Newsletter # 5

---

New Exhibitions / Events: Minnesota Marine Museum, Winona, MN: May 19 - August 4 "The Raging Red and the Mighty Mississippi" Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME: June 3 - 26 "Thomas Paquette: Paintings from the Conserved Maine Landscape" Groveland Gallery, Minneapolis, MN: June 30 - July 12 "Red, White and Blue" Paquette Studio, Warren, PA: October 15 "Open Studio" Skype video interview Commissions American Art Collector article New paintings Would you like to receive these updates, emailed about 3 times a year? Subscribe here.

Juncture II, oil on linen, 40 x 28 inches

GREETINGS...

There are a number of new and upcoming things to point out in this newsletter:

...SOLO EXHIBITION...

Last year I was in Maine doing work for this year's exhibition at Dowling Walsh Gallery, "Thomas Paquette: Paintings from the Conserved Maine Landscape". It runs from June 3 - 26, 2011
I traversed a good deal of the interior of the state - already familiar ground to me - in a wide swath of land around Moosehead Lake which is in the process of being protected for future generations. I also followed most of the length of the great Penobscot River. This exhibition will benefit The Nature Conservancy and there will be a special reception for them as well.

...NEW AVAILABLE WORKS...

Painting the lands in Maine resulted in about thirty new works ranging from very small oils and gouaches on paper, to larger oils on canvas. These paintings are available from Dowling Walsh Gallery, and you can preview them on my Available Works page if you have signed up (free, of course) for that. New links are sent to Available Works subscribers when a batch of new works is available. These groups of paintings are not accessible from links on my web site. Register here.

...MAGAZINE ARTICLE...

You can see some of these new paintings in the June 2011 issue of American Art Collector which features a preview of this exhibition, written by John O'Hern. You can read it here on line.

	...COMMISSIONS... Since the last newsletter, I also completed some commissioned paintings, including a 60 x 72 inch painting, "The Great Weight of Melancholy", which - obviously - will not be in the show. "Melancholy" depicts the surviving ruins of an abbey in the South of France where I painted a 9 x 10 inch oil of the same subject. The title comes from author Guy de Maupassant's description of this windswept abbey when he traveled to it in the late 19th century. A collector in Manhattan purchased the small work, and then commissioned me to paint the much larger version. Another private commission recently completed was "Mimi's Garden".
			The Great Weight of Melancholy, oil on linen, 60 x 72 inches

...GROUP SHOWS...

Two group shows featuring my works at this time are "The Raging Red and the Mighty Mississippi" (at the Minnesota Maritime Museum, May 19 – Aug 4) and "Red White and Blue" (at Groveland Gallery, Minneapolis, June 30 – July 12).

..INTERVIEW...

John Hulsey video-interviewed me recently via Skype for The Artist's Road, a resource site for artists and others who are "passionate about art and travel". An Artist's Road membership fee gives access to my interview and lots of other information, but they have graciously allowed me to post this interview free for my fans and friends: "Voices of Experience: An Interview with Thomas Paquette".

...RESIDENCY...

This fall, I am invited to be a resident at Blue Mountain Center in the heart of Adirondack Park. It is a community of artists, writers and musicians whose work evinces social and ecological concerns.

...OPEN STUDIO... mark your calendar.

And, finally, I am tentatively planning on opening my studio doors on Saturday, October 15, for those of you who have wanted to see where the paint hits the canvas. Mark your calendar now so you aren't inadvisably roped into something else that day like hauling a friend's sofa to Baton Rouge. Details in the next newsletter.

Keep in touch! I would love to hear from you.

- Thomas