BACKSTAGE AT THE VELVET MILL STUDIOS JULY 14TH

In theater the audience never gets to see the actor put on his makeup. It’s a magic moment when the actor becomes someone else and it happens backstage before the curtain goes up. The actor performs his magic for a live audience. The artist performs his magic alone. The studio is the artist’s theater where he brings his characters to life with paint instead of makeup.

On Friday, July 14th the artists’ studios at The Velvet Mill in Stonington will be open to the public. It’s a chance to go backstage and learn something about each artist’s creative process. My studio will be open along with my exhibition at The Four Starr Gallery. Although I have been painting for twenty three years I moved into my first studio at The Velvet Mill three years ago. Before that I painted in the living rooms and dining rooms of the apartments we lived in. I was afraid to have a studio because it might seem like an office where I had to go to work every day. My studio at The Velvet Mill does not seem like an office.


Come and see for yourself.

Velvet Mill Studios
22 Bayview Avenue, Stonington, CT 06378
OPEN STUDIOS AND EXHIBITION
Friday July 14th
5:00 to 8:00 PM

Directions:
I-95 Exit 91, South to North Main St.
to Stonington Borough, Left onto Cutler St.,
Left onto Elm St., Right onto Bayview

THE BEST PAINTERS

The opening night crowd at my exhibition included kids. They asked questions and told me they loved painting. I invited Charis 8, and Ross Henry 12, to paint in my studio the next day. Charis asked for brown, red, and black and white paint. She went to work immediately and painted a red and white lighthouse in a black and white storm. When the sun appeared through the window of my studio it reflected a beam on to Charis’s painting which looked like it was coming from the lighthouse. Charis asked for yellow paint and put the sun’s rays into her painting. Ross Henry’s painting was thick with paint and had a nose, big eyes and a wide open mouth smiling. He said it was Anne but then he changed the name to Janet when the painting was finished.

THE MORNING AFTER

I woke up this morning in a happy daze after last night’s opening. Transmitting my thoughts and feelings to canvas is an exhilarating experience. When others respond it becomes magical.

My exhibition at The Four Starr Gallery consists of engravings, landscapes, and peoplescapes. The engravings were made from line drawings, the landscapes were done in Provence, The West, Stonington and Central Park, and the peoplescapes are from everywhere. My high school English teacher came up with “peoplescapes.” He said the word “scape” originally meant “a segment of an insect’s antenna” and it reminded him of my “unique antennae which pick up what people are thinking and feeling.”

A woman in last night’s crowd asked me if the frowning lady in Baseball was my mother. Someone else said she looked like his mother. Last night I gave birth to thirtytuplets. Baseball, Central Park, Café Last Chance and their brothers and sisters will lead happy lives.

I was pleased.