Egg Tempera artist Barbara Coburn

 Award winning watercolor artist, Barbara Coburn has been painting the beautiful New England countryside since her early college days.  She got her Fine Art degree at Anna Maria College.  From there she was very successful in the advertising and marketing world. Her first love, however, has always been painting. Lately she has discovered a new medium.  Studying with some of the great egg tempera artists she has come to love this new to her technique.

Egg tempera is a painting process that uses egg yolk to bind pigments, the color, into paint.  The artist must manufacture the paints herself by finely grinding the pigment and mixing it with water and egg yolk.  The paint is then applied in a method where the optical laws of egg tempera are obeyed thus the unique surface of egg tempera will be achieved. 

Tempera paint dries rapidly. It is normally applied in thin, semi-opaque or transparent layers. Tempera painting allows for great precision when used with traditional techniques that require the application of numerous small brush strokes.  When the final painting is created then it is sealed with an organic varnish.  This is needed especially if you have a cat around who might want a little lick of that egg!

With the ancient egg tempera technique Barbara creates a luminous glow in her work.  The detail that she can achieve is amazing.   Every blade of tall grass in the field by the old barn is visible.  All the paint peeling off the old boat is there!

Tempera paintings are very long lasting, and examples from the 1st centuries AD still exist. Egg tempera was a primary method of painting until after 1500 when it was superseded by the invention of oil painting.  Andrew Wyeth was one of the most noted egg tempera painters.  His painting, Christina’s World is very well known. 

Barbara's new paintings will be showing at Harvest Gold Gallery through the holidays.  Stop by when you are by Lake Kezar in beautiful downtown Center Lovell.

New Sterling Charms At Harvest Gold

I love it when my customers inspire new designs.  This week we had a horse lover come in. 

It came out so good I made one for my niece's birthday!

Maine is very inspiring too. 

 We have some pretty celestial designs and even an angel.

My sister's coffee shop was a good reason enough for this design but my Grandmother always had a cup of coffee going, just 1/2 a cup.

Two hearts and the moon and star are always favorites.

I love how they look all together!

Local Places at Harvest Gold Gallery

This beauty by Carol Novotne is along the Saco river.   There are so many paintings of local color that I thought it would be fun to share a few of them.

MaryEllen Serina captured a rainbow over Kezar Lake.

Guy Tringali loves to paint Kezar Lake as well.

Varvara Harmon loves the light on the narrows by the town beach on Kezar Lake.

Carol looks over the Kezar lake from the north end.

Our very own Jean Franz Miller from Center Lovell caught a sunset in Middle Bay on Kezar lake.  Bonnie Ferguson a local summer visiter has a nice one of the birch trees and the sunset.

Diane Scott from Chatham loves to paint plein air style at Catherdal Ledge in North Conway and the intersection of Rt 16 and 302 by the Burger King.  I don't think I've ever seen it look so good!

Diane loves tractors as we can all tell by these local farm paintings of Sherman Farm and the Fryeburg Fair.

And one spot we all know and love Chandlers Garage at the corner in lovely downtown Lovell.

Then we have Ros Farbush who at 83 years old last saturday turned out a masterpiece of our favorite breakfast and lunch spot Rosie's.

Tomato season at Harvest Gold Gallery

Fearful we would not have enough tomatoes this year Bill planted no less than 36 plants!   Now we are picking everyday in 7 different varieties.   Even this funny little one that looks like he has a hat.

 

Our screen porch is table is covered with great colors and delicious flavors.  Many customers have been seen walking out with a sampling!

After giving away free samples we are still left with quite a few.  We have started making sauce.  In three colors this time.

 Come in for a taste of tomatoes!

Who knew making sauce could be so colorful!

Even if it's a bit messy!

Carol Novetne Showing At Harvest Gold Gallery

Carol Novotne was the inspiration for us to carry fine art at the gallery.  Visiting her long time friend who summered here in Lovell with her friend Cricket who lived next door.  What a story.  Carol saw the gallery and had to come in.

She and Bill started talking and looking around. "Look at these beautiful walls.  They need some paintings!"





The following spring Carol shipped seven original oil paintings to the gallery.  Beautiful expressionistic local landscapes bursting with color arrived.  One of Kezar Lake from atop Hatch Hill was sold in the first week!















That was 2002.  Now 9 years later the collection has grown.  Carol has won numerous more artistic achievements including Western Woman Artist of the Year.

Carol make regular trips to New England to collect ideas for future paintings and enjoy what we all love about Lovell and her other favorite Maine stops like Bar Harbor and Portland.

She lives in Helena, Montana with her husband Roger.  We feel fortunate to have Carol's award winning paintings here in beautiful downtown Center Lovell.

Fall on the Saco River in Fryeburg

Hurricane Irene Hits Harvest Gold Gallery!

This was the scene shortly after noon on Sunday.  We had lost power about 1/2 an hour earlier when there was a huge sound.  Bill and I rushed to see.  The wires were across route 5 and dangling from the Gallery! Our local favorite Tripp Turner was first to try and cross followed by Freddie Wilson.

The wind was still howling!  The power crew didn't make them wait very long.  Within 20 minutes they were there to make the situation safe.

Everything looks better with some sunshine on it!  It was still very dangerous as the broken pole was very hard to see in the trees and the pole ahead looked ominous.

We were greeted by  variety of crews to repair the damage.  They were mostly from New Brunswick Canada and very pleasant, we were very happy anytime they stopped by!

Our neighbors will be very happy too!

By the third day we were very appreciative of all the wonderful people that came together to make the storm so much better than it could have been.  A big Thank You to the Lovell Fire Department for the yummy dinners. 

We were sitting in the lake on the dock!!