I’m feeling pretty numb right about now. I accepted another invitation on short notice to exhibit my works, figuring ‘tis better to show than not to show. So, yes, another solo show running concurrently with the one in Concord, at the Conservation Center. For this new one, I decided to go big. Big would mean fewer paintings to prep and inventory. The largest is 24 by 48. Unlike the exhibit at the CC, I tried to include at least one animal portrait, one human portrait, and one each with boats and buildings as the principal subject.

Today, my invaluable granddaughter, Tabitha, hung 16 of the 18 prepped, on picture hooks hammered individually for each painting, in the Pantano Gallery of the library of the Southern NH University. If you ever need help with hanging paintings, I recommend her without reservation. I don’t know how she does it, but she can line them up by sight and without getting feedback from an observer.

My Pantano exhibit stays up until June 30. I titled the exhibit “Five Years of Evolution” and challenged the viewer to decide which paintings are more highly evolved than the others. This gallery is located in Southern New Hampshire University’s Shapiro Library and is open Mondays through Thursday from 8 a.m. until midnight, Fridays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., and Sundays from noon to midnight. You may call the Library at 603-645-9605 for more information about the Gallery. The University’s address is 2500 North River Road, Manchester, NH.

Yesterday (Sunday) I delivered seven of my plein air Florida paintings to the Manchester Art Association Gallery in Manchester, for its “Sunny Days” exhibit, which will run until the end of June. The day before yesterday (Saturday), I attended a reception at the Long River Gallery in Lyme, NH, where 3 of my works are part of an exhibit of the art of members of the Women’s Caucus for Art. I also have the usual three paintings on exhibit at the White Birch Gallery in Londonderry. That makes a total of 79 paintings and one charcoal drawing on display at the same time. I’m sure this will mark some kind of all-time high water mark for me.

And that’s why I feel a little numb today.

The painting up above has nothing to do with any of those exhibits. It has not been framed yet, and I may tinker with it some more. I painted it from a photograph that I took in the mangroves at the Ding Darling wildlife conservation area on Sanibel Island. I had recently seen two other artists’ paintings of just water, and wanted to emulate them. The rippling reflections and shadows make for a complex and abstract picture. I haven’t figured out whether I want to paint this quickly and intuitively, or slowly and carefully. Too late of course now for the former option, so I may start over anew and then have the two of them to compare to each other. But the one above wasn’t really planned out that carefully either, so that means a third done with painstakng precision. Now that I have no more exhibits to get ready for (and no tax returns except my own to prepare), I may just have the time to do that!

I will be gallery sitting at the MAA on the following Saturdays, all day: May 8 and 22; June 5, 12 and 26. I welcome distracting visitors, even though I will be painting intently–perhaps working on one of those aforementioned water portraits. All day at the MAA means 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the address is 1528 Elm Street, Manchester.