Minis

B

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.

Change

Transition  Oil on birch panel  9 x 12″  $350

This still life is one I thought I’d posted some time ago but I’ve gone back through the archives and apparently I only imagined I’d put it up.  Anyway, I had fun arranging it.  I’d been saving the moth and the monarch for some time;  I found them both on the road.  And the cocoon I found  while visiting Fla. years ago.  (To be honest, the moth is a Cecropia but the cocoon is Polyphemus–but hey, artistic license, right?)  All these objects have  been sitting in my prop box waiting to be in a set up.  Then fall leaves made me think of time and changes.  The seed pods are from some vine but I have no idea what.  I just thought they had a nice resemblance to the cocoon.  When I got the whole composition arranged I decided it needed something else.  Then shortly thereafter when  we were in Boston  the gingko tree outside our B & B was shedding its yellow leaves.  I was so tickled to have them to spread around  as a unifying  element.  It’s amazing to me sometimes how when I’m looking for something it’ll just fall into my lap.

I’m Still Here…..

Points of View oil on birch panel  18 x 24″ unframed but ready to hang $500 + s & h

In case there’s still one person on the planet who still checks this blog, I don’t know why I haven’t made an entry in so long.  One reason is, I’m working and reworking huge cloud paintings for a show in 2012; I’m nowhere ready to show them.  But I do have some smaller pieces that I just haven’t gotten around to posting.  Here’s one I painted this winter.  I really enjoy doing still lifes when I can’t get outside.  I bought the pitcher some time ago for nearly nothing, and then I used a piece of satin left from an alteration to Alison’s wedding dress years ago.   Earlier in the winter I got a little obsessed with origami so here’s yet another painting with a crane done with shiny paper as well as an origami lily.  At the last minute I added the scissors because I thought the composition needed another element to lead the eye.  The minute I put in  the scissors I had the title–”Points of View.”  The photo’s not great but you get the idea.

Back on the East Coat

Persimmon   oil on claybord  5 x 7″  $100

Here’s another of the little kitchen paintings.  I’d wanted to paint a persimmon for a long time but it took a while to find one that was the right shape.

The flight back from L.A. went better than expected.  We had to dig the car out at the remote lot but it didn’t take too long and then we got to Alison’s in Utica by 8:00 Calif. time.  Now we’ll have a day or two with our NY family.

While we were in L.A with a fast connection I was browsing around on the Internet  and (I have to admit) googled myself.  I was very surprised to find a number of my paintings on YouTube set to music, done by something called Picutapicata.  At first I thought they must have been lifted from my blog but some of them have never been on the blog.  I’m not complaining–just puzzled.  Anyway, if you would like  to see the show you can search for it at andreadoughtiefuerelise.   Has anyone else had this happen?

Last Day in L.A.

Valley Stream  9 x 12 oil on birch panel  unframed but ready to hang  $250

Here’s a painting I did some time ago.  Last September I spent a beautiful morning by the side of a rushing stream.  I’m nuts about rocks since they pretty much paint themselves.  And I got almost all of the piece done while I was on site.

We’ve had such a delightful two weeks here in Pasadena.  We came out for the  wedding of Ed’s niece, Terryn Westbrook an actor, and her sweetheart, Jon Button, a very successful guitarist.  We never saw so many glamorous people in one place, including David Lynch.  It was a great event and also a mini-family reunion with Ed’s sister’s family.  Since the wedding we’ve had a glorious time with our son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons.  We’ve gone to a lot of incredible restaurants with very different interesting dishes (Kimchi tacos anyone?) And we’ll really have to do a lot of penance for all the calories.   Ed and I have gone to the Norton Simon Museum, the Armand Hammer, the Pasadena Museum of Calif. Art and the Huntington Museum as well as numerous galleries.  The most helpful to me was the Franz Bischoff show at the PMCA.  I never heard of him but absolutely loved his landscapes and his still lifes.  Now I’m eager to get back into my studio and play with my palette knife.  Gavin showed me how to use a sketching program on my ITouch a la David Hockney.  I’m taking baby steps with it but if I ever get comfortable I plan to get an IPad.  It would be wonderful to be able to travel with a small device instead of easel, paints, etc.  Maybe if I’m ever happy with anything I do on the ITouch I’ll post it.

We had hoped that our fifth grandchild would arrive during our visit. That  doesn’t seem likely to happen before we leave tomorrow morning for home where they’re expecting about 20 inches of snow. Goodbye lotus land.

 

From Sunny Pasadena

Dragonfly?  oil on birch panel  10 x 14 (?)  $300

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.)

Alpaca

Diva   oil over casein on birch panel  6-1/2 x 9  $250

Last summer  when Gavin was here we went to the nearby alpaca farm to take photographs.   When I downloaded the pictures I was delighted to see this animal looking so self satisfied.  Alpacas really are adorable anyway and I thought the expression on this one was priceless.  Right now the painting is in the local post office where I have a show  every year or so.  I used casein in the early stages of the painting.  It lends itself to detail but I like to finish with oil glazes for extra depth.

Filly

Filly  oil on birch panel 18 x24″  unframed but ready to hang $500

This painting is going off today for the Christmas show at the community gallery in Lebanon, NH so I thought I should put it up.  It’s my first horse painting–something I’ve been meaning to try.  For the horse I did a grisaille underpainting and added color in thin glazes so I could control the subtleties of tone, light and shadow;  the foreground and background were put on more directly.    There’s a beautiful horse farm in Strafford and in the spring particularly the fields are full of mares with their colts and fillies.    When I was young the one thing I could draw with any accuracy was the horse head on the cover of “Blue Horse” notebook paper.  I had a horse and was obsessed with all things equestrian.   I’d surely break something if I tried to ride now but I have such pleasant memories of  roaming all over the rural area in Georgia where I grew up.  My hope is that someone who’s an equine enthusiast will see the painting and snap it up.

Maine Vacation

A Lake in Maine   9 x 12″ oil on birch panel  unframed but ready to hang $200

In August we joined friends in Rangeley, Maine at a lakeside house they had rented.  We had a great time.  Our hosts were a composer/clarinetist and his wife, a violinist.  Also there was a terrific pianist and her friend an art historian who coincidentally happens to be a colleague of our son-in-law’s at Hamilton College.  Ed played until he was exhausted and I painted.  Our first afternoon there the weather looked threatening but I was so eager I dashed down to the dock anyway.  Just after I had blocked in the first layer the heavens opened up and filled my field easel with water.  The others rushed to help me pack up but that was it for the day.  Later I finished it in my studio and since it wasn’t really the painting I wanted I added a little element for fun.

A Different Technique

Soft     oil over charcoal on birch panel  11 x 12″  unframed but ready to hang $250

Early one afternoon last summer some beautiful cumulus clouds rolled up.  I sat on the porch and “painted” them with powdered charcoal to which I applied fixative. It was a quick method for capturing fast-moving clouds.  Then I gently rubbed oil paint over the charcoal and put in the strip of landscape at the bottom.  I’ve tried the same technique with larger pieces but haven’t liked the look nearly as much.  Also, it’s a lot of work to rub paint in over a large area!