Top Prize!

I won it! Most Luminous Landscape in the 2016 Vermont Pastel Society Members' Exhibit at Arts Alive in Burlington. The judge, Mickey Myers (from the Bryan Memorial Art Gallery in Jeffersonville, VT), said this about my painting Winter Garden 4pm:
  

This piece has such an unusual luminosity to it.  At once it is sweeping, and it is intimate.  It pulls the viewer to what lies ahead at a distance, and it pulls the viewer back to the crunch of the ground under foot.    That ironic concept of a “Winter Garden” in the title explains why the luminosity of this piece provides more than just a seasonal picture – it provides the depth of the season itself.  

 I appreciate the judge's comments. More judges should take the time to talk about why they chose what they chose. It can be helpful to the few artists who won awards and the many who did not win this time. She advised members to "watch your frames". Many good paintings look bad when placed in uncomplimentary frames.


I have not seen the show yet, but look forward to seeing it during the last week of April on a short mother/daughter trip to Burlington. The Arts Alive gallery is open 9-5 on weekdays.

Drawing, Sketching

"I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing."
 Vincent van Gogh


Me, too. Delightful, yes. Some days the drawing just rolls from my eyes/brain through my fingers on to the blank page. Other days there is rather more angst in the process and sweat on the paper. Whatever ...I Would Rather Be Drawing...than Not. Anyone else feel that way?

In my seventieth year, I tend to forget things and lose things. Drawing is a tool that has helped me learn and figure out my world all my life. It is my refuge and meditation and solace. I would sooner leave my house without earrings than without my sketchbook. In the above quick drawing I bundled up and drew my reflection in the glass door at a frigid 23 degrees. I know this winter has been unusually mild, but I have learned I can draw outside for limited duration at most any temperatures over 15! Choose a quivery subject....and put a heat pack in your pocket

 The above small sketch of my friend in class was done in 3 minutes or less. I was looking for her attitude and concentration rather than accuracy.

This large charcoal drawing of Martina is about mystery and mood.

My big cat Charley Parker has found the one spot he blends in to his surroundings while perched on an old brush pile.

In this pencil drawing I was exploring options for winter garden paintings I am presently working on.

What have you been doing these long winter days?

You may want to look at Vincent Van Gogh The Drawings 2005 The Metropolitan Museum of Art NY.  Check it out or order it from your local library.  It is a heavy book, good for at least a week of dedicated perusal.

The geese just went by Southern Vermont this morning, heading North! YES!

Look at my upcoming Events in right column.  And write to me.

Garden Watercolors

Camassia and Tulips
(SOLD - inquire about similar work)

I am all about my garden at this time of year and am painting some small (4" x 10") watercolors in it...of it.

Hate to tear myself away, but Alaska calls...and Oregon and Washington.  When I return I hope I can see the 36" tall poppy heads over the weeds...and I am dreaming of the fabulous roses of the northwest...and the Cascade Mountains, Columbia River, Kenai Peninsula, and midnight sun.   These are the last 3 states for my Fifty State Plein Air Painting Project 
which you may have heard me mention...a few thousand times...over the last 7 years...yes? 

Tell me about your trips, garden, paintings, dogs or plans. (bunions, bad knees, periodontists...no thanks).    North to the Future!

See side bar for the exhibit at Butternut of Garden art work .

The Garden Pool

 

A new pastel painting that I just sent to Butternut Gallery and Second Story Books,  Montrose, PA. This 8 x 10 nocturne is priced to sell. Four other new paintings, too. Hope you will stop in to have a look at all their exhibits, this year. The original art, gifts and well-chosen books make it a Northeastern Pennsylvania hidden treasure.

Postcard Invitation

I have two large pastel paintings in the Winter Members Show at the Southern Vermont Art Center in Manchester and was pleasantly surprised to see that one of them had been chosen for the postcard. It looks quite festive. Come to the opening reception on Saturday afternoon if you can; December 6 from 2-4.

Today marks 7 years of blogging here. The title of my painting featured on the postcard is Number Seven - a serendipitous good omen for the next seven!

Please look at Rodrica Tilley Gallery of available Paintings when you have time. The paintings on exhibit in Manchester are Number Seven and Community Garden, Putney.

Season's Greetings

We are getting our first real snow tonight...6"-12" they say. This will make fellow Vermonters happy. I will try to appreciate the beauty of having my world transformed overnight. It is always a magical event and made even better by a little sunshine! If your December is a dark gray gloomy one, here are some rays for you. 4pm Winter Garden.

This large pastel is finally in the frame after a particularly long gestation period in which it just hung around and hung around my studio...sort of like the snowdrops...wishing won't do it...one must just wait until the time is right. Not sure where it's next stop is, but I think I will enjoy it for awhile in it's finished state.

Vermont Pastel Society Exhibit November

This month the Vermont Pastel Society is exhibiting some of their members work at Hooker Dunham Theater in Brattleboro. A blog post gives you a nice glimpse of the show including my painting, Dahlia Season (above) as well as details and links.

The Gardener's House

SOLD

This is an early morning plein air painting of a charming property that the Tuesday Painters were invited to visit and set up our easels. It is 16 x 16 and available for purchase framed.

Imagine having a gardener living in the midst of an extensive garden...or being a gardener living in this cute place. (I think many decades ago I read a banned book about this. My mother smuggled it over the border during one of my father's fishing trips in the 1950's. He was concerned about not exceeding the number of allowed dead fish in the cooler. I wonder if he knew about Lady Chatterley's Lover in my mom's suitcase. Neither of them knew of my secretly reading it a few years later)

ipad methodology

Because during winter in Vermont most days are too cold or too short for plein air painting, this is the time of year I do my studio work.

During the last year I've found more and more uses for a new favorite tool. My ipad goes most places that I do. I take pictures with it. I use those photos primarily as inspiration, but also as sources when developing ideas for new paintings.  I do not paint literally from photos. Nor do I want my paintings to be mistaken for photographs. My own photo references jog my memory, suggest elements, inspire light effects.

After a session of studio work before I turn out the lights and leave the building, I photograph whatever is on my easel. This gives me a daily record of progress. It also allows me to continue the process elsewhere...3 miles away over coffee before dawn. It was simpler when my studio was attached to my house, but the ipad helps bridge the 3 mile gap.

I do not digitally manipulate either my source photos or the photos of my paintings. I don't care about the quality of my photos. They are always good enough to use for ideas. I plan how I will continue my work when I get back to the studio. It is a chance to step back and think.

Somewhere in the act of transferring work from the easel to a computer screen a critical eye appears; the magic editing tool! Awkward areas, not quite right color choices and clunky composition decisions jump off the screen to hit the artist over the head. Thank you, thank you.

This 24 x 30 winter garden scape is in process right now. I'll post the finished painting sometime. I toned white Wallis paper with pastel and odorless thinner and am working in multiple layers of soft pastel.

Garden Triptych

These three pastel paintings started in the garden on an easel set up in the driveway....en plein air. Then, months later, they moved to the studio to be finished. It was a wonderfully successful garden of annuals with a few exotic tropicals thrown in; castor bean plant,  dahlias, cannas. This little garden was alive with butterflies, bees and hummingbirds all summer. It's all over now; their frost-blackened bodies pushed into my compost bins.  Situated right in the middle of a rather tight driveway, I spent the summer defending my plants' right to exist in proximity to concrete trucks, numerous building crews, weed whacking kamikaze teenagers and the speed-demon UPS man. Survive it did and bloomed brilliantly right up to October 13th....and 27 degrees!

SOLD  10 x 10, 10 x 14, 10 x 10in. (25.4 x 25.4, 25.4 x 35, 25.4 x 25.4cm)

Now I am trying to decide how to frame these three paintings; separately? together? color frame? Some paintings paint themselves...not these 3 and they're not going to jump into stock frames, either.... decisions, decisions, decisions. Any ideas? Tell me what you think...and thanks for looking.

Garden To Be

On the corner of my deck sit a few pots of pansies and some annuals and French tarragon; a restrained selection, for me, in anticipation of a few small construction projects here this summer. We are having a formerly used small greenhouse attached to our house, the deck enlarged and the front stone walk and steps rebuilt. This 12 x 16 pastel is my first plein air painting of 2012. Well, at least I didn't wait until May...quite. I painted this yesterday afternoon. Happy planting!

Phyllis' Garden

On July 10th my friend invited a few plein air painters to her new home. It is an airy Pennsylvania hill-top site wedged between two defunct dairy farms. Being a sucker for garden views, I chose this veggie garden as seen from one of several elevated porches and balconies. I was attracted to the linear elements and the protective presence of the large maple tree. In my crazy season of packing and moving I forgot to post this. Now it is a nice reminder of a midsummer's afternoon painting with friends....and another of the Transitions series.

Cinco de Mayo

Trying to ignore my chores, I set up my easel in the garden just before 10 am because it was a warm, clear day and we haven't had many of those here in the Northeast this spring. I wanted to capture some of the soft colors and a feeling of the garden bloom beginning it's seasonal progression. I was pretty sure the dandelions would still need weeding later as would the latest closet cleaning in the studio.

In this picture the lead role is taken by the aptly named Star Magnolia, a sweetly fragrant bush we love to sit near. The supporting cast is a diverse lot of conifers, hardwoods and two apple trees with an adorable guest appearance by the little coral species tulips.

About 10:15 the wind kicked up and my board threatened to take the whole easel for a sail across the garden. My trusty stone bag saved the day and I've included a photo of this fold away piece of indispensable gear I carry in the bottom of my backpack. Stones can be found in most places I paint, but in their absence I've scooped up hands full of sand or purchased a gallon of water. Whatever you use for ballast will stabilize your easel in a surprisingly stiff wind. It lowers the center of gravity, there by making painting actually possible.

Later when I did get around to cleaning out some drawers in the studio storeroom I found a brand new spare stone bag! I didn't even know I had two! That one will be included in my upcoming BIG STUDIO MOVING SALE May 27, 28, 29 & 30 along with an array of prints, paintings, art supplies and other unique items useful...or at least interesting...to artists and collectors. There will be deals, trust me.

Dwarf Iris Rules the Earth

In early spring my garden has a riveting swath of intense blue slicing through it. Iris reticulata are small (4-6 inches tall), but they make a big statement. Their display is especially welcome set in the debris of my untended winter garden. They like good drainage, sun and can survive much colder temperatures than we get here in Zone 4/5. 100 of the bulbs will only cost you $30 and once planted you can pretty much sit back and watch your investment grow, doubling annually. They have been pest-proof for me for about a decade...and you don't have to stake them like their larger relatives with beards.

For me they have been an elusive subject for camera or easel, until this year. I finally have a pastel painting of them I like. Dwarf Iris with Lichen is part of the Transitions Series.

Perigee Moon Set

Huge moon setting behind my garden...worth getting up early for! This is another of the 12 x 16 Transitions Series. It is done with soft pastels on a grey Art Spectrum paper.

Return to Autumn

Some of you may recognize this to be the plein air painting demo I started in the garden on October 12, 2010 during the Artists' Open House Weekend. The time was right today to finally finish it...something about January makes me want to clean up leftover business. I'm glad I had this one hanging around.

Fenced Sunflowers

This past Sunday morning I was visited by some young artists from Camp Susquehannock. They drew in charcoal and I worked at the bottom of the garden on this pastel painting. For those of you not living in white-tail deer country, we must fence the deer out of our gardens especially when we grow sunflowers - a gourmet item on the deer menu! This is a 16 x 20; rather large for me to complete in one sitting en plein air. I had to finish it up this morning in the garden. The light was coming from the same direction, but it was much stronger this morning. A newly hatched family of tufted titmouses (titmice?) were practicing their whistles & cheeps in the branches over my head.

Michael Poster, my husband took some photos of the kids and made a slideshow with music by Booker T & the MG's. http://www.backroadsproject.com/kids_draw/

Lilium 'Pizzazz'

I've been amusing myself by painting some of my wonderful Asiatic & hybrid lilies in watercolor. The weather has cooled off a bit and is more conducive to spending time in the garden- painting or weeding. This is a small 4" x 4" and there are a few other companions to it.

Happy Garden

This is the plein air demo that I started for a group of Hill Country Artists 2 weeks ago Thursday evening. I love painting for them. They are an interested group of painters with many questions. I did a little work on it later in the studio, framed and hung it on the wall.

I usually avoid yellow in the garden and in paintings, but other people like it and this is one of the rare garden exceptions. In July it is a hot, happy border with sort of a Chinese Restaurant style color scheme. It's 11 x 14 on Wallis paper mounted on thin gator foam.

Moonlit Winter Garden

SOLD
This small painting was done in the studio yesterday, but the scene is outside my studio window. It is my snow covered garden complete with shadowy creatures and a crescent moon. 9 x12.