Spring Comes To Old Maybry Mill

                                                      An original transparent watercolor painting
                                                      16x22", unframed - (mat size, 22x28")
                                                       $1,200.00, (plus $25.00, pack and ship)

     Spring has been AWOL in our part of the country, regardless of what the calendar
tells us.  We had a third, heavy and deep snowfall last week, doing additional damage
and staying with us right up until this weekend.  I have been as anxious for a genuine
taste of spring as everyone else, and I ran across this watercolor which may perhaps
brighten a few spirits.  The subject is probably one of the most photographed and
painted old mills in the country, but maybe my treatment brings something a little bit
different than others may have tried.

                                                          (Click on image to enlarge.)

     Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.

Cheese and Quackers

                                             An original acrylic painting, on gessoed Masonite panel
                                             6x8", unframed
                                             $175.00, (plus $10.00, pack and ship)


     The cheese was a small wedge of white Stilton with apricots, imported from
England.  It had a mild flavor and a crumbly texture, with chewy bits of diced apricot.
     The quackers are a pair of salt and pepper shakers, in the form of  hand-painted,
duck figurines. They were also imported, but from the other side of the world, and
they are of a much older vintage than the cheese was.  Those two, little ducks have
been around as far back as I can remember, dating at least to the 1940's or earlier,
when so many ceramics products were flowing into the country from Japan.

     The chances are that they were a little gift to my father, who liked hunting, and
who actually seemed to enjoy sitting in a freezing, cold duck-blind before dawn,
in the hope that some ducks might eventually stray within shooting range.

     Now these surviving ducks are just two more of the multitude of little dust-catchers
in the house, which are patiently awaiting their dispersal after I am gone.  So, here they
are, perhaps making a final appearance before their future migration to an unknown
destination.

                                                       ( Click on image to enlarge.)

     Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.
   
 

Snow-bound

     I believe this is the title page to John Greenleaf Whittier's long, 1866 poem, which
was so popular in the late 19th and early 20th century.  The poem tells of that era in
America, before homes had electricity and telephones, when the sudden arrival of
deep, snow and ice storms would intensify the feelings of isolation which many people
had to endure for long periods of time.  In those days, when being so snow-bound, the
only form of entertainment available to relieve the cabin fever, was to huddle around
the fireplace and tell stories.
     I was reminded of that poem because, for the past few weeks, the heart of America
has been snow-bound.  For two weeks in a row, late Winter storms visited us, dumping
nearly a foot or more of snow on us with each passing blow.  The last storm in particular
dropped heavy, wet snow, which stuck to every little branch and twig, pulling the trees
and vegetation to the ground.  That resulted in thousands of people being without power,
and some fairly devastating damage to trees and shrubs.
   
     My own, quiet hide-a-way, which I like to call The Artist's Retreat, was not immune
from the crushing, wintry assault, or from the resulting destructive force. These photos
I took of the front garden, show the shrubs all flattened under the weight of the snow,
and the flowering trees bent down to the ground. ( Somewhere, under that fractured
red-bud tree and that mound of snow, is a driveway and a car.)
     The complete inundation reminded me of the the winter scenes of the Russian,
country home in David Lean's film production of Doctor Zhivago, when the house was
overwhelmed with deep drifts of snow and ice.

     Now that the snow is melting into smaller patches and I can tally the damages, I can
see that there are a number of large evergreen shrubs and trees which are beyond
repair, but I know that young replacements would never grow to a handsome size
during my remaining days.
     So, I am reminded once again, that despite all of our modern conveniences, Mother
Nature still rules, and we can all still become........Snow-bound.    

Fruit For The Greenhouse Gardeners

                                                             An original oil painting, on stretched canvas
                                                             36x24", unframed
                                                             $3,000.00, -(plus $35.00, pack and ship)

     It has rather humble subject matter for a painting this size: some old,clay flower pots,
filled with dirt and broken pot shards; an old galvanized, watering can, which has lost its
sprinkler head; some stray fabric, perhaps used as frost protection for tender plants; a
wandering vine from a philodendron plant; and some fresh fruit.  However, I suppose
those objects were not the real subject of this painting.  Back in the days of my youthful
enthusiasm for experimenting with composition methods, it was more about the painting
process, than it was about the subject matter.
     This is the painting to which I referred in my previous post, Variation On A Cezanne
Motif.  This one dates back a half dozen years or so earlier than that one, to the late
1950's or early 1960's.  I don't think I was too overly conscious of Cezanne's
composition methods at the time that I painted it, but I was certainly in full harmony
with his efforts to create deep space in paintings by making the planes rotate or move
around a central point, back and forth in space, without destroying the picture plane.
Therefore I deliberately modified the shapes and planes of the various objects to further
that effort, such as tilting the bench top at an exaggerated perspective, tilting the watering
can on its axis, and literally tilting one of the flower pots.  All of which combined to create
a strong directional thrust from the lower left corner to the center of the canvas, with
additional elements reinforcing the directional pulls from the lower right and both sides,
continuing that circular movement around the central pivot point.
     I recall that I first made a full scale, preliminary drawing for this painting, using charcoal
and ink, just blocking-in the major elements of the painting, to get a better feel for the
direction I wanted to take the composition.  That drawing must be lost or long gone.

     As for the painting technique, it bares practically no resemblance to the carefully
modulated planes of Cezanne's art.  This one was painted at a time when I, like so many
other artists, was enjoying the the love of paint, and the pleasure of seeing the paint itself
and the evidence of the application process, still visible in the finished painting.  Although
I didn't go quite so far as to have the paint drip and run down the surface of the canvas,
the painting was handled broadly, with undisguised elements of the under-painting and
glazes still showing beneath passages of strong, loaded brush-strokes.  

                                                            (click on image to enlarge)

 

Variation On A Cezanne Motif

                                                       An original oil painting, on canvas panel
                                                       24x20", unframed
                                                       $2,000.00, (plus $25.00, pack and ship)

     I have been an admirer of Cezanne and the other post-impressionists since my
early school days, and my own work has no doubt been influenced by those modern
masters who led the way for all artists, as we have followed their ground breaking
work.  Several decades or more ago, when I was looking at a book of Cezanne,
still-life paintings, I observed the often overly-elaborate, arrangements he set up to
paint, using favorite objects surrounded by an abundance of fruit, resting on flowing
folds of fabrics.  That abundance was very deliberate of course, so that Cezanne
could create the many, overlapping planes he required for the unique, spacial
organization of his paintings.
     One of the paintings which caught my attention, featured a dramatic swag of
drapery, flowing down from over the upper left portion of the composition, and I
decided to try a simplified study of that kind of arrangement, using just a few, handy
still-life objects.
     I no longer remember the specific Cezanne painting which was the motivation
for me to do this one, or even any of the objects he placed in it, other than the fabric,
but I know that this painting bares no resemblance to the great complexity of Cezanne's
compositions, or to the definitive modulations of his painting technique.  However, for
those viewers who enjoy richly textured, oil paintings, this one does have passages of
vigorously applied, loaded brushwork and painting-knife work.
     Looking at this painting now, it strikes me that the way I handled the fruit has more
in common with Gauguin or Van Gogh, and their interest in Japanese woodblock prints,
than it has with Cezanne's painting method.  Cezanne was on record as disliking the
flattened shapes of Gauguin's painting compositions.
     As for the old, hand-wrought, copper pitcher in this painting, it was purchased in
an antique shop in the mid 1950's.  I know nothing of its history beyond that, but its
quite aged patina makes me wonder if it might once have been used to serve up ale
or hard cider in some Early American tavern.  

                                                           (click on image to enlarge)

     Viewing this painting again, reminds me of an older one that I believe I still have,
which perhaps reflects a stronger influence of Cezanne's approach to composition.
It must be stored away someplace; I will see if I can find it for my next post.

      Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.

China Tree Seed-pods, and Old China Cat

                                                An original oil painting, on canvas panel
                                                24x18", unframed
                                                $2,000.00, - (plus $25.00, pack and ship)

     Some years ago, I had a few clusters of seed pods and dried leaves of a china tree,
which I used as subjects for still-life drawings and paintings, such as this one which has
been in storage since that time.  The trees, also commonly called varnish trees or golden
rain trees, are native to China, and are now considered an invasive species in Florida,
but they are not so plentiful in the middle-west.  The pods are rather unusual, little,
three-lobed, lantern shapes, with paper-thin husks, which makes them interesting to
draw and paint.  I wish I still had some.
    The ceramic cat figurine in the painting, is one of a pair which have been in the family
since at least as far back as the 1940's, when most of the ceramic figurines which were
flooding into the country were made in Japan.  I have used them in paintings a number
of times, changing their color as needed to suit the compositions.  Looking at this
painting now, I'm wondering if it might be time to add a ceramic mouse.  That seems
apropos, since just about any little, ceramic mouse we can buy today is most likely
made in China.

                                                           (click on image to enlarge

     Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.

Weathering The Storms

                                                  An original mixed-media painting, on paper
                                                  18x24" unframed, (mat size, 24x30")
                                                  $1,800.00, - (plus $25.00, pack and ship)


     The wonderful old barns which defined us as an agrarian nation during the 19th
and early 20th century, are rapidly disappearing from the landscape, but it is not
the storms which are sweeping them away.  They have fallen victim to farm
consolidations and changing agricultural methods, as well as suburban development,
such as the subject of this painting.
     Some decades ago, when I spent an afternoon doing this expressionist study
of this particularly fine old specimen, with its high, gambrel roof, ventilation cupola
and extended bays, the structure was still standing, shimmering in the gusty wind and
the heat of the sun.  Now it and the grain fields are long gone, consumed by an ever
expanding, suburban sprawl.  

                                                         (click on image to enlarge)

.