Tag: art gallery opening

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The Immediate Landscape

Main Street, Owl’s Head, oil on archival canvasboard, $1623 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Carol L. Douglas Studio/Richards Hill Gallery
394 Commercial Street, Rockport, ME, 04856
June 28-July 10, 2025
Art gallery opening: Saturday, June 28, 4-7 PM
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, noon-5 PM (closed June 25-26)

About Grace

Two posters by my little assistant, Grace.

Before I talk about my upcoming show, I want to tell you about my granddaughter Grace, age 9. She was at my studio last week and made me some signs (above). You may remember Grace because she modeled for In Control (Grace and her unicorn) when she was five.

This child is my creative mini-me. That’s especially nice because, although I taught my kids to draw and paint, they all then went into the STEM fields. Most people wouldn’t think that was failure, but I took it personally.

Grace, on the other hand, lives in a towering collection of books, musical instruments and art and craft supplies. Some days, when I see her room, I’m exasperated. Other days, I pity my poor parents, because it looks eerily like my room at that age. To her engineer parents’ credit, they never limit her creative endeavors.

Grace recently decided I needed better signage for my art gallery opening. (The awning sign is down, awaiting replacement.) So, she made me the above, which I had to share with you.

Mature Eastern White Pine, 11X14, oil on birch, $696 includes shipping and handling in continental United States.

Now, about my opening this coming weekend

We spend, on average, 1-2 seconds per image looking at pictures on Instagram. That leaves us more distracted and distractable than ever. And yet, the cure for that is all around us; that is to just slow down and look and listen. That’s especially true in a time where we spend way too much time doomscrolling (and I’m the worst offender).

The Immediate Landscape: a close observation of everyday beauty explores this theme through landscape painting. I’ve tried to pick paintings which are about the beauty of the natural world, because we’re hardwired to find nature beautiful. Lush greenery is lively. Open vistas suggest safety and brilliant colors represent vitality. Nature also contains patterns that appeal to our sense of harmony and balance.

The calming response to nature has been documented in many studies. Nature reduces stress and elevates mood. We associate it with peace. Over time, we’ve also overlaid nature with personal and cultural symbolic meaning.

Little Village, 6X8, oil on archival canvasboard, 435.00 framed includes shipping and handling within continental US.

So many of us spend our days in offices or on our computers. Natural landscapes offer what Instagram cannot, including irregular, everchanging forms instead of gridded structures, shifting, filtered light instead of artificial light, and timelessness instead of deadlines. That heightens our perception of beauty in nature.

This heat wave should be broken by the weekend, and I’ll be at my art gallery opening from 4-7 PM on Saturday, with wine and cool drinks and treats. Please join me!

Carol L. Douglas Studio/Richards Hill Gallery, 394 Commercial Street, Rockport, ME, 04856
June 28-July 10, 2025
Saturday, June 28, 4-7 PM
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, noon-5 PM (closed June 25-26)

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

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Getting ready for my art gallery opening

Opening Saturday, May 31, 4-7 PM
Carol L. Douglas Studio/Richards Hill Gallery,
394 Commercial Street, Rockport, ME, 04856
May 30-June 26, 2025
Tuesday-Sunday, Noon-5 PM

Early Spring on Beech Hill, oil on canvasboard, Carol L. Douglas, 12X16, $1449 framed includes shipping in continental US.

One of the sharpest women I’ve ever known is Lois Giess, former President of the Rochester (NY) City Council. She once told me, “All action is change, even inaction.” We were talking about an expansion project that ultimately failed. Indeed, that moment proved to be the organization’s high-water mark.

I think that’s true of both our everyday and artistic lives, which is why I’ve been harping about calling and meaning so much the past few weeks. I haven’t made any kind of fuss about it in my blog, but I’ve been ill since I got home from Malta on April 20—first with COVID and then with an asthma backlash. It’s taken until last week to get my medications straightened out so that I feel well enough to work a long day. I was overjoyed to realize I was right back into my usual optimism and energy as soon as they were fixed, and I’m deep in preparation for my art gallery opening.

Drying Sails, 9X12, oil on canvasboard, $869 framed.

What’s changing?

I just built the gallery last year, so there’s little that needs repair (although I did find a spot of rust on the door, darn it). However, we’ve changed the supports for the awnings, gotten new display cabinets and beefed up our security. The old security system was mainly my dog, who barks anytime a car pulls into the driveway. However, sometimes they’re just turning around, and he’s not great at telling me that. Now I can see them on my phone.

My husband worried that the old awning supports were so low someone might back over them. I thought they were hideously ugly. I’m completely full of myself about our solution, which involves a five-gallon bucket of concrete set inside a very pretty ceramic planter, with viney things set to climb up the poles.  

I started feeling better at the same time as the rainy season broke. That was great because you can’t really do that kind of work in cold rain. While I’ve had all the parts (and artwork) ready, I am just getting things installed this week. That’s rather pushing the limit for my art gallery opening this Saturday.

Main Street, Owl’s Head, oil on archival canvasboard, $1623 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

The things artists do instead of painting

My friend Björn Runquist has been counting the days of rain in May; at last report we were up to 47. As you can imagine, the overgrowth of weeds has been tremendous (as have the mosquitoes). That meant I had to divert some energies into weeding the foundation plantings. I have just enough hausfrau in me to believe that visitors would be so appalled by the weeds, they’d turn on their heels and walk out.

I was a dedicated gardener until plein air got in the way. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy the meditative quality of pulling weeds.

Best Buds, 11X14, oil on canvasboard, $1087 framed includes shipping and handling in continental US.

And a reminder about this art gallery opening

Letters from Home opens on Saturday, May 31 from 4-7 PM, at 394 Commercial Street, Rockport, ME. As my Uncle Frank says, be there or be square.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters

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Time to ramble, time to party

Peace is one of two paintings heading to Sedona with me…

I stumbled through building my gallery at 394 Commercial Street, Rockport after I got home from Yorkshire. We finished on July 3. That was a day late and a dollar short for a season that’s as brief as it is here in midcoast Maine.

Therefore, it was no surprise that I’d barely breathed in and out before it was time to close again. I’m heading out west to the 20th annual Sedona Plein Air Festival, and it makes no sense to open back up when I return in early November.

Windsurfers at La Pocatière, 6X8, oil on archival canvasboard, $348 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

But first, an art gallery opening!

But before I do that, I’m holding one more shindig, and you’re invited. This is an opening for the students in the final workshop of my 2024 season, Rockport Immersive, which will be held next week. This is different from most of my workshops, because it includes one day with a model, a trip to the Farnsworth Art Museum, and an opportunity to hear Colin Page’s take on painting.

Those students who can delay their departure will hang their work in my gallery, and you and all your friends are invited to come by and talk art, have some light refreshments, and look at their (and my) work. That will be from 4-6 PM, Friday, October 11.

Why do you call it Richards Hill Gallery, anyway?

Richards Hill has been the name of our house through at least three owners. Until the late 1980s, it was still in the hands of the Richards family, after whom the hill on which we’re located is also named. My friend Cathy, who lived here before me, insists that it’s haunted, but I must be too simple a soul to be bothered by ghosts.

My buddy Jimmy Stewart admiring my palette.

And then I ramble

Immediately after that, I’ll winterize the gallery, pack my SUV and point it into the setting sun. Everyone I know has boggled at the idea. “Why are you driving?” they ask in incredulous tones. I’m heartily sick of flying and rental cars. Last year, my painting kit disappeared at Phoenix Sky Harbor, which wasn’t much fun either.

It’s not like I don’t have form at crisscrossing the continent. Two years ago, I buzzed out to Yellowstone for a weekend with my son Dwight. Four years ago, I went to Cody, WY to collect a pickup truck from my friend Jane. Eight years ago, I drove 10,000 miles across Alaska and Canada with my daughter Mary. This time I’m taking my dog and my husband, although only one of them can help with the driving. On the way back I’ll stop in Cody to see Jimmy Stewart the donkey. Then I’m off to Rochester for my goddaughter’s wedding.

But wait… there’s more

Even though my gallery will be closed for the season, you can still see my work at Lone Pine Real Estate, 19 Elm St., Camden, ME 04843, and North Pond Dental, 2467 Atlantic Highway Warren, ME 04864. Neither affiliation is accidental; I recommend both these businesses without hesitation.

Art show opening details:

Student show
Richards Hill Gallery
394 Commercial Street
Rockport, ME 04856
4-6 PM
Friday, October 11, 2024

Be there or be square!

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:

Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace:

Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters