Dear clients, colleagues, friends and family,

Tomorrow is the first day of spring, so today is technically the last day we can send you our annual winter greeting!  We're later than normal but we are happy to be in touch with you now.  The printer has been running for weeks and on Friday we completed the creasing, folding and signing of the printed cards we mail to our wonderful clients and vendors.  We always like to share CJ's new art and our news with everyone on our email mailing list as well. 

We've had snow here in Portland for the past two days, so CJ's  winter  painting still seems appropriate here. Many of our friends and family members on the east coast have been enjoying very warm weather, so for some the painting may be your last glimpse of winter as your spring flowers are opening.     

Whatever your weather, we hope you enjoy our pristine and peaceful snow scene.    

While 2011 was an onerous year in many ways, we consider ourselves lucky that challenging times have also given us the opportunity and push to focus on some endeavors that had not been getting enough of our attention.  

For those of you who missed it, CJ spent 18 months creating a new body of nearly 30 paintings for a solo exhibition titled

"Houses, Landscapes, Flowers & Dreams: The Poetic Art of CJ Hurley".

The show ran from August - October 2011 and featured paintings and drawings paired with poetry written by CJ. The entire catalog of work will be available on our website soon. Some memorable events were tied to the show including a lecture that CJ gave on the history and continuing legacy of Romanticism, a talk where he discussed his Romantic connections and explained some of the symbolism in his work.  

A poetry reading by CJ's childhood friend and author Susan Alexander Smith, of CJ's poems for the show also made for an insightful program. We were stunned and thrilled by the attendance at the opening reception and we're honored to have great support from both past and new clients who have purchased many of the works in this series.

The poetry reading correlated with the most exciting project of our year, the filming of a short documentary about CJ and his work. The film titled "From Dystopia to Utopia: The Artistic Visions of CJ Hurley" was shot by local filmmaker, Michael Thanhouser, and made possible by a grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council. If Barbara wasn't busy enough with a Summer full of color and design consultations, managing the business & our talented interns, and her obligations at the Architectural Heritage Center -- it was made all the more complicated by her role as producer for the film. Plans for screenings are in the works!

In other news, the NBC television show, Grimm, chose CJ's artwork to decorate the home of lead character Nick Burkhardt. The paintings that can be seen on the show are  "Forest & Stream" and "The Quietude of Winter".  

Speaking of "The Quietude of Winter", this past fall we finally listened to your many requests and have branched out into the greeting card market. "Quietude" is our first offering. The winter scene above created for this annual greeting is the second in a series of snow paintings in the works and will also be available as greeting cards for the next holiday season. Our plan is to create four images, which we can ultimately package as a set of winter scenes. 

We are eternally appreciative of our wonderful clients whose loyalty allows us to do work we love, our vendors who make sure we have the high quality resources needed to do our jobs and our friends, family & fans who give us the encouragement to keep doing what we believe in. Thank you for making art and good design a part of your life.  

All our best wishes,