A note from Hillary Osborn & Doug Rugh
of the Osborn & Rugh Gallery, Falmouth, Cape Cod.
CONTENTS
WELCOME
NEWS
UPCOMING EVENTS
(Exhibitions, Party & Pigment Talk, Jazz Stroll, Workshops, Portrait Demo & Lecture)
SAMPLING FROM THE EASEL
EASY LAYAWAY PLAN
REQUEST A PAINTING
LESSONS
COLLECTOR'S T-SHIRTS
COLLECTING ART / FINE ART ADVISORY
Welcome
A PAINTING’S LAYERS
There is a tradition of collectors visiting artist’s studios in person to acquire works. This is partly because the savvy collector wants to have first dibs on the best pieces and partly because you can’t really appreciate an artist’s work until you get to know them and visit their work space. Studios are more interesting anyway. George Inness, the American landscape painter, believed he always retained the right to alter any of his works even if they were in a patron’s home or museum. Collectors would visit his studio often until the painting was at a point of their liking and then quickly purchase it. You might notice that paintings hanging on our walls also change over time. They improve as we do. Sometimes it means taking perfectly good paintings and making them into something entirely different. We lose some (just as Inness did). As artists we have a need to keep pushing the medium and we're always searching for a fresh way of look at a subject. We don’t get excited about making finished products but we do about discovering new ways to explore the visual world on a canvas.
A LIFE WITHOUT ART IS A BLANK WALL
An artist doesn’t become an artist unless art has had a big impact on their life so you could say that no one appreciates paintings like an artist. You could also say that we are all artists of different degrees and in our own ways. A collector is an artist without the hand skills and the uneducated eye loves the painting maybe more through intuition than understanding. For many, to learn what is behind a painting – the impetus, thinking process and aesthetic elements – opens up the art to appreciation at deeper levels. We are grateful to have a rich life of exploration with a partner in art and we hope to share a little bit of our daily discoveries and the pleasure we derive from oil painting with those who visit the studio.
PLEASE INVITE US
There are so many beautiful places to paint on the Upper Cape and if we're not in the studio we're likely out on location. If you have special access to a view that should be painted or a canvas-worthy interior, please invite us out to set up our French easel.
"Rachel's Garden", 14" x 11", oil/canvas, Osborn
"I was struck by what a great subject this is: it's a bit of our charmed life here on the Cape." –Rugh
“It’s always a pleasure to see someone else’s garden and have the opportunity to paint it.” – Osborn
HOURS
Wednesday - Sunday 10 - 5
Other times visit by appointment or chance.
News
GOLD MEDAL
The Osborn & Rugh Gallery is the winner of the 2013 Cape Cod Life Reader's Choice Gold Medal for "Best Fine Arts Gallery" on the Upper Cape.
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
We are proud to be part of this book covering Falmouth's rich legacy:
Legendary Locals of Falmouth, "Hillary Osborn and Doug Rugh", pages 116, Falmouth Historical Society, Arcadia Publishing, ISBN: 978-1-4671-0043-4
Upcoming Events
WORKSHOP
Outdoor Landscape Painting Workshops with Hillary Osborn
August 12th, Monday 9am-12pm. Location: to be announced.
Please contact the artist for more info.
EXHIBITS
Stolen Likenesses: Doug Rugh's Oil Sketches from a Falmouth Coffee Shop
June 29th - August 17th, Falmouth Historical Society Please join us for the reception on Friday July 5th, 5:30-7:00 PM.
MODUS OPERANDI:
Photo by: Mark Chester
STEALTH OPERATIVE: REDACTED
MISSION: COVERTLY ACQUIRED PORTRAITS
THEATER: COFFEE OBSESSION, FALMOUTH
TRADE CRAFT: PAINT BOX DISGUISED AS A LAPTOP
CASH DROP: UNDER THE CUPOLA, QUEEN'S BUYWAY
TALK & OPENING
September 15, 2013, 4 - 6 PM, Osborn & Rugh Gallery
Exhibition: "Paintings from the Summer of 2013"
(Show runs August 24 - September 22.)
John Stimson Talk: "Making paint and pigments from Cape Cod Shells" (including mussels and jingle shells).
We spend the summer painting out on location every chance we get. We will be displaying these fresh works done en plein air (as they say in France) from our current season. Please join us for light refreshments and to celebrate our fifth summer in our Falmouth studio. As part of the Connoisseurship Series we're looking forward to what is sure to be an interesting talk from a calligrapher who makes various types of paint and pigments from shells he finds here on Cape Cod. Talk starts at 4 PM (approx. 30 minutes).
MUSICAL EVENT
Falmouth Jazz Stroll at the Osborn & Rugh Gallery
Musicians to be announced. October 4, 2013, 6 - 8 PM
We always enjoy what the musicians bring to our studio. Start off the Jazz Stroll from this historic end of Falmouth.
DEMONSTRATION
“Barista as Aviator”, 20” x 16”, oil/p, Doug Rugh
"In between portrait commissions I paint from a model each week to keep developing my hand and to experiment. I estimate that I've painted about 2000 sessions from life." -Rugh
Alla Prima Portrait Demo
(Done all at once and geared for the non-artist)
November 30, 2013, 4 - 6 PM
Connoisseurship Series
Stop in as the Doug does a one-session painting from the model. The grand tradition of portrait painting from life is disappearing as artists just don’t have the skills to work from life since they've only worked from photographs. Watch as patches of paint gets modeled into a likeness. Stop in early to see forms develop through simple blocking in and the use of light and shadow. Stop in later to see how adjusting details captures likeness and expression. Questions are welcome while the artist is at work.
OSBORN LECTURE
"Lowrie Warrener and Canada's Group of Seven"
Date TBD: 2014
Connoisseurship Series
Hillary Osborn Lecture on her artist uncle who painted in Muskoka, Canada and knew Emily Carr and Lauren Harris of the Group of Seven, Canada’s most famous artists.
EXHIBIT
“Highfield Hall, Stained Glass”, 14” x 11”, oil/canvas, Doug Rugh
"Doug Rugh paints the Highfield Hall Interior"
Date TBD: Fall 2014
This exhibition at Highfield Hall will feature oils painted in various rooms throughout this historic building over three years. Completed works and those in progress may currently be viewed in the studio.
Sampling From the Easel
"Summer Sand", 8" x 14", oil/canvas, Hillary Osborn
"Lately I have been trying to go with my first instinct when I paint. I can easily get side-tracked by nature and spend a fair amount of time trying to decide on a composition. Here I went with the view right when I got onto the beach." -Osborn
"Lately I have been trying to go with my first instinct when I paint. I can easily get side-tracked by nature and spend a fair amount of time trying to decide on a composition. Here I went with the view right when I got onto the beach." -Osborn
"Just a great composition that captures the essence of the Cape." -Rugh
"Crab Hunting", 8" x 6", o/p, Osborn
"Figures on the beach are a great subject. Pothast and Boudin captured so well the summer pastimes of leisure at the beach. Here is the simple pleasure of gazing out from the shore, watching the waves, looking for crabs and just taking in the breeze." -Osborn
"It's a cliché: artist's always say that everything is about the light; but here it is. You can feel the warming from the sun." - Rugh
"It's a cliché: artist's always say that everything is about the light; but here it is. You can feel the warming from the sun." - Rugh
"Racing Beach", 24" x 36", oil/canvas, Hillary Osborn
"I love a long stretch of beach. I don't often paint here but a very kind gentleman let me park at his house and I was able to walk down to this view. After doing a couple of smaller oil sketches I realized that in order to show the length and scale of this beach I would need a larger canvas. There is always a high sense of excitement when you bring a big canvas on location. I went back three times to work on this painting and then again in the studio." -Osborn
"It's very difficult to do a large painting like this on location, as Hillary did, but when you can pull it off it gives the painting a real freshness." - Rugh
"It's very difficult to do a large painting like this on location, as Hillary did, but when you can pull it off it gives the painting a real freshness." - Rugh
"Black and Tan", 30" x 40", work in progress, Rugh
"I've been working on this piece that combines model sittings with indulgences from the imagination. It started off as a painting about Liam’s since I knew a couple of the musicians who played there (at the time I started). It’s no longer a portrait of the people or the place since I’m using artistic license with the characters and the interior. I enjoy creating these worlds where pigments gets pushed around until you get a sense of the life force. This painting is really about different kinds of light within an interior - warm spotlight, cool outdoor light, back-lighting, reflected light in the shadows - and people inhabiting the same space while being in different internal worlds." –Rugh
“This painting comes alive every time I look at it. It is refreshing to see figurative work on the Cape. I am reminded how powerful a subject it is, and to be able to look at how we live.”-Osborn
"Early Summer", 12" x 9", oil/panel, Doug Rugh
"This is the first painting of the season done across from Chappy Beach. I'm always surprised at how saturated hues are in Nature." - Rugh
"Peacock Feather", 10" x 8", oil/panel, Doug Rugh
MINIATURE SETS
These small paintings are perfect for children. All that is needed is a 10 minute photo session in the studio with each child. Suitable for adults as well. Measuring about 15" x 13" framed, they can be arranged in groups (siblings, spouses, parents, grandchildren, coworkers) with complementary poses. Remember to have subjects come in before they leave at the end of the season.
“Cataumet Schoolhouse”, 24” x 36”, oil/canvas, Doug Rugh
“I painted this over several sessions at the schoolhouse in Cataumet. Ben had a big role in restoring the building so I thought it was only fitting to include him tidying up.” -Rugh
"Peonies", 11" x 14", oil/canvas, Hillary Osborn
"WHYC Beach", 6" x 8", oil/panel, Doug Rugh
"This is the view when you row back from Devil's Foot" - Rugh
"Stucco House", 11" x 14", oil/panel, Hillary Osborn
"This house used to rest at Falmouth Heights Beach. It was an old vacant building and the morning light this day was beautiful hitting the east side of it. I set up to paint and shortly thereafter a neighbor came out to tell me that the house was being torn down within the week. It was almost 100 years old." -Osborn
"Pallette knife paintings are unique because you can't rely on drawing (outlines) to get you out of trouble. Here everything relies on color and composition." -Rugh
"Pallette knife paintings are unique because you can't rely on drawing (outlines) to get you out of trouble. Here everything relies on color and composition." -Rugh
"El Jaleo by John Singer Sargent, Copy", 36" x 48", oil/canvas, Doug Rugh
"This is the great larger than life painting hanging in the Spanish Cloister room of the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum. I was able to do this commission because the piece is in the public domain: usually the artist's life plus 70 years." -Rugh
"Mermaid Discovered" 36" x 36", oil/canvas, Doug Rugh
"It's easy to go off on tangents in the middle of a Cape Cod winter." - Rugh
Easy Layaway Plan
0% - $90 - 36 month
We want to make it as easy as possible for people to display our paintings in their home and include free shipping and a 10% dicount for our collectors (who have one of our paintings in their collection or who buy 2 or more). We are also currently offering a layaway plan with 0% interest and no finance charges with a $90 per month minimum and a 36 month maximum. It’s only the price of a dinner out or a utility bill a month which leads to owning a wall-sized work. We will custom tailor a plan to fit your needs. Please ask.
Request a Painting,
A Subject of your Choosing
CUSTOM ART
One of the benefits of being an artist run studio is that we can work directly with collectors to create paintings of subjects that are dear to them. We are frequently asked to do commissions of favorite landscapes or people and we also do pet portraits and copies of master paintings. If you can picture the perfect painting and where it would hang in your home we would like to hear about it.
PORTRAIT/LANDSCAPE COMMISSION REMINDER
Remember to stop by the gallery and have reference photos taken for portraits before everyone leaves for the summer. If you want a custom painting of your favorite landscape painted in the summer let us know early enough that we can paint on location.
Lessons
Hillary gives private and semi-private lessons and occasional workshops. More information is on this page: http://www.osbornandrughgallery.com/lessons.html
Collector's T-shirts
We have a new cotton Collector's T-shirt. $12 - S, M, L, XL, white on blue-gray or navy. Supplies are limited. Our collectors, of course, are welcome to a complimentary shirt. Please ask and thanks for your show of support.
Collecting Art/Fine Art Advisory
We offer pamphlets in the gallery that have our humble recommendations for those interested in purchasing art as an investment. We also have information about our pro bono advisory service where we welcome the opportunity to visit your interior space and offer an artist's eye and thoughts about how to best include art. Also available at this link:
HAPPY SUMMER
-Hillary Osborn & Doug Rugh
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