Music, woodworking and painting

[Doreen Lepore]

As a child I had the piano lessons, the ballet lessons (Mom thought it might help) and always had to be drawing and making stuff.

After working in the insurance industry in Hartford for 20 years, I quit when it just wasn't making sense to me any more and I thought I should pursue art on a full time basis, while I still had the energy for it. So I learned how to use watercolors, pastels and oils. Then I became obsessed with clay after moving to Florida. After spending five years throwing, trimming the ultimate foot rings, firing pots, and building small sculptures, I arrived at the level where I could produce some well-crafted ware (no longer called stuff).

Skipping a lot of personal stuff - we moved, I gave up the kiln and haven't replaced it yet, but have rediscovered painting in an entirely new way. Going through this craftsman phase has given me an appreciation of the well-crafted painting that I wouldn't have had before.

If I had a place to put a wood lathe, I'd love to have one of those too.

So, although my path is winding and my education never complete, my goals are still within reach.

[Karin Wells]

I've always been quite fascinated, from a distance, with New England. I'm not unaware of your climate, but what's the art world like up there in the northeast? Should I be planning a studio in the land of little north light, or in Taos?

New England is loaded with artists and it is no accident that we are here. The filtered light up here is similar to (and as spectacular as) what I've seen in Florence and the Netherlands. At least take a peek before you move to Taos. Despite (or maybe because of?) the weather, it is lovely living in picturesque New England.

[Steven Sweeney]

Sounds greet, Karin. My "sailor side" is lobbying heavily for a coastal locale, and since I've always been a northerner, I guess I can deal with snow shoveling. I was in Florence about 6 weeks ago, so I have a pretty good image of the light you describe. In fact, my current commission is for a landscape from Tuscany (for which, obviously, I'll have to rely on reference photos and memory.)

Thanks, and cheers,

[Rochelle Brown]

Hi Steven and everyone,

In the picture of life which can at times seem quite foggy, we wait for the fog to clear to know what was just a foggy dream and what is really here. The overall composition plan will be a determining factor in what we see. What others see is for them to say. Is that metaphoric enough?

Anyway, let's make the best of what's before us.

[Michael Fournier]

I've always been quite fascinated, from a distance, with New England. I'm not unaware of your climate, but what's the art world like up there in the northeast? Should I be planning a studio in the land of little north light, or in Taos?

Well, Steve, I must say that I have never been to Taiwan - closest I've been is Hawaii. So I kind of envy you. I was born in Connecticut, visited most of the United States, as well as lived in Alaska, Virginia, California, New Orleans, Philadelphia and now back to New England in Massachusetts.

As for art in New England, it runs the gamut from modern to country landscapes and seaside light houses for the tourists. There are more than a few major portrait artists that call New England their home, including Richard Schmid and Howard Sanden, as well as many others.

New England can be a great place to live as an artist. There are more than enough wealthy clients (doesn't always seem that way but they are here) as well as galleries and museums. Would I recommend the area over the other many equally nice areas? Not really. For one thing, housing is expensive and gets worse the closer to the major cities you get. And it can get downright impossible for all but the most successful artist to afford in some areas. Taxes are becoming a problem in CT and MA. And although I don't personally find this a problem, others have told me that that the market elsewhere in the US is better for portraits than here. I can say this: if you like hot summers and cold winters and don't want to move about to get both, New England will give you a healthy dose of both.

To me, New England is a very conservative area, although politically, it is fairly evenly divided Democrats vs. Republicans, compared to some states swaying more one way or the other. Seems to be a holdover from those early puritan settlers.

I have always liked the rural areas of New England as well as its proximity to New York and Boston. But if you are not from rural New England originally, no matter how long you live here, the locals will never really accept you as a local. But that is not much of a problem, since for the most part, New Englanders like to keep their privacy, and will let you have your own; so as long as you don't bother them they pretty much will let you live your own life however you want. In the end it is personal preference. You may love it here, or you may not, but could you make a go as an artist here? Of course you could. Are there benefits? Sure. Downsides? Of course; even paradise has its downside. Well, maybe not since it would not be paradise, would it? So I will say even the closest to paradise I have seen, Hawaii, had drawbacks.

In closing, sure Steve, you're welcome here. I will even extend an invitation to lunch on me if you are ever in my area. And you can join our life drawing group anytime you like.

[Steven Sweeney]

Thanks, Michael, I very much appreciate the invitation and I'll endeavour to take you up on it next time I'm in the area (perhaps next Spring -- you do have "Spring" in New England, don't you?)

As I mentioned, I'm a northerner, but I can do the Gulf or Key West or coastal California without flinching. I love to sail, and though I've built Maine's Woodenboat Nutshell sailing pram, I've done 90% of my sailing in Minnesota and Montana, which will seem very odd to folks who think those are states made up exclusively of wheatfields. There are there plenty of inland and Great lakes, and those States are in fact made up as well of some of the most beautiful landscape painting subjects imaginable (except, of course, in New England.)

I don't think of lighthouses as "tourist" subjects, because I'm rather fascinated by them and have visited many worldwide. The single painting I've done of a lighthouse, on Cape Cod, is perhaps one of my favourites, not for the lighthouse but for the lucky and accurate capture of an early-morning fogbank that was burning off.

I've heard the bit about outsiders in upper New England getting the cold shoulder for a good while. Doesn't bother me. I take folks for who they are, not who they're descended from (I mean, we're all very accidentally the products of all manner of intentions, affections, trysts, deceits, and accidents, right?) and I don't spend a lot of time worrying about who accepts me into their company. There's lots of company in the world - though sometimes you have to do the work, to find it (and sometimes it catches you offguard - what fun!). We do the same thing in NW Montana, and I suspect the same routine obtains in the Ozarks and in the southern bayous and lots of other places. We still refer to properties as the Nelsson place or the Solberg place, even if it's changed hands a half dozen times, as if none of the interim owners ever really supplanted the homesteaders.

I've just in 24 hours returned from closer to your residence than mine, and have driven 13,000 miles in the past 12 weeks. Most of it has been through drought-plagued country, and it is now raining so hard here in my stopover in Minnesota, that I'll have to unplug the computer so it doesn't get zapped by lightning.

Best wishes and cheers,

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

I neither make music nor work wood, although as a college student I earned money singing in a coffeehouse (and playing rather poorly on a secondhand Goya classic guitar). Does being mechanical count? Through lack of competent and/or willing mechanics I had to learn how to service and repair my lovely little TR-3, and I'm also not bad on general computer troubleshooting, although the G4 seems a little less intuitive than my previous Macs.

In terms of geographical areas, NJ is usually not viewed as a scenic environment but our region is quite beautiful if you like marshes, rivers, and bayscapes. We are at the northern edge of many southern species' ranges and have fairly mild but often snowy winters and warm (make that hot, this year) humid summers. Were the Mason-Dixon line to be continued eastward we would be south of it. Portraiture is not highly sought after here but there are other compensations. I live on a federally designated Wild and Scenic river and the bird life is remarkably varied in our county because of our mixture of forests, fields, farms, marshes and waterways. It's a wonderful place. Our watershed also has a high proportion of the state's threatened and endangered species.

Which brings me to another question: how many artists are also environmentalists? That might be a more natural tie-in for landscape painters, but there sometimes does seem to be a correlation.

[Michael Fournier]

Well, Leslie, you're right. NJ gets a bad rap due to the refineries and view from the northern end of the NJ pike. But anyone who has visited the rest of the state as well as the Cape May area can tell you that NJ is not called the Garden State for nothing, and it most certainly has beauty. I attended college in Philly and spent many summer days on the NJ shore as well as some of the farmland northeast of Camden, NJ. I found NJ to have many attractive areas, and if more travelers would take the time to drive the back roads and not the interstate highways, they would see more of the beauty this country has to offer - not just in NJ but elsewhere as well.

[Timothy C. Tyler]

I too have thought New England would be a cool place to live. I hope to spend some quality time out there this fall.

I taught a workshop in Taos last May and one week was just about the right amount of time there for me. It's very remote and the 7,000 people that live there are pretty much the only folks for a long way around. The huge city of Santa Fe is 1+ 1/2 hours drive away.

Great place to visit methinks, but I'd hate to live there. No one goes there anymore - it's too crowded. YB

[Mari DeRuntz]

I don't know if this would qualify as woodworking, but somehow all those powertools my father used to keep in the basement when I was growing up must have impressed me!

I drew the outline freehand, and used an existing palette (one that came with my sketchbox easel) to draw the exact thumbhole pattern, so the grip would be right.

Then I rubbed it with linseed oil, and although I really should keep it cleaner, because it has been well-oiled, it's not that difficult to scrape off old paint.

It was easy to cut the wood with a hand-held jigsaw.