back to school

these are the best the garden has to offer this time of year

I had a walk this morning in the brisk autumn air with my dear Ashley who is in town (!) A 'feels like fall' day, it is the first day back at the high school for the littler one, and the bigger one heads off to college on Sunday.  While I am incredibly proud of and excited for him, I am scrambling to think of ways to fill the void he will leave behind in our lives....and I've already been informed that I can't get more dogs.

So I have put together a few short studio workshops that I will hold in my own studio.  It is still quite tidy from my open studio held earlier this month, so I thought now would be a good time to try something new in my space!  

journal page

Painting in the Barn : Fall Studio Days

It’s back to school time and I am pleased to be offering a few studio workshop days in my own studio this fall. Join me in a small setting receive personal attention and lots of materials to experiment with. Group size is limited to four. Classes will be held either Wednesday evenings or Thursday mornings. Sign up for one or sign up for all! As always, there is no experience necessary!

What you’ll get:

All materials needed for the day’s workshop

Ideas, inspiration, source materials, encouragement A home-made snack and tea

What you could bring if you want, but it’s not necessary:

A journal or notebook that you are working in, extra paper, questions

Schedule:

Gelatin printing: September 11th 7-9 or September 12th 10-noon 

Block Printing: September 18th 7-9 or September 19th 10-noon 

Tapes and Stencils: September 25th 7-9 or September 26th 10-noon 

Open Studio: October 2nd, 7-9 or October 3rd 10-noon

Call or email to reserve your space today! Bring a friend! Ingrid@ingridellison.com, or 207-701-1245

the moon and a loon

early morning

quietly paddling up the lake

slipping through calm waters

the moon still hangs low in the sky

a loon calls from a cove

sounding beautiful and lonely

spotting a pair of large black wings 

flying against the tree line

we change our course 

and are gifted by a bald eagle on its perch

looking for breakfast

it is time for ours

we head back home

pam's pearl street peaches and yogurt wrapped in crepes

smith smokehouse bacon

coffee and the ny times

a perfect Sunday morning

in Maine

I hope you had a good weekend too

a couple of things I have been reading

A few weeks ago at my open studio, a friend came by and gave me a book to read,  Joan Mitchell, Lady Painter, A life, by Patricia Albers.  It is a fat hardcover tome of a book and yesterday I set aside a few moments to sit down and begin.  I was so taken aback by the first paragraph of the introduction, I wanted share.  I don't think I have ever read such a beautiful and stirring account of paint on canvas.  Here it is from page 3:

"One rain-spitting February morning several years ago, I stood in a hallway at the Bibiotheque National Francois Mitterrand in Paris, frustrated by my efforts to locate a certain document.  The hallway had marble-smooth concrete walls, dim natural light, and a high ceiling.  For some reason I glanced up: above me hung a large, squarish oil painting tingling with a marvelous blue lavender, a blue lavender that washed over me as if, having never before seen-no, felt-blue lavender, I'd plunged into a bracing pool of it.  I sensed in the painting mingled sun and shade, meadow tangle, lurking dusk, yearning, and the touch of a human hand.  But most of all I was caught up in that tonic hydrangea color.  Breached by a loamy green black, it drifted upward, urged along by a burst of vivid yellow.  No color was block-solid:each felt airy, each sputtered with others.  And, like a river viewed through binoculars, the image was both tangible and otherworldly, stirring and still.  I felt as if I'd been whisked away from the Bibliotheque Nationale to a secular Sainte-Chappelle.  The radiant flicker of ecstasy hanging above me was Joan Mitchell's La Grande Vallée V, and its ambush that day sealed my decision to write this book."

I take it as a good sign when the first few sentences of a book take hold.  I am so looking forward to reading during my last few days of this busy summer!

Secondly I came across this article yesterday from the Guardian.  Sort of a timely read given that Ms Mitchell's presence in the painting scene of the 50's, 60's and 70's was clearly eclipsed by her male counterparts.  I have to say I am not exactly certain that Bridget Riley is in fact Britain's greatest painter, but the fact that an accomplished female painter has entered the dialogue of the critics is a step in the right direction.

Thoughts?

big skies

The vastness of the western sky is something we just don't encounter in New England.  I was a bit awestruck, and can't possibly do them justice, but I jotted down a few lines and brushstrokes while spending last week in Colorado.