MS. X

Oil on canvas 5x7 N/A

I had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend because my daughter Casey came up. She agreed to sit for a portrait but we got started late and only had an hour before Denny called us to dinner. She was sweet enough to sit again the next day for about 15 minutes before we headed to an art show. I think an hour should be enough time to get a likeness. I didn't manage it here. Wrong proportions. But my focus was on color and value. She seemed way too gray to me when I got any distance away from the painting so in the end I abandoned my piles of premixed paint and gave her some orange. If she ever agrees to sit again (for some reason she didn't rave about how much fun it was), I'll focus on a likeness. : ) Thanks Casey!

A Strange Sighting

The strange sighting of the title is this. I was on a blog today, Drawing the Mot-mot. In a comment I asked the author to please send some of her blue buntings to me. Then I looked out the window and caught a glimpse of what I think was an indigo bunting. First I've seen in YEARS. Seemed bizarre to me. I wondered if I should request the winning lottery number......

Anyway, then the rest of the day was spent completely distracted as I kept looking out the windows for the bird. I didn't see it again. Hopefully tomorrow.

News of the Day

Sometimes life is good. : )
Artist Doug Lazarus has put together, with the Willowell Foundation, a show of art with Lake Champlain as the subject. This year is the quadracentennial of Samuel de Champlain's exploration of the lake. It's been quite a project, spanning almost a year since the call to artists. I learned last fall that one of my paintings was to be included which made me very happy. Log onto the website for more info.
Champlain's Lake Rediscovered .
The show has opened at its first venue, Shelburne Museum, near Burlington, VT. Next month it goes to the National Arts Club in NYC.

Frosting on the cake is that my painting was included in Vermont Life magazine's article about the exhibition. It's in the summer edition, which just came out yesterday! I feel honored by the acknowledgement.

Shasta and Blue Salvia

Oil on canvas 5X7
No, these are not blooming in my garden. Yet. It's been great weather, so I have no excuse for not going out to paint. The most difficult parts of this painting were photographing it and signing it. :) Below are the progress shots, bottom up. Obviously.




Thanks for looking.

Rose Breasted Grosbeak

Oil on Canvas 9X12

A celebration of feathers. As you can see, this was not a mother. I'm unsure about whether the painting is finished. But I buried the bird in the garden yesterday. It was a little unnerving to try to prop it into realistic poses, and we weren't entirely comfortable keeping it in the fridge, even in a ziploc. Comment, suggestions, critiques?
thanks

Church Street Pond

Oil on Canvas 6X6" SOLD

Vermont, except for along Lake Champlain, tends to be a little dry. A pond here and there. Creeks in the spring. A few rivers. Or maybe it's just this area. But I'm a water lover and enjoyed this location for a little plein air work today. Spring is still waxing. Plenty of barely budded trees yet.
comments appreciated!

Goldfinch Coming In

Oil on Canvas 6X8 SOLD
The newly hung bird feeders have brought a cornucopia of birds. Most prevalent are the goldfinches. I think this one looks like a lemon with wings. As I was finishing this a beautiful Rose Breasted Grosbeak hit the patio door. She hung in for a while but then died. I am so sad. She's probably a mother! I have tape on the glass now, too late for her. My friend Jane, were she still alive, would paint the bird, so I shall do the same.
sorry to post a sad story. Thanks for looking.

Clipped Lilacs

Oil on Gessobord 8X10

I brought out the painting from a year ago and reworked the vase and the background. It won't be long before they are blooming again.

Thanks for looking.

Rocky Road's Chickens

Oil on Canvas 6X8"

On a beautiful afternoon I drove a couple of miles away from the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT and a distant farm caught my eye. Rocky Road. A mile down was not only the farmhouse, barn, herd of deer, llamas, river, and covered bridge, but these three brilliant chickens and a really beckoning chicken coop, made of a trailer with a shack plunked on top. So I painted this with the coop between the hens and the road. It was so cute I had to laugh. I asked another participant what was making the painting too trite. I didn't know if it might be the chickens. She suggested the coop needed to go. Now, I have to rethink my attraction to a scene in the first place. But at least I never considered putting ALL the charming components in right from the start.