Celebration of Art at TWIN FARMS

This Mother’s Day weekend, May 10-12, I will be in residence at Twin Farms in Barnard, offering both demonstrations and workshop time for interested guests of the resort.  This is a classic Vermont setting and offers a broad range of choice subject matter for art enthusiasts. It should be the peak time of that moment Frost describes in Nothing Gold Can Stay:

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.

 

Twin Farms is an extraordinary place with a rich history.  The main farmhouse on the property was once owned by American writer, Sinclair Lewis and his wife, journalist, Dorothy Thompson.  Rated by the Zagat guide as the Best Small Inn in the United States and listed for the last 18-years as the only five-star hotel in Vermont by the Forbes Travel Guide, Twin Farms in Barnard, Vermont, is that rare thing, a simple but sumptuous hostelry where almost anyone’s heart’s desire can be attained with just a simple request. 

When Twin Farms current owner Thurston Twigg-Smith decided to share with the public the beautiful place in Barnard, Vermont that his family was using as a vacation home he asked Jed Johnson, one of the world’s leading interior designers to create living spaces in a series of “cottages” that dot the property. Each one is a unique experience from the views out the windows, to the remarkable interiors, to the original artwork on the walls.

GREAT PERSONAL ART COLLECTION

Still Life with Eggs, Pitcher and Bowl by William Bailey

Ode to a Pumpkin Field by Joan Snyder

I will be looking forward to sharing the great personal art collection at Twin Farms with the lucky art lovers who will gather on Mother’s Day Weekend to view and study the paintings with my dear friend, Bronwyn Dunne, who has a lifetime of experience in the art world.  Bronwyn will be telling the stories of the artists and paintings in the resort collection.  I know guests will enjoy the inspiration of the original work by artists, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney, Frank Stella, Jim Dine, Deborah Butterfield, Milton Avery, Jasper Johns, Ed Ruscha, Sean Scully, Cy Twombly, Nam June Paik and Donald Sultan, all part of the Twin Farms Collection. And, I will enjoy dining with guests in the handsome black and white-carpeted dining room where Chef Ted Ask in collaboration with his staff will preside over a memorable series of art-resonant dinners.  Please join me for a weekend you will not forget, A Celebration of Art at Twin Farms.


For weekend reservations call Josh or Casey at 800-894-6327 or email info@twinfarms.com. For more information about the Celebration of Art at Twin Farms visit www.twinfarms.com.  

This charcoal drawing is of one of Stephen Taylor's saws.  I sat in the yard of his shed to draw it over the course of several days.  He tells me people will think the bar is short, but it works well for him.  The drawing is 30" long.

Spring Beauty and Bloodroot

Hooray for woodland wildflowers! I have long associations with these flowers which have brought so much joy to me over many years. This is a watercolor I finished last week, but started while perched on a very steep hillside in the Smoky Mountains last spring. I feel very lucky to do work that requires spending hours outdoors in close observation of beauty, weather and light. The work comes with the musty sweet smell of leaf litter and the feel of breeze on skin and sun on clothing. Also enormous stiffness from balancing against the slope and keeping the work stable on my knees for some hours! Finishing this painting made me want to do some companion watercolors of more spring wildflowers. Today while out walking on the road I spotted Hepatica and Wake Robin growing above the ditches. Hoping to see lots more this weekend.

I will be having an Open Studio here in Lincoln VT if you want to come see this painting and others in person for yourself. It's part of Open Studio Weekend, May 28 and 29 from 10AM to 5PM both days. There will be yellow signs along the roads to direct you both to my place in Lincoln and to potter Judith Bryant's studio also in Lincoln. I am looking forward to having visitors!

This is an image of a watercolor I did this fall. It is of Larry and Mark Sherman on a job they had in Lincoln, Vermont a couple years ago. This scene was on a very cold day in March, as they watched the truck loading at the landing. Mount Abraham can be seen in the background.

Here are the five paintings I created for Art of Action, framed and ready to deliver, on my studio floor last weekend. Sunday the work was boxed and taken to the West Monitor Barn in Richmond, along with the work of the 9 other artists involved in the project. It was amazing to see all the work that had been made, together, for that afternoon. Next it will be broken into groups and sent around the state on tour. First up: Hand Motors in Manchester, starting September 4.

This has been a wonderfully rewarding project. I have loved showing my work at Addison County Field Days (thanks Chris Olson!), working with kids in schools and at the career center forestry program, talking with foresters, loggers and all the other concerned Vermonters who've spoken to me about our woods and the work I'm doing, and, as always, pushing paint around with a brush. Thanks Lyman and Janice.

Today I finished the last painting for my Art of Action work. Then I toned the 3 walnut frames that Dan Ober made for my paintings with Prussian blue, Alizarin crimson, a little burnt umber and a lot of stand oil in turpentine. They look wonderful.

Now I'm pulling together some images to exhibit in the forestry pavillion at the Addison County Field Days!! The fair starts tomorrow morning. It'll be a chance to share some of the ideas I've been working on about forestry in Vermont and what the future holds with a different audience in a different venue.