James Rauchman ~ Studio Visit

Part of what keeps me inspired as an artist is to spend time with other artists. Artists who have devoted their lives to their work. This week-end I had the great pleasure of visiting two such artists in their studios. The first of these studio visits was with James Rauchman a NYC painter recently moved to upstate Vermont. 

Making a Movie

For the past few months I have been working with film maker extraordinaire Patrice Halley to create a mini doc about my work. This has been a far more intense process than I anticipated.

   

Allowing anyone in my studio while I'm working is unusual but to have a guy with a camera in your face and underfoot every which way I turned was especially daunting.

    

The Beauty of Winter in Québec

7am Morning Walk / 24" x 24"

The winter figures prominently in my psyche and work these days. Having been born close to the Winter Solstice makes December a time of change and reflection for me. The ever shortening days, the receding and then returning light, the cold and snow wrapping itself around everything in a silent embrace, these all influence my work.

A Summer Collage

Collage 

is a word that comes to me often lately. I move through time and space seeking images for my work, even following them as they lead me from one adventure to another. 

Every single place, person and moment is offered up as material for translation into paint.

Life and Art fuse.

 

What's Going On These Days

It has been a busy Spring/Summer so far. I have had the privilege and honour to install many of my larger paintings in beautiful locations. One of the perks of being an "indy" artist, is meeting fabulous new people, sharing stories and traveling to new places. Here is a glimpse of some of the paintings that have gone out into the world this season:

 Luminous Ground / triptych 24" x 72" in Manor Tremblant, QC

 Into the Forest / 60" x 48" in a private Equinox condo, Mont-Tremblant, QC

 Reflecting on Then and Now / 60" x 48" in a private Equinox condo, Mont-Tremblant, QC

 The Red Line / 36" x 72" in a collector's home in Grande Isle, Vermont

Recently I was part of a wonderful new collaboration between my studio building, Complexe Canal Lachine and the Montreal Folk Festival. 

For our annual Open House this year I curated and organized an exhibition that was open to all Montreal artists entitled CADENCE. Artists were asked to create a piece inspired by music of their choice. From the seventy entries that came in thirty paintings were selected and hung in our building's gallery, Centre d'Art E.K. Voland as part of the Open House celebrations.  The exhibition was then moved to the recently renovated Salon 1861 in Griffintown where it still hangs until June 30. Check it out if you get a chance!

The Open Studio was a lot of fun this year with a variety of musicians dropping by to make music in the studio!

Ray Sealey

Sophia DiGeronimo

Ellie Young

In the Adirondacks this summer I have two paintings at The Wild Center in Tupper Lake as part of an exhibition entitled "Seeing the Forest and the Trees"

You can also find my work at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts Main Street Gallery in Lake Placid.

Summertime Tripping

What a summer it has been! 

"Trip the Light" road trip covered 10,000 miles in 2 glorious months. Starting in Boston, Walt and I headed for Montreal, crossed Canada to Vancouver. Spent time in Tofino, Salt Spring Island, Galiano, Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, South Dakota, Colorado and back to Litchfield, CT. I hope to write a more expanded itinerary and produce a book of this trip over the ooming winter months. Stay Tuned.

We saw an abundance of beauty in every landscape we crossed. Prairies, lakes, old growth forests, precambrian rocks, canyons, mountains and oceans. All of it was magnificent and much of it still glorious and wild and free! It 

made us so grateful to be Alive!

Hiking and Exploring the Rainforests of Tofino, BC

This is the Right Place

 

 There are certain geographical places on this spinning globe that resonate more strongly with each individual being than others. The Ausable River is one of those places for me.
The twisted roots embracing the rocks, the ancient rock cliffs, the deep dark pools and the roaring waterfalls all make me ecstatically happy when I am around them.

Numinous Notes

My exhibition at Galerie de la Ville continues until this Sunday, April 21st. I love the venue and the space that these large scale works are given to breath as ONE body of work. 

The Art Barn

I just found this video on youtube put together by India Littler of Cloudberry Studio. Lots of great memories from this vibrantly alive collaborative studio that I was part of for four glorious summers in Mont-Tremblant, QC