Tribute to A Beautiful Earth - New Studio Welcome

"When we pay attention to nature's music, we find that everything on the earth contributes to its harmony."
- Hazrat Inazat Kahn

Today's photograph is called "North Light Quiet". Welcome to my studio in our new home in Mystic. This view is before the onslaught of boxes, boxes and more boxes! But we're in our new place....and of course finding a place for every belonging. Since the studio is now FULL of boxes, I will find my small paint box and head outdoors to resume my "daily painting" endeavor!

Please join me on the daily-painters website this month as we focus on the "Celebrating and Conserving of our Planet.

Evergreen Summer Evening - pleinair

6"x8" oil on Belgian linen mounted on professional artboard (Raymar)


"Art is something absolute, something positive, which gives power just as food gives power."
- Hans Hofmann

I've been waiting for this day in particular to paint this scene again. Three years ago, on July 21, 2005 at 8:15pm I painted this scene for the first time. We had just moved into this house three days before on the 18th. Now, in 2008, I paint again on the evening of the 21st at 8:15pm to compare the evening sky to that prior date. We have three more days to really 'live' here and on this Friday, the 25th, we finally close on our new house....and can start taking our things over! Today I started boxing up tins of solvent & mediums, jar of brushes from my work table...all going into a plastic bin to take over to my new studio. Folded up easels to be ready to cart over. Certain things we will separate out, so that when the packers come next Monday, there will be no liquids, etc. for them to sort out. Hopefully my work space in the new house will be what I set up first. I found this quote (listed above) to be quite true - I do gain energy from my work. I truly find excitement, strength and renewal every time I go to put paint on that canvas. And paintings for me always bring about a memory of place, what I was doing at a certain point in time. Even though I painted the partner to today's painting 3 years ago- I remember every thing I felt that evening - how incredibly hot and humid it was outside and in the house, too. How tired I was from unpacking boxes....and that I just wanted to paint! AND that it was too doggone hot in the kitchen to cook anything for dinner until at least 9:00pm! All those memories in a 6x8" canvas. This evening (Monday night as I write this) as I painted, I looked for oranges in the sky like I saw 3 years ago, but there were none. But instead a peachy-pinky- mauvey light interrupted by a brighter yellow-white streaking diagonally across the low sky. My goodness the evergreen trees in the back yard have grown a bit, and gotten shaggier, there's less space between them now. Memories of this evening will be the tiredness from preparations for moving , but the excitement of owning our own place, the sadness of leaving good friends in this neighborhood....and the satisfaction that this painting will remind me of all the good things I love about this place that I'm moving from.


******I hope you will join me during August as I take part in painting "A Tribute To A Beautiful Earth" - Celebrating and Conserving our Planet at www.DailyPainters.com. One hundred thirty-seven (137) member artists from 10 countries will post their tributes to the planet at the website. The Online International Show will begin August 1st and run all month to celebrate the beauty of the world and taking care of it. ********

Lily, Lily, Summer Lily

8"x10" oil on Belgian linen mounted on professional artboard (Raymar)

These are some of the most vibrant blooms of summer! Over at Harkness Park there are so many beautiful flowers. The plantings are arranged so that their surroundings make them even more outstanding. I believe this orange lily is a "Turk's Cap Lily" (by the way the blossom hangs down & the petal ends curl up tightly).

For purchase information, click here.

We are down to the last week before we move to our new house. Probably not much painting will get done this week as I transfer my old studio to my new space....as well as the rest of our household! Everything is coming along rather nicely, I've arranged for the utilities to be transferred finally. I'll certainly be glad when we all unpacked and set-up in our new place!

Cottage Garden Morning, New England Summer

6"x8" oil on Belgian linen mounted on professional artboard (Raymar)

I wait for summer all year long! This year all the blossoms are particularly beautiful! How did we get so lucky? Each morning my neighbors and I walk our regular route around the neighborhood. It's a neighborhood of beach cottages down by the Long Island Sound. One cottage has one of my favorite gardens- summer flowers draping over and around a white picket fence, a rose arbor to greet you at the front walk, and white 'oak-leaf' hydrangeas to frame the house. The flag is always flying. Morning sunlight just before 8:00 am lights up the face of the porch and the tops of the flowers and shrubs. One day at our new house I hope to have lush plantings like this! (Well, give me a few years!)

For purchase information, click here.

Edge of the Cliff View to Skelligs, Ireland

9"x12" oil on Belgian linen mounted on professional artboard (Raymar)

On the same day that I painted out at the cliffside ruin over on Reencaheragh (see entry of June 24th), we finished in time for a picnic lunch. After we gathered our belongings we left them to wander further out to the cliff edge. It was an open meadow on a spit of land that rose up to a point. As the elevation got a bit higher & closer to the ocean, the grass is like a short stubby alpine type grass & the prettiest pinky-purple wildflowers bobbed their heads in the stiff breeze. That area is so wind-whipped. I saw this same area during my visit in March(although I was quite a safe distance away in a protected area) and it is over-washed by ocean spray of fierce winter storms. As one side near the point drops down to the Portmagee channel, a great view of the skelligs comes before you. It is breath-taking. Looking down into the channel around the rocky islands, one can see where fishermen have set their lobster pots. Two sheep in that last meadow were watching our every move! I knew I would have reference material for many more paintings from this beautiful piece of land.

For purchase information, click here.

Cliffs of Moher - sold

9"x12" oil on Belgian linen mounted on professional artboard (Raymar)

One our of days while over in Ireland, we spent a good deal of time here at the Cliffs of Moher. It is one of Ireland's most visited sites. It is indeed spectacular. My friend Barbara made sure we were able to see it in the afternoon light when the sun is coming from the west and illuminates the sides of these cliffs. Bits of green growth sparkle down the cliffsides as if someone laid a veil of emeralds on faint velvet. The wildflowers at cliffs' edge were all the more charming in their contrast to the rugged coastline!