CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

WHITE PINE MEMORIES, STUDY

This painting brought many memories flooding back.  As I have said before, I love trees, especially white pines.  They have the softest, longest needles of all the pines, and I love the smell of them.  I also love hearing the wind blow through them.

As a little girl, I recall playing in the stand of white pines that my father planted on a hillside to help with erosion control. It felt like my special place and I wonder after all these years if they are still standing. The inspiration for this painting is from a photo I took while hiking at High Banks metro park.  I had to kind of bushwhack to get close to these trees, but it was worth it.   I got this photo in the late afternoon while the sun was low and the highlights on the trees were so interesting I had to do this study.  I think it will be the start of a larger work.

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FOR THE LOVE OF TREES

SUNNY SYCAMORE #1

I love everything about trees.  They are my favorite landscape feature, and I love painting them.  The Sycamore tree says "mid-west" to me, even though I have seen them in Paris lining the Seine.  I love the lovely bark that sheds itself in the fall and the leaves as large as dinner plates that turn a lovely golden brown in the autumn. This particular Sycamore is along a bike path that I frequently use. On this day, the sun was glinting off the bark and lighting up the tree in a spectacular way. Because it is still spring, the leaves have not reached their full size and many of the branches are still visible.

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UNEXPECTED BEAUTY

SPRING STREAM

I walk my dog Logan everyday, rain or shine.  He has come to expect it and after 13 years, I am not about to change his routine.  We both need it and it tends to clear my head and get me much needed fresh air and exercise.   One of our favorite parks has a stream that meanders through it and much of the summer it is so overgrown that you would barely know it is there.  But on this particular spring day,  it was beautiful and I snapped a photo of it thinking it might become a painting.

This painting was done on Arches oil paper and I must say that i am beginning to like it after much experimentation.  The first layer of paint literally soaks into the paper, so adding another layer on top can be done without too much waiting time.  I like the softness achieved by the paper and think that I will be doing more paintings on this surface.

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PAINTING MEMORIES

Village in Provence

Last October, my husband and I were lucky enough to enjoy a much needed vacation and chose to go on a bike tour to France.  We bicycled in Provence and our travels took us through numerous small villages.  The painting above is one of those villages. I was charmed by the beautiful colors of the buildings and the blooming plants in the doorways and hanging from the windows.

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A New Direction

Leafy Prayer

I think that I shall never see

A poem as lovely as a tree

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast.

A tree that looks at God all day

And lifts its leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear

 A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me

But only God can make a tree.

-Joyce Kilmer

American writer and poet

This painting was executed for a show at the gallery in Columbus, OH where I have my work.  The show is in honor of Poetry month which is in April.  All of the artists in the gallery were asked to pair with either a contemporary poet or a favorite historical poet and create a piece of art to reflect a poem.  I chose the poem above, which has been a favorite of mine for many years.

The background of the painting is gold leaf, both 18 and 23k, which was applied to the surface before I painted the tree and surrounding landscape. After the gold was applied, the surface was sealed and glazes in pale blue were added to the background to create the sky.

I had great fun working on this painting and it sold the weekend it was hung.

WHITE HOUSE?

Amish Bakery Study

I have been studying with a great instructor who is helping me to loosen up my painting style and also paint quicker.  The last few classes I have taken have been difficult, trying to get something down on my canvas in the allotted class time and having it look like a finished piece. Alla Prima (Italian), or the first attempt, is what we have been striving for in these classes.

Here is my attempt (Alla Prima) at an Amish Bakery.  I took this photo reference a couple of years ago when painting at this spot with the plein air group I belong to. It was a white house with a bakery built on to the front.  While doing this study, I realized that the house, though seemingly white in the photo, was really not at all white, but bluish lavender.  The only spots of white were those where the sun just highlighted a few areas. The best memory I have of this spot is visiting the bakery just before we left and getting a sweet treat for the drive back home.

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Study study study!!

 Tree Study

Tree Study Gold Leaf #1

I am very fond of trees.  Throughout my life I have had favorite trees in every place that I have lived. They became my friend when lonely, served as a hideout for sneaking away to read a book, sheltered me during storms, served as a great treehouse, given me a great collection of colorful autumn leaves, served as a soft bed beneath my tent, and stood majestically defiant while being a protected species.

I believe I could not live in a world without them.

I have painted many tress, but never really made them a subject of a painting.

These studies are a homage to the tree.  The first is a simple study done on a toned background. It is inspired by a photo of a tree that I admired at Glacier Ridge Metropark last summer near the boardwalk.  I decided to try two studies, one using the toned background, and one using gold leaf as the background.   I have admired the work of Gustav Klimt for many years and his use of gold leaf in his paintings.  I like the subtle sheen in the background.  And because I love them so much, I think these trees deserve to be dressed up with a little bling.

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