purse in the Woods, redone

I had to redo the original image. It felt to random. This is more about death. Our bones are as fugitive as autumn leaves.
7 x 11 1/4 inches, acrylic on paper with collage

Tuesday=time out

Tuesdays' I don't get much done. It is the day I listen to my body- by taking a yoga class with Roberta Roll, and then I listen to my father-in-law by taking an afternoon drive with him. This day he bought me lunch at the Mountainside cafe and I benefited from his 80 years of imparted wisdom on the school system and the price of oil. It wasn't a bad day at all- but I finished a small painting called, "A Bad DAY"- I actually started it during a lull in my open studio event and stopped because I felt it bad luck to continue. Inspired by images posted on the internet...know what I mean? It is a little over 7 x 11 inches.

Map for autumn leaf peepers

It's a crisp autumn day following our first frost. The tourists are flocking up the highway in search of the same thing this artist is looking for...
acrylic and collage on wood. About 15 x 15 inches angular

Purse in the Woods

Missplaced bag- such randomness of images-I muddle through a day of painting, obsessing on death. I think this needs a hand- a skeletal hand reaching in from the left.
I liked painting the autumn colors and leather folds. The contrast of the full purse, with it's bulges and curves, against the angular whisps of sky reminded me of church= all the dressed up people framed by stain glass windows.
Also, today I am working on a block of sky...
The Purse in the Woods is 7 x 11 inches on paper, $100. The sky block is a commission, and it is much larger, on wood.

Packed Bag II (for Steve)

I really don't know what is important. After a day of errands and chauffeuring kids about, I had only an hour to paint in the barn. My thoughts lingered along the conversations in the car. Max mentioned he would spend all the money he had if he knew he were dying. It was enough to get me thinking- the classic, "you can't take it with you". And while painting the bills I was struck by-"In God We Trust". Do we?

Packed Bag

SOLD
Fall can be very depressing. I feel sad, tired, and barely willing to paint. My friend Steve is packing his bags, as he is dying. He told me last night. I feel so helpless and sorry for myself. What will become of us, my cherished friendship? It is so unfair. Surprisingly, Steve seems pretty upbeat about it. I really don't want him to feel sick any more. My friend Mimi says Fall is a time of death and surrender. I woke up this morning wondering: how does Steve face his days?

Harvest moon

Yesterday I painted on plexiglass for Healthy Being, a store in town.
front and back
I am so exhausted by the last few weeks, forgive me for not writing more

road side fall

It's got to be the peak of the season and I just had to catch some!
acrylic on canvas, 10 x 8 inches

Pumpkin Paisley

Pumpkins are all over the place making globular brilliant piles at road side stands. Each individually whimsically topped with curly stems, they are, as a group and as solo objects, irresistible to paint.
This little block of wood, 4 x 4 x 2 inches, is wrapped in paper and painted with acrylics. I painted this at noon at the McEnroe farm stand.

sketches of luxury

ink on paper Blueberries and raspberries under chandeliers.
I have a painting from today too, somewhere- just misplaced it.

Mesmerized Chicken

Life continues to amaze me. The day is clear and crisp. I am reading a great book about the chicken. It is really fascinating. And I am taking a train for a couple days away from the studio and home.

Farm stand

I painted this today, 8 x 10 wrap-around the edges canvas, and I am not totally thrilled. I love the slip in scale- the pumpkins bigger than the tiny cows, etc.. This captures some of the changing color that is starting to peak through the hills. I have to risk saying that the brushwork felt sloppy- I couldn't recognize my favorite brush- and I started it out of water, then at home away from the scene, and then back in my car in the parking lot out of the wind... It was sort of like creating a new relationship with the materials after being away and preoccupied for so many days. I had to be the pursuer. This is the organic farm stand right down the road that rents a lot of our land for produce. It is a great family...each son has babysat for mine over the years. I will be setting up a display table of "agri-art" over the weekend. I thought perhaps this could become a souvenir card image. It didn't come easy and I think I will try it again. But I am so exhausted. It rests as my only accomplishment today- that, the drive with my father-in-law, and supper on the stove.

THE OPEN STUDIO

It was a huge success. More people than ever before. Lots and lots of people...over 2/3rds came from outside my invitation base- meaning they heard about it from the paper, other artist studios, or word of mouth. I am exhausted, happy, and full of great ideas people brought to me, such as movies to see, books to read, and people to look up...there is so much to do!
Sunday was a little quieter than Saturday. My nephew took a look around shrieked, "I want to paint!" so I set him up at my table. My sister-in-law from Long Island saved my tired bones the first evening with a generous soup pot full of Cioppino. I started loosing it- and luckily my artist friend Mary was there to give me some hard core feedback.

Picasso @ kitchen sink

I really call this painting- "Picasso Envy". Because what I envy most about Picasso is that when he was painting nobody bothered him. His meals were left silently outside his door on trays. Nobody ever expected him to grocery shop, cook and then clean up the dishes, two or three times a day. I know I am a far cry from Picasso's level. But he probably never did the dishes!

Inspired

There is so much to do to get ready for the Open Studio this weekend. I really do NOT have time to paint. But I am inspired by nature- the leaves are turning the depths of the woods into a lemon yellow, and paving the roads orange. There is so much to do to take care of my family. I really do NOT have time. The painter in me is inspired by dusty wings found stuck to a dark wet pavement.

A good day

...IS WHEN I WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE

Patio art

I've been running to art event after art event- both Saturday and Sunday mornings I set up a display, with other fabulous artists (Michael Gellatley, Joan Marchell, and Sue Hennelly) at the McEnroe farm stand to show off our veggie or farm inspired works. The afternoons were bright and sunny and the perfect days for seeing the open studios of the southern ART/East artists. I swung into Amy Farrell's, Lonna Kelly's, John Coluontano's, Mary Smoot-Souter's, Denisa Fenton's, Linda Puiatti's, and ERIX's before running out of time and springing to Beacon to see art in the Go North and Van Brundt galleries. Then I met with friends from my time in Barcelona- Ray and Raul, and we drove to Newburg to check out the exciting and new Ann Street Gallery- WOW.
There seems to be great art and energy in abundance. I am soaking it all in. I feel inspired.
As I ran in and out of the barn- collecting and stashing works and props, my dad shamed me with his miraculous ability to move mountains. I had only mentioned a vision for a terrace entrance where a wheel chair could roll unencumbered into the studio, and so, on the hottest afternoon of the year, my dad creates in stone. Beautiful pieces of limestone glitter in the sun and show off bluish striations and soft hooker green moss. The photos of the work in process do not begin to do it justice. My dad is amazing.

Chicken stories

At the fair, my sister in law samples the fried dough.
I built a coop today. It arrived- in peices- even the crate was broken- and I finally got it together, with papa frank's help, this afternoon. It was alittle tricky but it has all the gadgets- an egg door, roostign poles,slanted floor under nesting boxes, heated water nipples, feed bin with oyster shell compartment, a sun room, sunlight roof, awesome wheels to roll. So late tonight- by moonlight, we will try to catch the hens (easy) and the rooster (ugh!) and install them in their Henspa.
Hope to have my eyeballs in place afterwards-

Cows and boy at the fair

I could call this painting "whispers". Using ink and memories I collaged images from last August's Dutchess County Fair livestock barns. My son, my brother and his family toured the 4H barns with me and wistfully shared our stories of Fair's past. The kids work so hard that week and the animals are pampered and petted, so out of the ordinary relationships form. Ink and acrylic paint 5 x 9 inches

Cows as pure dashes

SOLD
So I take a beautiful day and...
acrylic on canvas 6 x 12 inches

Dash, dots, duh (map to find my way)

I'm thinking too much about abstraction and chance, perhaps a fallout from my weekend bliss. The MCDC dance where movement was purely about motion, and music was about sound, totally jarred me. Why not paint just about the paint? Leave out the symbols and stories. Make lines about connecting dots. Would that be trite, banal, blissful. personal, hi or low art? What is pertinent today in our culture? Do we crave a story, a way to connect dots? So many of us are isolated, removed, disconnected, and disenfranchised. Perhaps the artist is also lost, and through painting- whether it's about the paint or the story- she can be found.
Acrylic on wood, irregular sides.