look and learn

Getting out to see current exhibits is always a refresher. I jumped at the chance to chaperone Susannah Green’s French 4 field trip from Portland High School to the Portland Museum of Art recently. She intended to expose the class to the French Impressionism on the second floor, but many students were mesmerized by the Richard Estes work in the main gallery.

His work is photorealism extraordinaire, yet on close inspection, reveals brushwork and fascinating layers of perception. I’m fond of this one in particular because of the phone booths.

I grew up at the Red Doors Motel, where a phone booth stood at the edge of the parking lot. The strange privacy it offered was a constant source of fascination. Now, phone booths are an anachronism. People can text privately in full view everywhere.

This oil pastel illustration, done decades ago for an Art Directors Club of Boston directory, features my red phone booth memory in the middle of nowhere. An enormous blimp hovers ominously beneath brillo pad clouds. Was my message about packaging information so big you can’t possibly miss it? I honestly don’t remember.

Elsewhere in the show, I fell in love with this painting. What’s not to love about mannequin heads and illusion?

It’s a reminder that my niece’s wedding is THIS SATURDAY! I did this pastel for their invitation.

Over the weekend, I visited the Corey Daniels Gallery for the first time. What an cool place! Jeff Kellar’s work looks amazing there.

The gallery has an eclectic mix of work, including this eye candy bowl of blank billiards.

It struck a playful chord in my heart. I’m drawn to spheres of any kind; in this oil pastel a baseball becomes a metaphor for paralysis. How many can relate to standing in the outfield, frozen with fear of dropping the ball?

Heading back home, I also stopped in on the Pastel Painters of Maine’s 15th International exhibit, “Pastels Only.”

This informative display taught me a few things about all that color dust I use.

The next day found my family and I kicking up our heels in Old Orchard Beach, where other art forms dazzled the eye.

Marty and Daisy could not resist.

This made me smile. I drew her swinging in Seven Days of Daisy.

Mark your calendars please: I will be reading Seven Days of Daisy on June 28 at 11 AM at the Portland Museum of Art. Come draw with me!