Helen Opie's "Preview of Leaving Attractions" / April Shows at Swoon!

This past Saturday I visited Helen Opie at her home in Granville Ferry to learn how to plant tomatoes from seeds, and also to collect her and her paintings to deliver to Swoon for the upcoming April Shows (opening reception Saturday April 7th, 2pm - 5pm):

Saturday (March 31st) was a gorgeous day and I arrived to find Helen sitting in her chair with a long list of neighbours to call to invite to a spontaneous art event which she had just dreamed up.  Understanding that many people in her town do not get into the city often, Helen decided to hang all her paintings on the streetside outside wall of her house, from 2 - 4pm, for her friends and neighbours to come see what she'd been up to all winter.  She advertised it as her "Preview of Leaving Attractions".  Here's a little video clip of Helen in action!

Below is a sneak preview of Helen's work as seen displayed on her house.  While Helen hosted a planting session in the backyard, many people dropped by the front to admire her paintings.  It was a very pleasant afternoon!

Helen with her painting-hanging-hammer!

A sneak peak of most of Helen's new paintings

Helen's "Whalecome" sign which hangs above her front door, and suits her home very much!

This Saturday's Opening Reception is going to be a great one!! Aside from these great new paintings by Helen, there will be beautiful new work by ceramic artist/painter Christine Lavoie.

The shows continue until April 28th, and photos of all works in the shows will be posted to Swoon's website in the week following the opening reception.

The reception will also serve as a "Launch" for Helen's latest creation: her P.E.I sketch journal.  These are truly wonderful.  Unlike her Long Island Sketch Journal (which is also wonderful) the P.E.I books are "flip books", and are a limited edition of 199 due to the labour-intensiveness of this project. 

If all that isn't enough, we just got word that Helen's 2013 "Week-at-a-time Planning Calendar for Busy and Creative People" has just been printed, so the opening will be a launch for those as well!  Helen's Calendars are a very popular item at Swoon.  These spiral bound planners are incredibly useful, with Helen's own thoughtfully created pages for keeping track of all sorts of important things.  Each year they feature images of new paintings, so we're excited to see the latest edition!


And, one last thing, April 9th is Brandt's birthday, so I suspect this Saturday's opening will be especially festive!


-posted by Susan Paczek