"Small Works" at Artistree

At this time of year, there are many area exhibits that feature less expensive works for holiday gifting.  At Artistree in South Pomfret, VT, the current show is just that.  Interestingly, in addition to the framed paintings, the sculptures and ceramics, there is a special wall titled "50 @ 50" the idea being that there are fifty 7" x 7" panels, each of them available for purchase for $50.  Here is the wall as it looked earlier today.

Hmmmmm--I count 55 panels.  Below is my pen and ink drawing entitled "Ancient Tree"...

There is an exciting diversity of media and styles and over half of the panels have already been purchased though the show goes on until December 19th.  There was quite a rush to buy last Friday at the opening reception.  If you're in the neighborhood, stop by to see the show.  The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11 am to 4 pm or by appointment.

Dewey's Pond

Yesterday was a fine, warm November day to gather with the Odanaksis artists at Dewey's Pond in Quechee.  The sun was shining and there was a little breeze and we all know that any day now it will be cold and snowy--making the day even more special.

I took up a seat looking over the pond toward the west and using my Sharpie, sketched what I saw in my traveling sketchbook.  My watercolor brush with the water in the handle, accessed by squeezing the barrel, works well for this kind of sketch.

"Dewey's Pond"

watercolor and marker - 5 1/2" x 9"

Although the foliage was actually a bit muted, I decided that being a bit fauvist would be fun.  So, my painting looks a bit more peak foliage than it was...

Painting with Sandy

Yesterday was too wet to paint outdoors and too dark to paint in the studio so Sandy and I set up in the kitchen with a fall flower bouquet and got out our watercolors.  Working back and forth on two paintings is a good way to go so on a damp day like yesterday.  One can dry a bit while I work on the other.  At the end of the session, I had two studies, this first, a light and breezy painting.  I may go back in and add a few details...

"Fall Flowers"

watercolor - 4" x 6"

The next one is my attempt to add a dark background to make the flowers stand out.  I also sprayed it with water to soften parts but maybe I got carried away a bit...

"Chrysanthemums"

watercolor - 4" x 6"

So, I decided to add some marker lines to clarify details and edges and pump it up a little and I'm pretty happy with it now...

"Chrysanthemums"

watercolor and marker - 4" x 6"

As I get back to painting after a very busy season of guests and travel, it's fun and very accessible to start by working small. 

Art in the Round Barn

I was fortunate to be selected to show my paintings this year in Waitsfield, VT at the historic Round Barn.  

Artists from Vermont, New England and beyond were selected from a pool of over 100 applicants and all art works are for sale.  The "Meet the Artists" Opening Reception was held yesterday, September 20 from 4 to 7 pm.  The barn is a lovely antique building and the food, the wine and the atmosphere were great....

These are the three paintings I exhibited this year...

...and here I am with fellow exhibiting artists, Helen Schulman and Sheryl Trainor...

...and Randall Gardiner whose work was hung next to mine.....

It's a lovely ride up to Waitsfield and if you're in the area, the show is open to the public September 21 through October 12, 10 to 5 on weekdays and 10 to 2 on weekends...

In Obertsdorf

Yesterday we drove from Ulm to Oberstdorf--225 km per hour--or 140 mph--on the Autobahn, Angelika driving.  Quite exciting!  In the afternoon we went for a hike to the village along the hiking trails.

Along the way, we saw a beautiful little church, the church of Santa Barbara...

Inside it was just as lovely with little nosegays at the end of all the pews, perhaps left from an earlier wedding...

As we walked along, we came upon this bull with a bell on him, making the characteristic noise that sounds like the alps.  Some people today think that the tolling of the bell is driving the bulls crazy but it's been going on for years and I think we have to check it out on Google when we have the chance!

Dinner was at a llittle restaurant outdoors looking at the mountains in the near distance...

We enjoyed pork chops with crackle, noodles and with onions and cheese and, for dessert, a special caramlized pancake with apples, almonds and plum sauce...

Saint-Gaudens Iris

Using a photo that I took at Saint-Gaudens I added a bit to the watercolor I started earlier and I'm pleased with the result....

"Saint-Gaudens Iris"

watercolor - 9" x 12"

Now I'm looking forward to following the blossoms through the summer.  I only wish I'd started earlier in the growing season!

A Day at Saint-Gaudens

Yesterday, Sandy and I spent the day at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire.  The home, studios and gardens of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of America’s greatest sculptors are quite amazing.  Over 100 of his artworks are displayed in the galleries and on the grounds, from heroic public monuments to expressive portrait reliefs, and the gold coins which changed the look of American coinage.
In the gardens, the poppies had gone by but the foxglove, iris and peonies were blooming beautifully.  We sat right down on the ground to be eye level with the blossoms and enjoyed a sunny, warm day of watercoloring.  Here is my version of the peonies....

"Saint-Gaudens Peonies"

watercolor - 12" x 16"

I also started a painting of iris and hope that finishing it in the studio using photos taken yesterday will not result in a tightened up painting!

Vermont Artists Week Again

In Johnson, I started several pieces that I didn't have time to complete.  Yesterday, I finisheded this drawing of Red Mill, where offices, the gallery and the dining hall for Vermont Studio Center are housed.  The Gihon River flows past the building, tumbling over rocks and making lovely white water.  During my stay in Johnson, the days were either dark and stormy or, toward the end of the week, warm and sunny.  My drawing hopefully captures a little of both....

"Red Mill"

10 1/2" x 13 1/2" - soft pencil on gessoed paper

I'm still working on three paintings started during Vermont Artists Week and will post again as I complete them....

Vermont Artists Week

One of the great pleasures of being here at the Studio Center is that every morning there is figure drawing from nine to noon.  I stopped by again this morning and had the blissful experience of doing what I did years ago in art school....

The model is an accomplished painter in her own right and understands how to relax into a pose beautifully.
After seven o'clock meditation in the beautiful meditation hall and a breakfast of oatmeal with maple syrup and raisins, it doesn't get better than drawing for awhile with Bernardo Rubaja playing on my iPod.  Now, back to work in the studio....

Vermont Artists Week and "Brookmelt"

I'm in the midst of packing and getting ready to go up to Johnson to the Vermont Studio Center for Vermont Artists Week on Monday.  What to take, what to take?  I have drawing, watercolor and oil painting supplies, my iPhone, my iPod, some ear phones, a laptop computer, some books, some knitting and my pillow.  So far.  Fortunately they have an art supply store if I forget anything....

Here is my painting based on the photo of the melting brook I took last week.  I'm enjoying watercolors so much!

"Brookmelt"

9" x 12" - watercolor

Artists Week is going to be an interesting experience.  In addition to my room, three meals a day, my studio, a meditation space, yoga classes and life drawing, I look forward to meeting a variety of Vermont artists.  

Driving Around

These days of spring meltdown are full of hopeful sights and scenes.  Driving to and from Windsor yesterday I came upon a couple of wonderful shots.  A melting brook....

...and a huge barn...

Right next to this barn was another with a sign on it reading "farm fresh eggs and hay".  I wondered if both the eggs and the hay are farm fresh?
I think both of these visuals will be inspiration for paintings in the near future....

Tulips

It snowed again last night--maybe another five or six inches.  It won't last long because temperatures are forecast to go up into the 60's over the next week.  But the psychological impact of more white ands gray is real.  And the best way to combat it is with some COLOR!

"Tulips"

watercolor - 7" x 11"

So, here's my antidote--a bouquet of colorful flowers exploding on to the paper, giving us hope for warmth and sunshine coming soon....

MUD(season) at Artistree

Today is the last day to drop off work for the local MUD(season) show at Artistree.  We've hardly gotten to the beginning of mud season this year with the cold and snow lasting so long.
In addition to "Early Spring, Cloudland Road", I am exhibiting the watercolor below.  In the beginning, the painting was oriented vertically.  But as I worked on it I thought that cropping a bit off the bottom would improve the composition so that's what I did....

stage one

"Barnard Brook Meltdown"

transparent watercolor and gouache - 7" x 7"

Here is the finished painting with some added color to suggest the coming of spring--and not a moment too soon!
Friday night from 5:30 to 7 pm is the opening of this year's exhibit in the new gallery at 2095 Pomfret Road in South Pomfret.  Please come and enjoy!

Early Spring, Cloudland Road

Winter wants to hold on to the cold but the sun is getting stronger day by day and the snow is diminishing.
I've been working on a watercolor painting of a huge tree on Cloudland Road in Pomfret.  The painting came together in stages which I photographed along the way.

In the first stage I am beginning by painting the lightest colors and then check to see how dark I need to go with the tree.

As I build in the darker shades of the tree trunk and branches, these begin to set off the snow on the branches and ground.

"Early Spring, Cloudland Road"

watercolor - 10" x 12"

The finished painting includes the shadows on the snow and the brush along the horizon.  The foreground snow is not pristine but we've gotten used to this leftover mixture of snow and dirt by the sides of our roads and driveways.  Mud season is here!

Yale Art Museum

On our way home from New York City a bit ago, we stayed overnight in Hamden, CT and after dropping our grand daughters off at school, went to the Yale Art Museum to see the current exhibition of James Whistler's work.

Whistler in his studio

The show is mainly his etchings from his days in Paris, London and Venice.  

Nocturne, from the First Venice Set, 1879–80. Etching and drypoint

But there are also a couple of his nocturnes painted along the Themes in London.  He is a master of these dark, mysterious works....

For this exhibit, the walls of the gallery are painted shades and tints of purple--an unusual choice that I found to work very well!  You can see a bit of the color surrounding the painting above....

"Life Force"

Today I've been working with a different palette--warm reds and orange.  Perhaps I need to see these colors when the landscape is still white and shades of blue shadows....
This composition is lovely and fat with dots of dark paint and the salt makes textures in the first wash....

"Life Force" - stage one

"Life Force"

watercolor and gouache - 4" x 6"

Some judicious straw blowing and a bit of negative space painting gave me this result.  I am liking these little experiments with loosely constructed work....

"Woods"

Outside my studio window, the field across the road goes up to meet the woods that climb our western hill.  There are deer tracks and shadows that mark the snow and then the deep woods claim the view.
This is the beginning of the watercolor I made yesterday.  It is a loose composition using the colors on my palette, mostly burnt sienna and ultramarine blue but with the added springtime yellows and greens that give hope to us all at this stage of the winter....

"Woods" - stage one

"Woods"

transparent watercolor and gouache - 4" x 6"

My small finished painting is a loose representation of the snowy field and the deep woods both waiting for spring which arrives in about three weeks.

Key West Two

It was eight below zero this morning as I got my coffee in the kitchen. We now have clear, blue skies and lovely, bright sunshine but the actual temperature at one pm is still only one little degree!
So it's a treat to remember our days in Key West with beautiful, warm breezes and abundant, healthy plants.
Here is a collage of photos of palm trees and such I put together this morning....

Key West Abundance

collage - 4" x 7 1/4"

Key West One

We had a great visit with our friends in Key West and while there I took the following photos through the glass table on their balcony....

Each photograph is a lovely small abstract painting and to my mind, there is no point in painting them when they stand alone so beautifully just as themselves....