A Visit To the Pollock-Krasner House And Study Center

I'm as far from a modern artist as you can get, but after seeing the movie Pollock years ago, I became obsessed with visiting Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner's home and studios in the Springs section of East Hampton,  Long Island.

The two artists relocated out there in 1945 and the property is now the Pollock-Krasner House And Study Center.  According to the website, Peggy Guggenheim, an early supporter of Pollock's, loaned them $2,000.00 for a downpayment, enabling them to get a $3,000.00 mortgage. Crazy when you think about what the prices are like out there now.  Five thousand dollars wouldn't get you a one week  summer rental!

I finally got myself out to see the house in person and I'm so glad that I did.  Considering it did not even have running water when they bought it, Pollock and Krasner did an amazing job of fixing it up.  The home is lovely and has been kept up beautifully by the foundation.

The front porch.  It looks like a fabulous place to take a break in the afternoon.

We toured the grounds before going into the house.  They had all this amazing scenery and never painted it.  I can't imagine not being out there everyday, but landscape painting was just not their thing.

Next, we visited the barn Pollock had converted into a studio.  I love visiting artists studios and this was no exception.

While Pollock was alive he used the barn studio.  Lee Krasner moved her studio in there after his death in 1956.  There were a ton of supplies and even Krasner's painting shoes.

And here is the famous studio floor, covered in paint from all the drips.  I would have loved to see inside the studio, but I hit a serious snag.  To preserve the floor, anyone who goes into the studio has to wear special shoes.  Unfortunately, I did not know this and I was wearing sandals.  There is NO WAY I was putting my bare feet into shoes worn on a regular basis by the general public.  If you want to know how I reacted to that news, picture Felix Unger, Jerry Seinfeld or Sheldon Cooper and you'll know exactly what I was thinking.  The security guard found this hysterical and took pity on me.  He let me take a few photos from the steps leading into the studio so I could get a few photos of the floor.

We then went into the house.  You can enter through the back door and step right into the kitchen.

Across from the kitchen is a wall with some art work on it.  One of the paintings is a copy of a Lee Krasner work that was done by artist Margaret Von Biesen for the movie.

Also hanging there is this painting by Jackson Pollock.  Gerard Weinstock, his neighbor across the street, was an attorney and Pollock asked him to draft a will, leaving his entire estate to Lee Krasner.  In exchange for his legal services, Pollock offered Weinstock his pick of several works of art and this is the one he chose.

This was the first painting to enter the museum's collection.  After Mr. Weinstock's death, his wife donated the painting to the study center.

There is a large display case in the living room showcasing papers and receipts.  I loved being able to see the paperwork and receipts relating to the sale of paintings and gallery shows.  It really gives a sense of what was going on with their art at the time.  I always wonder about things like this.  None of the people involved had any idea that this paperwork would end up in a museum one day.  I wonder what they would think about it.

Contract between Jackson Pollock and Peggy Guggenheim for Pollocks show at Art Of This Century Gallery

An invoice from The Museum Of Modern Art for one of Pollock's paintings.  They paid $3,000  for the painting from the Betty Parsons Gallery

A gallery goer at Betty Parsons clearly was not a fan of Pollock's artwork

Moving on through the house, there was a little den housing books and music as well as some art work.  It looked like a great place to sit and relax after a day of work.

A letter from Sidney Janis

There are a few rooms upstairs.  Lee Krasner painted up there before taking over the barn studio.

The drawing above of Lee Krasner was done by Igor Pantuhoff, a fellow artist with whom Krasner had an eight year relationship before meeting Pollock.  A drawing using the features of Marcia Gay Harden was done for the movie.

The front of the house.  By all accounts the relationship between Pollock and Krasner was tumultuous at best, but their home was and is a lovely, peaceful place.

A few blocks from the house is the famous Springs General Store.  It looks much the same as I imagine it did in the forties and fifties.  There is a scene in the movie where Pollock can't pay his tab at the store so he offers the owner a painting.  I was dying to ask the people working behind the counter if the story was true, but didn't want to sound like some nut from the city.  It would not surprise me though. Every once in awhile a story comes out about someone finding a painting in the attic that may or may not be a Pollock. (Update-while looking for a link for the store, I happened upon this NY Times article and the story is true!  The painting is now hanging in the Musee National d'Art Moderne in Paris.  They sell a poster of it in the general store.  Mystery solved :)

This gal was greeting everyone who came into the store

We had lunch there and I had one of the best veggie burgers that I've ever eaten.  The store is in a really  beautiful spot.  You can sit outside and eat or sit on the front porch and they have kayaks for rent to take out to the pond.

I'm not sure why all of this resonated so strongly with me, but I suspect it's because every once in awhile I fantasize about giving up my apartment and New York City and moving to a quiet area and doing nothing but painting.  I don't think I could live in a rural area as this was when Pollock and Krasner were there, but I'm fascinated by those who can make that leap to fully support their art.  

If you find yourself on the East End of Long Island, do stop in to the museum and the general store.  We had a great afternoon filled with art history, good food and beautiful scenery.  And check out the movie.  Ed Harris and Marcia Gay Harden gave amazing performances.  It's one of my favorites.


Pollock-Krasner House And Study Center
830 Springs Fireplace Road
East Hampton, NY  11937
(631) 324-4929

Port To Port, An Art Exchange Exhibition

Hi Everybody.  Hope all of you are enjoying these last few weeks of good weather.  It is so nice here I may get myself out to do a bit of plein aire painting this week.

I wanted to let you know about a fun exhibit that is happening on Long Island.  The Art Guild Of Port Washington and the Greater Port Jefferson-Northern Brookhaven Arts Council are swapping gallery space this week.

The GPJAC artists are exhibiting at The Art Guild and The Art Guild artists are showing their work in the GPJAC space.

I am a member of The Art Guild, so I have two paintings hanging in Port Jefferson this week.

Peonies In A Glass Vase, 16x20, oil

Dahlias In A Ginger Jar, 12x16, oil

These are the two paintings I have hanging in the exhibition.  The reception for the show is Sunday, October 18, 2015 from three to five pm, at the Port Jefferson Village Center.  Port Jefferson is a lovely town on the water and a great place for a day trip,  so if you are in the area please stop in at the reception.  We would love to see you!

Port Jefferson Village Center
101 East Broadway
Port Jefferson, NY  11777

Port to Port is a signature event of the Arts Alive LI 2015 October Arts Month Celebration.

Hope to see you there!

Blue And White Bowl With Fruit

Hello everybody.  I have a new still life to show you today.  A few months ago I started work on this still life.  I have to say, it did take me awhile to finish it, but it was worth the wait to get it just right.

Somehow, I neglected to take a photo of my original set up, but here are the photos of the original block ins.  You will be able to see what the set up was like from the actual painting.

The set up was a bowl (blue and white, of course) on it's side filled with pears and grapes.  As you can see, the bowl is propped up on it's side, so even though it is still a round bowl, it had to be painted as more of an oval.  Luckily, I was working on this painting in Gregg's studio and he had a good solution for me.

He instructed me to lay a rectangle over the bowl.  This way I could see exactly how round the bowl should be.  We do the same thing in portrait painting if the model has her head turned.  This made things a lot easier, but we were joking that I was in "ellipse hell" until I finally got the shape of the bowl right.

Now we are getting somewhere!  I always like to cover the canvas the first day of a painting.  It makes it so much easier when you go back to it the next day.  Once that was done, I just kept adding on layers of paint every time I worked on this canvas.  I also kept playing with the set up.  I just couldn't seem to get it right.  That happens sometimes.  I've read about artists who will spend hours setting up a still life, but that is not how I do it.  I just set something up and rearrange as needed.

This was the second day of painting.  It is usually around this time that the painting actually starts to look like something viable and it is always a huge relief.  Even though I've been painting for years, I still get anxious those first and second (and sometimes third and fourth) days of a painting because you never really know if it will work until you get going.

In this shot, you can see I started adding more details on to the fabric.  There were a lot of folds and I really had to get them right as this blue fabric was a big part of the painting. Since the fabric was velvet, there was no pattern to paint in, so instead, Gregg advised me to find little points of "personality" in the fabric.  Velvet can be tricky.  If you do too much, it looks like regular fabric.  If you don't do enough, it ends up looking like an uninteresting blob.  You can see I painted in some little seams and bits of light to eventually make the fabric look like velvet.

This was my finished painting of the original set up.  But, as all of you know, the first time I think a painting is finished really doesn't mean anything.  I always go back and tweak things and this time was no exception.

I was never really happy with that pear on the right.  It seemed disconnected from the rest of the painting.  I tried many times to get it to look the way I wanted it to, but I realized that the problem was in the set up, so I added a big bunch of green grapes which had the added benefit of partially covering the pear.

 
Yes, this was my sad little set up!  The painting was already back in my studio, so I had to fake it.

Here it is on the easel (you can see a little bit of the green grapes over to the right behind the painting).  I'm much happier with the whole painting with the added grapes.  I feel like the flow of the painting is much better now and all the fruit is working together.

Here is the finished painting.  I'm quite happy with it now and it has already been in a still life show.  Working on this was another reminder to keep going until the painting is right.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Ronald McDonald House And The Enchanted Home

Hi Everyone.  I have some big news to share with all of you today.  The Ronald McDonald House of Long Island is having their designer showhouse this weekend and I have two paintings hanging in the room designed by the lovely Tina of The Enchanted Home!

I have been a great admirer of Tina's since I started reading her blog years ago, so of course I was thrilled that she wanted to use some of my paintings in her room.

Fruit In A Blue And White Compote, 9x12, oil

Yellow Roses, 9x12, oil

These are the paintings that are hanging in the show house.  Tina posted a photo to Instagram and the room looks gorgeous!  It's very exciting for me to see my art hanging in such a beautiful room.

Ronald McDonald House Of Long Island provides lodging and services to families with a hospitalized child.  You can read more about their mission here.  The opening night gala and shopping event is this evening, with all proceeds of the sale going to support the house.  The rooms will be open to the public Friday and Saturday.

I'm so happy to be able to support this worthy cause.  Best of luck to Tina and Ronald McDonald House!

Assisi, Italy: Painting the Via del Pozzo Della Mensa

As I mentioned in this post, the temperature was quite hot this summer in Assisi.  Therefore, we could not hang out all day in our beloved Comune.  We had to find alternative places to paint.  This turned out to be a good thing as we discovered a bunch of new places to paint and new restaurants to visit.

We quickly realized that for our afternoon painting sessions, we would have to find sites that were as cool as possible.  After a bit of walking around, we realized that we could paint in some of the many small tunnels that are all over Assisi.  Somehow we missed seeing these last year, but we were so lucky to have found them as having shade enabled us to paint during the crazy heat wave that was engulfing all of Europe.

This was the temp for most of our visit.  102 degrees every day!  It was insane.  Luckily, Assisi is very dry, so we did not have to deal with the crazy humidity that we have here in New York.  But we did have to be very careful to drink a lot of water and stay out of the sun.

We actually found our first tunnel because we saw a sign for an air conditioned restaurant and while walking out of there after lunch, we found ourselves on the Via del Pozzo Della Mensa.

It looks like a small alley, but this is actually a road with homes on each side.  The residents of the street were lovely and they were so excited to have artists painting outside their homes.  One of the many things I love about the people of Italy is how supportive they are of artists.

As you can see, this road is not very wide and we just assumed it was a pedestrian walkway that the residents on the block used.  We were wrong.  Cars, including an SUV and a small garbage truck, came down the street at least once or twice each painting session.   We had to grab our easels and jump into a doorway!  It was actually kind of fun and just one of those crazy things that happen when you are painting outside.  

We painted in this spot three afternoons.  I had no problem getting in the buildings, the tunnel and the shadows, but as you can see, getting the correct perspective of the road took some work.  It was not as simple as just having the lines meet at a vanishing point as the road had to take the viewer into the tunnel.  After a few tries and some help from Gregg, I got it done.

My finished study

This is my finished study.  I would love to turn this into a large painting at some point.  I have never tried that before, but I may with this one.

This was the view facing out of the tunnel.  You can see how hot it was, but we were so fortunate to have the shade.  We had a lovely time in this spot.  I hope I get to paint there again someday.