May/June 2024 Island Trip – Day 6

I managed to get to 10 artists’ studios today. That’s probably 25 artist. I bought three prints for a narrow wall in our mainland kitchen that’s begging for something. The original paintings cost 1000’s. The prints cost $40-$50. They’re of mason/canning jars. This artist renders glass in paint. It’s the most astonishing modern thing I’ve seen on canvas. I’ll post a picture once I get them on the wall.

One thing I enjoyed about the studio tour is seeing new areas on the island, and the way to these places, that otherwise one would never get to see without the invitation. The studios themselves were simple to comprehensive, but all worked for their artists. After I got back to the property I kept working on priming the lower barn! I am able to see it even more in a new usable light after visiting 18 studios in two days.

Our weather is being coy in this moment. Not the deluge everyone is predicting. And enough trusted weather sources are predicting tempest grade winds and rain that I put the two plastic Adirondack’s behind the trailer, where they can’t fly into the trailer and break a window…

I got a fire going in the lower barn stove before I started painting this afternoon. There was a surprising amount of ash in the fire box. Too much to start a fire on top of. As I removed enough ash, it was not lost on me that these ashes were made by the last fires my father built in this stove, probably 15 or more years ago. The stove, a very large but simple beast, warmed up the space easily. This is the first fire I’ve built in either barn stove. Feels a tad profound.