Prime Location

Okay, one of the arguably best things to happen to downtown Portland, Maine last year (other than the new SMFA  location) was the opening of Otto's Pizza.   Once you've been an inhabitant of the New York City area, you occasionally pine for it's many world-class museums and galleries, a good bagel, and a really good slice of pizza!  Okay, in Portland we have a rocking gallery scene for our size and some good places to grab a whole pie, but we were really missing a place to grab that perfect slice to go.  Enter Otto and I feel like we've really gone up a notch.   Unique favorites like bacon and mashed-potato pizza literally stop traffic.  Now, I'd like to think that people need art as much as pizza, but I'm not that naive. I'd be willing to wager that everyone in town has learned where Otto is, but might not have a clue where all the galleries are located.   So for those of you who don't get out that much, the Joseph Begnaud solo show, "Night Fictions" will be right across the street for the month of February.  Next time you're grabbing a slice, stroll over and check it out.  Or if you must be lazy, if you can just sit in the window, squint, and admire my Blue Macaw painting. It's right under the second "O."

SMFA Photos

Some photos of the exhibition for my friends and family far away. For Portlanders, a preview of what you can stroll in and see this Wednesday!

Occasional Sightings

I've been asked a few times this week about the portrait that's hanging in the window of Space Gallery.  It's mine alright--- a self-portrait that I submitted it to their current exhibition, "Free For All 2."  You may also notice it's the painting I've been using for my profile picture online for sites like Facebook and Blogger. I imagined that this salon-style survey of Portland artists would be this huge mishmash of colliding images, much like the internet, so I entered the painting under the new title "ID."  A chimera can always use another head, I figured, and it would be my own little conceptual appropriation of the show.   Rather than my head peeking out of a sea of pictures, the curators went ahead and hung the painting in the front window---and nicely, I might add:   plenty of white space and not at all the side-by-side chaos that I imagined.  I've only peeked in to the gallery, but it all looks like a fun exhibit showing a wide range of Portland's talent.   It's up until February 18th, so it seems I will be part of dueling windows on Congress street for almost a month.

Life Imitates Art

So, it' not that surprising that it would snow in Maine for January.  The plan of the Winter exhibition was to have the subject matter parallel reality.  I was beginning to worry, but we got a fresh blanketing on Monday and Tuesday.  It makes for a much more pleasant walk to work;  the snow dampens sound, fewer people are out, and everything just seems at peace.  

SMFA Installation

I really enjoyed watching the highly skilled team at Susan Maasch Fine Art go to work on Saturday.   It's an honor to have so many talented people carefully consider everything down to the finest detail.   As you can see, it was a hive of activity so I tried to stay out of their way.  With the exception of snapping pictures of them working, that is....  Thanks again to Susan Maasch, Matthew Rosler, and all of the great team at Susan Maasch Fine Art for all of their hard work.

Drop-Off: SMFA

I finished dropping off paintings for the solo show at Susan Maasch Fine Art!  It's only two blocks from my studio building, but it becomes quite a hike after a few rounds up and down the four flights of stairs.   I took the panels yesterday and finished with the larger work today.   I really should have had a photographer documenting the process.   It really feels like a performance or procession walking five foot paintings down Congress street.  Extremely nice weather today, but the occasional crosswind had me thinking it was not so wise to continuing carrying them all myself down the street. Many thanks to Jesse for helping me schlep the last big ones down to the gallery today. 

The Other

So, this is the other one, 99.35% complete.  As you can see, I was always intending to bring the human at least into some competition with the dog, though the Papillon is designed to steal the show--- or at least the foreground.

Fat Man

I present the aforementioned big boy, 97% complete.   This may be the first post where I have shown this head on.  I brought in my wide angle lens, special, just so I could have room to take the shot.   (Hence the fish-eye distortion. A little bit of glare for you too.)  It's very similar to the smaller painting, which was not a study but a variation, shown in the previous post.  The difference in scale and impact, other than lighting, makes them very different animals all together.

Out of the Woods

Okay, hard to believe I dropped off the blog for over a month.   As you may have guessed, I was working like crazy for the show opening at the end of this month!  Took my usual break to go to Nashville for the holidays and barely made it after some delay.  (Remember that storm that shut down the East coast, yep, that was the day of my original flight.)   So, my visit was too short and then I was back working.   Things are coming together, loose ends really, and I really think the show will be great.   Stay tuned and I should have lots of updates.   Little linen painting here is a variation on the big boy.