PUMPKIN PARADE & FESTIVAL STARTS IN 3 HOURS!

Joan Cole in Pumpkin Parade Mode

I can't wait for the opening tonight at Maple & Main Gallery.  We had SO MUCH FUN last year, viewing all the tiny ones in their costumes, enjoying seeing old friends, delighting in making new acquaintances.  I wish all my friends and family could be in Chester from 5 to 8 tonight.  It's a good old-fashioned genuine good time.  Everyone dresses up!


The "scariest" painting I have right now is "Rainy Sunrise on Monhegan" which I  described painting in an earlier blog post.

"Rainy Sunrise at Whitehead, Monhegan," 14 x 11" acrylic on Irish linen on gatorboard

 

 

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However, you won't be able to see this at Maple & Main Gallery until our November exhibition, which opens on the 18th.


On Halloween of 2005, I painted a piece I titled "Pumpkin Flood.''  That was the year that the Connecticut River rose so high,  it tore pumpkins right off the vines growing in the alluvial fields along the rivers' banks from the Vermont border, through Massachusetts and Connecticut and into the Long Island Sound.  Painting down at the town dock in Deep River, I could watch pumpkins floating by as I worked!  I'm sorry I can't show you that painting, but I can't find a photograph of  it and it was sold long ago.  Just one more reminder that I should make it a habit to photograph ALL my paintings as soon as I finish them. 

Guess I should have painted in a pumpkin patch this year, so I'd have an appropriate painting for tonight's show.  Maybe next year!  Well, you'll just have to come check out the M&M jack-o-lanterns I carved last night, and get your treat of M&Ms at Maple & Main Gallery!   See you there.... 

Come watch the Halloween Parade at Maple & Main Gallery....

....tomorrow afternoon and evening from 5 to 8 PM.  Free parking is available at the Water Street parking lot, a short walk to the center.  Shops and galleries will be offering treats.  Costumes are encouraged.  Dancing in the village center to monster mash music is mandatory.

Last year we had all sorts of visitors--two-legged and four-legged!  The Halloween Pumpkin Festival is your one chance in the year (except perhaps for Mardi Gras) to put on a costume and go out in public!

  Guests last year included cute little ones,

bigger somewhat scary ones, 

Lisa Fatone, Joan Cole, and Jerry Reed

but the biggest ones were out to just have fun.

We all had a good time.  And BEST of all--we didn't run out of M&Ms.

Joan Cole

Among the many paintings on display,  you will see some of mine, including these:

"Low Tide, Christmas Cove, Monhegan," 8 x 10" acrylic on linen gatorboard copyright Joan Cole

"The Way," 16 x 20" acrylic on linen, copyright Joan Cole

Come check out my 2011 Halloween outfit!  I'm looking forward to seeing YOU!  ~Joan

Incredible!

Photo by David Klotz

How is it possible that August and September have flashed by and October is moving swiftly along?!?  In all that time, I have been painting, painting, painting.  In August, we spent a week on Monhegan Island with other artists friends.  It was wonderful--as time on Monhegan always is.  That week seems so long ago now.  Well, here's proof--a picture of me deep in the painting experience.

Photo by David Klotz

As you may be able to tell, it was a day similar to today--damp, drizzly, and rainy--which, as you can imagine, is a challenge when painting en plein air with acrylics!

Rainy Sunrise at Whitehead, 11 x 14" acrylic on Irish linen on gatorboard, copyright Joan Cole

So you see what can happen!  :-)  But it was fun--and an incredible learning experience.