This is to announce my 4th exhibit in New York City since 2009, with an Opening Reception at Agora Gallery, on June 6, from 6-8 p.m.
“The Manifestation of Milieu” features my work together with 9 other artists from around the world, with new pieces from my own travels – all done en plein air. I have always considered my work to be very much about time and place, so it's nice to have a show underscoring that theme at a major art gallery in the Chelsea District on Manhattan Island.
Speaking of “Milieu”, Manhattan Island is almost identical in physical size (12 miles x 4 miles) to Lopez Island, Washington, where I live and work. There is a slight population difference of @ 5 million people (give or take the 2500 who live on Lopez) but nonetheless, very close to the same footprint on the map.


I have 7 pieces in this exhibit, from Lopez Island . . . to Idaho, Portugal, California & Croatia. You can view them on-line at www.Agora-Gallery.com or better yet, see them at the gallery, through June 25th and even add one to your personal art collection. The gallery is located at 530 West 25th St. and the exhibit hangs until June 25.

The exhibit of new works continues through June 4th, at Scott Milo Gallery in Anacortes. Many thanks to the hundreds of people who attended the opening reception for the gallery artists on May 3rd – and for the sales made, as well.



This piece was painted en plein air at an old fish cannery just along Guemes Channel, about 5 blocks from the gallery on May 1st, and is now framed and hanging with my other works, replacing one that sold.
I have been wanting to paint this old boarded-up building for years, with it's lovely lines a little sagging, but still bearing testament to the decades of the commercial fishing industry around Anacortes. It's very quiet now, but I could still feel the presence of all the activity from the glory days . . . almost as if someone would open that door and come down the steps again.

I will be featured artist at Scott Milo Gallery in Anacortes, this Friday, May 3, with an opening reception from 6-9 p.m. at the gallery. I will be exhibiting at least 10 new works from recent plein air painting trips around the U.S. and Europe. My wife, Judy, and I will be attending the opening - and hope to see you there! The exhibit runs through June 4th. The gallery is located at 420 Commercial Ave., in Anacortes. www.scottmilo.com

The piece here was done on-site, March 5th, from the bridge spanning the slough, in the small town of Edison, Washington. I have been interested (visually) in those scars, created by logging, on the distant Cascade Mountains and how they point like fingers, to the ridges and valleys where they lie. While I was initially drawn to the reflective quality of the water and bright warm winter colors around the slough, it was the distant snow pattern that gave a focal interest to this painting, which will be hanging for this show.

I am very pleased to announce my pastel “Sally J, Underway” will be the poster piece for The Lopez Island Historical Society's gala “Celebrating 40 Years”, with an opening reception at 5 p.m., this Friday, April 26, at the museum.

In a partnership with the museum, prints of this original, will be sold 2 ways – both as a smaller poster and also limited edition giclee prints that are 16” x 20”.

The framed pastel original (25” x 35”) will be hanging at the opening, where it will remain for viewing until a special museum benefit auction, with guest celebrity auctioneer, Sharon Friel, in August. The auction will be held at Windswept Fine Art Gallery, Friday, August 30, during our annual Labor Day Weekend Artists' Studio Tour Preview party.

A second original has been started, featuring this historic gill net fishing boat, set in a foggy location just off Iceberg Point, where Bastian “Bus” Jevick fished for over 50 years! The Sally J was built in 1930 and fished by Jevick until he finally sold it during the Washington State Gear Reduction program in 1982.
The boat has found its permanent home, slightly stripped down and proudly on display in front of the LIHS, in Lopez Village. The second original painting will also be auctioned for the museum benefit in August. Ltd. Edition Giclee prints of that piece, through the LIHS, will be available upon completion.

This pastel was done en plein air at Iceberg Point on March 25th, the exact day it became part of the San Juan Islands National Monument, by proclamation of President Barack O'Bama, in a signing ceremony at the White House.

Since I missed the formation of some of the other key National Parks (Yellowstone, by President Grant in 1872 and Zion, by President Taft in 1898) it felt really good to be a small part of this day, as a landscape artist, painting in one of the most cherished reserves in the San Juan Islands, with fellow Lopez artist, Ralph Bladt.

We each did 2 paintings that day and realize how lucky we are to have the advantage of living on this very special island and especially painting an area that has changed very little since the Coast Salish People inhabited these islands 10,000 years ago.

I would like to invite my blog subscribers to join me at the opening reception of "The Winter Showcase" a juried art event at Jansen Art Center, on Thursday, January 31, from 6-8 p.m. I have 4 pieces in this exhibit (2 are pictured here) all done "en plein air", over the past year. Light refreshments will be served upstairs in the library, as well as live music in the newly completed piano lounge, where appetizers, beer and wine are available for purchase. This exhibit runs through March 25th. Hope to see you there!

They are located at 321 Front St, Lynden, WA. www.jansenartcenter.org

My new workshop schedule (2013 and beyond – see above) has just been posted. The painting pictured here titled: Olympic Vista is a live demo piece I did “en plein air” from a special fall workshop I taught on Lopez Island and is now in a private collection. I hope any of my blog subscribers will be able to sign-up for one and/or forward this to friends who might have an interest in taking one of the 7 new workshops listed on my web site.

I am excited and honored to have been selected to exhibit 2 works at Knowlton Gallery in Lodi, California, as part of a special juried exhibit – "Contemporary Marine Artists of the West". Thirty four pieces were selected out of 68 entries by renowned, award winning American Marine Artist, Don Demers, from Maine. Mr. Demers is also a "fellow" of the prestigious American Society of Marine Artists and has an extensive list of top awards in juried art competitions, as well as many fine articles published about his work in major art magazines.

The exhibit runs from January 15-March 2, 2013, with an opening reception, Saturday, January 19th from 1-4 p.m. at the gallery. The gallery is located at 115 S. School Street, Lodi, California. Hours are: Tues-Sat. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and most Sundays 11 a.m.-4 p.m. www.knowltongallery.com

A new article "Taking on the Big Apple" pages 78 and 79, has just been published in ArtisSpectrum Magazine, Agora Gallery, in Chelsea, New York, that profiles the impact of my experiences showing
artwork there for the last 4 years.

As I prepare for my next exhibit at Agora Gallery, (June 6, 2013) and the many new directions exhibiting in NYC has provided, it helps to put things in perspective by looking back at some older works as pictured in my artist' profile on page 113 of the same magazine... and ahead to my newest series of paintings, now in-progress. Two of those (both in private collections) are pictured here.

These newer works include paintings done en plein air, from all over Europe to New York, Idaho (my native state), California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Georgia and Washington State's San Juan Islands, where I have lived for the past 39 years.

Having an opportunity to exhibit such a broad variety of subjects at one of the top art galleries in New York, was not on my radar just 4 years ago... but it is there now.

I look now at dozens of newer finished paintings in my studio and still feel the excitement of discovery each place provided.

If there's a common thread that weaves through so many different themes and locales, it is the joyful persistence in searching each one out, and making my observations into something that evokes substantial feelings of emotion, time and place, in an ever growing and colorful visual language.

We are in Jamaica, where “Hurricane Sandy” spun winds over 100 mph, resulting in the high seas that took-out whole sections of coastal beaches, docks and breakwaters, like this one, near Ocho Rios, on the north side of the island.

These workers labored for nearly 2 weeks, just re-arranging piles of large stones, to begin the new concrete forms that will become foundation for the next break water. I say “next” as everything has a half-life, wherever broad reaches of water meet land in the Caribbean.




Still, the beauty of the light and very colorful reflected images, set-in-motion by the workers, who still say “Yeah Mon” to all within earshot, have provided me with a good supply of subject matter for some serious studio work this winter. These are 2 studies done on-site, that will become a part of that new work.

While participating at the San Luis Obispo juried Plein Air Event last week, I was given a rare opportunity to be involved simultaneously with writings by Patti Sullivan, San Luis Obispo poet.

Patti observed me painting on-site at the San Luis Obispo Train Station and then wrote 2 poems about her own connections and experience with the subject I had chosen to paint, pictured here and titled: “Out of Time and Place”.

Patti read her 2 poems – “Not Fade Away” and “Plein Air Poetry with Steven R Hill”, at a special poetry night sponsored by the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art last Thursday, with my painting displayed on an easel, as she read.

My original copy of this poem, beautifully illuminated in collage style, is a visual treasure, as well - with icons, treasured photos of an old friend, images of pastel sticks, her own colorful artwork. To say that I was blown away by all this would be a complete understatement. As she wrote: “That's what plein air painting gives you – the chance to be surprised” Read her poem and enjoy!


NOT FADE AWAY
     Plein Air Poetry with the artist Steven R Hill

I've got crickets on the brain - the kind you can fall asleep listening to
and the kind that rock and roll

My assignment – to meet up with a plain air painter near the train station
to observe and write about the experience
But first there's a coffee break at Sally Loo's Café – this is a tough life

Then it's onto business – there's art to be made- a poem to write
He sets up his easel and shows me the tools of his trade
Colorful round disks called pan pastels, hard pastels and soft pastels
how they can be crushed, have highest pigment, they will last forever
they won't discolor like oils…and do not fade away like watercolors…

Which brings me to the crickets!

Reading up on our historic railroad district – how Jack Kerouac stayed
here in 1953 – working the trains. He wrote home how the
“nights were hushed…falling asleep listening to crickets…”

Which made me think of Buddy Holly and his Crickets singing “Not Fade Away”
the song would not leave me all night – then forgotten until today
When my painter brings it up – now I'm back in that 45 rpm groove..
“...your love for me has got to be real…”

Now I'm concentrating again- hearing about “…blocking the big ones first,
killing, tooth, warms already down, cool down with hard sticks…”
Amazing that this painting is coming along so quietly and peacefully
with all that violence going on

He tells me the details always find their way into the story -
but that skateboarder zooming by didn't make the cut
same with those two yellow taxi's parked out front of the station

He says he paints what he sees, not what he knows is there
that's why the roof tiles look just like what they are
even though they aren't drawn in- the shading and colors have recreated them

Yesterday when he did his sketches in the white heat of the day
abundant shadows - then this morning only fog
no shadows only “flat light” to work with

That's what Plein Air painting gives you
the chance to be surprised – have all your plans come undone
to step back and review all the positives and negatives
a little creative erasing here and there
a little grumbling and sighing over one “hard wall”

Must get that palm tree in too – it's San Luis Obispo after all

An odd brownish sheet of course paper
has been transformed into amazing beauty
pastel sticks left in a jumbled mountain

This is not photo realism
there's no blue or yellow on that building
but there is now
and we're all the better for it

Now the sun wants back into the action- too late
We're done here

“…it has got to be real…..and not fade away…”

Patti Sullivan 10/3/12

I will be one of 35 artists nationwide, juried and selected to compete in the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art 11th Annual Plein Air Festival, October 1-7th at San Luis Obispo, CA.

To see what's scheduled during the festival, view the invitation

I will have the opportunity to participate in some really fun events, including a film and poetry night, a live auction of paintings created during the festival, plus the “Quick Draw” on Saturday, October 6 th, at Mission Plaza in SLO.

I am also shipping one of my original plein air landscape pastels to hang at the main gallery during the week long “preview exhibit” for participating artists during this festival. Hope to see you there!

View invitation

The Annual Lopez Island Labor Day Weekend Studio Tour is Saturday and Sunday September 1st & 2nd

I have already re-hung the entire gallery and house with nearly 100 original works in Pastel, Oil, Watercolor and Figurative drawings in pastel. Half of these are works never displayed, as they were done over the past year. Some were done at plein air juried events back east, out west, Italy and lots from the islands. We are having a once-per-year “preview sale” until Friday, Aug. 31st at the gallery. Stop-by (or email) to see what's being offered with sale prices.


During the Studio Tour, I will be showing one painting (not for sale) that won 2nd Honorable mention from renowned oil painter, Everett Raymond Kinstler, in Richmond, VA and pictured in the background of this photo taken by fellow artist, William Bensen, at the awards ceremony June 23, at Brazier Gallery. Frankly, the biggest honor of my art career is simply having met such a legendary American artist. He regaled everyone at the awards ceremony with “painting” stories of famous people he has done over his 60 year career, including Katherine Hepburn, John Wayne and Bill Clinton, among thousands of portraits. Visit his web site: www.everettraymondkinstler.com to see this man's incredible work.

In the meantime, do stop-by the gallery (“Studio #2” on the map and guide) to take a peek at my latest work. 783 Port Stanley Rd., Lopez Island, WA. Open until 5 daily.