Exhibition opening

Openings are invigorating and tiring at the same time. I left the gallery today with mixed feelings. I enjoyed talking to people about my work, but I certainly enjoyed coming home to a quiet room. Two years out of your life painting, painting, painting, and then suddenly it's all over.

It was a lovely afternoon. Many friends and family as well as other artists showed up. My work always looks so much smaller and brighter in a gallery setting. Much thought was put into how the work would be paired and hung. I liked the overall effect. Next Sunday I'm giving an artist talk about the work and my two week stay in the gardens at Birr Castle.

Looking for a quiet corner to take a shot literally put me in a corner. This shot mimics my compositions. My isolation and the compression of the two walls made my portrait correspond to some of the tight compositions I'd used in the work. An artist friend, and mentor (much younger than I am), noted that this work is the one that is fighting for more space visually. I agreed. This work received much consideration over the last few months. In the end I decided that the scale of the flowers worked for me. Daylilies are bright and sprawling plants that always seek space and attention.

This gives a good idea of the spacing and groupings used to present the work. It was a challenge to hang the show because all the pieces were the same size and format. My intent was to provide slices of a garden as if one was looking through a hedge opening or the bars in a gate. No lush panoramas for me! One of the strategies we used to break the visual sameness of the format was to provide various groupings and uneven spacing between the works.

I hope all his serious discussion is about my work, but I doubt it. Long time friend Helen is talking to my daughter Sara. They hadn't seen each other in years. Sasha is a blurr of movement. It was her first opening and she took it all in. Any reason to wear a party dress is impressive for a three year old.

Oh,Poppa! There's treats on the table. Let's go...

One of the difficult things about hanging this work was trying to provide relief from the obsessive amount of detail in each piece. There were not many works that had visual resting places but we did find ways to break up the detail with larger forms and colour. This grouping of three was one of the solutions we used to calm things down.

These are four of my eight encaustic pieces that focused on the benches on the property where I sat and wrote my reflections over my two week stay. If you enlarge the shot you will see that some of my text has been layered into the work. Small and eloquent, these are some of my favourite works.

It was a great afternoon.