March/23/2010

Gallery Belleau II on Atwells Avenue closed at the end of January 2010. It was a fun experiment and it was a really cool little space. Many thanks to the people who made it happen especially Katy, Sabrina, Melissa and Laura. A special thanks to Berge Zobian of Gallery Z who was a great friend and neighbor. I hope that many of the people I met on Atwells Avenue will visit me at Gallery Belleau on Saturdays when I am at Gallery Belleau on Wickenden Street if I am not at a art festival. For a list of the festivals I am participating in please check out www.belleauartglass.com. At these shows I only show work made at Belleau Art Glass by my assistants and I.

November/2/2008

Gallery Belleau 2.0 at 258 Atwells Ave. is now open for business. I am still looking for sales help for the new location and we are open Saturdays and by chance until I have chosen my staff. I hope to have a grand opening party at Gallery Belleau II in shortly before Thanksgiving. The space is about half the size of the gallery on Wickenden Street but it is one in a community of 5 galleries on historic Atwells Avenue which is bourgeoning with upscale Italian restaurants and boutiques. I am planning to eventually show higher end work including some gold and silver jewelry. Owning 2 galleries is lots of work. I still take much time to be with my family and I continue to work nearly every weekday in the same studio I have been in for more than 21 years. Once again I am very thankful for all the people who continue to support my creative efforts.

November/2/2008

Gallery Belleau 2.0 at 258 Atwells Ave. is now open for business. I am still looking for sales help for the new location and we are open Saturdays and by chance until I have chosen my staff. I hope to have a grand opening party at Gallery Belleau II in shortly before Thanksgiving. The space is about half the size of the gallery on Wickenden Street but it is one in a community of 5 galleries on historic Atwells Avenue which is bourgeoning with upscale Italian restaurants and boutiques. I am planning to eventually show higher end work including some gold and silver jewelry. Gallery hours on Atwells will be noon until 6 PM or later Tuesday - Saturday. Owning 2 galleries is lots of work. I still take much time to be with my family and I continue to work nearly every weekday in the same studio I have been in for more than 21 years. Once again I am very thankful for all the people who continue to support my creative efforts.

October/6/2008

There have been rumors that Gallery Belleau is moving to Atwells Ave. here in Providence. It is true that I am opening another gallery on Atwells Ave. but I intend to stay in my present place on Wickenden St. I am still deciding what to name the gallery on Atwells Ave. My new location will be at 258 Atwells Ave across from Gallery Z.

September/18/2007

The Monthly Spiel is now almost a year past due. Maybe I should rename it "The Yearly Spiel." Last year on December 9th, my partner Marly Rogers gave birth to our daughter, Aurora Dawn. She is our bundle of joy and even though we don’t seem to get much sleep these days, it seems we have less and less time to for things like reading and writing. At 9 months old Aurora has 7 teeth, crawls all over the place. and can run and coast in her "plow" - a cart for helping babies learn to walk. There are many changes in the gallery as well as changes in the studio. I finally got my big glory hole furnace hooked up so we are starting to make the big stuff I have been wanting to do. I am also very happy to have some fabulous new upbeat people working for me in both the studio and the gallery. We continue to add new artists. Last year we introduced the book boxes of New Jersey master craftsman Steven Levine. His wooden books have secret chambers that can be used for hiding valuables or to entertain and delight the curious. The gallery offers the largest selection of art glass and hand made American crafts in Providence and free gift wrapping. We are open daily.

October/20/2006

It is pumpkin season again at Gallery Belleau. The gallery has dozens of glass pumpkins, gourds and squash as well as other fruits of the fire like firey hot chile peppers made by Marly Rogers. I love to make pumpkins so I want to thank everyone who has come to the gallery and adopted one or more. Your patronage enables me to do what I love to do. We have several new artist in the gallery this month. First, I want to welcome back ceramic artist Michael Roseberry and Bruce Winn. Their pottery is simply elegant. The incredibly well crafted wood creations of Steven B. Levine are now available at Gallery Belleau. Steven is the most recent addition to our roster of artists. He makes wooden books that are actually secret boxes for hiding things in.

June/25/2006

Summer is here and the gallery is in full bloom! We have a new paint job on the exterior of the gallery that compliment the new colorful banners made by Soundwindz of Seattle. On sunny days you will find a menagerie of creatures including a seven foot giraffe made of steel by Yardbirds Studios of Kentucky sunbathing on the sidewalk. Inside the gallery there is work by over 60 artists from all over the United States. If you are in the area please stop in and say hi.

January/1/2006

Happy New Year and welcome 2006. Once again I am looking forward to a very productive January and February. It is fun to blow glass in front of a 2000 degree furnace when the rest of the world is frozen. This year I have Ted Lindstrom and Kyle Reslow helping me in the studio. Ted has been working with me for several months every day and Kyle has worked for me on Tuesdays since early September. The infernal Dante’ is helping in the grinding and polishing department and we are usualy a very merry team. The gallery has done better than I ever expected. I have so many new artists I don’t have the time to get them on the website. I don’t know if there is room on the site for everyone. A big thank you to my gallery staff. Especially the fabulous Stacey Graham who has been there every week for over two years. Her paintings are available for sale at the gallery unfortunately, the demand is exceding the supply. Also a big thank you and a hug to our top selling artist, the incomparable Marly Rogers who opened the gallery early most days in December.

April/14/2005

New in the gallery are some spectacular new glass jellyfish (one of the jellyfish is about 10 inches tall) and new anemone paperweights by internationally renown artist Richard Satava. Also new in the gallery are the gorgeous clay wall pieces of S. Lee of Palm Coast Florida. Mr. Lee imigrated to the US thirty years ago. His innovative work illustrates natural themes like dragonflies, flowers, bamboo and egrets and has that Asian flavor without being an import. Last but not least, I am honored to have recently aquired the amazing creature creations of Allen and Rosemary Bennet of Corning, NY. Not only are they super nice people who I have enjoyed seeing at select shows for many years. Their works are detailed and charming renditions of fish, crustaceans, and mammals. Most of them live on the wall.

January/13/2005

Ah January! This is the month that will make or break a lot of craftsmen, particularly us glassblowers. This is the month that I dread and love. It is certainly my favorite month to be in front of the glass furnace. But it can also be the month that stings and whithers the life force in me. I need the sunshine and I am really happy that soon I will be going to Florida for several art festivals and some r & r. This is the time of year for me to reflect, make changes, adjust my course and set my sails. I also need to be at my peak of productivity. I am energized by the daily routine, I delight in the creative process and I am charged up by that challenge. This is also a time for me to give thanks to all of those people who have supported my efforts financially and spiritually. I wish you all a happy new year and bright blessings. Special thanks to Marly, Dawn, Shelly, Rik, Erik, Hans, Jan, Deb, Stacey, Loren, Anna, Anthony. Pamella, Bill, Fritz, Beata, Lisa and Mike, Patty and Paul, Kris, Chip, Tiny, Steve, David and David, Richard and Richard, Roger, Wilson, Willow, Damon, Sonya, Chris and Sara, Alec and Dot, and all of my family and friends unnamed here but engraved in my heart. I love each and every one of you! "Lumen soleil mutuum das" -You lend light to the sun

November/29/2004

It’s been a good number of months but tonight I finally welded up the wrought iron I banged out in July with Hans. Speaking of Hans, I am very sad to say that he decided to find another job. I am once again looking for a studio assistant. Without Hans I have a new totem animal...the octopus, because I have to have eight arms to do all the things I need to do to run the studio and a gallery. At least I am sleeping well at night.

July/5/2004

Most of the work at Gallery Belleau is created at Belleau art Glass in Providence, RI by Christopher Belleau with assistance from Marly Rogers, Hans Measley and Several other part time employees. Currently, the works of over 40 American artists and craftsmen are also on display and available for purchase. The montly spiel is my voice as an artist and gallery owner. I write here because if I don’t no one else will. I have been blowing glass for 22 years. For the most part glass has been very good to me. I am drawn to the eternal challenge of creating objects of contemplation and beauty from molten glass. I love color in glass and color in my life. I also have a deepening appreciation for clear glass. I am excited to be working with glass but I also enjoy testing my skills in other art forms. For example, today I was going to blow glass but my furnace was shut down sometime early this morning by my safety equipment. After making repairs. I was able to light up again but the glass was too cold all day to work with. So, instead of working with glass I used my glory hole furnace as a forge and did some wrought iron work with Hans to make elements for a sign for the gallery. I have very little training as a blacksmith so I was really excited to try something new. I am really happy with the way things came out. It was fun to bang all that heavy metal. I want to thank Mike and Bal of Pan Empire for creating this fabulous website for Gallery Belleau. Also my brother Jan Kaulins for helping me with keywords. I hope that you will go to my links page and visit their websites and tell them hi from me. Thanks again for surfing my site, Chris

March/27/2004

Welcome to the website for Gallery Belleau. Take the time to browse through our collection of beautiful and unique original art glass. Also check out our lastest artist of the month.