Jensen's

For information about the Plein-air Workshop in Holland, please visit  www.donaldjurneyworkshop.blogspot.com   


Back in The Corners

As I said I would, I had a look around The Corners yesterday. Curtis Jensen told me that maybe Soper's Store wouldn't be open, it being Memorial Day, and he was right.
So, though sorry I couldn't get a burger at Soper's, I headed uphill to the Jensen place.

Old man Jensen made a fortune in graphite and charcoal before he came to The Corners, and used his money to build one of the few brick buildings in The Corners as his home. He wanted to make a splash and he did. 

His grandson operated a still in the woods behind the barn. He was an artist and I guess one doesn't have to say any more.
Although not quite finished (and a particularly bad photo--blurry), here's the state of the current study of Jensen's place (8x12" - 20x30cm). 

I'll be headed out to Soper's Store tomorrow.

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Classes:

Two-day Weekend Workshops
7-8 June 2014
28-29 June 2014
Contact me about these dbjurney@verizon.net

The Ogunquit Summer School of Art
Ogunquit, Maine
Two two-day workshops
14-15 August 2014
27-28 September 2014
Contact them at 603-819-9100

Those interested in an ongoing weekly class should contact me. dbjurney@verizon.net    

Exploring

For information about the Plein-air Workshop in Holland, please visit  www.donaldjurneyworkshop.blogspot.com   


Moseying Around in The Corners

Here are a couple more spots in Rawson's Corners. They are both studies, 8" x 12" (20x30cm).

First is the old Hayes Place. This is the older of the two strains of the Hayes family in Rawson's Corner, having arrived in the 1870's.

Caleb Hayes, whose house and barns were featured yesterday, was listed as a seed merchant in the 1910 census. Caleb served, if not with distinction, in the First World War. At its conclusion, he married a French woman, bringing her back to Rawson's Corners. As you might imagine, Mademoiselle from Armentieres had some difficulty settling into the rhythms of local life. The estrangement between the older Hayeses and Caleb probably began with his marriage. The events of 1931 sealed the break.

Further along Ridge Road is the Elliott Martin homestead. Martin bought the farm as a very young man from old Farmer Batch.

This study is just begun. More will happen. 

Tomorrow I expect to be up at Jensen's----either that or around the corner at Soper's Store.

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Classes:

Two-day Weekend Workshops
7-8 June 2014
28-29 June 2014
Contact me about these dbjurney@verizon.net

The Ogunquit Summer School of Art
Ogunquit, Maine
Two two-day workshops
14-15 August 2014
27-28 September 2014
Contact them at 603-819-9100

Those interested in an ongoing weekly class should contact me. dbjurney@verizon.net 

  

Rawson's Corners

For information about the Plein-air Workshop in Holland, please visit  www.donaldjurneyworkshop.blogspot.com   

Rawson's Corners

William Faulkner, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949, invented a county in Mississippi in which he set the stories of many of his best-known novels. Yoknapatawpha County defined the edges of his characters' lives.

Many other novelists, of course, have invented places which have become, in the popular mind, as vital as any real place.

Thinking about this as I began my current series of 8"x12" panels, I began to develop one thread of images which started to form an idea of a small rural town named Rawson's Corners.

Rawson's Corners is, of course, merely a metaphor for all the small, sleepy, rural places. A lot has happened there to mould the collective psyche and not all of it is 4H and apple pie.

I imagined it to have been originally served by the railroad, but eventually the passenger service, and then the freight, were discontinued. The interstate highway comes no closer than forty miles. 

About 1920, with half the farmers' sons who served in the First World War not returning, whether by loss or by choice, Rawson's Corners began its hundred-year decline. For a moment, in 1931, it made the national news as the scene of a never-solved murder. 

Today it slumbers on, not changing much, as season follows season. Its story, in studies, is one I'd like to tell.

Here's an 8"x12" study of the Caleb Hayes place (Hayes&Co. Seed).

 
Yesterday's Rawson's Corners Depot is another view in town.

I'll keep you posted as I wander 'round the town.  My aim is to show those who haven't been there what it's like. 



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Classes:

Two-day Weekend Workshops
7-8 June 2014
28-29 June 2014
Contact me about these dbjurney@verizon.net

The Ogunquit Summer School of Art
Ogunquit, Maine
Two two-day workshops
14-15 August 2014
27-28 September 2014
Contact them at 603-819-9100

Those interested in an ongoing weekly class should contact me. dbjurney@verizon.net   

  

What's New?

For information about the Plein-air Workshop in Holland, please visit  www.donaldjurneyworkshop.blogspot.com   

Some of what's been happening

There's no question that I've been very remiss in keeping up with my blogging. It's true, I seem to have been particularly busy, but I've really no excuse. This post will be a real salmagundi of items. 

The photos will be poor, and small, and I apologize. They are mostly phone shots edited for Instagram. By the way, you can see a new sketch/painting everyday on Instagram. Have a follow at @donaldjurney .

First off, the Dead Paintings Society demo I did for last weekend's plein air class. Saturday morning it was pouring and so we started in the studio. I did a two-hour resuscitation on a painting----which is still not quite right. It does have a bit more color than this photo might suggest, and it does, actually have a sky, too.

Another one that I may not have posted is an imaginary scene in Holland.

And this, also imaginary, Dutch scene:

 Then there was a winter scene from imagination.

I decided to make some small studies. I ordered 50 1/8" 12" x 16" baltic birch panels from Dick Blick. I cut them in half, yielding 100 8" x 12" panels, and I primed them. Here they are under a couple of iron weights from my Hughes easel.

I've been having great fun working on these studies. In particular, I can stop on a panel when I've got the feeling I want, without worrying about whether it's "finished". It's a good way to encourage yourself to experiment with things.

Here's one.

And another.

Classes:

Two-day Weekend Workshops
7-8 June 2014
28-29 June 2014
Contact me about these dbjurney@verizon.net

The Ogunquit Summer School of Art
Ogunquit, Maine
Two two-day workshops
14-15 August 2014
27-28 September 2014
Contact them at 603-819-9100

Those interested in an ongoing weekly class should contact me. dbjurney@verizon.net   

June!

For information about the Plein-air Workshop in Holland, please visit  www.donaldjurneyworkshop.blogspot.com   
 

June Workshops

There will be two 2-day workshops in June 2014: June 7-8 and June 28-29.
They will be held in the vicinity of Newburyport, MA. The actual meeting place will be emailed to students on the Thursday before the weekend class.
Classes begin at 9 a.m. and run til noon. There is a one hour break, and class resumes at 1:00 p.m. and runs til 4:00 p.m.

Because the class is taking place in New England, you may want to bring a selection of layers with you in your car. If the weather is really deplorable, we'll meet at a studio in my studio building in Amesbury, MA. 

The cost for the class is $160.00. You may mail your fees to me at 9 Strong Street, Newburyport, MA 01950. The class will fill in the order that students register. Should a class fail to gain 6 students, the class will be cancelled and your fee will be returned.

Looking forward to painting with you!
Donald
 

Weekend Workshop

For information about the Plein-air Workshop in Holland, please visit  www.donaldjurneyworkshop.blogspot.com  

It's Plein Air Time!

Several of you have told me that you're having trouble getting going again. Well let's have some peer pressure to get us all back on track.

Donald Jurney, Evening in Spring, 1982, 20"x30"(?)

Okay, who's in?
May 17-18, 2014
Rough Meadows Sanctuary
Rowley, MA

Regular students have asked, so let's start with a weekend
workshop at Rough Meadows.
We'll meet at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 17th, and paint until 4 p.m., with a break between 12 and 1 for lunch, a walk, etc.
This session will be mostly grisaille, and students are encouraged to make more than one.

Day two, Sunday, May 18th, we'll also started at 9 a.m. and paint until 4 p.m., with a lunchtime break. We will paint in full color today.

If you'd like to participate, please write to me at dbjurney@verizon.net 
The class will fill in the order in which I receive the registrations. The fee for this two-day class is $140.00. You may send a check to me at 9 Strong Street, Newburyport, MA 01950, but please make sure you notify me immediately of your interest, by email.

For those of you have not studied with me in the past, you will find my palette in this blog post. Since you are unlikely to have all these colors in your kit, bring what you normally use.
I suggest you bring a number of surfaces, preferably not smaller than 8" x 12". 

Depending on the weather, you may want to bring insect repellent and sunscreen.

Here is a link to the Rough Meadows site
Here's a link about paintings of Spring
 
Hope to see you there!
Cheers,
Donald

Walrus

For information about the Plein-air Workshop in Holland, please visit  www.donaldjurneyworkshop.blogspot.com 

The Time has Come the Walrus said...!

It's plein air time again, finally. And so it's time to work out some classes. I'd like to do a combination of two-day weekend workshops and single day classes. 

Additionally, I'm thinking about a five-day workshop in either the Hudson Valley or the Berkshires...or both.

What I need now is to hear from you about what YOU would like to do.

As you probably know, there will be a workshop based on Alkmaar, in the the Netherlands, 4-12 September. There are a couple of places remaining.

If my Norwegian correspondent has her way(!), there will be a workshop in Summer 2015, in Norway, based on Egersund.

So, for now, let me know what you'd like to do. Just send me an email, dbjurney@verizon.net

Cheers,
Donald