Ned’s Garden   oil on birch panel  9 x 12″  unframed but ready to hang  $200

The garden of a house on the Strafford green looks out over beautiful fields.  A friend and I parked ourselves under a huge  tree and spent a lovely morning in the shade.  We don’t have a long growing season here but in the summer growth and bloom are explosive.

And here in California we spent a day at the Getty Museum–wonderful collection and gorgeous site.  We went years ago right after it opened and didn’t remember that there were so many good paintings.  They  have several by wonderful  Chardin as well as enchanting works of Oudry, Tissot and Sweerts who’ve never made much of an impression on me before. And of course the many Rembrandts were amazing.   I would have liked to see more contemporary work but apparently there are restrictions.    The Dutch landscapes gave me  a  chance to study clouds as well.    We also went on an interesting local “art crawl.”  At a gallery that has shown David Hockney we saw huge pieces that were highly textured monochromes.  Maybe someday I’ll get some acrylic gel and play around with heaping up mounds and valleys.  I do approach museums and galleries very selfishly, looking for ideas I can use.

Cottage and Barn  oil on birch panel 9 x 12″  unframed but ready to hang   $200

I’ve been working and reworking some very large cloud paintings for a show next summer so I haven’t had much to blog.  Finally the weather warmed up enough to get outside and this is the first plein air piece I did this season.  Now we’re visiting our son, daughter-in-law  and handsome new grandson in California.     At last have a fast connection for the next 10 days and can post more easily.

The painting is of a cottage and barn situated on a stream behind the Strafford townhouse.  The morning was beautiful and once I got set up in the shade I had a good time  working on it.

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Summer Morning,                                 Birches                                         Setting

As part of Strafford’s 250th anniversary celebration in July our local art group plus other artists in the area will be having an art show.  In addition to that we’re each donating at least one 3″ square painting as a fund raiser, to sell for $25.  I’ve never painted so small–a real change from the 3′ x 4′ pieces I’ve bee working on for the past several months.  It was sort of fun but not something I’d make a practice of.  It was a relief to have work that I could polish off so quickly.

The large pieces are taking me forever.  I’m eager to put them on the blog but can’t seem ever to finish with them.   I used to wonder at an artist friend, a wonderful painter, who spent forever on each of her pieces.  Now I understand.

If we had better than a dial-up connection I think I’d blog more frequently.  Right now we’re visiting our son and daughter-in-law in Pasadena where we  have had a succession of gorgeous clear days as well as wi-fi.  Paradise!

This painting is one of a series that I think of as  “Rorschach” pieces–figures that we imagine we see in clouds.  For this one I looked at a cloud, ran back into the house and slapped down some of it before I dashed back outside to look some more.  It seemed to me something between a sea horse and a dragon.  (Since I’m not at home I can’t check on the exact size but I think the dimensions are a close guess.)

Sarah’s View   oil on masonite 9 x 12″  $200 unframed

When I went out to paint this one the sky was clear.  But as so often seems to happen, clouds came up and looked threatening.  As the sky darkened the spots of light diminished until just the edge of one bush was lit up.  Then, in the distance, the sun fell on the top of a hill for just a minute,  making  a path of light from the foreground to the background.  Gifts like that are one reason plein air painting can be so satisfying.

Dappled Shade  oil on masonite 9 x 12″  $200 unframed

Here’s the second painting I did this spring/summer.  I stood on the edge of one friend’s garden and looked toward another friend’s garden.  It was fairly early morning and I liked the effect of the light against the old white house, the shadows on the roof and lawn.  Unfortunately as I was walking out of the little wooded area where I was standing I tripped on a branch and went sprawling.  The knot on my knee lasted 3 months but hey, one has to suffer for one’s art, right?

Christine’s Canvas   Oil on masonite  9 x 12″  $200

I’ve been painting a good bit this past summer but for some reason haven’t been in the mood to blog.  Probably nobody’s still listening but I thought I’d go back and post some of the paintings I’ve done in the last few months.  We still have only a dail-up connection and as the technology progresses we feel more and more that we’re still in a horse-and-buggy world here in the woods.

This painting is the first I did outside last spring.  The woman who owns the house where we were painting is an enthusiastic gardener and says her yard is her canvas.  And what a view she has! I really liked the early spring color of the crabapple tree.  And the rustic chair underneath it looked so inviting.

Ginger Man  oil on claybord  5×7″  $100

I’ve wanted to paint ginger for a long time.  I thought this piece was vaguely anthropomorphic and then when I started to paint I realized it had a face!  I may have emphasized the features just a trifle, but basically this is what it looked like.  In my opinion ginger is right up there with garlic as a culinary essential.

Garlic Pot  oil on claybord 5×7″  $100

I’ve been working on huge landscapes but in between while waiting for them to dry I’ve started a new series of still life paintings.  I found a lot of little 5 x 7″ claybord supports I bought for  painting  flora of the forest floor.  So I thought while snow covers everything outside I could use the claybord for still life paintings of edibles.  You’d think that a small painting would be easier to dash off but actually it takes longer than some regular-sized landscapes.  It’s very good practice for noticing all the subtleties of forms.  And the little pieces prop up nicely over the doorway to the kitchen where I already have a lot of paintings of fruits and vegetables on the walls.  A friend gave me this pretty ceramic garlic keeper and this makes the third painting I’ve done of garlic–tells you how I feel about garlic!

Rejoice!  oil on masonite   27×36″  $850 unframed