Bird Song II

I finally had some time this morning to work through and finish another bird painting. It was fun experimenting with all sorts of media... 10 x 8 inches price right now is $100. May go up.

Hidden under leaves in a forest,

my heart waits, (maybe "yearns"), for rhythm, peace, and you. 8 x 10 inches, mixed media on paper

Time on paper (sewn)

Sewing and recycling has always been a strategy for busy women. I am back to a medium I always used when I was driven to distraction and raising my babies. Sewn paper allows me to work small, in stages, and when exhausted. As I accumulate pieces of color and images I sew them together and create larger works out of tiny inspirations. This sewn painting measures 10.5 x 6.25 inches, pencil, ink, acrylic wash and thread.

Calla Lilies on sewn paper

this is a small work. It consists of a variety of media: pencil, acrylic, ink, and thread on paper. 6.5 x 9.75 inches over all.
I am inspired by my students and our concentration on the contour line and choices made with warm and cool color contrasts.

Counting eggs

SOLD-thanks Carole!
before they're hatched seems undeniably one of my favorite sports. But today I relished the small moments... enjoying the un-events... such as the blossoming lilies, the percolating coffee, the warm soft breeze at lunch, the car ride with my nieces,an evening walk, leftovers from last Friday's dinner out, the cat purring against my leg. This painting is a conglomerate of mixed media experimentation with acrylic gels, ink, and collage. I don't know (but can imagine) why there are FIVE eggs in the nest. There used to be five of us in this house.

Bird song

Outside my window the sound of birds, deep in the forest, on the deck, from the chicken coop, is the first thing I become conscious of upon waking. My dreams are full of birds as well. They are silhouettes and sentinels at the periphery of my journeys. Not all my encounters are romantic. Today my chores included cleaning the useless cage that once housed Arnold and Lucille. Their feathers clung to the wires, the old food mixed with old poop and birthed humming flies. I'd rather think about their song.
This painting is on a wood panel 10 x 8 inches... I will call it "bird song".

MORE student work and final exhibition

We finished the week doing figure studies and making small folded paper booklets highlighting the important aspects of what they learned. I am really proud of how hard they all worked and how much they saw their own hands and eyes improve!

Student shoes

Composition, line, texture, color, collage, splatters!

Student ellipses saved!

The work on Tuesday was looking pretty much a mess.... the assignment was to take the elliptical studies and paint them in contrasting colors. The lines were mostly fine, but the surfaces were turning to mud....until I remembered that some of my best work came from random editing and re-figuring. So I spoke to the kids about the alchemy of art- how it can change your life as well as magically transform a bit of paper into a window of deep receding space. Then I asked them to chop their works in 5 or six pieces and add a new medium (oil pastel) and glue them all back together. I asked them to be their artistic self and transform the scraps into a new and better work. And they did.

How- not why- did the chickens cross the road?

Arnold and Lucille are both gone now. I am so sad. It happened sometime between noon and 6pm. Whatever critter has been killing my chickens... that's nine so far since the beginning of summer!

A big Hand for the lesson @Monday's JAI session

Here are some samples of the work produced by my class of 14 girls yesterday!


I think the girls did a fairly wonderful job of looking and drawing and working within a monochromatic pallet.

Mother hen with her chicks House

I am thinking of asking $150 for this...
Outrageous?


My mother arrives today with three of my sister's children. I have been sweeping, sorting, and stocking the house for their arrival. This wooden birdhouse, nine inches tall and about seven inches across, was just finished last night! It has six sides to it and I think the mother hen who covers three sides and is siloueted against an egg-like-moon, shelters the three chicks (along the other three backsides) with dramatic flair. This is really in honor of my houseguests.
I will be teaching all week and might not have time to paint and post work...
Mondays' lesson will be on composition and the way to draw hands in art. I will try to post pictures as I find time.
Have a great week- enjoy your circle of friends and family if you can.

Millerton map with Hay Bales Landscape

Mixed media, 6.75 x 9 inches on wood. This series took a little longer than just one day. First I painted quickly on location, then I added skins of map transfers. After that I used stencils and paint to touch up, tone down, emphasize and brighten certain areas.
I will be asking $100 at the Sharon on the Green Festival in August for this work and the others like it.

Up at 5:30 to paint...

It may not be early enough!
This one is called : "Hay-bales with map along route 22 of my home town, Amenia as well as over the line in Sharon CT." It measures 6.75 x 8.75 inches, mixed media on wood.
Thanks so much for the encouraging words about pacing myself and the blessings of having a job, if not the time. I apologize for whining.
I also got some good ideas from Bednar about using the commute time to my benefit.
Right now... I plan to rise at 4:30 am and get a more full day in tomorrow!
The urgency comes from the feeling that I have to get some small paintings made for my booth at the Sharon on the Green festival in August. I plan on doing a methodical series of local maps and iconic elements from the neighborhoods. This is the second...
now to work!!!----

New classes with Mill Street Lofts JAI

The kids I have are great- 9 of them- between the ages of 11 and 14. We are working with painting and drawing from life...

My son Max

I have to remember that I had one of the best summers in recent memory with my son... it went quickly but could not have been richer... here are some of his wonderful gifts, left behind and in my memory...sculptures, stencil paintings, music...
I feel incredibly blessed by the time we had together...

Studio is full and I am empty

The mess keeps expanding out of it's corner... and whispers mean things in my mind. I have started, as of today, to go to work everyday... throwing shoes on and trying not to look at my paintings for fear of losing track of time. Chugging my coffee and racing through the chores. I don't know when I will get any painting done, or why I feel the need to anyway. It's pretty fruitless. My inventory piles up and yet I "don't have a thing" for the Sharon On the Green Festival August 7th. (Am I Imelda Marcos with no shoes to wear?) A job, an art teaching one, pays the bills and reduces financial stress but it also creates these dead zones of commuting time and leaves me empty at the end of the day. Do most people live this way? Passed a sign on the way to work that said, "Don't just mutter, here you can declutter". It was for storage units. Wouldn't that be something perverse... I could just paint all night- (forget sleep)- and fill a storage unit or two. It's a sickness. When I catch myself asking "why" I do it, I have to be realistic and accept that there is no good reason. In my almost 50 years there have been several times I've tried NOT to paint, and it only makes me mad. So the trick is to do it for sanity and leave out the need to cover bills with it, or even the worry about where to store it. It all comes down to TIME. Again. The studio is full, I am empty and there is not enough time.

Hay bales with local map

The NY CT border on a stormy day.
This is a mixed media work about 6 3/4 x 9 inches... painted on location (#6 on map).

"The Gloves are coming off",

he says... and then changes his tone to, "honey, I just want whats fair." Oh my! There's no response that seems to fit, so I listen with raised eyebrows and hope to get away soon. My paintbrushes soak in the car cup holder, and in the sink, and dry on the studio table ready for the next swipe of color.
This image was inspired by Stanley Kubrick's photos of fights for LOOK magazine.