Tent Living

My daughter and son-in-law are building a cute small house this summer in Central Vermont. This is where they live until the house is closed in. It is a pretty comfy abode actually. I'm visiting this day and was not too useful at the building site. So I did a watercolor sketch of the tent in the landscape.

Please look at Rodrica Tilley Gallery of available Paintings when you have time.
You can see the building project progress here

Happy Thanksgiving

There are many, many things to be thankful for today...one of the small things is that there are still sheep in Vermont. I just love sheep...what is it about them?  There is a whole flock of brown ones on Western Avenue in Brattleboro. They were freshly shorn when they arrived at Solar Hill in September. and I thought they were goats. I should not have hesitated to paint them...who knows where they will be by spring. Maybe I will still get a chance this fall.

I hope your Thanksgiving is a warm and safe one. Eat hardy. Be nice.

This is the painting I fell on Halloween week. I think I actually improved it and with a bit of tidying up it turned out better than I had thought before the tumble/smearing.  

Two Finnsheep 12 x 16 soft pastel on Wallis Belgian Mist board framed and for sale on a wall near you soon.

Connecticut River at RT 9

One chilly morning, Charlotte Fischer and I set up our easels on the old bridge (retired from vehicular service when a new one was built) to Chesterfield NH from North Brattleboro, VT. After 2 and a half hours on the bridge....not getting much warmer...we gave up...not entirely happy with our results, but at least glad we'd risen to the challenge. We both agreed that we had watched one of nature's magical miracles - foliage turning color before our very eyes! Really. There was much more yellow and gold along the banks when we packed it up than when we started.

This 12 x 12 will be for sale soon. It may need a few small finishing touches, but it is almost ready for framing. It is not one of those who hangs around the studio torturing me for months.

Where the Trail Meets the Road

SOLD

Dummerston, VT - Where West River Trail joins Quarry Road there is a nice high view of the water and mountains to the north. I hoped to get a Close of Day kind of painting. I usually aim to stay in the slow lane, but catching the last moments of daylight is no place for hesitation. I arrived at the scene at 7pm...made two trips to the car and was set up ready to paint by 7:14. No, nothing would make me skip my thumbnail sketch, but I only did one and it took about 5 minutes. I went with that. I painted as fast as I could for one hour and quit. I was home by 8:30. It is 12 x 12 and after some minor adjustments in the studio, will be for sale this summer. And I will try the same spot again another evening and also check out what it looks like at the Crack of Dawn, too.

Gardens in the Off Season

I love gardens in all seasons; blanketed under snow in winter, after the ripeness of summer and before the new shoots of spring. Their structure can be loose or geometric, their fences shabby, sparrows on the bean poles. It is all redolent of growth, sunshine, fertility....really good earth! 

This is Number Seven, one of a series of 24 x 30 pastels; 3 autumn gardens , one winter garden that I have been working on lately. Please leave a comment. I'd like to know what you think.

Eastern Horizon

This is the view I see every morning. Different colors, temperatures, seasons, moods. I love the sunrise and feel bad if I sleep through it...rarely happens.

This particular pastel painting, done in the studio this month, will be on view at Gallery Wright in Wilmington, VT beginning in February.  On your way to or from Mt. Snow go take a look. Gallery Wright has moved to 103 West Main St,(Rt 9) Wilmington Vermont. 802-464-9922

Eastern Horizon image size is about 15 x 22, framed with a mat to about 22 x 29.

Can't go wrong with Gallery Wright

The first Vermont showing of my paintings is at Gallery Wright in Wilmington VT; Nine pastel paintings from the Fifty States Plein Air Painting Project as well as one of my large flower garden pastels, June Bloomers. Those of you who have been following the Fifty States blog know there is a story behind many of the "on location" pastel paintings. Some of the tales are about miss-adventures on the road, some are about history or geography or quirky anecdotes. It has been an interesting project involving a car full of art supplies, many miles of open road and a "mature" artist.

The Pond on Rice Farm Road

It was an exquisite fall day in my neighborhood two weeks ago...and the days here have been mostly soggy for months. I spent the afternoon painting this Vermont scene amidst the birds (?) rustling in the cattails next to me and quite a few leaf peepers driving by on the dirt road.

That was two weeks ago and Black Mountain, where I live, has turned into winter rather suddenly. This is another of the Transitions series. 12 x 16 pastels.

My new studio is growing on me. And some days I can actually find what I am looking for. (Yes, I did put the pliers in that drawer, but why?) It is quiet and warm and bright and near home....and thanks to the local Tru-Value housewares guy, it smells good now. So, I am settling in for a long winter's work.

Later this month I am showing some of my new work at the Butternut Gallery and Second Story Books, in Montrose, PA as part of a show called FRACTURED; an exhibit of photographs, pastel paintings and writing that explores the social ramifications of gas drilling in Susquehanna County, curated by Michael Poster and Melissa Whalen Haertsch. FRACTURED will be on display from November 25 - with an opening from 6-8pm, Friday - through December 31, closing at 3pm. Zoe Poster and Pete Comly, among others, will have work in the show, too.

Ground Hog Day in Vermont

No woodchuck saw his shadow this year...and many of us in the NE are ready for a hint of spring. So we are reassured that spring will come early. I spent the day looking out on two of my garden trees....sort of an incongruous, artless pairing. They are of a similar size; a black cherry and a paper birch. They appear to be growing away from each other like the north poles of magnets...likes repel. The day was full of heavy snowfall, but we did not get the 30" predicted...around 12", I think, which makes over 36" on the ground in southern Vermont. It was tough shoveling to stock the bird feeders. The snow blower is in Pennsylvania.

Transitions

For the last few months my husband and I have been traveling back and forth between southern Vermont and our home of 35 years in Pennsylvania. We bought a house with 5 acres on Black Mountain near Brattleboro and are preparing to move there full time this summer. The frequent 5 hour trips back and forth, although providing a great chance for landscape viewing, often leave me feeling disoriented.

I think I'm going to go with the flow and make some paintings of two similar landscapes that may blend together in unknown ways. I'll be working on 12 x 16 boards with a plein air easel in VT and a new studio easel here in PA. The location of these pieces will be nebulous; somewhere between southern VT and northeastern PA; someplace between plein air & studio work. But the size and subject and medium will give me a sorely needed continuity right now. I may not know what clothes are in which closet in which state, but I'll be able to find my winter north woods color palette.

This is the first of the transitional pictures, as well as being the first painting of the year for me.

Transition #1 12 x 16 pastel