• Groveland Gallery, Minneapolis, MN: December 3 – January 15 (solo show)
  
• Ann Korologos Gallery, Basalt, CO: December 10 - December 17 (one week)
• Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA: December 11, 11-4 pm
  

Two recent additions to public collections:

• New Britain Museum of American Art
• Roger Tory Peterson Institute

Painting to hang in the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece

Recent / current painting commissions

New paintings

What's cooking for next year

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It feels to me as if the holidays and winter are approaching like a waxed toboggan jammed with screaming kids. Picaresque images aside, I do want to mention that winter has a special intensity at my new studio (described here in case you haven't seen it). My windows - –almost all facing to the north -– give a view toward a wall of oak, maple, cherry and cucumber trees I was determined to preserve during studio construction. Because of these trees, in the summer you hardly sense that the studio is actually positioned high on a hill, several hundred feet up from the nearby Allegheny River and Kinzua Reservoir. But as winter approaches, you can see through those same trees more each day as leaves are shed, and the view explodes from a dozen yards to miles across the valley. Between the more abundant sky and reflecting snow, the paintings on my easel are as well lit as in summer, perhaps more so. It is great compensation for the shorter days.

As I write this, the pre-winter sun is rising, casting low light across the valley. From my office, I am looking at virtually the same scene as the one depicted on the invitation card for my upcoming exhibition. It shows the view from my home around the time of the solstice sunrise. This is, coincidentally, similar to the view from my studio a hundred yards away, but decidedly less obstructed by trees, with or without leaves. The card announces my solo exhibition, "The Substance of Light", at Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis, opening Friday, December 3, 5pm-8pm, and continuing through January 15. This show features more than twenty paintings in oil and gouache, including many new works from Minnesota locations. Giving in to my vagabond spirit, there are paintings from travels elsewhere as well, with a focus on winter and northern landscapes.

Please drop by in person or visit the show on the web. I will be in Minneapolis for the opening reception and hope to meet you there. It will be a great chance for me to see family, friends and collectors.

Two other events happen a few days after that exhibition opening. I will participate in an Art Fair at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art outside Pittsburgh on Saturday, December 11 from 11am to 4pm. The WMAA hosted a solo exhibition of my paintings in 2009, has a really remarkable collection of historical works. At the art fair I will have my gouache paintings, gouache books and possibly an oil painting or two. This is an unusual event for me. I haven't participated in an art fair since I was seventeen years old. (A haunting image from my past comes to mind of my paintings and drawings spread across a blanket on the ground, surrounded by the booths, tables and banners of artists who live by and for these events.) I doubt my presentation will have gotten much more sophisticated, but I know the art has. Please come and critique both if you wish.

The other simultaneous event is a benefit show hosted by my representative in Colorado, Ann Korologos Gallery. The Roaring Fork Conservancy has partnered with the gallery to show new works inspired by the Roaring Fork Valley, with a portion of sales going to protecting rivers and streams. Gallery artists and others, including Russell Chatham, will also be displayed. I am sending two large oils and two small gouaches. The Benefit reception is Friday,Friday, December 10 from 5pm to 8pm. The show will be up for one week only, until December 17th. Any of my works that don't sell that week will stay at the gallery.

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Recent Acquisitions:

This fall, the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, CT, acquired for their permanent collection "Edge of Sand Beach", which is now on exhibit.

The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History in Jamestown, NY, acquired for their collection the gouache titled "Hemlock Guardians", which was pictured on the invitation card for my summer solo show at the Institute. The opening reception for this show was the largest crowd in attendance for any of RTPI's many and memorable events. I want to thank you if you were one of those who attended. I was very pleased by the response to the show.

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Art in Embassies:

For the second time in four years, I have work headed for exhibition at the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece. This time it is a painting inspired by Mt. Sopris in Colorado at sundown, but also happens to be reminiscent of a view I had flying near Mt. Olympus in Greece at sunrise a couple years ago. For anyone interested in this painting, "Last Reach of Light" (shown at bottom of this page) will be available when the ambassador returns stateside in two years or so.

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Commissions:

In the last year or so, I completed two privately commissioned paintings: "Morning on Big Beach" for collectors in New York, and "Morning Glow on the Susquehanna" for collectors in Pennsylvania. I am working on two other commissions currently, one of which measures 5 x 6 feet, and which I may show in my next newsletter.

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Upcoming project:

I am preparing for a solo show next summer at Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockland, ME, which will be comprised of paintings from the Moosehead Lake and Penobscot River regions in Maine, areas which are recently protected by the efforts of The Nature Conservancy. More on this in the next newsletter.

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New paintings:

You can see the new works for sale by registering to get the "Available Paintings" page links, or by checking back to my index page (www.thomaspaquette.com) every so often, as I plan to switch the "gateway" painting regularly. If you also fill in the form with your physical address, in future cases when a gallery show is near your home, I will mail you a printed invitation card.

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May this be a wonderful season for you. Drop a line or two!

~ Thomas