Pine Tree Studios of New England

 Today was the first snow of the season.  It's light and won't last the afternoon, but I still found time to go outside and listen to the sound of the flakes sliding down the pine needles. Boreas was a labor of love from the first pencil line until the last stroke of the paintbrush.  The wood is eastern white pine, rescued from a discard pile at a nearby lumberyard. It is painted in a wash of white acrylic, finished with a clear acrylic finish, then washed with a light blue acrylic, then another coat of finish.   Boreas, the god of the North Wind, is hanging near my desk and will be my companion for the season. Nov 2023.  Eastern White Pine, polychromed with acrylics.  Water based acrylic finish,

 This year's ornaments were finished a little earlier than usual.  I started the tradition of producing a limited run of ornaments after being inspired by the late M. Paul Ward. December 2023.  Eastern white pine, polychromed with acrylics and finished with water based finish.

 Paint is not my usual medium.  To be honest, this bit of butcher paper was used as a drop cloth for the painting I was doing on another sculpture.  I wiped my brush on the paper to remove some excess paint and I really liked the curve I created. I made another and kept at it for a bit and this was the result: Dec 2023.  Butcher paper and acrylic paint

 I attended the artist's reception at the Arts League of Lowell.  I entered the Krampus piece and was delighted with how they chose to display it. About an half hour into the show I was in a small group chatting and happened to notice a familiar name near the bottom of this sign.

 I recently joined the Arts League of Lowell .  ALL is located on Market Street in Lowell, MA right in the heart of downtown.   Shortly after becoming a menber I was invited to participate in a winter exhibit.  My entry Krampus is my original design of the figure from Alpine folklore.  Alpine towns have Krampus parades during the holiday season and woodcarving studios in Germany and Switzerland are kept busy producing masks for the parades. 2023, from an original design.  Mahogany with hand rubbed polyurethane finish.

The design is the first line of an original composition by Kathy Grossman.  In a previous post there is a woodcut and shirt with this design.   I was not entirely happy with the results of my woodcut.  I chose oak plywood and the first print I made was with the wrong kind of ink.   I decided to go with another material entirely to do the design justice.  The material is a recovered slate roof tile. 2023 Slate unfinished

 This sculpture was originally created in the early 2000s and hung in our previous home over the doorway into our living room.  The careful design of the fragile arms and horn did not survive the vibrations of a slamming door, no doubt driven by the teen-aged angst of one of our children. Rediscovered this year, some careful repair has rendered most of the fracture lines invisible.  In order to prevent future mishaps, Nike is now screwed tight onto a piece of rough sawn eastern white pine. The contrast of the lightly colored rough sawn pine and the dark and smooth cherry is very interesting to me. Also of note, this original design was one of the first figure designs I created entirely myself. 2001-2023 Cherry with eastern white pine base.  Polyurethane finish.