harvest moon

Another week has gone by, and now another September is over. Some things were accomplished:
a 7"x7" commissioned painting of a French horn; another 9"x13" painting I'd been working on; haircut; wood stacked; an attempt at meditation; a couple of arts-related meetings, postcards for Drive-By show picked up; time with friends; dogs and chickens cared for and occasionally chased; zucchini bread baked; late tomatoes picked; and so on.
Others, like credits or minutes, get rolled over into the next month.
Tonight, a harvest moon.
I've been reading some great books. But tonight, my eyelids droop, as I got meager sleep last night. Makes for a dreamlike day, like when the registration marks on a printed page don't line up, everything a bit blurred.

miles to the gallon

Don't know why an entire week elapsed since my last post. Some of this, some of that. 

Here's a new painting, 8"x10" acrylic, of something I photographed a while ago. Price of gas has gone WAY up since. Why, I remember when it was fifteen cents. Okay, a buck fifteen. 

Sometimes you need one. 

Pie I made with almond crust & crumbly oat topping: strawberries picked earlier this season & frozen; peaches from the farmers mkt; rhubarb from the garden.

Two more 2"x2" collage/paint pieces. I have a lot of material and I like constructing them, with their suggestions of narrative. Six of the tiny works have sold in the show.

Drive a yellow convertible to LA, or turn it around and head up the coast into the candy-striped horizon.

The most beautiful view of these sherbet and slate colored hills, your apricot beret tilted rakishly and my striped scarf streaming behind me, as I steer our stylish car through the countryside.

drink can drive

Drink 

This 8"x10" acrylic is at the Drive-By Gallery while a 16"x20" similar one is at Hudson Beach Glass. 

                                                                                 Can
Watercolor, 11"x14" framed. A fun way to use the word 'coffee' 17 times in one painting. I had photographed these stacks of cans at the Casa Grande Trading Post in Cerrillos.

                                                 
                                                                            Drive
Watercolor, 11"x14" framed, of this good-looking old Woody undergoing restoration. The vehicle belongs to a friend and a co-owner of Hudson Beach Glass.

e.h. at drive-by gallery

The Drive-By Gallery is part of Lift Trucks Project in Croton Falls, which I first mentioned in a June post after I visited. LTP is housed in a former forklift repair & service garage built in 1922, and contains artists' studios and a gallery. Part of this project is the Drive-By, the storefront display space facing out on Route 22, along which hundreds of cars crawl during evening traffic by the train station. Nearly twenty of my paintings will be inhabiting this space for the next three months. They range from slightly older work ('08-'09) to pieces created this year, and are installed on shelves, appropriately enough, like objects in an antique store window.
The start of the exhibition coincides with a political fundraiser to be held there this Saturday, Sept 15, 4-7 pm, for the reelection of Assemblyman Robert Castelli. Jazz, wine, politics, and my paintings on view; and in the gallery, some vibrant silkscreen prints by Tom Christopher.
Aside from this event, my work will be continually viewable from the street. As their website says, "Don’t get out of your car. Don’t meet any “Interesting” artists... View art from the comfort of your auto as you pass by. Located at 3 East Cross Street, at Route 22, Croton Falls, NY, 10519." However, visitors will be able to take info from the outside box and contact me. It is somewhat like creating a residency for my paintings outside of my studio.
Click here to see the neat page made for me on the LTP website to accompany the show.

hudson beach glass gallery pics

Some photos of the gallery installation of my paintings at Hudson Beach Glass. I borrowed old glass bottles from Dickinson's Antiques to display ten small works (fyi, the bottles are for sale, too). I've posted photos of these pieces before, so this is a revisiting in another context. The paintings in the show cover a span of the past 18 months except for Oilgags, which I thought went well with the others.

My friend suggested the spoon on top, which I liked. The better to enjoy.

me between two of my newest paintings

More photos of individual pieces to follow, especially the ones I haven't posted yet, or at least not in their entirety. The show is up through Oct 7 and the gallery is open every day. There was a good turnout at the reception and it was a fun evening.

on the wall

Erica Hauser New Paintings September 8 - October 7, 2012 Opening Reception Second Saturday September 8, 6-9pm        "Yellow Chevrolet", acrylic on canvas, 8" x 10"                                                            "Grass", oil on canvas, 30" x 30" Hudson Beach Gallery is very pleased to present an exhibition of recent paintings by Erica Hauser. This is Hauser’s first solo show with the gallery, and runs from September 8 to October 7, 2012. A reception for the artist will be held on Saturday, September 8, from 6 to 9 pm. Come meet the artist on Second Saturday. The Hudson Beach Gallery is one of Beacon’s contemporary art galleries. Located above the main showroom and exhibition space of Hudson Beach Glass (one of the nation’s premier artisanal glass galleries), the upstairs gallery presents a continuous series of exhibitions by artists living in and around the lower Hudson Valley. Hudson Beach Glass is located a short walk from the Beacon, NY Metro-North Train Station at 162 Main Street. The galleries are open seven days a week, Monday through Saturday from 10 -  6 pm, and Sundays from 11 - 6 pm.

an' i've got a nickel

These are details of a new oil painting on canvas, 36"x36" square in its entirety. Most often I work from my own photographs combined with stuff I make up, but I also use found photos/materials, or pictures offered to me by friends. Rarely have I used, as direct reference, photographs that are intended themselves to be art, part of a larger body of work by a renowned photographer. This black/white/grey painting is an exception, because I wanted to do a painting based on on one of Rudy Burckhardt's photos; this one is from 1938. He depicted the city (and nature) as it appeared in his time (1930s-60s particularly), with his unique eye towards patterns, cinematic light and shadow, text, subtle humor and conscious framing. He also made films, collaborating on several with Joseph Cornell. I've liked him for years and could write far more, but there is a great monograph on Burckhardt by Phillip Lopate which details his life and work.
I wondered if this particular shot would make as effective a painting. I shuffled its elements slightly for my composition and incorporated part of another photo, but it is mostly faithful to the original, and I see it as a sort of tribute to a particular artist's eye. People will look at a painting differently than they will look at a photograph, and I hoped my treatment would convey what I saw in his work- in turn, what he saw through his lens. It is no secret that I also like signage, earnest graphics and ice cream. I had to paint it to see if & how it would translate to another format. The black & white tiled expanse of wall and all the banal words. You start to wonder if it's worth the time spent even looking, let alone painting- that's one of the questions I think about, in a world of images flashing past.