The Flurry

It's a gray morning with another 3" of snow forecast for today.  Yesterday's 20" have turned Woodstock into a winter wonderland.  And how appropriate because this weekend is The Flurry, Woodstock's snow sculpture festival.

 Wednesday, before the storm, this is what the Green held--stompers packing snow into forms….

And, by the end of the day, this is what the stompers had created….

Eight huge blocks of snow for sculptors to use in creating their works of art!  Work went on all day yesterday and into the night and today the snow sculptors will be back at it after breakfast….

Remembering the Colors of Fall

Well, here I sit at the computer, watching the snow fall and expecting (hoping) that we will have the predicted 12" by the time it all ends tomorrow morning.  It's beautiful out there and I love snow days from my time as both a student and a teacher.  They always felt like delightful, unexpected vacations when it was too snowy to go anywhere so you just had to stay home and read a book, finish a knitting project, cook something yummy, take a nap, have some hot chocolate, talk with friends--all those things there wasn't time to do on an ordinary work day.

It wasn't long ago that the landscape looked very different.  This is a painting I began back in the fall when we went up Braintree Hill and found a lovely vista.  I finished it last week....

"Autumn on Braintree Hill"

oil - 9" x 12"

It's hard to believe on a day like this when I only see black white and gray outside and the plow has just made its first pass at the road and driveway that those colors will return.  Beautiful though the snow is, I love knowing that spring will come again and we will be able to go out to paint some more!

All those little apples...

At the recent, "Fine Works in Miniature" show at Artistree Gallery in Woodstock, I showed five small apple watercolors.  The first was part of the fifty unframed pieces by fifty artists shown together....

 "Three Knobbed Russets"

7" x 7" - watercolor mounted on clayboard

Most of these paintings, including the one above, were inspired by lovely heirloom apples I discovered at the Woodstock Farmers Market....

"Three Holsteins"

7" x 7" - watercolor

"Three Queens of the Pippins"

7" x 7" - watercolor

This last arrangement made me think of a traffic light--hence the title....

"Stop, Caution, Go"

7" x 7" - watercolor

And I blogged about the creation of this painting last time....

"Three Cortlands"

7" x 7" - watercolor

Working small is an interesting challenge.  I enjoyed it immensely and will remember it as a possibility even as I go about stretching some big canvases for acrylic landscapes.  And all those little apples?  They made fine applesauce.

A Little Apple Still Life

I've been painting some small watercolors for the upcoming "Fine Works in Miniature" exhibit at Artistree Gallery here in Woodstock.  Here is the beginning of the first painting--the lightest yellows over a pencil drawing of the three apples....

Next come the oranges, greens and reds.  The middle apple is still at the beginning stage and the closest one is almost complete....

Moving along, the apples are completed....

Finally, the apples are grounded with shadows and "a place to live".  And here is the finished product!

"Three Cortlands"

watercolor - 7" x 7"

"Creative Harvest"

“Creative Harvest” is the current show at the Norman Williams Public Library in Woodstock, VT.  It is a community art exhibit that features two-dimensional work in all media created by seventeen local artists.  It runs through this Thursday, November 14th in the Mezzanine Gallery and is open during library hours, Monday through Saturday 10 am to 6 pm.  This is my entry in the show:

"Summer on Locust Creek"

oil on canvas

Stop by and take a look--it's a great show!

Some Fairly Random Thoughts....

This morning, I took myself to the Woodstock Farmers' Market to get some heirloom apples.  For painting, not for eating.   I came out with a great sandwich and some very cool apples:   

     •  three "Knobbed Russets", all green and webby, also known as "Old Maids in Winter" back in England in the early 1800's
     •  A "Black Oxford", not really black--more like a deep, dark purpley red
     •  three "Reine des Reinettes", translating to "Queen of the Pippens"
     •  a "Holstein" (apple, not cow)
     •  three Ashmead's Kernels, a lovely 300-year-old variety with sort of scruffy green skin
     •  one "Hidden Rose" which promises to have pink flesh
     •  a "Hudson Golden Gem", gold, red and lime green, popular in this country in the early 1900's
I don't have any paintings of these lovely apples yet, but soon.

Below are the two plain aire paintings I'm now showing at Artistree Gallery here in Woodstock.  The first was painted back in May off Church Hill Road in South Woodstock....

"Early Spring, South Woodstock"

11" x 14" - oil

And at the end of August we found this site just off route 14 in South Royalton.  While we painted a fisherman was enjoying a day of fly fishing just upstream to the left and a couple of very noisy trains whistled by to the right....

"Railroad Trestle on the White River"

oil - 9" x 12"

I love this painting and will be sad to say goodbye to it when it goes to its new owners....

It's been awhile....

Since I last posted there's been a lot of painting and showing going on.  Currently I have several paintings at Noah's Restaurant in Stonington, CT--a lovely spot on Water Street in a beautiful town on the coast.  Here's the first painting in the front window....

"July Field, Quechee"

30" x 40" - acrylic on canvas

Along the booth wall are three more, "Posted on Cobb Hill", "October Pasture" and "Sap buckets on Calendar Hill"....

And the paintings continue along the opposite wall:  "Swimming Hole on Locust Creek", "Densmore Hill" and "August Garden, Brookfield".  I think these plain aire frames set the paintings off nicely....

In all, there are 14 landscapes.  The show runs through October 27th, so if you're in southern Connecticut, stop by for a yummy seafood meal and take a look!