A watched pot...

After hearing from a few folks, I decided to create a webpage with all the sale paintings instead of featuring some each week.

You can find the work at www.mariegagnon.com and click on "sale".  If you find one you want, email me with the image and we can set up the payment/shipping details.  From there, I can go into the webpage and mark it "sold".   Thanks!

Today's photo taken in the studio.

I'm having a painting sale and will be featuring paintings each week.

You can see the work here at gagnonart.blogspot.com

One of this week's paintings - 12"x12", oil on canvas, 2010.  $150 plus shipping/handling.

In addition, I finally created a twitter account for my art.  I don't expect to tweet heavily but will put art news there.   

You can follow me at twitter.com/gagnonart

what I've been working on this week.  still in progress.   
oil on canvas.  60"x36"

Today is tax prep day. Between the moving expenses, paying my own health insurance, being in a new state with income tax and pulling out of my SepIRA, as well as my art expenses, it's going to be messy. Most of my paperwork is organized. I now need to go thru the top left pile. Once organized, I can begin creating my spreadsheets for expenses/revenue. Yeah, I'm a painter who totally hearts excel. Then I'll have a tidy packet for my accountant.

Today was a business day.  Began prepping to do taxes and a few lengthy phone calls regarding a recommendation I am writing for someone.  No painting.

But yesterday was an awesome painting day...working on 3 paintings that have had me stuck since summer.

Here is one of them.  It's 28"x22", oil on canvas.

Photo taken during today's studio session...

For the first time in what feels like forever, I have 10 days with no appointments, no part-time temping and no travel plans. I can really settle into the studio without worrying about outside commitments. That is, except for grant applications and putting tax info stuff together for my accountant. But even those...are about the business of art and so right now, feel enjoyable.

And...I so have to get my haircut. It's a month overdue and driving me crazy. Okay just one non-art commitment.

Photo taken at Thorne's Market in Noho MA.

Yesterday I received my final 2012 art shipment.  Jerry's Artarama was having a huge sale on paint and so I stocked up.  It also allowed me to purchase a few brands I've never before used.

The book was not part of the shipment.  Nor the cat.  :-)

Some images from New Year's Eve in Noho MA...

This morning I decided I needed to end 2012 with a risk-taking, powerful act. Chose to complete and email a submission that, out of nervousness, I've been seriously futzing with for the last four months. Now done and emailed. (photo taken while in Times Square a few weeks ago)

Happy New Years Eve everyone!

(now I suppose I ought to get out of my black dog jammies, pack and head to western MA)

after the snowstorm...

storm freyr has arrived.  photo taken earlier from my front door.  and it is still snowing.

Taking it super slow this morning.  I can't believe it's almost 11 am and I'm still laying in bed, watch The West Wing on Netflix, and surfing on my laptop.

I will get my butt up and out before 1 pm and head to the studio and then pick up a few groceries before this evening's expected snow.

Last night was a really delightful evening.  I was invited to a fondue party by some new friends, all wonderful artists.  There was much wine flowing and lovely conversation as we dipped bread and cauliflower and tomatoes and apples in warm, melted cheese.  We also enjoyed roasted chestnuts as they came out of the oven.   What topped off this perfect gathering was the 3 block walk from my home to theirs.   It reminded me of being in Seattle where I could walk to my friends' homes.

In the studio I've been hankering to work large but don't have any more big canvases and can't foresee purchasing some until January.   So I taped 4 sheets of Arches new Oil Paper together and began to play.    It's brilliant paper, made for oils, and does not need gesso.  I can paint directly on the paper.  And there is no buckling.   

The paint definitely handles differently and I'm enjoying the experimentation.

This painting was done over the course of two days.   Total size, 32"x20", oil on paper.

back home after five days with my family.  here are a few xmas snippets.  it's always great having a little one around for xmas.  ryan's mom is a good friend of my niece and they've been joining us for all the holidays.  i love her crazy hair...and loved even more being greeted by a run and leap into my arms when i walked in the door.

yesterday, my brother brought his tablet and my parents snagged his and my mini.  i think we've gotten my parents hooked on "flow".

christmas eve...

xmas at mom's....

another NYC photo...

and...a very interesting article from The Atlantic.

excerpt:

"Emboldened by success, and imbued with a fanatical and paranoid world-view, they see enemies everywhere and regard any hint of compromise as betrayal. As New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley wrote in 1854, slavery "loves aggression, for when it ceases to be aggressive it stagnates and decays. It is the leper of modern civilization, but a leper whom no cry of 'unclean' will keep from intrusion into uninfected company." Much the same applies to the NRA and its insatiable appetite for new territory to allow arms in, and new ways to allow those guns to be used--such as putting armed guards in our elementary schools, as the NRA today suggested."

Taken in Chelsea...

Another photo from NYC.

I love going into the city and so feel fortunate to live close enough to do it fairly often.  The visuals are exciting and continue to add to the plethora of ideas for paintings.

More christmas in NYC...

christmas in NYC...

Back in NYC.
Today it was art and tonight it is jazz.

Spent a wonderful afternoon at the Met, checking out the new Matisse exhibit In Search of True Painting.

I walked in and cried.  It was so amazing to see an exhibit on the exploration in paint...with studies and paintings where he attempts to find something new while working a subject over and over.  

This evening will be spent on the lower east side checking out Manner Effect.

Yesterday's events were horrific.  But what I am having an incredibly difficult time with…is how to live in a culture where people are more passionate about retaining their access to guns instead of using that passion to protect the most vulnerable among us.  I don't only mean children but anyone struggling to survive, be it homelessness, poverty, lack of education and those suffering with mental illness.  To me, that is the true horror.  

All I could do this morning is go to the studio and grab my large white canvas - 60"x36" and just paint until it was too wet to continue.

no words for today's horror.

instead, i opted for art. 

this photo, which i took back in january 2007 is a small attempt at touching today's events.

Yesterday I walked past our ice rink downtown.  It was about 3 pm and so, fairly quiet in the middle of a workday.  I am so going ice skating soon.

Today's lunch.

The salami was pretty damned good although the wine had seen better days.  I spent 9 hours in the studio, committed to finishing a project on the computer begun a few weeks ago.  Finally completed it about an hour after I got home tonight and then began another.  Two hours into that one and my eyes are tired.  After this entry I'm powering down and will curl up in bed and watch something mindless on tv.

from Saturday, in Bushwick.

I'm back from a weekend in NYC.   It's the first time in about 40 years that I've been there during the holidays.  

Purple yam cake from Red Ribbon Bake Shop in Queens.

Graffiti cat on the Lower East Side.

Bushwick graffiti.  Balloon hat and more cats. 

A food truck parking lot in Bushwick.

Sunday morning brunch at Court Square Diner in Long Island City next to the MoMA PS1.  You can get a $9.95 brunch that includes your food, coffee and a bloody mary or mimosa.  And it's quite good!

Taken from inside PS1.

I splurged today.  Serious splurge.   An iPad Mini.  Slowly learning my way around it and it's a little frustrating, but I'll get there.  I've been thinking about an iPad for over a year...waiting until I felt I actually needed the portability.  It's time.   

Hopping a 7am bus to NYC tomorrow for the weekend and looking forward to seeing friends. 

Photo taken at a new friend's home while dropping off a book and getting a studio tour. 

I so scored today!  

This morning I completed a portion of a project at the little community center where I'm temping. The ED said he wouldn't have anything else for me for another 2.5 hours. So I told him I'd be happy to get off the clock and return later which allowed me just enough time to get to the studio, lay grounds on three canvases and even begin two painting studies of the new series. Super jazzed.

Here is one of the two pieces.  It's 11"x14", acrylic on canvas.  Based on a photo I took at one of Sarah's gigs at Rockwood Music Hall in the lower east side.

When I have to paint…I have to paint.

because i need to be working on different paintings at the same time, i was super excited to begin a new series today.  i worked a few sketches over the weekend before the open studios and was aching…aching to hold a brush.  

today was supposed to be the day.  but my one day temp job has turned into three days.  so unless I can complete this work project early, painting needs to wait until thursday.  

anticipation.

another new fence painting from the beach series.  this one is larger…36"x18", oil on canvas.

open studio this weekend was amazing, with lovely conversations and a magical moment with a final visitor that brought me to tears.  thank you all who came by.

on another note, i was planning on a fairly slow travel month but last night i found myself with 3 trips to nyc within the span of 10 days.  it's gonna be a crazy few weeks.

life is unexpected.

It's World AIDS Day. Thinking of everyone I loved who I've either lost or are currently living with AIDS/HIV. In the studio and decked my little tree today with red ribbons for all who are in my heart.

I don't have enough ribbons.