Now that we turned the calendar to a fresh new year - may it be an excellent one for you, by the way - it's about time that I update you on a few things at Paquette Studio. I hope you haven't noticed that I seem to find time to send a newsletter only when something big is right around the corner, like an imminent exhibition.
On that note, why don't we start with an imminent exhibition, then?
1. Gross McCleaf Gallery / Philadelphia – - Jan/Feb 2013
A solo show of my paintings will be featured at Philadelphia's Gross McCleaf Gallery. The show is titled "Souvenir", the French word for memory. I chose that title because my paintings are frequently begun in distant places that instill the strong-sense memories on which I rely as paintings develop into full size canvases. Too, some of the oil paintings in this show, including a handful of my notoriously small gouaches, are of small scale, and the show's title echoes the more common American interpretation of "souvenir": a small thing whose purpose is to mentally return us somewhere. I like that too. We return to what we like. And wouldn't we all like to return somewhere midwinter?
DETAILS: Thomas Paquette solo exhibition: "Souvenir" / Gross McCleaf Gallery / Philadelphia / January 29 –- February 23.
Opening reception: 5-7pm, Friday, February 1.
See a saved version of the gallery's information e-blast. Click.
See a small version of the invitation card. Click.
Visit the gallery website. Click.
2. Facebook
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If you are a Facebooker (Facebookist?) you can check my brand new page there, "Thomas Paquette, Artist". Feel free to like it when you get there, because - you will be relieved to know - I don't plan on tweeting or blogging.
I will update images of course. And add maybe a word or two here and there where advisable. |
4. Wilderness paintings and exhibitions, 2014-2015
My next project is growing. I am now consumed with the work for my next solo show, which opens in January 2014 at the Wildling Art Museum in California and travels back east from there. The sixty or so paintings (very large and tiny too) are inspired by my visits to designated wilderness areas in the United States. Thoughout a good chunk of late spring and summer 2012, I traveled to wildernesses from northern Minnesota to southern California to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It involved more than 12,000 miles of zigzagging all over the map. The bulk of those miles were not by foot, I am physically relieved to report. In early 2013, I head south to the Okefenokee Swamp and other areas to paint more.
The exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act of 1964. In addition to the Wildling Art Museum, so far the show is also scheduled at the Quick Center Art Museum at St. Bonaventure University in New York.
More details will follow as the first exhibition nears.
photo: Desolation Wilderness, Lake Tahoe region, California, 2012
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I have two things to note involving my paintings and the United States Department of State. For the sixteenth time, my work has been selected to travel to an overseas embassy. This time, it was a purchase of "Landmark Tree" for the State Department's permanent art collection in Libreville, Gabon.
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The other recent tie to Art in Embassies was the gala at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, to help commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Art in Embassies program. It was a colorful event attended by many notables (Hillary Clinton and Jeff Koons, for instance).
Pictured with me at the evening gala are Sally Mansfield (curator, historian and essayist for my book, Thomas Paquette: Gouaches), and my wife Ellen, creatively adorned by blue butterflies.
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News story: 50th Anniversary of AiE. Click.
News story: Landmark Tree going to Africa. Click.
5. Unreal life: Cassandra French's boss' paintings
A couple in Atlanta who own some of my paintings had their beautiful new home occupied by MTV actors and crew a few months ago. This was no protest occupation. They were filming a pilot based on the book "Cassandra French's Finishing School for Boys" and needed a set house for Cassandra's boss which was LA elegant and modern. The director liked my paintings in their home, and wanted them in the show as well. So if you catch the show whenever it comes out, check out the boss' cool house. And watch the walls for my paintings. It is still in production as of this writing.
News story about the pilot's star, Rose McIver (previously in Peter Jackson's "The Lovely Bones"). Click.
If you know people who may be interested in any of this, please pass this newsletter along to them.
And have an eminently great new year!
T.P.
