Author: Trace Meek

I’m having an art show and you’re invited. The show will take place the entire month of September, 2026 at Mt. Tom’s Homemade Ice Cream, at 34 Cottage Street in Easthampton, Massachusetts. There will be an opening reception from 4–7 p.m. on Saturday, September 5th. I hope to see you there!

The title of the show—Alla Prima—means “at first attempt” in Italian. This refers to paintings that are executed from start to finish in a single session, often employing a “wet-on-wet” technique to blend colors serendipitously on the painting surface. (Of course, I also deliberately mix colors on the palette before I apply them to the painting.)

Full disclosure: two of the paintings I’m including in this show—Looking Up and Flying Cloud—I made prior to the beginning of this year. And Looking Up was made with acrylic paint, not oil. The smaller Looking Up, Again (which I almost titled Looking Up, Jr.) is an oil painting. Lastly, Goat Peak took me two days to complete, though it still embodies the spirit of alla prima.

Historically I have tended to take my sweet time making paintings, laying translucent layer upon translucent layer, letting each layer dry before proceeding to the next, occasionally pausing for months or years at a time before continuing. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this approach, but I had been wanting to get back into the painting game. Why? Because it’s fun. Up until this year, the alla prima approach had been fairly new to me. The verdict? I love it!

The Works

I had an art show the entire month of February, 2026, at the ECA Gallery in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Many of you attended the reception—thank you so much! I hope you enjoyed the show.

This series of paintings was inspired by the true story of the four “lost towns” of the Swift River Valley—Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott, Massachusetts—all of which were sacrificed in the name of progress. In the 1930s the four towns were flooded to create the Quabbin Reservoir, to supply drinking water to the then-growing population of the Greater Boston Area. 

This body of work is about loss. The people in these communities were forced to leave their homes and the land that they had grown to love. In a sense, they lost a part of their identity, in much the same way as indigenous peoples did when European settlers encroached, generations prior. Buildings were torn down, and the whole place disappeared under water.

But this work is also about transcending loss by remembering. These paintings are sentimental portraits of real people and real places. But in the context of this show, they serve as “actors” portraying similar people and landscapes that could have existed in the vanished valley, and in the hearts and minds of the expatriates.

The works