Oh the Places We have Been !

 

 

 

At the top we have the view from our wonderful hotel room in Greensboro NC..."The Proximity" a GREEN hotel , solar etc...I just loved the room and.... the view...Next, what you can see from Barretts' kitchen window in her home in Madison GA...always love the trains and the stations....finally, over looking Charlston SC from our hotel room at the" Francis Marion"...I had stayed here over 30 years ago with my mother on a house and garden tour of the South... I remembered loving cast shadows of chimneys on the rooftops...they were still there...the harbor in the distance... watercolor and gouache...12x12"   11x14"

More of St Croix

First scene, Carambola hills...for some reason the patterns here are wonderful every year I am inspired all over again, and the sky gets stormy in the afternoons...second painting also at Carambola looking into the rain forest....last view from Cramer Park on the beach ....grapetree and distant hills....great sky....watercolor and gouache 12x12" 11x14'

St Croix Landscape

Sunset at Fredricksted USVI ...the pier on the right where the cruise ship has just departed and the coral reef in front covered in moss with the waves washing up and swirling around the reef...all too beautiful to be believed...the sun must set on another day in this tropical paradise....watercolor gouache12x14"

Pink Lilies and Wonderful Cloth

I really liked how this fabric looked with the glass vase...all the blues and browns and then the one dying leaf as well as the blossom just opening up....nothing better than that bright orange pollen on a pink lily....16x20" oil on canvas

57th st and the IBM Building Looking West

I really liked the juxtaposition of this sculpture(by whom I forget?) with the lights of the windows across the street...all of the reflected light everywhere works for me...throw in a few strolling New Yorkers and voila! 30x40" oil on canvas

A Church in the City

I was struck with how the church looked so warm and small surrounded by the taller,cooler colored buildings on this late winter afternoon...I loved the long shadows cast by the walkers in the sunlight...and all the flags and all the reflecting windows, another wonderful NYC scene... oil on canvas 3'x4'

The Storm and The Form

 

Or, how the naked figures were buried in snow...we didn't get as much as Ct. but we got over a foot...here are my two gardens sculptures with their cone heads of snow and their lower halfs missing...the first figure (1/3 life size)I did at the National Academy in NYC 40? years ago in wet clay and  my mother had it cast in bronz after I cast it in plaster...the second figure (2/3 life size)was sculpted about 10 years ago here in the Berkshires at Ann Jon's studio in wet clay and was cast in bronz back then...I love to work with wet clay and the figure....sorry not to do more of it!

January Sunset in the Berkshires

I saw this view when we went out cross country skiing in the valley across from our house...this winter cornfield looks very different than in the summer...just the stubble of those huge corn stalks poking through ...I really loved the sky and how it reflected in the snow....the clouds become more important when there is no lush greenery around....the distant hills cold and dark...36x48"oil on canvas

The Painting....The Drawing

First came the sketch....I was sitting out on the back porch  to simply enjoy the late afternoon, the next thing I know I am sketching this beautiful scene, the next thing I know I am painting...it happened so quickly there was nothing I could do to stop the whole process...just go with the flow of inspiration and the joy of it all ....oil on canvas 30x40" conte' crayon on 22x30" paper

Portrait of my God Child

I was grateful when Cate was willing to pose at the studio one morning...We were so lucky to have her visiting all the way from Minnesota via Georgia ....She was an excellent model...I was really amazed as I painted her beautiful face...perfect lips,eyes.etc...etc.... a pleasure to paint...I did not do her beauty justice....would like to paint another and another....oil on  canvas 20x24"

57th St Looking West from Madison Ave NYC

Amazing what happens just in the patterns that are painted on the streets...Madison Ave crossing 57th St...a wide street,4 lanes, I used to walk down it every day to get the Art Students League...I commuted up from West 12th...another December afternoon....warm buildings, cool streets....oil on canvas 30x40"

Portrait Time of year....Tory

Now it is winter and I am in the studio....for the most part...and so I look for models...friends that might have a few hours to pose...interesting people...portraits present a whole new challenge... painting the outside but capturing the inside...what is really there? They talk I listen and hopefully something comes across on the canvas...the drawing behind the model was just that...a drawing...pastel...hence the black and white...oil on canvas 24x24"

Where is this?

56th street and Madison Ave? Looking West....a December afternoon....everything man made except the tree,sky and people...I love all the abstract shapes which put together make up the city....and it's streets...oil on canvas 30x30"

Going, Going, Gone

As you can see the peppers turned red and got smaller and lesser....but they just made me want to keep painting them....oil on canavas 30x30"

5th Avenue Looking South

As we left the Metropolitan museum and started to walk down 5th Ave this is what I saw...the skyline of midtown buildings in the distance behind the trees of the park in the late afternoon light...yes, there was no traffic at this particular moment...I like seeing the "avenue" in all its naked glory...note the banner hanging on the lamp post...a Van Gogh at the Frick Museum (which we had just seen)...a nice touch of color on a December day in the city...oil on canvas 30x40"

Madison Ave and 55th st

I went into the city this weekend to see the George Bellows show at the Metropolitan museum....excellent , don't miss it....I have loved his work for ever and here there were great examples of his paintings of NYC back in the day....early 1900's...gorgeous oil studies of the streets  and scenes of New York....got me real inspired so I had to come home and paint what I had seen that day heading down Madison to catch the train home...more to come...oil on canvas 30x40"

Just Checking In With Me

Every year I try to do a self portrait...Like where am I now? I found this big black hat in my closet one morning and thought"perfect for a portrait"...so what's new? I just don't know why I haven't changed more over the years...some day I am gonna bust out and paint with such wild abandon you won't recognize me....or not....time will tell....or what?  24x30" oil on canvas

Portrait of a Table

This the table where we just ate our Thanksgiving dinner...but I painted this the week of the hurricane, my husband was out of town and I set up my easel not to move it for days nor to move the fruit...I don't know what exactly inspired me , but looking at this table always inspires me and I had never painted it from this angle before...I wanted to include the chandelier with the Venetian glass and the dry grasses from our marsh...it is larger than usual...36x48" oil on canvas

The August Garden at Dusk

This is the last study I painted in August of my wonderful garden...It took me a long time as there was a lot of information to process and it was a large canvas...actually I am still working on it...but winter is coming and before the snow flies I thought I should share it with you...36x48"

The Big Leaves in the Studio

Oil, watercolor, pastel...same subject different medium...wonderful leaves great old glass container and a good way to study a subject...what do you think? 30x40" oil on canvas   22x30" watercolor,gouache  22x30" black pastel

The Calm Before the Storm

A blissful afternoon painting out in the field as the sun was dropping in the western sky, the air was warm and not even a slight breeze....just a beautiful time to paint out in the Poplar grove, all the fire wood stacked and branches piled...wonderful...and then came SANDY....what a difference a day makes! 30x40" oil on canvas

Three's The Charm?

The first study  of these gladiolas was done with oil on canvas 24x36"...I loved the red against the black background...I was inspired by Soutine's painting of this subject...then I went to see a film, documentary by Werner Herzog, The Cave of Dreams, showing 30,000 year old drawings of animals found in the caves of France. The simplicity of the black and white and ocher (the color of the cave wall) was very inspiring so I tried it out...22x30" pastel on paper, which led to the last study(as the flowers were dying) drawn with only black pastel on hot pressed Arches watercolor paper...22x30"

The Vegitable garden II

This is the second view of my August garden....I have been working on it since I painted it back then...think I am done now...think....until I see something that needs to be changed...can you see the Hummingbird? I love the garden in August....the frost has come and gone and so this scene is no longer ....life is short art is long...oil on canvas 36x36"

Same Sunflower, Different Day

One sunflower, two different views...The first one is looking up at The Springhouse Hotel in the afternoon light, the second is looking away from the hotel towards the ocean and the old Springhouse Annex in the morning... the vegetable garden is where this flower was growing , well out side the fence actually... oils on canvas 16x20" and 24x24"

The Path To The Bluffs

I painted this study a couple of weeks ago  on Block Island at Mohegan Bluffs...These wind blown Bayberry trees I found very intriguing...Follow the path and you will be standing at the edge of the bluffs overlooking the sea...one of my favorite places to be...It was late afternoon, a beautiful September day...remembered  forever in this painting   ....oil on canvas 20x20"

The Editing Process

Here is a good example of what I did to a painting that I did not like in order to like it...I had to remove a few things....change a few things...until it said what I really wanted it to say to the best of my ability...can you count how many ways in which it was changed?   Zinnias and Guitar oil on canvas 30x30"

The Vegetable Garden I

Here is the first of three studies I am working on of my vegetable garden ...the lettuce plants have gone to seed which I think is really wonderful...there are some new lettuces etc...planted ...the garden bench was my mother's, our house, ie the barn is in the distance....grapes try to grow on the arbor....I left the weeds out on purpose...one way to get rid of them....oil on canvas 36x36"

The ferry Heads Out Again

In this painting, done from the beach, it looks like the ferry is heading for the bluff...I was  really interested in those clouds so perhaps I just wasn't paying close attention to what direction the ferry was going? Just a little watercolor sketch from the beach...the 5 o'clock  swim is always lovely...

Drawings from Snake Hole

Here are a couple of sketches done down at Snake Hole Beach BI...black and white drawings are tricky when you have gotten very used to having color to describe what you are looking at...I like them, they were done with a China Marker....that is a wax pencil that can be used to write on China! It does not erase but gets really good darks...you just can't make any mistakes...or at least ones you want to erase....16x20 on Bristol paper

Heirloom Tomatoes

So here is a fine example of some fancy tomatoes...and boy are they not only good to paint but also to eat...love the way the green works itself into the red...tis the season.....oil on canvas 24x24"

Housatonic River Looking North and South From the Bridge

Well the first study was done a week ago on a hot August day...looking North, up river as it were...funny how the reflections of the trees are so green, taking into consideration the actual green color of the water...lazy summer days along the river...there is a particular smell to warm slow moving river water...sort of like mud...It was really fun to spend time down there watching the water flow under the bridge...24x36" oil on canvas
The second study was done on another hot August day two weeks ago looking South from Great Barrington Mass, on Bridge St....go figure...The bridge shakes every time a car drives over it, a truck is worse...I liked this view through the bridge to the river...36x36" oil on canvas

The Circus Is Coming to Town

Tomorrow, Sunday August 12 from 2-5pm is the opening of this exhibit at the Front St gallery in Housatonic Mass....All are welcome...Please come see these watercolors they are really wonderful ...and will probably never be hung together in a gallery again....but who knows...Bring the kids...they are all welcome!

Out Buildings at Narragansett Inn Block Island

Here is one of about 20 small oil sketches to be shown at the Jessie Edwards Studio ... I painted it in the spring...I loved the color note of the shadow on the small white building...The opening to the exhibit will be this Saturday   August 4 from 5-7pm   this is an oil on canvas 11x14"