn about Lowell since I had just moved there. I made two of my best friends in that group, and had some pretty fun nights finding hidden gems in Lowell, MA.
This year, the pandemic happened, while I had two shows planned in the upcoming months. Needless to say, they both were cancelled, and I was left with my paint brush in hand and decided to paint like a fiend anyways. Then, I come to find out Tremonte restaurant in Lowell, MA needed someone to fill in from November-end of February, and it just seemed like it was meant to be. Only had a months notice, but I planned on taking about 12 days off to visit my sister in the mountains of the Berkshires, and I had a large diptych series of Jasper National Park that was about 50% done, so I knew I could knock it out easy in that amount of time.
I decided that was TOO easy for me, and wanted to paint my sisters view from her house in Lee, MA of the Eagle Mill factory, during foliage season. Just so happened, exactly the moment Mary Hart (the curator) asked me, it was peak foliage season, so I had my sister take some photos for me to work from. That painting I had so much enjoyment playing with all the different textures and colors of the composition. I spent way too much time on it, but it was worth every moment to me, painting in my sisters extra bedroom greenhouse, which made for a PERFECT vacation art studio! Thank you sis :) Almost used more than half of my vacation time just painting nonstop, because while I was out there it got SO cold and it snowed on top of all the beautiful foliage. This I also need to paint, my goodness the subtleties of color were just impossible to photograph, but I took so many memory burns just driving through the mountains and valleys.
Both of these pieces I scrambled to finish HOURS before they were hung, that is not my usual. I knew I wanted larger pieces of my newer work, and Tremonte needed larger paintings to fill the huge walls. Since the pandemic hit, I mostly kept to smaller work, to try out new things and I thought I knew I wasn’t having a show this year! So much for that. Isn’t it weird to have a NICE surprise in 2020??! I’ll take it! This show is called “Nature’s Aura”, and will be up until February 28th 2021 (if all goes to plan). Twelve of my larger works are showing, see the collection here. Tremonte i
s open 7 days a week, they do take out of their delicious pizza, and they also have an outdoor patio. Before Christmas I am hoping to do a virtual talk about my artwork at Tremonte! So look out for that email :) And finally, see this article in the Lowell Sun about my art :)
