One of the best things for my plein air painting life is to have a friend who is just as anxious as I am to get out to paint regularly. I am lucky enough to have met a new friend who exactly fills that description. To make that date, to make a plan, and to share the process, ensures showing up and not getting derailed by the lure of the self-deluding ideas that minor tasks could or should be done before art. Recognizing yourself delaying doing what you'd really rather be doing, that irrational avoidance, is a skill in itself. Having a means of simply going around that hurdle is one strategy. And, the most simple, and so, joyful strategy.

We are again heading into late summer and fall, a great time to paint out of doors. The seasons come around again too fast and time seems to pass me by which shocking speed. And, shocking too is seeing how long it has been since I last made a blog entry. I still have not integrated making these entries into my life but I would like to. So I hope to make and keep the resolution to up date more regularly and specifically to get back quickly with photos of some of the plein air studies I have worked on so far this summer. Late summer and fall the sun gets lower in the sky and the air becomes drier resulting in a quality of light that is just so exquisite. In late autumn too we get the extraordinary fall colors as well as the long, blue shadows, and golden light. The beauty can make me feel faint just driving around town sometimes.

The show at the Book Mill in Montague is over and down. A new show began today,Saturday Oct. 30, at the Northampton Coop Bank on 390 College St, in Amherst MA. My mate and love of my life, Doug, and I went down and hung the show together and when we looked back at what we had done we thought it looked pretty good. This show is made up mostly of new plein air work. Some pieces are from the Maine workshop and others where done here on the road I live on. One painting was done at the Quabbin reservoir and another is of the lumpy shape of cows taking a morning nap. These are supported by a few older pieces which include autumn subjects giving the whole show a bit of a seasonal theme to it. Not too obvious but unifying. I invite all those interested to drop by the bank and take a look. The show should be up for two months from today.

I am currently showing with my painting group "In Sight Artists" at the Montague Mill in Montague Center. You can see the paintings during gallery hours Thurs-Sun, 12-6.

This is the perfect time for a drive up to the Montague Mill to see the show and to take advantage of the ever changing and ever increasing beauty of the turning leaves. It is breathtaking out there. The Mill is a beautiful setting along the river in the woods with the sounds of the falls and the soughing leaves. How can you resist?

I recently attended a workshop given by Carolyn Walton in Freeport Maine for three days. She was a wonderful teacher and the group was supportive and welcoming. I love the intense focus that a workshop brings to ones art practice. I came home in a buzz, filled with the motivation that comes from that intensity and the desire to keep the practice going strong.

With fall color springing up around me the passion to paint is almost desperate. As I look around me I see opportunities everywhere with the realization that they are so fleeting.

Another show is in the works at the Northampton Coop Bank in Amherst the beginning of November. Stay tuned.

This Friday, February 5th at 6 p.m. I'll be giving the demonstration at the 383 Gallery. See the address and gallery hours below.

Update and Now Showing...

This has been a great season for both showing and painting. I've made many new friends and colleagues in the Amherst Drawing Group as well as continuing work with the Insight Artist's. I'm beginning to venture out for winter (brrr!) plein air and spending more time figure painting. If you are in the area, I am currently showing in the Amherst Massachusetts area at:

Jim Lumley & Friends
Art Open House
Friday Evenings 5-8pm
(Re-Opening with demonstration on January 8th)
383 Main Street, Amherst, Massachusetts

The exhibit includes Jim Lumley, T C Fain, Aaron Becker, Wilbur Pearson, Barbara Johnson and several others.

White Roses

sold

24"x18" Acrylic on canvas
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It was a beautiful spring day when my friend and I set out to paint at the Emily Dickinson Museum when we found this building, Emily's brother's home, on the grounds. I loved the light and shadows and the imposing architecture set against the softening shapes of nature's trees, grass and flowers.