Red Mittens

"Blue Silk, Red Mittens", painted in 2009 and relatively big for me, at 11 x14". I also called it "Please let me in to your Blue Show, please let me in to your Red Show" at a local gallery, hoping it would get in to their Blue or Red Shows but alas, it did not. Never mind, I had a lot of fun with the color.

This painting is called "These Are My Bells". The bells are from Turkey, shepherds tie them to a few lucky sheep and goats in their flocks and they make a lovely sound, early morning or very late at night. They come in much larger sizes, for camels.

The fuzzy red mittens appear again, I'm indulging in cadmium colors.

Salt Works and Nasturtiums

This is Salt Works Beach on Martha's Vineyard, one of my favorite places. I painted it on a cloudy, rainy day in October with nobody on the beach, not even a dogwalker, ( who are permitted to walk on beaches in the off-season months.)

Nasturtiums from my Dad's garden, also painted on a cloudy rainy day, I kept changing my mind as to how much light and shadow there was. So cheerfully orange! I shall paint them again.

Both these paintings were bought by astute art-lovers at SOWA open studios on May 15, 2011.

Mastodon Skull

This is the skull of the Harvard Mastodon which resides in the Harvard Museum of Natural History in the room of giant extinct mammals. It is huge, dark and scary, it cried out - or trumpeted - to be drawn with my blackest charcoal pencil.

The HMNH has a great collection of articulated animal skeletons as well as stuffed creatures and they are welcoming to artists. I did these drawings in 2003; they are darker and more dramatic than my usual work, but that's what the skull called for.

Paintings in the woods

This painting is of a derelict truck I found in the woods near Abercorn, Quebec. I painted it on a misty, overcast day with occasional hints of sunshine;- the trees gave a lovely pearly green but the atmosphere was gloomy as there were other derelict bits of farm machinery in the area as well as the skeletons of several cows.

This also is a scene from the woods near Abercorn. The sun blasts through the clearing and I'm painting in the shade, covered head to toe, the exposed parts of my skin and hair saturated with Deet as the mosquitoes are determined. The light is very beautiful, dazzling every time I see it, but it is best to keep moving.

Mom's fun shoes

Mom's Fun Shoes

These must be from the 1960s, look at those polka dots! First I painted them small, on a 5 x 7 panel but I thought they needed to be bigger so I painted them life size; this makes them look like a real person wore them, my Mom.

Mom's gold party shoes (my feet).

I painted this on my lap with my feet in Mom's shoes, resting on one of her favorite sweatshirts. The tomato is for extra color, the chance to show its reflection on the gold shoes. To my surprise, when I rotate the painting 90, 180, even 270 degrees, it still 'works', though I only signed it on one corner, the lower left.

I sold two paintings at SOWA Open Studios!

Potted Sunflower, oblique view.

A perfect stranger bought this painting, unframed. He said "I love this thing!"

Thank-you!

Lemon in Morning Sunlight

A friend and fellow SOWA artist - a photographer - bought this and I am happy knowing it has found a good home. Also a bit sad because it was sort of a break through painting for me. "You must let them go" says my painting teacher.

Trompe L'oiel

Here are two paintings of objects hung by ribbon, thread or yarn. The knife is unquestionably heavy and pulls down its ribbons. (It was given to me by an Authentic Bedouin, in Petra, Jordan - the sheath and handle are made from a flattened tin can wrapped around wood. The point of the blade is functional.)

The pencil is not nearly so heavy but it manages to pull down the yarn in a straight line, while the feather bounces on the thread, the slightest breeze shifted it and the shadow. Such weighty issues for a still life painter!