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[1996] Since last summer...
When I first looked at the videotape of the painter with the white beard, I said, "This old fellow seems to know something about watercolor. I'd better pay attention." The "old fellow" was me. And this was a film that my son, Paul, a director of photography in Los Angeles, had made of me working on a watercolor in my Vermont studio. The film, 40 minutes long, is called Bold and Free: The Watercolor Techniques of Lawrence Goldsmith. Actually, I am shown concentrating and talking mainly about one technique, one that I call dropping and tilting.
Paul thought that the film might be helpful to others. He is currently investigating how it might be distributed. He may later make other videotapes edited from the more than seven hours of tape he shot of me here on Monhegan last summer. These show a variety of techniques in landscape and seascape.
This summer a number of my paintings are being shown at the Mary Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville, Vermont. What's unique about this is that the gallery's founder and benefactor, Alden Bryan, is one of the only two elected members of the American Watercolor Society living in Vermont. I am the other one.
The paintings being shown there are derived from Vermont -- mostly light greens, pinks, and soft wintery whites. My paintings done in Maine have crisper, oceanic whites, and more saturated blues and greens. In some ways, however, Vermont is like Monhegan. I was painting a landscape not far from our house this past spring. Suddenly a big buck raced past, completely unaware of my presence, scarcely ten feet away!
George Leeson, the dynamo who runs Image Conscious in San Francisco, has now published four of my watercolors as posters. (He is planning others in the future.) These can be obtained from the Lupine Gallery here on the island and from Gallery-by-the-Sea, the new art gallery in Port Clyde across from the Ocean House. The two newest posters were reproduced from the paintings called "Right of Way" and "Spring Mountain." At the moment, both originals are still available at $3,000 each. That's about trips my usual price.
Why the higher price? Most artists, as I do, set a standard rate for their work depending on the size and medium of the painting. But when paintings get wide exposure, as with the posters and with the paintings in my book, their value escalates accordingly.
Getting exposure as an artist takes time. Exposure is also a fickle thing. Years ago, many years ago, Clifford Odets was looking for a room on the island in which he said he intended to write a play. His prospective landlady -- who didn't know who he was -- said, "If you have any talent, Monhegan will bring it out."
Right!
[Summer 2003]
[Summer 2001]
[Summer 2000]
[Summer 1999] |
