Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Hurricanes and hydrangea

We've just had a hurricane on the East Coast, I'm sure you've noticed.  I spent the day placing buckets under the various leaks in the studio and trying not to worry too much about the likelihood of the windows blowing out.  Thanks to preparing for Open Studios, all my work was fairly organized, and I had gotten it wrapped up and tucked under a table before the leaking began.  I'm very thankful to have been spared to brunt of the storm. Yesterday the sun came out again, and I went for a long walk along the river to check on the beautiful old trees that grace my regular route.  Most stood up to the storm.  As I was walking I came across a hydrangea bush that had had all of its heavy blooms ripped off and strewn around by the storm.  I gathered a few, as they were still fresh and beautiful, and decided a few quick, small paintings were in order before the flowers faded--and also, being a bit pressed for time what with cleaning up from the storm and finishing framing and hanging and organizing for open studios, I didn't have the time for anything more.

Here are the paintings--oil on panel, both:


9x12"



10x10"


Hydrangea I find particularly tricky to paint. They require a particular patience to find the balance between too much detail, with which they start looking over wrought and tedious, and too little, with which they turn into amorphous, cotton candy-like, blobs of color.  I think these little studies are my most successful attempts yet. 


And here's one last mushroom painting, just for fun:





Thursday, October 25, 2012

Open Studios!

We are having Open Studios in my town the first weekend of November, which means, as stages of preparation go, I've now reached total chaos.  I'm excited by the opportunity to show my work and studio, and it's been great to have a deadline by which to finish pieces that have been dragging out and also to get frames on things (something about a frame always makes me much more able to see my work as other people must--a finished work) but I'll be so glad when my studio is tidy again and no longer has piles of paintings everywhere in various stages of preparation.  Here are some pictures of the chaos just for fun and as way of invitation to the Opening. I will post pictures of the work hung and the studio sparkling and tidy closer to the big day(s). 





 Ok, so this picture is less of the preparation and more just a nice picture of my work area I took while taking the other pictures.





Friday, October 19, 2012

And another...

And here's another mushroom painting, just because.


Tuesday, October 16, 2012

mushroom studies


There are ways in which I haven't changed since I was five.  I still think forts made of couch cushions are great; I still think all clothing should come with pockets big enough to stash a sufficient amount of treasure (books, marbles, acorns, butterfly wings, etc.); I still have the urge to jump into the middle of deep puddles; and I still bring home awesome mushrooms I find on my walks. I no longer have my mother at home, however, to suggest that perhaps the mushroom would like to live outside. Now things go more along the lines of, "Hi, honey, I'm home... will be eating dinner late, I found this fantastic mushroom I have to paint..." and then I disappear with my mushroom for the evening. This means, of course, that eventually I will find myself with a rather gross, decaying mushroom in my house--my mother is right, of course, it would like to live outside.



Edge of the Fairy Ring



Teacup Mushrooms


Ok, must run, there are more mushroom studies to be had :)

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Oma's flowers

My paternal grandmother passed away nearly a year and a half ago.  She was an amazing woman.  And an avid grower of plants.  After she died, I took cuttings from some of her house plants and brought them home with me, where they've flourished, a lucky thing, as the originals languished without her care.  One of the plants bears lovely little white flowers which I've been meaning to paint for a while now, in her memory.  The painting below is actually of a plant grown from a cutting I took from my first cutting-- now I have two-- and this little guy was just so cheery in its little pot and all full of blooms.  She never knew what the plant was called in English, in German, its common name is something like 'bridal veil'.  To me, they are Oma's flowers.


Oma's Flowers