ACRYLIC and LIGHT: September 2017

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Kitchen windowsill in the Olson House

12 x 9", acrylic on gessoed hardboard

painting #249, 2017

Three years ago, I visited the Olson House located in Cushing Maine. The Hathorn-Olson House was built in the late 1700s by Captain Samuel Hathorn II. It was lived in until 1968 by brother and sister, Alvaro Olson and Christina Olson, both were descendants of Hathorn.

It is in the registry of the US National Historic Landmarks after being made famous by Andrew Wyeth's many paintings and sketches done on site that includes the iconic "Christina's World". It is located in a bucolic and isolated rural area of Maine that boost a partially obstructed view of the Muscongus Bay. It was a totally surreal experience to move within the landscape and to visit the interior. The house has very little furnishings. The kitchen had a few dusty mason jars on the counter. I took one and put it on the sill of the open kitchen window. I could feel the warm backdraft coming from the breeze from the screened front door as I laid the canning jar down. The sun was setting on the opposite side of the house which created a nice contrast from the foreground to the background.

The Olson House, Cushing, Maine

Interior of the Olson House. June 2014.

The House is currently owned by the Farnsworth Art Museum located in beautiful Rockland, Maine which I had visited earlier that morning.

Part of my two-person show with Yvon Gallant entitled ''HARVEST'' at the Fog Forest Gallery from October 12 - November 8, 2017.

Opening reception - Thursday October 12, 6:30- 8:00 pm

Fog Forest Gallery

14 Bridge Street

Sackville, NB, Canada

(506) 536-9000

e-mail- janet@fogforestgallery.ca

website- http://fogforestgallery.ca

-SOLD

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Pure Maple Syrup

14 x 11", acrylic on gessoed birch panel

painting #246, 2017

Canada is celebrating it's sesquicentennial this year, also known as the 150th anniversary of Confederation. I felt an obligation to do a painting as my way to acknowledge how fortunate I am to be living in such a wonderful country. I did the photo study for the painting during one of our last snowfall earlier this spring. The can is sitting on the top of a wooden rail of a small footbridge located fittingly in Mapleton Park, here in Moncton, NB. The out of focus diagonal dark stripe in the background is of a small stream.

The sap from Maple trees to make the syrup was first collected and used by the indigenous peoples living in northeastern North America, and the practice was adopted by European settlers, who gradually refined production methods. The Canadian province of Quebec is by far the largest producer, responsible for 70% of the world's output. Vermont is the largest producer in the United States, generating about 6% of the global supply. (ref. Wikipedia).

For this painting, I was inspired by Andy Warhol's serigraphs of Campbell Soup and used this rather generic Maple Syrup Can that has been around as long as I can remember. These are available nationally through Wal-Mart. While I was doing this painting back in April, my son Jean-Luc pointed out that he had just seen a video of a Montreal street artist named WhatisAdam who had done some Pop Art, Andy Warhol-esque like artwork of the same can but parodied it to "Pure Maple Sizzurp"....Simply Brilliant! (click HERE to view). This summer I also saw the same can used as a maple scented candle holder for purchase in a local pharmacy.

The syrup from this can is from Decacer, a distributor located near the Québec-New Brunswick border in Déglis, Québec. With this syrup, we made Maple Taffy. With the help of a candy thermometer, you boil the syrup until it reaches a temperature of 112 °C (234 °F). You then spread it over fresh snow. When the taffy starts to harden, you roll it up like a lollipop with a Popsicle stick...so GOOD!

This painting will be part of a two-person show this fall being held at the Fog Forest Gallery in Sackville, NB.

Harvest by Yvon Gallant and Alvin Richard

October 12 - November 8, 2017