The Gilded Farmer

Mt Vernon Elementary School: Spring Musical Opening Song

2010-04-18T09:11:00.000-07:00

"Never Let Your Mother Put Up the Blueberries" and other tales of August

2009-08-10T17:19:00.001-07:00

Monday August 10, 2009: recuperating from a very busy week. From finishing and delivering orders to clients, to working the annual Barridoff Galleries Fine Art Auction, to helping my mother set up her booth at the Union Antiques Show, our week was full of activities. One of my mom's regular customers brings her blueberries every year. Usually she brings them back to the house, puts them in the fridge and tells me they are there---I always make a blueberry pancake breakfast with the fresh blueberries for the morning after the Union Antiques Show. For some reason, this year, she put the blueberries in the freezer. She told me where she put them Sunday evening, only through the haze of sleeplessness, I didn't get what she said until Monday morning when I went to make the pancakes to find they were in the freezer. In the cardboard boxes in the freezer. One frozen mass of blueberries (or two, in this case) I managed to hammer off enough berries for breakfast, they were delicious, and until she figures out that I have a weblog, she'll never know how funny the brick of blueberries was for me.

Scenes from the Union Antiques Show, Union, Maine
Saturday & Sunday, August 8, 9, 2009:

David and our dog Ben make the rounds visiting with the fairgoers

Bruce Weber of Josiah Smith Antiques, Hallowell, Maine, takes a break before the gates open Sunday

John Rice from the Historical Society for Early American Decoration shows his wares to a prospective new recruit for HSEAD!

David Keef, my partner and husband, chats with Jeff Wainoris of Josiah Smith Antiques, Hallowell, Maine

Neil Anderson and Michael Giberson's dog enjoys the sun and fun at the show

Scenes from the Barridoff Galleries Auction at the Holiday Inn, Portland, Maine August 7, 2009:

Lucretia Baskin hard at work registering prospective bidders

Annette Elowitch pointing artist George Lloyd in the right direction

Bill Milliken & Jay York take sustenance before embarking on the six hours of moving artwork onto the podium. (Jay is smiling because he just told me where I was going to be going in the afterlife...the prediction came shortly after I commented on his fresh facial hair-do)

over 300 lots were auctioned Friday evening to a full house. Each year the auction proves to feature some great examples of work from American and European collections. Even though I've worked the phone bids for the past 15 years and have only had the chance to purchase works on rare occasions, the event is a wonderful assembly of works that you won't see elsewhere as well as an opportunity to visit with clients and friends while discussing the merits of the works presented

Harvard Librarian Roger Stoddard examines the addenda to the catalog.

Left: a Stephen Etnier oil on canvas in its original frame

What's next for August? A trip to Deertrees in Harrison, Maine for starters. And maybe, if the sun keeps shining, I'll get some swimming in!

Raising Broilers!

2009-07-31T10:06:00.000-07:00

I'm going to add to this blog post every week for the next 8 weeks. I'm raising a batch of broiler chicks to put into the freezer for the winter. These aren't any old breed of backyard or exhibition poultry, they are deluxe hybrids called Cornish-Rock crosses or broiler chickens. They have been cross-bred and selected over the past 60 years to produce the form of chicken we have all become familiar with. My father-in-law was a poultry farmer in the late 40s/early 50s. Back then the chickens looked different than they do today. Their breast shape was narrower, their legs were smaller, and they took 12-16 weeks to grow to maturity. These days the birds are ready to eat (Pret-a-Manger, for you foodies) in 6-8 weeks. I'm going to raise this batch for 8 weeks. Last year's batch went for 6 weeks, but they were on the small side, so I'm going to wait 2 more weeks. In the mean time.....I'm going to document and post their growth here for you to watch this marvel of genetics. Sometimes these birds grow so fast and so big, their legs can't support their weight and they have all they can do to waddle around the yard to eat. I'm raising a flock of turkeys too, and I'm documenting their growth---I'll post that phenomenon after the chickens are wrapped and frozen!

Enjoy! And please e-mail me questions and/or comments!

Less than a week old: 5'' tall and 6 ounces

Week 2: 18 ounces (picture will be inserted here, can't locate it at this moment)

Week 3: 10" tall and 24 ounces

I have lost only 2 chicks to date. The first one within the first week. The last one was just the other day and probably died when they crowded together at night to sleep. I secured their pen so that there are no drafts and put deep bedding in to keep them warm and dry. I'll have to keep an eye on them at nightfall to be sure they aren't piling onto one another. I just put them out to range on one of the gardens that was overtaken by weeds. They will be able to stay clean and take dirt baths and eat weed seeds and grass in addition to the broiler rations I'm giving them. And fertilize the garden for next year! Now that the daily temperatures are getting hotter, they are consuming a lot of water. I have to make sure the 5 gallon waterer is always filled with clean, fresh, water. I could easily lose more chicks if I forget to keep an eye on the water. We enclosed them into the garden with electrified poultry netting, the best invention since the sheetrock screw! It keeps them in and undesirable critters out!

Once Upon a Time there was a Sunny Day....the opening of the Library and Gardens at Maine Historical Society

2009-06-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

For nearly two decades we operated our frame shop and gallery on Congress Square in Portland. During that time, we were so tied to being in the shop that we rarely were able to participate in any of the events in town. Since moving our shop to Topsham nearly two years ago, we have gained more freedom to attend the meetings, openings, and festivities put on by so many of the groups we have held memberships with.

Without exception is the Maine Historical Society. We have matted, framed, restored and replicated frames for so many of their projects over the years yet we rarely have been able to attend any of their events. So when they announced the grand re-opening and dedication of their library and garden, I knew I couldn't miss out.

I saw a lot of familiar faces at the Annual meeting which was held before the opening ceremonies. And I made a lot of new acquaintances too. After the meeting, curator Laura Sprague gave us a tour of the exhibit. "Re-Collected." It was a great assembly of items from the collection dating from the 17th c. to the 1970s: my favorites were the 17th c. Trelawny ledger, Benedict Arnold's journal, the plaster life mask of Abraham Lincoln by Wendell Volk, the daguerrotype portrait of the sculptor Paul Akers as a youth, and the unused tickets from Elvis Presley's August 16, 1977 Portland concert.

We have been inundated with rain here in Maine over the past month. So when the skies parted as the band played the Pennsylvania Polka, the Opening and Dedication of the renovated Alida Carroll and John Marshall Brown Library and Longfellow gardens became very festive! It was standing room only under the tent where the speeches were delivered about the long history of the Maine Historical Society. Even the Brown's granddaughter was in attendance. It was great to participate in this event along with the rest of the Maine community, and to see the fruition of so many years of planning...we now have a state-of-the-art library and the restoration of the beautiful Longfellow Gardens.

Now that I've gotten a taste of getting out of the shop, and socializing with so many friends and clients, I look forward to seeing everyone at more public events!

Found Art: Look What the Wind Blew

2009-06-23T15:34:00.000-07:00

I couldn't believe my eyes when I spied this in my driveway this morning. This bizarre and perfect pine needle sculpture was formed by the wind during the storm we had these past few days. I saw a pile of pine needles on the back of the garage roof yesterday and made a mental note that I should get them off before they build up and cause problems down the road. Mother Nature did the work for me: The Nor'east wind blew the needles into a sweet ball and plopped it in my path. I couldn't help but swoop the sculpture up, photograph it, and find a fine pedastal to set it onto to admire as long as it stays together.

Presenting Maine's Frame Making History

2009-05-19T04:37:00.000-07:00

Tuesday May 12, 2009 I presented to an audience at the Harlow Gallery in Hallowell, Maine, an abridged introduction to the history of picture frames in America using reference images drawn from local museums and historical societies. I paid special attention to frame makers in Maine from the 19th through 20th centuries. I decided to draw upon images from local sources because I wanted the audience to be able to see these images for themselves and I wanted to promote Maine's wealth of artwork to be seen.

I've always called Bowdoin College Museum of Art "Maine's Mini-Metropolitain without the Crowds." There you can see ancient mirrors made of bronze or a portrait of King David by Berrugoete, court painter to Ferdinand and Isabella. Bowdoin's collection of works on paper are extraordinary. There is always a great display in the Becker Room at the Museum.

Colby College recently received the tremendous gift of a collection of James Abbott McNeil Whistler etchings. Match this visual opportunity with their collection of works on paper by John Marin as well as the historic works of art in their permanent collection and a visit to this Museum in Waterville must be on your agenda. (Afterward, go downtown and eat at one of Waterville's Lebanese restaurants)

(Victoria Mansion, Portland, below)

I am surprised to meet so many artists who live and work in the state of Maine who have never been to many of the small museums and historical societies in the state. Maine has provided inspiration to artists since the Europeans first arrived over half of a millenium ago. The passion for these works and the devotion to Maine of so many collectors has provided we the viewers with seemingly endless opportunities to revel in these works and to learn from our past. To paraphrase Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:"He who doesn't learn their art history, knows nothing of themselves." (My version of his quote: "Wer ein Fremdsprache nicht lernt, lernt nicht von seine eigene."

Your local Historical Society volunteers are the bearer's of your history. Stop in and visit one today! And stay tuned for future appearances by this author---you'll come away from my talk never to view a painting the same way again!

The Angel of History

2008-11-22T15:09:00.000-08:00

A recent posting by Reverend Billy from the Church of Stop Shopping:
followed by an additional comment by one of his friends.

In his "Theses on the Philosophy of History," Walter Benjamin uses a Paul Klee painting, Angelus Novus, as his point of departure for thesis number nine। "This is how one pictures the angel of history," Benjamin writes. "His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. This storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress."

Benjamin's figuration of the angelus novus is one of my favorites. The whole essay is really great (and I recently reread it because I am writing a paper on Chris Marker's "The Last Bolshevik" and Benjamin's concept of redemption as a mode of critical ethics as it relates to the cinematic archive-yay!).Find it here: http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/ThesesonHistory.html

Continuing the link between Artist, Frame maker, and Patron

2008-09-03T04:22:00.000-07:00

Throughout the history of art there have been many notable examples of the working relationships between Artist, Patron, and Framemaker. The earliest known picture frames date to Pompeii and surround a pair of portraits. The patrons probably commissioned the portraits from the artist and the surrounds from a woodworker/gilder. Seventeenth through Nineteenth century painters such as Mary Beale, George Romney, and Gilbert Stuart not only worked directly with framemaker/gilders to complete their commissions, they were often in control of the designs and some, as is the case with Gilbert Stuart, offered several selections of picture frame designs to their patrons which varied in cost and elaborateness relative to the patron’s means.
It is thought the original purpose for burnished gold picture frames arose from the need to reflect into the painting what little light there was in a pre-Edison home. The Industrial Revolution changed that. Homes were built with more windows; electricity brought more artificial illumination into the home. Instead of choosing heavily ornamented frames, artists began using more linear forms of style and design. From the French Impressionists to the American Scene painters, unique textured, gouged, or painted gesso frames became the choice for artists wishing to present their work in surrounds which they felt were more harmonious than overpowering to their pieces.
The line of Artist-Patron-Framemaker often breaks down over time. Collectors of 20th century art regularly find themselves having to reframe the works they acquire. Original frames the artist intended for paintings are often removed only to be replaced by inferior mass-produced frames which match a sofa rather than a painting’s style. Frame design decisions are based more on interior decorating aesthetics than on the aesthetic needs of the painting. Framing choices are also often based on the popularity of a style. Historical frame designs, such as the Whistler style of reeded molding, have become mass produced as they have been popularized; transforming what was once one artist’s ambition to create a unique and perfect frame to harmonize with his paintings into a frame style that, in the hands of a framemaking factory, has become commercialized and generic.
When reframing artwork, every collector should look at the frame history for their paintings and consider options beyond the ordinary. Twentieth Century palettes and painting styles such as work by Thomas Hart Benton, Stephen Etnier, or Walt Kuhn lend themselves to be presented in frames that are of gouged or carved wood scrubbed with layers of paint to give them a weathered look. French artwork of the mid century is
right at home in textured gesso finishes. Marsden Hartley used painted frames on much of his work, often painting the frames himself. Although this country has recently become inundated with imported and domestic mass-produced picture frames of all styles, there are still craftsmen who can rebuild the Artist-Patron-Framemaker links; craftsmen who have the skills and knowledge to assist the collector in making sound design choices for their collections.

The Times Record's Features

2008-05-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

The Times Record's Features

in the woods

2008-05-19T16:05:00.000-07:00

There's nothing more relaxing for me than to be in this stand of trees above the family camp. Each time I visit the forest changes. Once we came through after an extended period of rain to see the forest floor covered with so many varieties of mushrooms, our intended afternoon stroll turned into an extended adventure in mushroom photographing and identification. They were beautiful. This image was taken with a Holga camera my sister rigged up to be a pinhole camera. I took this image with about a 2 minute exposure time.