Our cabbage paintings side-by-side

I love how in-sync we were this month! Working on new paintings at our own homes without talking about them at all, we wound up using the same subject matter!  Kim and I had looked at the cabbage growing on the farm in October but hadn't painted them until this week.

Kim and I have been working non-stop on the CSA project-- we have our 3 final shows coming up in January!  With the addition of those new exhibits to the 2 already on display, we'll be showing in 5 places at the same time (!!!).  Hectic, but a nice problem to have as an artist.  It's really made me be very productive so that I have a fresh supply of new work not only to give to the venues, but to be excited about and share via the blog and Facebook.  It would be boring to me to ask people to come out to a new venue to see the same old work no matter how cool I think it is :)

So, here's the newest work so far-- they can be found at the following venues on the following dates -- think of it like an Easter egg hunt:
Savory Maine Dining and Provisions, Damariscotta, ME through February 5, 2013
Crosstrax Neighborhood Deli, Unity, ME through January 26, 2013Maine Farmland Trust, Belfast, ME January 4-February 27, 2013 (opening 1/4 5-8pm)
University of Maine Hutchinson Center, Fernald Gallery, Belfast, ME January 4-February 27, 2013 (opening 1/4 5-8pm)
Frontier, Brunswick, ME January 11-February 24, 2013 (opening 1/11 5-8pm)

My newest paintings:

It Was Always Waiting There, Casein and Wax Pastel, 18" x 18", November 2012

Do Over, Casein and Sharpie, 18" x 18", November 2012

End of the Day, Acrylic, 18" x 24", October 2012

On Display, Casein and Graphite, 18" x 24", October 2012

Cabbage Patch, Casein and Wax Pastel, 18" x 18", December 2012

Cabbage in the Grass, Acrylic and Sharpie, 12" x 14"

Vegetables in the Barn, Watercolor and Graphite on Canvas, 11" x 14"

Barn House, Acrylic, 11" x 14"

SOLD! - Guard Dog, Acrylic and Wax Pastel, 6" x 6"

Cover Crop, Woven Photo Transfers on Cloth with Embroidery, 23" x 11"

Kim's painting of the WH sign

Kim and I had planned on going back to the farm on June 23rd to help them build their pizza oven...but nature had other plans! Heavy rain was in the forecast so the farm rescheduled for the following week.  But we figured we would get a few hours in before the droplets started so we packed the car and headed to a shady spot in the grass.   It turned out to be very hot before the rain started but we stuck it out for a couple hours to paint.

Kim wanted to paint the Wholesome Holmstead sign that sits at the opening to the driveway at the farm stand.  This is the first piece she made- mixed media on paper, 9x12"

Just Like Home,  Acrylic & Casein, 10" x 10"

I'm still fascinated with all the structures on the land.  This time I focused on the silhouette of the house.  The structure and layout of this building is really similar to my house, which used to be a farm back in the day.  I think that's why I'm so drawn to it.  This is a smaller painting (10x10") that I had started in the studio for a different purpose but it just wasn't jiving.  So I decided to take it along and paint on top of it.  This piece ties in my painting with the monotype imagery I've been working on.

To take a break from the paint and explore the farm some more, I walked towards the area where the pizza oven was going to be.  Behind it, I found one of the red barns that I love so much and leaning up against it was a beautiful wooden apple ladder.  It appears to be old and I imagine it's been used on the farm for decades...maybe just my imagination but I like to think that!  I had some old Polaroid cameras with me but the experimental film inside of them just wasn't capturing what I was seeing through the lens.  TTV was the next best thing so I made an intricate set up of a milk crate and cameras stacked on top of each other to steady the image.

When I got back to the studio I monkeyed around with the instant film images that were not developed correctly.  Some were too light to be anything or had thick blue lines through them or patches of undeveloped film.  (I've been using Impossible Film and some are breathtaking in the experimentation yet others are frustrating.)  Taking some ink and acrylic to the film, I recaptured the images and, in some cases, re-imagined what was there.