Monthly Archive for September, 2008

Weir Farm Art Center Residency

Published
by
Lorna
on September 21, 2008
in Art
. 1 Comment

Last year I was recognized for my artistic achievements by Weir Farm Art Center in Wilton, CT. The art center awarded me a two week residency which took place September 3rd - September 17th, 2008.

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Weir Farm is a National Historic Site, Connecticut’s only National Park, and the only national park dedicated to American painting. To read about my stay at the farm as well as see photos of the surroundings and work I created while there visit:

http://lornanakell.blogspot.com/

(this is a separate blog that I started called, Larlo)

Weir Farm - The Art and The End

Published
by
Lorna
on September 18, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

Although I did spend most of my time at the cottage, I did make it out for a couple of art excursions. Of course I also had my errands: forage for food, print photos and wash laundry - every once in a while.

One day I took some time to visit the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield (about 12 minutes away from where I was staying). They were having some interesting exhibits. My favorite was artist Peggy Preheim. This was my introduction to her work which consists of very precisely drafted figurative images from photographs of mostly people, children, antique dolls and these strange sculptures she creates out of white clay along with mixed media sculptures. The show prepped me for going to the Guggenheim to see…

the work of Louise Bourgeous. What an amazing exhibition. I took a day to go to NY and visit my friend Dat (Below) and see this show. She is one of my favorite artists. She goes to places in her art that I am afraid to go - at least right now. I am jealous of her sculpting abilities with marble. I’m amazed that she is 96 and still making art. I hope to do that.

This is my friend Dat in front of one of Bourgeous’ spider sculptures.


This is one of my finished paintings inspired by the rock walls and the feeling of solitude during my stay. It is made with watercolor, pencil and hand cut paper.

I think this is my favorite painting created during my stay. Although the other paintings I made with figures used me as the subject (taken with a tripod and timer) this is the one that really is meant to be a self portrait. It is done with pencil and gouache.


This is the first large-scale painting I created at the farm. I think I will title it “The Studio.” It was created with watercolor, pencil and hand cut paper.

This was the most technically difficult painting for me to create. It is an image of the upside-down caretaker’s house that I was staying in merged with the apple tree I fell in love with. It is done entirely in watercolor. This is the painting in progress.


After working so hard on all of the figurative and very technically intricate paintings I needed to take a break and have some fun with my ideas and media. I decided to make some abstracts based on the stone work. This is the under painting of the finished piece below.


The sky in this painting has a story written about the farm and how it needs to be tended to constantly. The red stone has lines on it and symbolized the buildings on the farm with their traditional red paint.This painting is the second and last abstract that I finished. It was inspired by the walk I took to the pond. One of the stones has a story written on it about that walk done on collaged Japanese paper. This painting is in watercolor, gouache and pencil.


For my open studio at the farm I showed all six works created during my two week stay.

Select members of the Weir Farm Art Center chose to use the image of the upside-down house and apple tree for one of their upcoming catalogs.

All the paintings that I created during this stay are very personal to me. I really tried to be in the moment while on this residency, and to not be hindered by expectations put on myself to have my work look a certain way or fit in with my already existing portfolio. I feel energized by my experience of doing this residency and plan to do more in the future.


At the open studio I posed with some key people from the art center: Left to right - Ellie Nye Ernst (board member), Amy Allen (Program Manager), Daphne Deeds (Executive Director).

I wish to thank everyone at Weir Farm Art Center for supporting such a great program and especially Amy Allen for being so personable and helpful.

Living on the Farm

Published
by
Lorna
on September 18, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

My stay at the farm was a very solitary experience. It was like living by myself in the woods for two weeks. Although the park’s visitors center was across the street from me I rarely had conversations with anyone unless running errands to local stores. Emily, one of the park rangers, did give me an informative tour of the park on my second day. I learned about the farms history in the hands of many artists over generations. I also learned about Weir’s place in art history as one of The Ten American painters (a group of Impressionist painters inspired by Monet and French Impressionism which included the likes of William Merritt Chase). Going on a walk of my surroundings made it clear to me why so many artists would be inspired by this place.

This is a table and bench Weir built for his family to have picnics at on the property. It was built out of the local stone.


This is a very surreal looking apple tree on the grounds that gave me inspiration for creating one of my paintings.

The local rock was incorporated in very creative ways on the farm. This stone stacking becomes part of the studio structure.

Taking a walk in one of the fields I came across these big pods or deteriorating fruits. Not really sure what they are, but I liked the way they looked.
This is part of one of the stone walls. I didn’t have time to take the stone wall tour but, I was told that the reason why there were so many stone walls in the area is because in order for farmers to use the land they had to first clear these stones out of the way. Their solution was to stack them in these beautiful walls that are woven in with the landscape and to use them as property dividers.

One of the houses on the grounds.


One day I took a walk to the pond. This is an man-made pond built by Mr. Weir who was an avid fisherman. Parts of it are covered with a fine layer of algae. Dragonflies zoom around. And every once in a while you can see a little leap from something coming out of the water - frogs or fish, I’m not sure.
This is my friend, Freddie. He noticed that when I had dinner in my kitchen I would leave the light on and all manner of insects would collect on the window. We ate dinner together several nights. He even invited a friend to join him after several days.


Some of you may know of Dave Brubeck - Take Five. Anyway, one night at the farm the Brubeck Brothers Quartet played outside on the lawn for a fund raiser. I was put on the “guest list.” That was a great evening of jazz, after which I retreated back to the cottage to make some art.