Last Outdoor Painting of the Year

Nancy’s Studio  oil on masonite  18 x 24  $500 unframed  SOLD

I did this one months ago but forgot to post it.  I was on a hill above a friend’s wonderful studio.  The shadows were what I particularly liked.  Some of the foliage was turning so I had a little color besides the green.

And One More…..

Beef:  It’s What’s for Dinner    casein  9×12″  $400

Here’s the third in my whimsical casein series.  I found the little knight lying on the road and thought setting him up in a confrontation with the bull would be amusing.  The title is from an advertisement for beef, although nobody seems to remember it.   Clouds fascinate me so it was fun to tack one up on the blue background.

More Whimsy

Here’s another casein painting.  Meerkats crack me up.  These three were sold together and I’ve had fun setting  them up in various scenes.  (Am I in my second childhood?) I constructed the set in a cardboard box, complete with a landscape painting made from a card from one of my shows.  I loved painting the velvet drapery.  Casein is such a time-consuming medium but it’s something I can keep on my drafting table and work on when I have a few minutes, unlike oils where setting up takes more time.

Gossip   casein on birch panel  9×12″  $400 framed  SOLD

Back to Blogging

I read recently that 90% of bloggers haven’t posted in 4 months so there you go.  I do have an excuse.  My opening for a solo show of 42 (!) paintings was last weekend and I was frantically finishing up paintings, varnishing, framing, etc.  I was pleased with the way it looked and the turnout for the show so now I can relax and catch up.  One of the paintings that took the longest was “Cat’s Cradle: Mother/Stepmother.”  I thought the cat’s cradle game was a good metaphor for step families–the relationships are complex but the members are tied closely together.  It took me a long time, working from three different photographs; putting them together wasn’t easy.  Of course this is my former daughter-in-law, the two boys and my daughter-in-law.   I gave up getting a good likeness but it’s the idea that counts.

Cat’s Cradle: Mother/Stepmother    oil on masonite 36×36″  NFS

A New Approach

I’ve been working forever on a tiny painting in casein–my new enthusiasm– a milk-based paint and very forgiving.  It’s a fairly tedious technique using a lot of cross hatching to get smooth coverage.  The beauty is, if you don’t like it, you can wipe it off, even days later, unlike acrylic or oil.  Eventually it hardens and after that it’s there forever.  It’s an old old medium.  This painting was much harder than others.  The little plastic figures I used for models are so small it’s hard to measure distances.  But I think I finally got it right.  Whimsy is one of my favorite things; I guess I haven’t outgrown toys.

Anachronism    casein on birch panel   9 x 12   $400 unframed but ready to hang

Another Park

Here’s the next painting I did.  I am crazy about California trees, especially these tall ones.  I spent all day here and was entertained as well by small children who came up to watch while I was painting.  Unfortunately it was April Fool’s day so they had to play lots of silly tricks on me.

Lacey Park Trees acrylic on paper 9 x 12 $100

Trip to L.A.

We just returned from visiting Gavin in Pasadena–a marvelous trip.  There was deep snow on the ground when we left and perfect weather in L.A.  Gavin and Jill fed us handsomely, we bought beautiful local produce at the farmers’ market and just generally felt we were in paradise.  Seeing our tall grandsons was the best.

Because the weather was perfect I got to go to parks where I did seven paintings in 8 days.  I had to use acrylics because you can’t fly with any kind of solvents, including tubes of oil paint.  Working with acrylics feels very different but the good part is that it dries so fast I can keep going.  I may do an oil painting from the acrylic sketch for a few that I liked.  It was so great to be outdoors painting.  I probably won’t be able to do any plein air until the middle of May at home.

This is the first painting I did at a park in Pasadena that Jill discovered.  It’s full of exotic vegetation.  I’m not sure what these plants were–maybe agave?–but they’re not like anything in Vermont.

California Vegetation 9 x 12 acrylic on paper $100

More Rushing Water

Here’s another small piece I did recently , “cannibalized” from a much older painting.  I isolated a section and painted a version of that.  This is from the West Branch of the Ompomponusuc River that runs along the front of our land.  The water looks bluer in the photo than it does in the painting. 

Rushing Water II    oil on masonite  6 x 8   $150 unframed