The Path Less Traveled By - sold

This is oil on a gallery wrapped canvas, 8"x8" in size and 1&1/2 " deep. This is an infrequently used road in an area we hike in. The mist was beginning to set just before dusk. "How will my adventure end this day?" I love a good mystery.....(Can you tell I hate to be cooped up indoors?).

Assateague Illumination - sold

This painting I put a little 'tweaking' on today - it was done plein-air back on a September weekend at a paint-out in Chincoteague, VA. This is one of my favorite places on earth.

Moon Rising - sold

This 20"x20" piece was very fun to paint - big fat brushes with lots of lush paint. The house way across the road from me gets hit across the front by the setting sun. The light rakes across the tree tops as the rest drops into shadow. When the moon rises over top, it's quite the sight to behold!

The Way Home - sold

Well, by golly sometimes those little studies help a lot. Trail's End (posted several days ago) is a 3x4.75" color study to help me figure out how I wanted to finish this painting that I had begun, well, a while ago. This painting, "The Way Home" is 12"x16" of a very beautiful bend in the trail at Bluff Point. When the sunlight comes streaming through the trees, it backlights some and illuminates others. The warm light is so inviting.

Where The Wild Things Are

Today I have 2 new paintings started, which will probably be finished to post tomorrow. This painting, 8x10" Where The Wild Things Are", I painted at a plein-aire paintout in Chincoteague, VA this past September. I've just brought this home from The Artists Gallery in Virginia Beach to replace with some new paintings there. This was a beautiful day to spend out in nature. By that afternoon, a band of ponies came toward our area to graze in the marshy area.

Buzzard's Bay 3"x5" - sold

Another beautiful marshland- this view of Buzzard's Bay up in Massachusetts has those favorite elements that draw me to these places...the abstract design of water flowing through the grasses, all the shades of green, golds, & browns in the reedy grasses.

Trail's End - sold

This is one of my favorite places in CT to go hike. This is at Bluff Point in late afternoon, the sun glances across the cove to light up the tree trunks (or back light them depending on which angle you're walking down the trail). The path winds it's way around the water's edge ...so beautiful in this spot. Hiking is one of my favorite get-a-ways - even a short one is better than none at all!

Pond's Edge - sold

Pond's Edge is 3"x4.75" on gessoed masonite. Today was cold & dreary, I'm thinking back on a place we went hiking when the weather was nicer, a bit of foggyness, but warmer than what we were hit with today!

Winter Sunset on the Sound - sold

Very reflective wet paint again. When all has been gray & brown around me, the winter has at least provided some amazing sunsets. The view near the water is always worth a good long look. When the sun starts it's drop, it goes down fast, and when it hits the water's edge, it backlights the rocks, dunes & grasses and barely peaks over the edge to give the nearby grasses a warm orange-green glow. The days may be shortened, but it's a daily show around 4:00pm.

Florida Wetlands, Lake Monroe, 3"x4.75" - sold

I've come to realize how much we are influenced by our childhood surroundings. Wetlands conservation has become a concern of mine...I look back over years of paintings, and this is a frequent theme of mine. This little mini was done as a color study from a reference my mom sent me, from back home in Florida (where I spent the first half of my life). Shown here are the wetlands along the southern edge of the Lake Monroe Conservation Area. All along the Atlantic shoreline as well as some in inland areas are these vital places. Besides just looking beautiful, they store waters during periods of heavy rain - curbing flooding - and provide a habitat for a variety of wildlife. I've been fortunate enough to visit many of these places from Florida all the way up into Maine.

"Front Moving in at Dusk" 10"x10" - sold

Just got home from the Fabulous Forgeries opening reception in Virginia Beach. And the drive home to CT was smooth sailing today- what a great break!! The listing "Madre" (see post of Jan. 3rd) won an honorable mention, lots of good buzz around these 2 Sorolla 'forgeries'. While staying at my friend & fellow painter Norma's house, we painted in her spacious studio - this from a reference photo I brought from up here in CT. We had a cold snap earlier in winter and the day it blew in we had gone on a hike. The winds had picked up that day & blew in a REAL cold front, dark scary clouds trying to block the sun - seemed it was fighting for it's last bit of glory before sinking into the horizon. This is painted on a 10x10 gallery-wrap canvas.

Shall We Dance 8"x8"

hmm, very reflective wet paint... I've been wanting to put this little scene of friends in paint! Leave the background subdued, but have some indication of the party atmosphere. This one has been scraped into, repainted and I'll probably go back into it tomorrow to bring things closer to where I want them. The foreshortened right elbow is giving me fits. We'll see what tomorrow brings... For now, I have 3 more paintings to finish framing for delivery tomorrow.

Shall We Dance

Got a nice block-in started on an 8x8" piece of gesso- board. But was also framing for 3 shows, and took down Christmas decorations & hauled it up to the attic while I had my husbands help! Clearing the clutter is an artistic victory in itself! Hope the finished piece will be nice tomorrow!

New England Nocturne, 6"x8" - sold

I am convinced, the most exciting action in the winter sky around here starts about 3:30pm. Things start moving, changing, growing, shrinking....colors grow wilder, then more dim, sometimes clouds blow over to leave brilliant clarity. AND IT'S ALL SO FAST. Thursday evening we were driving home from JFK airport in NY, coming up I-95 into CT. Luckily my husband was driving, or I think they'd still be pulling me out of a ditch somewhere. Up ahead the moon began to rise, yes as it always does, but this evening it was different- BIGGER, just over the tree-line in the distance. This large buttery yellow orb with a reflective glow emanating from the edges, then a dark purply-blue cloud started rising from the bottom to cover it, and another streaked across it. The charges started happening and I knew they weren't going to slow down for me. Rats, no camera, & even if I did have one with me, photos from a moving vehicle on the interstate in the dusk aren't usually winners for me. But I did have a little sketch book, so I drew what I saw, wrote what I felt about what I was watching unfold before me.

Several years ago when we lived in San Diego, July 2000 actually, I had seen a painting by Stan Sowinski called "A Midsummer Night". I got to see the original and I was lucky to receive a postcard for this show featuring this painting. Held on to that postcard ever since... I have LOVED that painting from the moment I saw it and always regret not having bought it! I promised myself that at some point I would paint the night sky... and yet, this many years have gone by & I had not yet done so. I have always done plein air painting in the daytime, or interiors or still life setups. This year - I promise myself to paint the night sky - again & again!
Note- the dark wet paint is very reflective on this photo, will try to update it later as the paint dries.

Benched, 6"x8"- sold

I have been wanting to paint a snow scene for some time now.....even though we haven't seen any up here in CT for a while. I was trying to remember, I think we had a bit in early November? Before that it was last year. Trying to work from a photo from last year and memory, of the bench in my front yard (out of the front studio window) I initially had the snow too warm. After painting the sails on yesterday's Sorolla study, I realized - there's my snow colors! Back to the easel to finish this little painting. Now I'm happy..and ready for the next snow fall - if we actually get any this winter? It's really weird being in the mid 50's in January in CT!

This painting is sold to Cathy Ziehl of Newton, MA. Thank you Cathy!!

Beached Boats, Valencia, 1915/another lesson with Sorolla, 8x10 -sold

Well, now I'm ready for the "Fabulous Forgeries" show opening on Friday the 12th of January, Artists Gallery, Virginia Beach. Another lesson with Sorolla, I really enjoyed "making grays" in these billowy sails. His lush use of paint and that 'loose painterly look' is exactly the thing I strive for in my own work. I usually keep to a pretty limited palette when I paint & in this sky used some Cad. red light instead of alizarin like I had been doing for years...hmmm, I like that warm, muted look in the distant sky. It's good to try something different, break old habits, even if it takes an exercise of "copying masterworks" to get you to that 'ah-ha' moment. Playing with the grays has given me some new insights for another painting that's waiting to be finished.....

"Madre" or learning from Sorolla - sold

We stand on the shoulders of those that have gone before us. Once a year I make the exercise of copying an "Old Masterwork". This practice began years ago as an art school class assignment. I am continually amazed at what there is to be learned in this process; 'secrets unlocked'. Now I am painting for a "Fabulous Forgeries" show in Virginia Beach, where the artists re-create works by the Great Masters, carry them a step further, or use a bit of humor in their re-creations.... but humbly give homage to these Masters of all time. I must profess my great admiration for Joaquin Sorolla's works. As a mom, the emotion of this scene, a mother's love for her infant - really connects with me on one level. For the artist-me, this small adaptation of "Madre" is a study of the beautiful shades of grays that make up white - here it is all that beautiful fluffy white bedding surrounding mother and baby. Thanks for the lesson, Joaquin...I'm very grateful.