Here are photos

of the remaining two drawings in the series of three that includes Spiral. I was focusing on simplifying the imagery and dealing only with the circles that have cropped up in earlier works like Heal/Hunger. I'm trying to convince myself that this is enough.

The other photos

I took this morning are horrific. So I'll leave you with only this one as a hint about what I'm working on in the studio. This is a mixed media piece, ink, graphite, white out, acrylic paint, and conte on cotton rag paper that I've stitched together. It is about 16 x 20". I'm focusing on these circles right now and letting the art be simply about arranging them in and moving them through space. It feels like there's a lot more meaning behind it when I'm engaged in the process of drawing, but I am limiting myself to issues of form and space so that I can better make decisions about what to draw and how.

The Brookline Art Center

workshop has been rescheduled. Classes will now begin on October 15th and run through November 5th. That's four weeks in total and I'm hoping we'll get to some good exercises on seeing and basic composition in that time. If you're free on Thursday nights and looking to learn, join us. Coming up next Friday is the evening dance performance and art exhibit, Circles, tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door, and the show begins at 8pm. If you're in Brighton that night and looking for great art and great dance, come on out.

I found

some very exciting work online today. Check out Marko Velk and Alex Kanevsky.

Grad School...

is beginning. There is a lot going on right now and most of it has to do with orientation and moving (again). The Newton Free Library show came down last Monday. I sold two pieces!!! And got some good positive feedback. Next Thursday I'm part of a group exhibition at UMass in New Bedford where one piece from all the new graduate students will be on display during their AHA! night artwalk. The following weekend it will be up to Boston where I will be showing with Jenna DeLuca and TS Hart at Circles a dance performance at the Boston University Theater. Come out and see the work or stay tuned. There are many more things in the works.

Thanks to everyone

who made it out to Newton last night. It was a mellow turn out with a lot of support coming in via the web or the phone from places out West. Thank you to those well wishers who attended in spirit. Here are some photos of the gallery, the schmoozing and the hanging.

Lisa and Jenna helped me to arrange and hang the show which took six hours on Monday to sort out! Thank you ladies.

These two walls face each other and greet viewers as they enter the library inviting them to come into the gallery to view the rest of the show. I really love how these are arranged. I wouldn't have put this together by myself.

The three photos below are from the interior of the gallery itself. It's a gorgeous space, very large, with picture windows at the far end letting in good natural light. I think we struck just the right balance with this exhibit giving the work ample visual room to breathe.

There was a lot of interest and great feedback. If you haven't had a chance to see the work yet, the show will remain on display until Aug. 30. Click here for hours and directions.

The solo show is up...

and the opening reception is this Thursday.

Flutter, at the Newton Free Library from Aug 4 - 30

Opening reception Thursday from 7 - 8:30pm.

I had help arranging and hanging the show and the input I received has it looking phenomenal. Come check it out.

Member's registration

has begun at the Brookline Art Center. I'll be teaching fall and winter workshops in oil painting Thursdays from 6:30 to 9:30. These are a great introduction to the media and a short time committment. Come join us and sharpen you skills.

Fall classes

are being sorted out at the moment. I just received word that I'll be running a four week color workshop at the South Shore Art Center. The course runs 10 am to 1 pm on Saturday from Oct 17th through November 7th. Students are welcome to work in both oil or acrylic and we will dissect subject matter with my favourite device - color! The workshop is a short four week commitment, reasonably priced, and held in beautiful seaside Cohasset, Massachusetts. Come join us!

The link is posted under the classes and workshops listing on the right and once the Art Center uploads their catalogue, I will link directly to it.

The Brookline Art Center

class is going great. And I'm tinkering with the idea of uploading samples of student work. You can peruse all the great things we do before deciding to come join us! Classes will continue in the fall for a shorter 5 week term.

Check out

the current edition of Artscope for a listing for the upcoming solo show Flutter. There it is...in the back; no further..wait! Oh!...There. (I get excited about the little victories.)

All done

I am going to put this aside for the moment. I'm happy with the developments that occurred since the June critique, and I believe it may be ready for August's show.

Untitled (as of yet) 48 x 36" diptych

Here is what I worked on through the end of May and early June. I finally really sanded down Darwin's finches sending buttons and beads flying from under the undulating power sander. It was sort of gleeful. I laid down a good medium toned gesso and am developing good contrast in this piece right from the start. The starlings were chosen for their notorious ubiquity returning to an idea that I like found in Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek - the darker side of fecundity.

Getting some rust out

This painting came to a screeching halt and was in dire need of feedback which it received today at the Joy St Studio critique. I think I had become too timid; and some of the simple ideas put forward really got me making choices again. I've introduced some larger compositional elements and am working on bringing up the contrast in my palette.

Online advertisement for the Newton Free Library Show

I have been painting in the studio. It's just that so many other things are also happening in my life right now. I did find that the Newton Free Library has posted an image and information for my upcoming solo show in August. Check it out.


Calendar of Events

August 2009 Art Exhibits
GALLERY / AUGUST
Gallery: Flutter by Claudine Metrick, August 4-30Reception Thursday, August 6, 7:00 pm
Image by C. Metrick
Claudine Metrick’s paintings and ink drawings use conventions of both western and eastern sacred art. The Flutter series incorporates images of birds on wood panels with precious materials, including beads and food to evoke opulence and reference avian habits of collecting materials for nidification, and portray bird song either written in longhand notation or translated into visual bytes of Morse Code. Claudine Metrick graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State University with a BFA in painting.

More work on my little drawing

It's been a week or so since I've had good time to plug away on my art. And I think the break prompted me to look at this piece in a new way. I added four birds today by tracing an outline over a piece of carbon paper. I love the dark graphite like line this produces.

I returned to this smaller piece that I began a few weeks ago. Happily most of the stand oil pours have dried and I was able to introduce more and develop the visual complexity of the layers. I wonder if these smaller pieces will continue in conjunction with my larger panels. In comparison they are almost secret little portraits - icons perhaps?...

12? x 24"

I began this piece a few weeks ago with the intention of exploring color in my drawings. But then I put it down for quite a while as I began lacrimosa. Today I returned to it introducing some darker colors and expanding the palette. I've also started stitching the paper to create horizontal movement in the composition.

I have been able to work often this week, and I am making headway with this painting. Yesterday I introduced some strong horizontal lines and I think I've hit upon a cohesion that was lacking in my last few oblong compositions. This piece particularly is really exploring mark. I've found a wide variety of ways to work with the paint here without becoming overwhelming.

Quiet morning in the studio

I'm pretty tired after the long weekend at Brookline Open Studios, but it was a wonderful success. It's such a change for me to discuss my art with other people. I found the experience very refreshing.

This morning I spent a quiet hour or two in the studio. I began articulating a second bird in the upper right hand corner of this panel. Then as I grew tired of that I ventured into the abstract work on the rest of the panel. I've added beads, thin washes, goopy piles of pigment and stand oil and some interesting marks with oil stick and straight out of the tube.