JohnMacKah.com

We just returned home from a short trip up Linville Falls way where we stayed at the Parkview Lodge, owned by David and Cindy Peters. John had been there in the early 60’s as a boy and we found it comfortable, clean and way more user friendly than a chain. We only wish more family owned motels were as nice as well as affordable.

John was finishing up on things he started some weeks ago. It was painting marathon, moving from one site to the next. He was working on three and brought them all nearly to completion and will finish up with details in the studio. He was off to the framers today, trying to get work he had left to dry in the studio complete.

 I started a one piece, grateful for shade admist the trees encircling the grounds of the Highland Games.  The grove of oak and maples were scattered with stone ringed campfires, some large, some small. The games, held in July, celebrate the Celtic heritage and though empty except for two painters and a few stollers, there was among those trees a presence of something protected. The site resonated and I could imagine the thrill of seeing hundreds of campfires and hearing the sound of pipes and or a quiet fiddler.  Do trees remember? I hope so.

 While Long Branch Studios is the home studio of John and Ruthanne Kah, located in Cotton Mill Studios in Asheville, NC.  We live in  Swannanoa (locally known as Swann-a-no-where) in a cabin tucked in a cove of the Craggy Mountains.  We have a garden,  lots of books and enjoy the incredible and changing personalities of our local mountains and try to get to the coast as much as we are able. Asheville has it’s attractions as well, but it’s growing fast and quickly losing some of its distinctive charm with new condos and gentrification.

Beauti-Full Swann-a-No-Where

 ”Cherish the Land that No One Owns….”   Li Po

John is represented in some regional galleries and you will find links to his galleries, teaching locations and information on exhibits and studio events. Ruthanne is, for lack of a better descriptive, studio bookkeeper and internet-communications manager. John will be writing some articles and posts about painting, art history and we both will be writing about our adventures on the road. One of our goals is to find a suitable vehicle–we’ve looked at Eurovans, camper vans, truck campers, and mini-vans, and go on the road to paint, and write and see what happens. In the meantime, as we take short trips we will make postings and share them with you. 

This Spring for instance, in hopes of helping Southern Appalachian Forestry Coalition  (SAFC)  whose mission is to preserve old growth forest, with took several hikes to research painting sites. We met some fine ancient trees, found some unique vantage points, sketched, took photos and got off the beaten track, almost lost, at least twice. The goal is to put up an exhibition of regional artists working within the southern bioregion to sell work to support SAFC. Right now, John is working on 2 upcoming shows for October of this year and has several works in progress in the studio. 

We hope to show you some work in progress, publish some articles for those of you interested in technique or for students to download, and keep you up to date on what’s new for the studio.  Bear with us as we learn to navigate in this new environment, which we hope to use as an annex to the studio. There will be some pages with both John’s work and Ruthannes, perhaps some recipes for gesso and for grilled local trout.