November Works

November is the grayest month of the year.  We have had ice, fog, snow, mists and, yes, gray skies.  Every now and then a bit of very welcome blue sky and a lovely, warm touch of sun.
I've been working steadily on my Daily Artist 2016 work and here are three of my weeklies--slightly enlarged "inches"--maybe 2 1/2" square...

"Bartlett Pear"

"Origami Crane"

and

"Pomfret Weathervane"

Looking back, there are so many weeklies that I never posted here on the blog.  So, here goes...

"Rose of Sharon"



"Mattapoisett Lighthouse"



"Corporation Beach"



"Feast and Field Bonfire"



"Horse Chestnut, Opened"



"Lake Runnemede"



"Rockport Beach"



"Apple on a Tree"

...and finally, my new favorite treat in place of coffee at our favorite cafe....



"Mon Verte Cocoa"

I'm promising to do a better job of staying current--two months (or more?) is waaaaay too long!

Little Watercolors

It's been awhile since I last posted.  Lately, life has been a bit hectic with showing our apartment to potential tenants, a downstairs bathroom renovation, a sick doggie and a well pump replacement.
Today is a bit quieter being Saturday and I thought I would look back on what I've been creating over the summer....
When I was out working in the garden I found this little robin's nest that had fallen from the maple tree.  Sad to say, then I found the poor little robin that fell with it.  Unfortunately, despite a trip to VINS to help her, she had been so badly injured in her fall that they had to put her to sleep.  Still this next reminds me of her and makes me glad I tried....

One Wednesday morning, I sat in meditation at North Chapel and the candle in the center of the group was so lovely I came home and did this little watercolor of it....

Ahhhh--this is Sea Sea who came to live with us a little while ago.  She is a four and a half year old Portuguese Water Dog, given to us by friends.  She is a wonderful addition  to the family and Addison and Avery (and pretty much everyone else) loves her!

On yoga mornings the thistle outside the studio was abundant and beautiful....

Down in South Woodstock there is a little pond where we take Sea Sea to swim--Portuguese Water Dogs LOVE to swim!  This is a representation of a birch tree beside the pond....

A gorgeous head of romaine from Feast and Field, our Barnard CSA.  A most festive place where every Thursday night we gather to get our veggies, share dinner with friends and listen to the music.  

Addison turned nine here in Woodstock and for breakfast we had pancakes--hers with a birthday candle.  Later on there was an actual birthday dinner with a beautiful cake, made by Addison, but we sang her day in at breakfast.

So, that's some of what's been going on in the studio this summer.  More later....

A Day at Saint-Gaudens

Yesterday, Sandy and I began our eighth year of painting together with a trip to one of our favorite summer painting sites: Saint-Gaudens National Historical Site in Cornish, New Hampshire.  The gardens were beautiful as always, and the gardener was nice enough to take a photo of us under the grape arbor...

It was a warm late spring day and we enjoyed staying out of the direct sun.

I did a couple of little watercolor studies--this one of the iris...

...and this of one of the oriental poppies.  I mixed in a bit of marker and 

colored pencil at the end just for fun.

Daily Painter Week Fourteen

It's been a very busy summer!  We just got back from a week on Cape Cod visiting friends and enjoying the wonderful weather at the beach.  So now that we're home and life promises to settle down a bit, it's back to work in the studio.
Although some experimental watercolor and gold abstract paintings are perhaps best forgotten, I did happily finish the two lily paintings I started at Saint Gaudens and I am pleased with them.

"Muscadet Lilies"

ink and watercolor - 9" x 12"

"Stargazer Lilies"

ink and watercolor - 9" x 12"

Looking forward, I have several photos and many ideas for new work from summer in Vermont and  our recent vacation on Cape Cod....

Being Experimental...

I've been enjoying making some small watercolors with a calligraphic feel to them.  Poking around in the library, I came upon a book of sketches and studies by Robert Motherwell and I realized that his Abstract Expressionist work has an spontaneous, calligraphic feel to it.   Then, I looked at several books on Asian art and experimental watercolor and thought about my experience teaching a bit of Chinese brush painting to my Painting One students years ago.  This all led me to create the four 5"x7" watercolors below.  I used a mixture of indigo and ultramarine blues and a soft, wide, flat brush to paint them.

These remind me also of the storyboards I used to put together when working on computer graphics for Colony Video.  I decided that it would be fun to add some collage images to the paintings.  So, I painted some deep red paper and cut it into shapes that I attached to the paper with acrylic medium.  The shapes are not flat but rather curved and make for an interesting low relief.

I am not sure what the story is that they are telling and I am not sure where these are going but I do have more on my drawing board at the studio....

Watercolor Abstracts

When I painted these four watercolor abstracts I wanted to capture the feel of time and place.  Here there is no longer any grid but the sense of human presence is created by the intrusion of geometric shapes that add an architectural dimension to the works....

"In the Dome of the Sky"

watercolor - 16"x22"

"City of Light"

watercolor - 21"x28"

"Toward the Light"

watercolor - 15"x21"

"Asian Realm"

watercolor - 16"x23"

The Pear Series...continued

This was one of the first pear still lifes I painted. The light reminded me of a day at the beach and so, with the napkin as the towel, it became...

"Pears at the Beach" - watercolor - 11" x 15" 

This sweet little red pear is a bit misshapen but still proud.

"The Pear Stands Alone" - watercolor - 9" x 9"

And this still life group reminded me of proud parents watching their little one venture off into the unknown by herself for the first time.

"Proud" - watercolor - 12" x 12" 

Here is the original maverick, not worrying about whatever the "in crowd" is saying about him.

"Outsider" - watercolor - 11" x 15"

Three is a kind of magical number for me. So, here are several takes on pear triplets....

"Triplets #1" - watercolor - 6" x 8" - sold

"D'Anjou Triplets" - watercolor - 9" x 12" 

"Bosc Triplets #3" - watercolor - 12" x 12" 

And finally, "Where were you pears on the night of August 10th, 2009?"

"Bosc Lineup" - watercolor - 6" x 18"