Substack! Is it a blog, or a newsletter, or a new form of social media? Well, it’s all of the above, and it’s a place to share ideas with others, to meet interesting writers, gardeners, mystics, Tarot readers, and restorers of habitat. Why do I write there and not in a plain newsletter? Because I want to meet new people, and get outside of my known circle of supporters. It’s the same reason really that I have this website, and in linking the two, I’m making sure you can find me easily, keep up with what I’m doing in the studio and outside my four walls. I am also a Tarot reader. These three areas of my life are deeply integrated, each one informing the other. When you subscribe to The Hidden Pond, my weekly newsletter aka blog, you’ll receive an email notification whenever I publish. Use the link below to subscribe. I hope you’ll join me each week as I write a new post.
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The Hidden Pond Substack
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Nature and Painting
The month of May finds me as much in the garden as in the studio, and one of the absolute pleasures of being in two places at once has been returning to work on a painting that I made in 1993. It's sparked a conversation entirely in my head, about low watery places and my need to paint them. Even the names - bottomland and bog - are mysterious.
"Science as Art in Artists' Books" : Exhibition at Yale
I’m delighted that my book, Is There Something We Can Do, is included in the exhibition at Yale’s Haas Family Arts Library. Many thanks to Molly E. Dotson, the exhibition’s curator, who has chosen one of the images from the book to represent the show, and writes “These works from Arts Library Special Collections are scientific in subject, method, aesthetic, or some combination thereof. They range from atomic to planetary in scope and from data-driven to much more abstract meditations.”
Conversations Across Time: Early Work
Seeing chives greening up and buds getting ready to leaf out has me thinking about past springs, when I first came to Maine, and that spring after I moved from Belfast to Lincolnville. Time -- as they say -- marches on, and since it's been more than 30 years that I first walked Lincolnville Beach and really doubled down on painting, I've decided to devote this newsletter to a look at where I was back then, as well as what I think about now when I start a new painting.
Sketchbook: The Live Oaks in South Carolina
As I drove from the Savannah airport up to Beaufort, South Carolina, my first impression of the Low Country was that though it's coastal, it is the opposite of Midcoast Maine. So while I was painting and drawing, I thought a lot about sustainability and creativity.
Looking Out, Looking Down
January was definitely a month when, like the Roman deity Janus, I looked in two directions, out and down. Two weeks ago, as I prepared my Pecha Kucha presentation for the January event at the Rockport Opera House, the idea popped into my head that I'm a sort of gyroscope, now oriented toward the far horizon, now looking down at the ground beneath my feet.
Is There Something We Can Do at Steel House Projects, Rockland, Maine
What would an exhibition be without an expert photographer to document it? It was delightful to work with Dave Clough during my recent exhibition at Steel House. Dave beautifully captured the architecture of the gallery and of the book itself as displayed in the round on a pedestal.
I've been traveling again
For a long time now (28 years to be exact), I've felt that coming back to Maine is coming home. But for that to happen, I must first go away. Paraphrasing the poet Bob Hicok, I remember Kentucky fondly as the place I go to be in Kentucky.
My YIMBY Project: Habitat and Painting Practice
Here in Lincolnville, the back field’s been mowed and the front meadows await their turn, awash in goldenrod and asters. It’s a visual confusion of color and texture that provides habitat and opportunity for new paintings.
Newsletter: August Is the New September
By now in most states, schools have started up and that has me thinking about books. Specifically, I'd like to share what's happening as I continue to cross-pollinate books and drawings.
Choices in 21st Century Landscape Painting
As I get ready for upcoming presentations about my work, I've been thinking about 19th century landscape painters who've inspired me, and what my response has been to artists like Théodore Rousseau, whose painting, Le Printemps, is pictured here.