Boston International Art Show 2012

Amanda and I headed down to Boston on Thursday, November 15 to set up our booth for the 16th Annual Boston International Fine Arts Show. McGowan Fine Art has not attended since 2004 so this was a big adventure for both of us.

It was a day of packing up two vehicles with art, pedestals, shrink wrap bins and all of the tools necessary to make transactions, unloading all the artwork, then arranging and hanging the artwork on the walls.  We had time for a late lunch and then back to the booth to put on our party clothes for the preview that evening.

Some of the fun of attending these events is the opportunity to talk with other galleries. We are able to indulge in a little shop talk and art world gossip, trade tips or just get a feel for the market in other parts of the country. Our booth neighbors were great.  From Russia With Art of Cambridge, Massachusetts shared photos of their pampered Westie. The women from Pride Gallery of Virginia had a beautiful display that Amanda has tucked away some ideas from.

It is also great to hear from the fair goers. Many approached us and said we had the best looking booth. It is gratifying to know that the artists we carry are well received by so many. People really responded to the new street scene Unloading by John Bonner. Vernalis by Gary Haven Smith was also a conversation starter. The portrait and still lifes by Stoney Jacobs,  kinetic sculptures by Bruce Campbell and bright abstracts of Catherine Bartlett Hirani were other favorites.

Saturday and Sunday were busy days at the fair with many people wandering through non-stop. We had a chance to play with the new ap that Amanda downloaded for her phone. Using Square we were able to run credit cards through her phone...with people using their finger as a stylus to sign on the screen. It was easy, fast and not nearly as complicated as calling in a transaction. My how things have changed since I last did an outside show!

As Sunday wound down many of the galleries started to pack away extraneous materials and get ready for the big move out. For all the time and care Amanda and I put into assembling the booth, we were able to disassemble it in less than 20 minutes. I think our efficiency was enhanced by our desire to get home after four 12-hour days. Unfortunately we were not the only ones to want to get home. We waited another hour for space to park in front of the building and  porters to help us schlep the art back out to our cars. You can see a photo of us lounging in front of our mountain of art. It gave us a little more time to chat with dealers. Some were starting drives back to Virginia or further that night. They are braver and hardier than I!

Thanks to all who visited and sustained us while we were there.

Gary Haven Smith Studio Tour

This past Saturday eight of us caravaned out to Gary Haven Smith's studio to see how he creates his sculptures and paintings. It was a bit rainy but that helped to keep the black flies away- always a scourge this time of year in NH!

This first image is of the outside of Gary's sculpture shed. The large door allows him to back his truck up to unload the huge rocks onto the trolley for his stone saw. You can see a new sculpture sitting at the entry.

This second image shows his saw in the background. It is about 1 story high and uses a diamond tip blade (strand). He has rails to pull stones on a trolley towards the blade. A consideration in his design is the limitations of his equipment. He can only lift the saw blade up about 5 or 6 feet so that the stones cannot be too large or need to lie down and accommodate a horizontal cut. Another consideration is that his crane can only lift 2000-2200 pounds. Eliminating weight by removing stone is imperative.

Next to the stone cutting studio is a another space where he mills metal pins for joining stone, carves slate, assembles smaller pieces. There was an amazing amount of equipment - and ingenuity on display. It becomes clear that Gary is a problem solver when it comes to interpreting his vision.

Upstairs is his painting studio which is less coated in stone dust! It was a tight space so it was difficult to take many photos without seeing the backs of all the attendees. This is a shot of the painting station with a jumble of oil paints and the encaustic medium he uses to apply them to slate and lead. It is fun to see some of his older paintings and how they relate to the most recent work.

After we were done touring the studio everyone spent a few moments to walk around Gary & Susan's lovely yard which has a variety of Gary's older and newer pieces. These sculptures benefit so much from being placed in a landscape. The light color and curvilinear lines of the stone provides a contrast to the dark green trees and grass.

For those of you who missed the tour we will do it the next time we have a show of Gary's work in about 2 years.

Moving Day!

People don't get to see the process of how Gary Haven Smith moves his sculptures into the gallery. It is frequently done on weekends when there are fewer people to inconvenience. This time it happened on Sunday, April 11.

Gary brought along his son, Devon, to help this time. As Gary and I both get older it takes more time to complete the process and we are thankful for a younger set of muscles.

Gary has a flat bed truck with a crane attached to one corner. After putting on the emergency brake and putting blocks under the tires Devon and I put jacks under each corner to keep the truck from tilting too much as the heavy loads moved from the flat bed to our front step.

Large straps are attached to the pieces for hoisting them up. A hand held control is used to guide the crane around all the obstacles- street signs and the large McGowan Fine Art sign above the door. While Gary operates the controls I helped to guide the pieces away from the brick wall. Devon lined them up on the waiting dolly on the top step.

This bench is the only item that gave us a scare. As it was lowered to the top step the weight was enough to lift a back wheel off the ground and moot the effect of the emergency brake. Despite all the safety precautions the truck started rolling forward. There was a bit of screaming and a bit of running as Gary jumped into the truck to apply the brakes. I had visions of the bench going through our front window and the crane taking out the front columns of the building. Who said art was boring!?

After the dolly is pulled into the gallery an engine winch (the large orange bit of equipment on the back of Gary's truck) is used to remove the sculpture from it and place it on the floor. Some of the sculptures are light enough (a relative term) to be moved by hand. Many need to be placed in the perfect place with the winch- with slight adjustments made by muscling the piece into place.

The tops of some of the sculptures are literally placed by hand. Here is a picture of Devon lowering the top of "On the Way Up." Gary guided it on to the pins on the pedestal. I would guess that the top weighs about 60 pounds- which is harder to lift than you might think!

After 6 hours of doing this the guys went home. I spent another hour or so doing some clean up and hanging the painting in the front window. I hate to leave the front window empty over night. I went home, ate supper and sat down. I was too tired to read. My weekend chores will have to wait until tomorrow.

Gary Haven Smith

McGowan Fine Art announces the opening of “Focal Point” featuring recent paintings and sculptures by Gary Haven Smith. The show will run from April 13 to May 14, with an opening reception on April 16 from 5 to 7 PM. It is free and open to the public.

Gary Haven Smith has long been recognized as one of New Hampshire’s premier sculptors – completing such public works as The Source, a large sculpture at the Thorne-Sagendorf Gallery at Keene State College and the fountain in the entry of Concord Hospital. Many of his paintings and sculptures are in private and public collections throughout the state including the Currier Gallery of Art and the New Britain Museum of Art.

Color takes a back seat in Gary Haven Smith’s most recent paintings as an outcome of his landscape photographs. Leaves, trees and grasses are a jumping off point for the broad patterns etched into the surface of his paintings. He heightens the contrast by using silver leaf on the dark natural surface of slate. In “Soffice” the reference to a forest scene is still apparent on the surface of the slate. Vertical lines of tree trunks are broken up by the silver silhouettes of leaves. Rich red paint on a textured lead surface hint at the soil beneath- creating an overall play of pattern. The influence of photography has distorted the images in this case so that there are both seen and unseen images. “We don’t see things as clearly as we want to,” says Smith.

His large-scale granite sculptures continue in the same vein as his previous work, exploring curved lines and textured surfaces. Smith says “I see it as deconstructing the boulder.” This is a reference to his cutting into the oversized granite boulders and, in many cases, piecing them back together. In the bench he created for this show he has inserted a smooth, highly-colored piece of red granite into the rough undersurface of a boulder. The geometric perfection of this base fits in like a puzzle piece. The found shape of the sitting surface provides another counterpoint to the seemingly random exterior of the raw stone- the perfect marriage of beauty and function.

There will be a studio tour at Mr. Smith’s home on May 8 at 10:30 AM. People interested in attending should RSVP to the gallery at 603-225-2515. The group will meet at McGowan Fine Art at 10 AM to carpool to his studio.