Monday, August 31, 2009

Corn, corn, corn



My "rural upbringing" is showing again. One of my favorite activities as a girl on my grandparents farm ( besides jumping off the roof of the grain room into the broken bales of hay ) was to run through the rows of corn, slapping the leaves. I don't know what it is about corn but it does seem to grab my attention in any form. Some day I plan to revisit the Indian corn series, but for now I have to do some paintings of the lush fields of corn that are every where here. It was a wonderful spring with the rainfall making up for the drought of the past summers and the farmers are reaping the rewards. I had to stop along the road and take photos of the sun and shadows patterns on the broad leaves and the abstraction of the way the leave overlap and lead in varying directions. This is the first one in what I hope will be series as successful as the Indian corn. I also made an effort to see what greens I could mix. There are a bizillion greens in the world and something special about the greens of a corn leaf. Is it me or as artists are we all dealing with a challenge to mix green ? Or are we confined to what the manufactures are able to make for us? I am determined to find my green without blue dominating the painting. It did creep in here but hey, it's a start.
My sincere apologies to all that posted comments on the past two posts ! It was only when I went to compose this post that I noticed I had comments to monitor. Pryor comments always came to me via email and I'm not sure what happened this time. I just thought everyone was away on vacation and not checking in on me. Thanks again to all !

Monday, August 17, 2009

Becca and Jared Are Married




This past Saturday our niece Rebecca and Jared were married on the beautiful grounds of Hartwood mansion near Pittsburgh, PA. Of course everything was out of this world gorgeous; the bride, the groom, the setting, the day. Well, it was beastly hot but that's just one more memory for the book.
I snapped more than a few photos and a good many will be put in the "to paint " pile which grows higher each day. Hope you see one or two of these sometime soon.








Sunday, August 2, 2009

Shamless Self Promtion



Last week I dropped off Jersey Girl (bottom left on post card ) for the PWS annual show. This year the show is in Reading, PA at Goggleworks Center For The Arts Cohen Gallery with the reception being Sunday, August 9 from 3-5 PM.
I am so honored to be a part of this prestigious show and as this is the second year accepted, it permits me to include PWS after my signature.
Pinch me.
Visit Goggleworks.org for directions. Hours are
Mon-Sat 9-9,Sundays 11-7

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Lunch Time for Becca


Well, this really took longer than I wanted. I think I escaped without overworking too many areas and there was certainly a few things learned on this one, too. A lot learned but I can truely say it was fun to do, so perhaps there will be other window paintings.
Iwould have liked more washes on the red but backed off. I'm happy with the reflections and how they trick the eyes when they see something and then it gets lost again in the painting.
There are sections better than others but that is for me to know and you to point them out to me. So ...let me have it folks. I welcome all comments and constructive criticism . Oh, I might mention too, that this is the first one I did without stretching and I haven't framed it yet. So, some of the "straight" edges might not look too straight. I will be able to flaten it but please offer any tips on framing without a mat.