Category: Activity

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Ready for Market Season

It’s mid May and local Artist and Farmers markets are getting started. I have done a few early markets at the Strand Center for the Arts in Plattsburgh, and I’m happy to say that sales were very good. I thought I had a good supply of small study paintings, but now I have to continue to paint every day to keep up. That’s not a complaint, it’s a joy.

I have decided to do the most of the same markets as last year, but will sprinkle in several different markets, skipping my regular events those days.

Fridays; I will continue to do the farmers market in Elizabeth Town and try a couple of Friday evening markets in Port Henry.

Saturdays will be the biggest change, I will only do one Saranac Lake farmers market a month, that allows me to do the monthly Artisan markets at the Strand, regional specialty markets at Schroon Lake in July and Essex in August. I will be adding the Plattsburgh farmers market once a month.

Keene Valley Markets are Sundays from 9:30 to 2

Plattsburgh Farmers Markets are Saturdays from 9-1

Elizabethtown Markets are Fridays from 9-1

Strand Artisan Markets are once a month on Saturdays from 10-3

Peru Town Markets are once a month on Sundays from 10-2

Saranac Lake Farmers Market are Saturdays from 9-1

Port Henry Markets are Fridays from 5-8 pm (not sure about this one)

Here is my schedule for the next 6 weeks

May 25 Plattsburgh

May 26 Keene 

June 1 Plattsburgh

June 2 Keene

June 14 E-Town

June 15 Strand Plattsburgh

June 16 Keene

June 21 E-Town

June 21 Port Henry

June 22 Plattsburgh

June 23 Keene

June 28 E-Town

June 29 Plattsburgh 

June 30 Peru Markets

July 5 E-Town

July 5 Port Henry

July 6 Saranac Lake

July 7 Keene

Hope to see you at one of them. Please let me know if you have specific requests.

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Busy painting – forgot to post.

The past few week i have been in the zone, painting several paintings a day. I have a huge backlog based on drawings that I have done over the past few months. I have been using ProCreate on my iPad and its changed how I set up my paintings. I can sketch on the iPad with the apple pencil. then print sketch or use Davinci to see drawing on my paper. I do color some of these drawings but don’t spend a lot of time on that part of the process. To me the key is to get the head of the subject right (Eyes and Nose/Beak). I often draw and erase multiple times in order to get the proportions just how i like it.

Adirondack Portal

I have also had the chance to do some wood working. Many frames as well as a few of my special driftwood accented frames as well as a unique portal frame. Another fun project was my wood box, bark on the spine, solid ash panels and magnetic closure.

Now a few of my paintings from the past few weeks.

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Diversions

I spent some time perusing a new interest, jewelry pendants. I have been collecting unusual bits and pieces since forever, not sure where I would use any of them.

One of my collection items was from a “yard sale” from my time at Schonbek. I purchased a bulk quantity of smoke quartz drops, along with several other rock crystal pieces. I have also collected a variety of local hardwoods in a variety of sizes, much of it harvested from my own property.

I combined the Smoky Quartz with a variety of local hardwoods hand worked to fit the shape of the drops, strung on a simple cord necklace to to create a rustically elegant jewelry.

Cherry and smoky quartz
Cedar and Lapis Lazuli beads
Cedar and amethyst

I put these few pieces in the Workbench Collective gallery and I will see how they do. I plan to sell these an a variety of other pieces at the Arts and Craft fair Nov 18th and 19th at SUNYPlattsburgh field house. I now need to figure out how to display them. I have developed a tag that describes each piece to answer the common questions.

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Holiday Season Begins

The holiday season is often the busiest of the year, but this year I limited the events, not knowing how my shoulder surgery would go. I am only planning on the Arts and Crafts fair at the Plattsburgh state field house on November 18th and 19th, along with Sparkle Village in Saranac Lake on December 1st and 2nd.

I have tried a new framing style for my large vertical paintings. This happened when I was looking at frame thickness and put one piece over the other. I know I have seen this style of frame somewhere before but not sure where. I love the way it accentuates the vertical look.

I have spent some time painting like the ones above as well as playing in my workshop on some new ideas, I hope to introduce them those in a post soon.

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Recovery

After several weeks of not being able to paint due to shoulder surgery, I’m getting anxious to get the brushes back in my hands. The good news is I have been cleared to begin using it again. I’m going to have to work back up to longer sessions but is a pleasure to get the paint flowing again.

I spent time in my easy chair updating the web site with more current paintings. I plan to blog every other week through the fall.

I am looking forward to doing the farmers markets in Saranac Lane and Keene valley this coming weekend. On the Columbus Day weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving) I will be doing a 2 day event at Gore Mountain . I will also be returning to the Workbench Collective one day a week to volunteer, it’s a great artists collective.

I was able to reframe a couple of paintings with driftwood frames over the weekend., as well as make a couple of racks for selling my boxed cards on the market.

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Sidelined

Eastern Tiger Swallow Tail

I have been sidelined after having surgery on my right shoulder on September 5th. Yes that is my painting arm, so I am no longer painting or drawing every day. This breaking a streak of almost 6 years of daily making art. I have been told it will be 4-6 weeks in a sling so that will stop my painting and participation in the farmers markets. My next scheduled market is October 8-9 at Gore mountain.

The summer season at the farmers markets has been both a challenge and fun on many levers. Almost every weekend had at least one day of rain. Despite the weather issues I have excellent sales. I have sold a significant number of paintings, both my large driftwood famines pieces as well as my 5”x9” and 7”x9” framed studies.

I will say, editing my web site and blog with my left hand if a challenge but it needs to be done. I will post a lot of my past artwork photos and update the blog.

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Back to Painting

I have taken a little time off from posting, and now my goal for 2023 is to post once a month at a minimum. January is a slow time for doing events and shows here in the Adirondacks, it’s winter and time to enjoy. I am working on building an inventory for the spring shows.

I have been working on some paintings of a more southern theme like pelicans, sea turtles and whales. I need to update my note card collection and these have been requested a few times.

I had a great season, and a shout out to the Workbench Collective in Plattsburgh NY. They sold several of my paintings, cards and lamps. I recommend a visit, it’s a very classy shop and represents a number of great artists.

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Christmas Break

Approaching the Christmas break I only have one more event to show my art. This one is at Livingoods restaurant on December 11th 10 – 3.

I have had a great year, sold a lot of paintings and had several record shows where paints have sold and caused a little panic painting to have enough for the next event.

I have painted several larger pieces that were not in the driftwood accented frames. I only have a few left and after the next show I will post them to my site.

I know pickings are slim here on my web site, it’s been hard to keep up posting them with the volume of paintings I am doing every week. I have often completed a piece during the week only to sell them at the next event that weekend.

My goal is to paint larger pieces over the winter and continue with more of my landscapes. I have the urge to try a few abstract pieces, it will be a stretch, but I think it will be fun, especially with no expectations of making sellable pieces.

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Note Cards Now Available

I have posted my note card sets into my gallery. I have 20 different sets available. each set is a collection of six different images, each one shown as a thumbnail on the label.

The note cards are $12 for a set of 6 cards. The note cards are prints of my work, the inside is blank so you can add your own comments, and they are printed on high quality note card stock,. The cards come with envelopes and are packaged in a plastic box that make them perfect for gifts.

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A New Season of Farmers Markets

This is the time of year that I look forward to, a chance to participate in weekly Farmers Markets. The season is short and I look forward to joining my friends and fellow artists and farmers. I am cutting back on the markets I will be attending, I will only be attending the Saranac Lake (Saturdays) and Lake Placid (Wednesdays) markets on a weekly basis. I don’t plan to participate in Willsboro or Elizabeth Town markets, although I will miss some of the people and may break down and attend one or two. I will be a “day of” decision so I wont be posting on my events calendar.

I am also going to participate in several Sunday events in Peru NY . I really look forward to these events because they are so well run, easy to set up, only once a month and close to home, its an easy day.

I am also going to 4 events at Gore Mountain ski area, three are new to me but the final one on Columbus day weekend is one I did last year with great success.