Category Archives: Art

A Change of Season

11 Monday Nov 2024

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I’ve been immersed in summer landscapes this year and decided I wanted to try a change of season and a new color palette.

Back to my favorite park in the very beginning of winter, I used an image I had of Mason Neck Virginia State Park just south of Mt. Vernon.

The color is layered on a cool deep blue palette, and built up to golden and blush reeds gathered around the gray-violet trees. Soft, soothing color. I think the old tree trunk on the left hand side was one of my favorite areas to work on.

Water is always a challenge and this scene was as complicated as it gets. I went back and forth, layering translucent color until it fit the mood.

But finally after struggling with it for two months I got the feeling of calm hibernation I wanted. The final details on trees and reflections…

Wetlands;Winter Nap, 30 x 40″, oil

Sky Meadows

29 Monday Jul 2024

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Sky Meadows Virginia State Park is one of my favorite destinations, any season, any weather. It features rolling pastures and woodlands on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

It is in the foothills, horse and wine country with a few cows, not far from Paris, Virginia and down the road from Middleburg. I can get there in under a half hour.

It has a selection of paths to choose (for humans, dogs and horses), and no matter the season, there are always sweet surprises. This little oil captures the rich tapestry of its landscape, historic farm and endless sky.

“Sky Meadows Walk”, 11 x 14″,oil

Green on green

20 Saturday Jul 2024

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As the world goes mad, it just seemed like the right time to work on a totally soothing image.  This idyllic scene from a visit to my sister’s home area near Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks was the perfect choice. She knows the best spots!

It had all the right elements…rich color, gorgeous mesmerizing reflections and a global rock that seemed otherworldly.

I decided to start with the blue undertones.  The tree on the right had an almost ghost like quality and pointed towards the magical rock, reminiscent of the sorcerer’s apprentice in the old Disney film.

Layer by layer, like fine pieces of lace, I added the branches and patterns of needles to the trees.

And then, for the final element I concentrated on the stone and the reflections. Nature can be so elegant.

Wetlands; Rock, Water, Green,  30 x 24″

Breakfast with a view

17 Monday Jun 2024

Posted by in Art, England, paintings, sketching, The New Forest

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I have often said that the great thing about all those rainy days in the UK is the over the top, gorgeous gardens. This one, in the courtyard of our country hotel in Beaulieu,  is no exception.

The Montagu Arms Country House is located in the New Forest area, one of the largest tracts of unenclosed pastureland, heathland and forest in southern England. It’s home to a national park, and several classic villages, including Beaulieu.

The area is not far from London, about a two hour drive. But it is a world apart in Hampshire. Ponies and donkeys roam the area freely, and we often saw a few horses walking down the center of the village from our hotel window. The deer and other wildlife were more shy during the day, but occasionally we caught a glimpse in the evenings if we were out for a drive.

There are grand country walks everywhere. And the village is also home to the National Motor Museum.  So something for everyone.

My little home studio is a haven to re-visit my favorite scenes. A painting often takes me a couple of months, even working most days. So this spring I got to relive those bucolic pastoral days spent in England.

The last week of a painting is spent considering if it is as successful as it can be and what I can do to bring that final spark to it.  And, at the same time, I’m thinking about  my next canvas. It’s a joy to have this to look forward to most days. There is a real sense of satisfaction at one completed, and anticipation as to what is next. There are always mixed feelings when I have finally finished a painting and move on.

“Morning Tea” The Montagu Arms Country Hotel in New Forest, Beaulieu, England, 30″x24″, oil

 

Dreaming at MOMA

22 Friday Mar 2024

Posted by in Art, Art Museums & Exhibitions, paintings, sketching, Uncategorized

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I’ve had very mixed feelings about AI (artificial intelligence) and how it will affect an individual’s creative process.  I personally am a big fan of letting ideas swirl around in my own head. I am always somewhat amazed with what eventually comes out on paper or canvas.

Frankly, I rather like the surprise and the process of art the way it is. The piece  changes and evolves as I work.  But this is rather the point with the new installation at MOMA which uses AI in a similar way.

This past summer, I took a trip to NYC to revisit some of my favorite museums to see if anything stimulated my own creative process.

I went to The Morgan Library, The Met and MOMA.  And at MOMA there was a mesmerizing installation, Unsupervised by Refik Anadol, which dominated the lobby exhibition area right inside the museum from the sculpture garden.

The piece was fluid and moving, constantly changing in color and shape. It was not a loop, but an evolving creative process. The observers were mesmerized. I came back to visit it several times.  It was new each time I returned–different colors and forms and movements.

The piece is a complex interpretation of the collection of MOMA’s 200 years of art. I read several articles and interviews with the artist once I got home trying to better understand. Working with MOMA, the artist put information in to an AI program he created that would use the visual input to create its own flow of images.  Part of the point is that this is how artists have worked for centuries…viewing other artists work and growing their own line of output from a personal interpretation along with other environmental and spiritual input. I know from personal experience that is true.

I’ll have to think more about this one, but it was intriguing. I’m still not sure I understand it completely.  Is this where we are going from where we have been? I remember thinking when computers were first introduced that this won’t be a big deal. I was a graphic designer and could not imagine a machine taking over part of the process.

I was wrong.

Curated Dreams, (MOMA, Refik Anadol, Unsupervised) 30 x 24″, oil

Winter at the Beach

12 Monday Jun 2023

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With two more months to go until our new home would be ready, we moved in to a small condo at Ocean City, Maryland this past winter.  It was isolated and quiet in the months of December and January. I spent many mornings walking along the beach or just sitting in front of the fireplace staring out at the bay from a cozy warm living room.

And then one morning, there was a forecast of a strong storm building.  Within the hour, I could see it coming from our western bay facing window and decided ocean side was the place to be. Tides were high. Clouds were rolling in. Drama!

I walked that beach until the wind got too fierce to hold my camera upright. I took as many photographs as I could in that short window of opportunity.

When I got back inside, and looked at what I had, I couldn’t believe my luck.  The clouds were rolling.  The surf was blowing. And the water and wet sand made a mirror image of the dramatic sky.

Finally, we moved in to our new home and my studio! I could begin on “Water’s Edge”. It was a huge challenge to paint, especially the movement and reflections, but with patience and concentration, thin layer of paint over thin layer of paint, I managed to capture the feel of the ocean completely taking over the beach. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Water’s Edge, 40 x 30″, oil on canvas.

 

Walking the C&O Canal

01 Thursday Jun 2023

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In the late autumn of 2022, we were in the process of moving.  My studio had to be packed away when we sold our condo and we had 5 months to go before our new home was ready. I couldn’t imagine that long without painting. I decided the solution was to walk the C&O Canal and look at images that would work in graphite, conte and charcoal, a much more portable medium than canvas and oils.

And so four 11 x 14″ drawings were born, done on a make shift dining/drafting table in our temporary quarters. It was lovely to work with light and shadow, and I have always loved that canal.

Each lock has its own personality. And there are long stretches of easily walkable paths between the locks.

The C&O stretches for 184.5miles, from the Georgetown area of Washington DC to Cumberland Maryland. My favorite stretch is from Lock 7 at Glen Echo to the Great Falls Tavern in Maryland. In my younger days I would bike from one to the other and then return to Georgetown.

 

Now, I get the same joy parking at different locks and spending an hour or two strolling along the curves of the canal. It never disappoints no matter the season.

Crescent, Towpath on the C&O

Twist, Towpath on the C&O

Allee, Towpath on the C&O

Amble, Towpath on the C&O

Autumn Stroll on the C&O Canal

27 Tuesday Sep 2022

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Autumn is absolutely stunning in the DMV area (short for DC, Maryland, and Virginia). It’s always a pleasant dilemma to decide where to take a morning stroll.

The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park stretches from Georgetown in Washington DC, along the Potomac River, bordering West Virginia, all the way to Cumberland Maryland. A favorite starting point of mine is the Great Falls Visitors Center in Maryland.

The park is stunning. With its twists and turns, the tow path tucks between the Potomac River and the canal, bringing surprise vistas in to view with each turn.

This day last year was half way in to the peak fall foliage of early November, but still warm enough to tie your jacket around your waist, grip your water bottle and take off.

Especially on weekdays, it never seems to get overly crowded, but always has enough walkers and bikers so you don’t feel too isolated walking alone.

The November light is stunning, captured in the branches and the low, leaf strewn  water of the canal. Everything seemed luminous and translucent. Capturing the layers of light, shadows and reflections was a challenge and a joy.

Wetlands:Towpath In Gold, 30 x 40″, oil

 

A Winter’s Project

31 Tuesday May 2022

Posted by in Art, Art Museums & Exhibitions, paintings, sketching, Uncategorized

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This past winter I was lucky enough to get a lovely commission for two paintings from Gallery50, my long standing gallery in Rehoboth Beach, DE.

One was a large 60 x 40″ canvas that would feature Barnett Newman’s Air Heroicus Sublimis at MOMA (The Museum of Modern Art in New York City).  For the other, which was to include a school visit, I chose one of my favorite galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC that revolved around Degas’ The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer. This painting would be smaller and more intimate in scale. I had an earlier photo I had taken that I would rely on for angle. But it needed to tell a story. It needed the children.

I ordered the stretched canvas.  The 24″x36″ came almost right away.  The 60″x40″ took over a month because of 2022 supply and shipping issues.  But I had plenty to do in the meantime.

I started going through my photo files.  I have lots of reference from years of museum visits, but choosing the perfect combination of gallery angles, art and figures took time and thought. The dining table in front of the fire became my workshop. It was January.

I sketched, erased, ripped up the tissue and started again.  I always want to tell a story in these gallery scenes. With all the activity of a class assignment on the left of the smaller canvas, I wanted to balance the scene with a younger child fixated on Degas dancer. She is oblivious to the chaos around her.  I finally penciled it on to the canvas.

For the Newman gallery scene at MOMA, I wanted to include a variety of museum goers.  I like to balance the different characters, and the young girl working on her notebook was the perfect foil for the man on the right looking at his phone (by the way, that is my husband–this is a typical shot of him after he’s viewed the gallery with me and I want to linger in the space longer…he’s a very patient man). The small lettering on the sketch are color notes to myself.

Still waiting for the larger canvas to arrive, I began to work color on The Little Ballerina.  I went on line to make sure the Degas gallery at The Metropolitan Museum of Art looked the same now.  Covid had kept me away for a couple of years.  I was surprised to learn that they had put a new skirt on the dancer. It is now longer, fuller and a beautiful pale ivory blush, different from what I had in my older photos. There is a wonderful Met video on YouTube explaining why they decided to do it and the process they used.  Fascinating.

And so it begins.

I made real progress on the Met piece, and then the larger canvas came in.  I work in layers of color with some drying time between sheer passes, so it was a good time to set one aside and start on the other scene at MOMA.

And then there were two.  I did work back and forth, getting to stages where I wanted some drying time on one as I moved to the other.  It was well over two months of this back and forth process. The snow outside my studio window turned to early spring skies and birds chirping. It was March. I can only work 4-5 hours a day with breaks.  The concentration is intense.

And finally, they were both finished.  And I changed my mind minute to minute as to which was my favorite. Usually the one I last worked on. I am very pleased with them both.

After several weeks of drying time, they were ready to take down our stairs and to carefully pack them both in to the car for delivery to the gallery.

 

The Little Ballerina, 36 x 24″, oil on canvas

 

Heroic Vision, 60 x 40″ oil on canvas

A Walk In The Park

09 Sunday Jan 2022

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Like many of you, I have spent the last two years of the pandemic treasuring special places where I felt safe, but free to walk and fill my lungs and spirit with nature. What better place than a National Park.

Within a quick half hour drive of my condo in Alexandria, VA is the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park at Great Falls, Maryland. It has plenty of parking with a gorgeous trail on the towpath that runs between the Potomac River and the old C&O Canal.

This happened to be a late summer day and everything was hot and lush and filled with sunshine. Insects were buzzing, birds were singing. The park never seems to be very busy during the week, so it’s the perfect place for isolated walking where you don’t feel completely alone. There’s always at least a few fellow walkers.

Since I started this series of wetland paintings, I’ve come to the conclusion that each area has complimentary but unique characteristics that change with the location, the season and the weather.

But the reflections are always gorgeous, the variety of flora fascinating, and the sense of rebirth and transition takes my breath away. Nothing can be more important than preserving these resources for future generations.

Over the many years I’ve lived in the Washington D.C. area, I’ve always considered the C&O Canal towpath one of my go to places to refresh and renew. This is a special walk in a National Park close to home that I have returned to again and again over decades.

Wetlands, The Towpath, 40 x 30″, Oil