Comforted by Flowers (Drawing as of Nov 30, 2024)

This is the second of two small drawings for Porter Mill's Small Works Show.  At this point, I was happy with this one, but it was not quite balanced.   This is Sharpie Creative Marker on paper. To be continued. . .

The Courage of Flowers (Drawing as of Nov 30, 2024)

I decided to make a couple of new drawings for the upcoming Small Works Show at Porter Mill. This is a show for all members of Porter Mill and will be on display during Open Studios this weekend and through December. The size limit was 13" in any dimension.  I didn't have anything that small at the ready, so I decided to do some small drawings of flowers.  I got out a small drawing pad and my Sharpie creative markers and got to work.  I had a lovely time drawing these undaunted flowers.  This drawing is about 5.5 x 8.5 inches, and a good fit for an 8x10 inch frame.. Here is how it looked on the 30th of November. I thought this drawing was finished, but later I decided it wasn't quite. . .To be continued. . . 

Woods Near Long Hill (Photo with Prisma filter)

This image started with a photo that I took at Long Hill Gardens here in Beverly, on a late fall day.  I added the Prisma filter to enhance the colors.  Sending this out today to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving.  "I thank the Lord for the people I have found."  (Elton John)

Together (Double Portrait) at home in Tennessee

This is the portrait of my son and daughter-in-law that I painted last year.  (I finished it in September of 2023.)  It was fun to see it on the wall during our November visit to Tennessee.

Teacups and Saucers (Alice in Wonderland project), Painting

Here is how my painting looked on Nov. 4th when I had to declare it finished, not because it was perfect, but because it was time to stop.  I needed to put a wire on the back of the painting, label it, and get it ready to deliver to Porter Mill Studios the next day. (In fact, even after I took this picture, I continued to fix very small errors until it was time to put it in the car and drop it off.  But like I said before, it is hard to make something simple look good.) 

I painted this for the "Alice in Wonderland" show at Porter Mill Studios here in Beverly, MA. The basic idea came to me as soon as I heard about the show. The painting combines a  quotation*  from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party with teacups and saucers in a changing color scheme that evoke the "musical chairs" aspect of that crazy tea party, as guests move around the table for no apparent reason. 

*Here is the quotation:

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter, "It's very easy to take more than nothing.""

Cups and Saucers (Alice in Wonderland project) as of Nov 3, 2024

On November 3th, I kept going on my "Alice in Wonderland" painting for the show at Porter Mill Studios.  The painting combines a  quotation*  from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party with teacups and saucers in a changing color scheme. At this point, all the work I had done correcting errors was beginning to pay off, and the cups and saucers were looking much better, even though I continued to find things to fix. I was also working on cleaning up the text and the white background and  repainted the last line of text (bottom of canvas) because the lettering wasn't in a straight line. I began to think this was almost finished, which was good, because I had to turn it in at Porter Mill on November  5th.

*Here is the quotation:

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter, "It's very easy to take more than nothing.""

To be continued. . . ..  

Reposting: School Picture of My Mother

I posted this photo before, back in 2005, but it is a classic, and I decided to post it again. One of my favorite family photos is this image of my mother. standing in front of Central Grade School, which I also attended decades later -- one of the ways that I have retraced her steps. The original photo is black and white, but back in 2005,  I scanned the image into my computer, cropped it, and added some color with Painter IX's digital watercolor. I am posting this again today in memory of my mother, who was born on November 2nd.

Cups and Saucers (Alice in Wonderland project) as of Nov 2, 2024

On November 2nd, I continued to work on my painting for the "Alice in Wonderland" show at Porter Mill Studio. I used a  quotation*  from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party,  an event which also inspired the "musical chairs" changing color scheme for the cups and saucers. You can see here that I continued checking the shapes of the cups and saucers, marking things to fix with areas of white paint. From where those marks are, you can see that I was checking the position and shape of the cup handles, the shapes of the teacups, and rechecking the circular shapes of the saucers.  I kept finding mistakes and fixing them.  It might seem obsessive, but it is necessary because it is actually difficult to make something simple look good. 

*Here is the quotation:

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter, "It's very easy to take more than nothing.""

To be continued. . . ..  

Cups and Saucers (Alice in Wonderland project) as of Nov 1, 2024

Here is my painting as of November 1. This is for the "Alice in Wonderland" show at Porter Mill Studio. The quotation*  is from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party,  also the inspiration for the changing   color scheme for the cups and saucers.

At this point I was happy with the colors. My focus continued to be correcting mistakes and making shapes consistent. I made little white marks on the cups and saucers to help me correct errors and line things up. This was slow going, and I was feeling the time pressure because the plan was to turn this in by November 4th.  Like the Whte Rabbit, I didn't want to be late.

*Here is the quotation:

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter, "It's very easy to take more than nothing.""

To be continued. . . ..  

Cups and Saucers (Alice in Wonderland project) as of Oct 31, 2024

On October 31, I kept going on this painting for the "Alice in Wonderland" show at Porter Mill Studio. The quotation*  is from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, which also inspired the for "musical chairs" color scheme for the cups and saucers. I kept going back to this painting throughout the day.  This photo is the last one taken that day; it was already dark so this was photographed under artificial light which makes the colors look different.  At this point, I was going over some of the colors, but my focus had shifted to checking and rechecking shapes and measurements for consistency.  I used white paint to mark things that needed to be fixed, so you can see that at this point I was working on the elipses (circles at the top of the tea cups).  

*Here is the quotation:

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter, "It's very easy to take more than nothing.""

To be continued. . . .

Cups and Saucers (Alice in Wonderland project) as of Oct 30, 2024

On October 30th, I continued working on this painting for  the "Alice in Wonderland" show at Porter Mill Studio. The quotation*  from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, was was also the inspiration for changing color scheme for the cups and saucers.  At this point I had applied a second coat to the turquoise areas as well as the orange areas, making them lighter and smoother with the secon application.  As I worked, I continued to work on consistency of all the shapes, measuring and making corrections as I went along. 

   And finally I inserted that missing quotation mark in from the top row of text.  I actually didn't notice the error myself; a cousin of mine had to point it out.

*Here is the quotation, as it should be:

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter, "It's very easy to take more than nothing.""

To be continued. . . .

Cups and Saucers (Alice in Wonderland project) as of Oct 29, 2024

On October 29th, I continued working on this painting for  the "Alice in Wonderland" show at Porter Mill Studio. The quotation* is from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, and that was was also the inspiration for the cups and saucers painted in a changing color scheme.   You can see that I repainted the pink areas. I added some white to the pink to lighten it a bit, but the real goal was to make the paint more opaque so I could get a smooth finish.  I also continued my efforts to make the shapes uniform.  At this point, I was concentrating on making the shapes of the cups the same. Errors waiting to be fixed are marked in white. And no, I still had not realized that a quotation mark was missing from the top row of text. 

*Here is the quotation, as it should be:

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter, "It's very easy to take more than nothing.""

To be continued. . . .

Cups and Saucers (Alice in Wonderland project) as of Oct 28, 2024

I continued working on this painting on October 28th. This is for  the "Alice in Wonderland" show at Porter Mill Studio. The quotation* is taken from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, which was also the inspiration for the cups and saucers painted in colors that shift in each square On the 28th,  I repainted the orange areas.  I added a bit of white to the orange which lightened it a bit, but the real purpose was to make the paint more opaque for a smoother finish.  I also continued revising lines and shapes for consistency.   Errors waiting to be fixed are marked in white. And no, I still had not realized that a quotation mark was missing from the top row of text. 

*Here is the quotation, as it should be:

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter, "It's very easy to take more than nothing.""

To be continued. . . .

Cups and Saucers (Alice in Wonderland project) as of Oct 27, 2024

Here is my painting for the "Alice in Wonderland" show at Porter Mill Studies as it looked on October 27, 2024. The quotation* is taken from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, which was also the inspiration for the cups and saucers painted in colors that shift in each square.  At this point, I had just repainted the dark green, but had modified the color by adding white.  This made it lighter and also made the paint more opaque so the application was smoother.  As I proceeded with repainting each color, I also continued to  check my shapes for consistency, marking mistakes with white so that I could find them later and fix them.  

Although I had finally noticed and corrected the mistake in the bottom row of text, and changed "less than nothing" to "more than nothing,"  I still had not noticed the missing quotation mark in the top row of text.

*Here is the quotation, as it should be:

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter, "It's very easy to take more than nothing.""

To be continued. . . .

Showing again: "Pikes Peak in September" (Acrylic Mixed Media painting)

Posting my painting of "Pikes Peak in September" again because it was in another show. On Oct. 27th, we drove into Boston's SOWA district to deliver it for Galatea Fine Art's "Seize the Day" show for display throughout November.  It remains on display on Artsy.

Above Snowmass Village (Acrylic Mixed Media Painting)

This is one of two paintings of Snowmass that make up my panorama or diptyche., two paintings that I worked on side-by-side, to make sure shapes lined up and colors matched. This one is called "Above Snowmass Village," and here is how it looks on its own. This is acrylic and pasted paper on a  16 x 20 on gessoboard, with wooden "cradle" or frame of 2 inches deep.  

Summer Near Snowmass Village (Acrylic Mixed Media)

Here is one of my two Snowmass paintings, as it looks on its own.  (But it also forms part of a 2-painting panorama.) This is 16 x 20 on gessoboard, with wooden "cradle" or frame of 2 inches deep.  

Snowmass Village Panorama (Acrylic Mixed Media Paintings)

Here are my paintings of Snowmass Village as they looked on the day I finished them (October 25th). These paintings were painted together side by side, and designed so they could be displayed together but each can be displayed (and purchased) separately.

 

On October 25th, I adjusted some of the shapes, fiddled about and generally obsessed until I decided the paintings were finished. And this was a good thing, finished in time to be wired, labeled, and delivered to Galatea Fine Arts in Boston two days later (Oct 27th) to be hung in the "Seize the Day" exhibit during November. Although the show closes at the end of November, the paintings continue to be on display and available for sale on Artsy.com.

Two Snowmass Paintings (as of Oct 24, 2024)

Here are my two Snowmass paintings as they looked on Oct 24th.  They are designed so they will each work separately, but can be hung  together, creating a panorama.  I worked on them side by side to make sure everything lined up and the colors match.  On Oct 24, I repainted the sky, incorporating the pasted pink paper as I simplified the shapes and composition.  I added some brighter blues and greens to the mountains and hills.  To be continued.

Cups and Saucers (Alice in Wonderland project) as of Oct 23, 2024

Here is my painting as it looked on October 23rd.  I painted this for the Alice-in-Wonderland themed show at Porter Mill.  The quotation* is from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, which also inspired the cups and saucers in a color scheme that shifts in each square.  Here the biggest change is that a lightened the purple for the second coat..  I added some white to modify the color but also to make the paint more opaque for a smoother  finish.  As I repainted each of the colors, I also was measuring shapes and lines and making corrections, marking errors in white so I could find them easily against the bright colors.

Yes, I had finally noticed and corrected the mistake in the bottom row of text, and changed "less than nothing" to "more than nothing."  But no, I still had not noticed the missing quotation mark in the top row of text.

*Here is the quotation, as it should be:

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter, "It's very easy to take more than nothing.""

To be continued. . . .