Not So Rural Here

We’re in Pasadena, Calif. right now. Yesterday our son and wonderful new daughter-in-law had a huge party to celebrate their marriage in May. It was great to meet Jill’s family and so many of Gavin and Jill’s friends. I love visiting here. It’s so different from our little village–the exotic vegetation, the glamorous people, the traffic, the shops. It feels more like a big theme park than a real place to me. The landscape is spectacular. Right now it’s very dry and fairly warm. The range of earth colors on the mountains and the scrubby shrubs is a nice change from the constant summer green in Vermont. This afternoon Ed and I drove to the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains where I spent a couple of hours doing a pastel. I haven’t done a lot of work with pastel but it’s so much more portable than oils and not prohibited on a plane. I was quite pleased with the small piece I finished in one go. Yesterday we went to the Pasadena Museum of California Art and saw a wonderful show of Maynard Dixon’s work–lots of paintings of the West and of Native Americans. What a terrific painter–great draftsman and beautiful handling of paint. His clouds were particularly beautiful. It was fun today to be working with the same kind of landscape and palette.

San Gabriel Afternoon 9 x 12 pastel on paper

Lilies

After a friend from Texas visited us last year she sent us a wonderful house gift–lots of Asiatic Lily bulbs. Now they’re in full bloom and absolutely gorgeous. When I was out selecting blooms to paint, a hummingbird was going from lily to lily, perching on the lower petal while he drank. They’re so territorial, it wasn’t long before a couple of other hummingbirds showed up and chased him away.

Orange Lilies, Blue Bottle 11-3/4 x 11-3/4 oil on birch panel

Years ago someone in an art class told me that “Shadows are your friends.” I do like shadows as a compositional element but it’s hard to remember that they’re always much lighter than I think they are at first. The lilies unfolded more and more as I painted and by the time I finished a couple of days later the bud had completely opened!

Weather!

I’ve been frustrated for days because every time I prepare to paint, it starts raining. I’m waiting for the sun to come out to do some more flower paintings, indoors and outdoors. On the other hand, after enough hot weather in Houston to last us forever, it is nice to have chilly days in July.

Since I haven’t been able to use outdoor light I’ve finished up a painting of a still life set up with artificial light so I could work on it anytime.

This vase was my mother’s and I’ve loved it since I was a child. I don’t know what the red stems are but I keep them in the vase in the winter when nothing is blooming outdoors. That’s hydrangea in the little blue bottle. I’ve been so pleased with myself for learning to make an origami crane that I’ve put one in two paintings. Luckily I had some origami paper that was compatible with the design in the cloth. The blue ball is a Japanese fishing float I bought years ago.

Red, White and Blue 24 x 18 oil on canvas

Royalty 12 x 12 oil on birch panel

These delphiniums are the most purple thing I’ve ever seen. I had to paint them outside because this is the only delphinium I’ve been able to grow and I wasn’t about to cut any of the blooms! Conditions were not ideal. The ground was so soft from all the rain that the easel kept tipping over and I was getting buzzed by deer flies and hummingbirds. Our garden is unkempt, to say the least. I tell myself that it’s like an English “cottage garden” but really, it’s just everything mixed in together, going its own way.

Getting a decent photo has been difficult. I’ve played around with the color settings a lot but still can’t get as deep a purple as the reality or the painting.

July 4 14-1/2 x 20 oil on birch panel

Strafford is a picture-postcard Vermont village. No house located around the town green is more recent than the 19th century and many of them older than that. July 4 (celebrated on the Sat. nearest the 4th) is a huge celebration here with a kazoo band, lawn chair ladies in formation, floats, firetrucks and lots of entertainment for the kids. On the actual 4th I was painting at the house of a friend who lives on the green. It was a spectacular sunny but cool summer day and I had a wonderful time standing in the shade looking across the green to my subject. The house in the painting was built in 1797 and was originally a stagecoach inn. People around here hang big flags on their houses for the 4th and you can’t have a much better focal point than that spot of red, white and blue!

Sweet William 11-3/4 x 11-3/4 oil on birch panel

The Sweet Williams are flourishing this year. If they keep it up I think they’ll eventually take over. It’s amazing how many variations they have within mostly a similar palette of fuschia, magenta, lavender, etc. Some are plain, some have patterns. They seem like such friendly, cheerful, down-to-earth flowers. I did this painting on a low table so I could get a better perspective from above. The embroidered cloth is one I bought at a thrift shop –faded from years in a sunny window.

This project of flower painting is having the effect of loosening up my style. I have to paint fast to get the flowers done before they fade and before the next ones bloom. Of course I don’t think I can keep up with everything that appears but it’s fun to try.

I’ve been asked whether the paintings are for sale and how much. Certainly they are. The preview price for the smaller flower paintings is $200 before they go on the web site or off to a gallery and for other, larger paintings–mostly landscapes–the price will depend on the size.

Forest Light 20 x 15 oil on birch panel

It’s not all flower painting. In the summers I go out with a group of wonderful painters and also on my own. Recently I was on my way to paint an old cellar hole not far from our house but on the path I saw a beautiful patch of light–bright leaves and dark shade, so I stayed right there to paint. There’s nothing like being in the woods alone–so quiet and with a mysterious kind of feeling too. After I paint on site I usually fiddle a bit with painting in my studio I just finished this one yesterday.

Flower Painting

I’ve never been particularly keen on painting flowers but there is such a succession of them here in the summer I thought it would be fun to try a small painting of each as it comes into bloom. We were out of town when the lilacs peaked but got back in time for the end of the peonies–the first painting in the series. The paintings will all be done on 1/2 inch birch panel–a beautiful smooth surface. Another good thing about the thick panel is that the hanging wire is attached directly to the back so no frame is required–a nice contemporary look.

Peonies in My Window

I love the way the light catches the edge of the blossoms and that right outside the window is a peony bush, echoing the color in the still life. The painting is oil on birch panel and the dimensions are 11.5″ x 11.5″.