Frontenac Prairie II --- sold

                                                            

Frontenac Prairie --- sold

Here are two small field studies I did last week. In landscape painting it is very difficult to distill all you are seeing into a cohesive vision in a short period of time. You have to work fast because the light and weather change so quickly.   Also, dealing with bugs, sun, wind, rain, schlepping stuff around.... it was a great time!

Villa Maria

Here is a photo of Villa Maria in Old Frontenac where I was painting last week.  It is a beautiful site with woods, prairie, and bluffs overlooking the Mississippi river -  a perfect, secluded setting.  If you haven't been there I highly recommend visiting.  It used to be a girl's school and is now owned by the Catholic Church.

White Peonies --- sold

Single Peony

Two more peony paintings I did this week.

Tomorrow I leave for a painting week in Old Frontenac on the Mississippi river. We will be staying at the Villa Maria Retreat Center, which has 70 acres of land and is near a large park that has over 2000 acres.

Phoneless, computerless, choreless - yeah!

My next post will be next weekend.

available

Red Peonies

Its funny, I really haven't painted flowers much before this summer;  now they seem to be really speaking to me.

"A painter can say all he wants to with fruit or flowers..." Manet

available  

Hosta V --- sold

This is the last of the hosta paintings for now - I know I will return to them.  I am most interested in them when they are emerging and have deep inner spaces.  I have been painting peonies this week and will post them as soon as they are dry enough to scan.

our prairie

Here is a picture of an afternoon prairie walk that our friend Carl Hoffman took.  Two years ago this was a soybean field;  in two or three weeks there will be flowers blooming and  I will post another photo.

Peony Buds - sold

Nasturtium --- sold

Every morning the vesper sparrow and the warbling vireo have a singing contest - the former being most tenacious, and the latter winning in enthusiasm!  I couldn't wait any longer for the peonies to open so I painted the buds...  Sunday I noticed the nasturtium were starting to bloom so I was again sitting on the ground painting.  I prefer to paint standing up, your body doesn't get so sore and its easy to step back and squint for values, etc.  But when I paint small flowers I like to get right into them.

Hosta Interior IV --- sold

Couldn't resist doing another hosta,  they are almost fully opened now.  I have been re-reading a little book called In Praise of Shadows,  by Tanizaki.  In it he extolls the gloaming, murky, shady parts of our lives - love it! 

our garden

This is what I have been spending a lot of my time on - and the prairie, which I will post photos of when we get some good bloom action.  A strange garden year with the late Spring, everything is doing really well except the heat lovers - tomatoes, peppers, basil.

lilac --- sold

It has been very rainy and buggy here so I snipped this lilac branch and brought it into my studio to paint.    Now I am patiently awaiting the peonies!

Hosta Interior III --- sold

How do you make an all green painting interesting...

When asked what is the most beautiful in art, Ingres responded  "a colour adjacent to another which most closely resembles it".  Something to think about.  

When painting these Hosta studies I had in mind pieces that could be viewed from any orientation.

I just read "My Stroke of Insight"  by Jill Bolte Taylor.

I highly recommend it - if you haven't heard of her go to 

ted.com and type her in under speakers, there is a video of her that really blew me away. (thanks Amy!).

Hosta Interior I --- sold

These two Hosta studies are 5"x 7" .  I like the difference in experience between painting outside from nature, where the work tends towards looseness and speed, (previous post) and painting in the studio from reference and memory, where the work is more deliberate and thought-out.

Hosta Interior II --- sold

This week it was rainy so I was in the studio.  After such a long Winter and Spring, I feel overwhelmed by the unfurling of all the flora and all the green!  

Nodding Trillium

sold

Wood Anemone --- sold

Last week I was sitting on the forest floor painting wildflowers... that was pre-rain = mosquitos and broken toe/sprained ankle (horse incident).  The wood anemone and nodding trillium are two small pieces I did.