Art Alert October 2008

I painted "Blow-Me-Down Brook" last winter in Cornish, New Hampshire. This is a location where one of my heroes, Willard Metcalf, painted many of his famous winter scenes about a hundred years ago. I enjoy tracking down locations where historic artists have worked. New England has lots of them!
It was about five degrees below zero when I set my easel up that morning. Most people think cold is a problem for a winter painter, but really the opposite is true. In winter the light is best when it's cold; when it's warm the sky is often overcast. I've got polar gear, and my boots with their five-inch-thick soles are rated to fifty below, I also have a foolish orange stocking cap like hunters wear, that I got a deal on at Wal-Mart. This hat is made out of a mysterious plastic material that is extremely warm. So I am not much bothered by the frigid temperatures. I do however need to keep my face out of the wind.
I often work along frozen streams and in the woods. I love this sort of subject. Streams lead the viewer nicely into a painting, and trees are the actors on a landscape painter's stage. Much of the time, it seems, a landscape painter is a tree painter.
This painting is 26 by 29 inches. That's a nice shape--it's a landscape shape, not quite square, just a little longer than it is high.
This painting won a couple of prizes this year. It won the R.H.Ives Gammell award at the Guild of Boston Artists on Newbury Street in Boston. I also put it into the 3rd summer show at the Rockport Art Association, where it won the Fay Rotenberg prize, the top prize in that show which also came with a $1000 dollar check (thank you to the Rotenburg family for funding the competition).

Stapleton Kearns

2015 snowcamp

January 30 through February 1

Hi there. This is where you can sign up for my 2015 Snowcamp. This will be a three day workshop. Because of the demise of the Sunset Hill House in Franconia, this year it will be held at the Bartlett Inn in Bartlett New Hampshire. That is near Conway. They have experience doing artists workshops and I think it will be a great place to work.
The dreaded snowcamp can be extreme but it is always a lot of fun. You will do nothing but paint and sleep, well except for eat. This is an outdoor class. All skill levels are invited.


 The workshop will begin Saturday morning and end Monday evening. That's three days. I charge $300.00 per person, a $150.00 down payment and $150.00 final payment to be paid at the event. 
 Please understand this is a non refundable deposit. If you sign up I will hold your spot in the class for you, regardless of whether you are actually intending to come. That is what the deposit "hires" me to do and guarantees you will receive. So please don't sign up unless you are intending to take the  workshop.
 Each morning I do a demo and then in the afternoon the students paint and I run from easel to easel teaching each student individually. I have several painting exercises that will help build the students skills in landscape painting that I work in to the schedule. We meet for breakfast, paint all day and in the evening I lecture from the screen of my laptop.

The camaraderie is an important part of the workshop and we will all be good friends before the workshop is over. Snowcamp is a lot of fun, and I hope to teach you as much as I possibly can in the three days it runs. I can save you YEARS of screwing around! This is as intense an experience as I can make it and you will do little else but paint, eat and sleep while you are there. I will work you like a borrowed mule!

One of the important things I teach about snow painting is the opalescence color of snow. I will show you a system for creating the look of snow in light with broken color.  

Snowcamp always fills, so if you want to come, sign up. I will hold the class size to 12, but if there is enough interest I usually do a second session. 

The inn takes care of our lodging and provides breakfast and it is required that you stay there in order to participate. If you go to their web site or call them be sure to ask for the special rate they make for the workshop.

I have no idea why I can't seem to generate a paypal button that actually links. I have done so many before. So here is the fall back system. Call me at 603-216- 5559 if you want to come. I am in the Eastern time zone, so if you are calling me from Irkutsk remember that. I will fill the class in order of the receipt of calls.

Go to the website of the Inn and make your lodging reservations with them. Here is their phone number 603-374-2353.

Here is their website     http://www.bartlettinn.com/