Reboot, Retreat and Relax

After a busy summer and fall full of activity, both professionally and personally, I'm ready to reboot, retreat and relax. This coming season I have a solo show at Courthouse Gallery Fine Art and will have a piece in Greenhut Galleries' The Portland Show, alongside other gallery commitments. So, I'm taking the winter to hunker down and paint, hopefully with out much distraction.

I find this time of year, in preparation for the new season, exciting and full of possibilities - it's the literal blank canvas (actually lots of blank canvases) after the excitement of the summer season and the holidays. After a lifetime of being a painter, I've learned to relish this retreat of sorts, to think deeply, and delve into the process and create a new body of work. 

The life of a painter is a solitary profession. We spend a lot of time alone with our own mind and ideas - with brushes, paint and a canvas - to make something that speaks of our experience. Few professions allow for such space and time to slow down, reflect and really see what is around us. It is this opportunity that I appreciate the most about being an artist and it is what I think what people who view and collect work appreciate and connect with as well - beyond any formal elements or narratives within the work.

Here's a question for artists, viewers and collectors of art. What do you appreciate about the being an artist and about looking at work?

Happy New Year. May you too find time to retreat, look inward and find your stable, peaceful and clear ground to come forth this spring renewed.