This month  "The Art Room", a very interesting blog that highlights and interviews various artists, is featuring work created in and about winter.  The artwork must be submitted by someone other than the artist.  My good friend Evelyn Yaari submitted two of my paintings and a photo by another friend Bill Ternay and they are featured here.  Check it out. 

CAROL OF THE BELLS

Here is one minute and 10 seconds of color in time to the Carol of the Bells.  Just hot off the computer this morning in time for your viewing pleasure.

Have a great holiday!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW-mW1PZkv0&feature=youtu.be

SELF PORTRAIT IN FUZZY SLIPPERS

SELF PORTRAIT IN FUZZY SLIPPERS

Nancy Herman

8" x 6"

oil on canvas board

Tis the day before Christmas and all through the house children are using their hand held devices to communicate with each other in languages which seem to consist of one or two semi well chosen letters.

But I am still in my slippers padding around hoping my choice of presents isn't too out of date or just plain stupid .

Last night I held the latest addition to the family, four month old Olive, and, as we gazed into each other's eyes, I realized as I never have before, what a rare exotic species the new born are.  So hot with potential, they almost burst out of their skins.  They could be anything.  What will they make of us? And what then will they make of the world?  If Olive is any indication,  it will be a vital energetic place, and maybe,  just maybe, they will get it right this time around.  If only we can steer them in the right direction and get out of the way in time. 

Stair Shadow

STAIR SHADOW

Nancy Herman

6' x 8"

oil on canvas board

"Modern" design can be sleek and clean but an odd curlicue makes a great shadow and delights the eye.  I spied this one while walking my daughter's dog in Park Slope.

$125.00

THE YELLOW DOOR

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

Another painting from Brooklyn.  I seem to be painting a number of doors lately, although my subject matter is more varied than most.  This quote pretty much sums it up for me. 

"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door"

Emily Dickenson

$125.00

YELLOW WALL #2

YELLOW WALL #2

Nancy Herman

20" x 16"

Oil on stretched canvas

YELLOW WALL #1

oil on canvas board

6" x 8"

Last year about this time I painted Yellow Wall #1.  I really enjoyed painting it, and had in mind making a larger version someday.  This year since I will be showing paintings done along the Cynwyd Trail in January and this was painted from the trail looking into Manyunk, I thought it would be a good time to make a larger painting.  I decided to change the scale and really go for the yellow wall.  Since I sold the first painting, I painted this one from  the image of it on my ipad.  

I didn't enjoy painting this one nearly as much as I did the first one.  I have never painted from a painting before and I found the experience rather odd.  I still enjoyed looking at the first painting and at times was amazed at how nicely I had solved some of its little challenges, but this time perhaps because of the scale changes and the color changes I was at sea most of the time.  Knowing approximately what the whole work would look like in the end took some of the joy out of working and I don't think I will repeat this kind of exercise again.

In spite of that the new painting has an integrity of its own, I think, but for me at least an entirely different spirit.  It is much more lively and fun loving (belying its makers feelings) while the first painting has that mellow look of late day that I love so much.

What do you think?

SOLD

LIGHT SWITCH

LIGHT SWITCH

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

The days move relentlessly on.  Dogs must go out, dishes must be done, beds made and meals prepared.  The house is silent now that the holiday is over and the children are gone...and then you turn a corner and the light makes a strange pattern on the wall and you remember where you are.

$125

SOLD

Bach Polanise in G Minor

I have not been painting as much as usual because I wanted to work on my latest translation of music to color.  I am trying out a new "instrument".  I have felt for a while that in order to see the music better it is probably important to keep the notes on the screen for a while and have them roll out of the center and dissappear into the sides of the screen.  This way the translation from one note to another is not so abrupt.  Here is the second piece I tried using this method.  I got some, but not all, of the kinks out on this one.  On my Mac the youtube version is not as smooth as I would like it to be but some people who have PCs say it looks smooth on their machines.  Next piece I will be dealing with dynamics.  What is good about this method is that it really could be played in real time if I only knew how to hook up the colors to the keyboard.

Let me know what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXLtvzZBeMo&list=UU0kTuj7G2coHnSXm8-pg-4g&index=1&feature=plcp

BLUE SHOES

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

$125.00

6" x 8"

MANHOLE COVER AND IVORY ELEPHANT

MANHOLE COVER AND IVORY ELEPHANT

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

A couple of days ago the Associated Press announced that conservationists have estimated that 60,000 elephants a year are killed by poachers in order to harvest their tusks.  

This fanciful manhole cover from Copenhagen is an example of how the human spirit is moved and delighted by these huge peaceful beasts.  We allow their destruction at the same time we are carving their ivory into statuettes in order to celebrate them.  Here is a link to my series, The Elephant Requiem, created a few years back. link

manhole cover and dead fish

MANHOLE COVER AND DEAD FISH

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

Poets, artists, musicians and crafts people celebrate nature with their work.  This beautiful manhole cover from Japan is an example of the way we use our feelings of appreciation for the natural world to permeate and decorate every part of our world.  At the same time we honor nature with our art we are destroying our fellow creatures and their habitats at a rapid rate.  Many fish are being fished to extinction simply because they are in the way of nets that are intended for other fish.   The whole earth as we know it is being destroyed as the planet heats up and we do not take draconian measures to curb our contributions to global warming.

We have too many people on the planet and we have a candidate for President who wants to abolish Planned Parenthood.  Our present use of carbon based fuels is warming the globe and causing us to be dependent on nations who want to destroy us, and the same candidate criticizes the President for investing in alternative fuels.  Anyone coming from outer space would be convinced we are insane.

President Obama was not able to accomplish all that he promised in the last election but he is heading the country in right direction.  Please get out there and vote for him.

LETTER ON THE BENCH

LETTER ON THE BENCH

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

These benches seem to be talking to each other in the late afternoon sun.  Someone has left a letter on one of them.  Is that what they are discussing?

$125.00

LEAF SHADOW

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

The color changes that occur in leaves in this area of the world are caused by the leaves responding to colder temperatures and the decrease in light.  The veins of leaves are their vascular system.  Wikipedea has a very interesting entry on "leaf".  

• $125.00

While I'm waiting for my next painting to dry here is a link to a very nice review of my work from Taryn Day's blog THE ART ROOM.  Taryn is a fine painter who also has a painting blog called AWAKE AND PAINTING.  This is the statement from her web site:

 "Painting is about being fully awake, and fully aware of a larger world outside yourself. At best it is an act of spiritual renewal."

MANHOLE COVER AND LEAF

MANHOLE COVER AND LEAF

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

Looking for shadows is usually a matter of looking down.  There is a lot going on under our feet that we don't usually pay much attention to.  I find the various official "stoppers" in the street have plenty of visual interest.  Manhole covers are quite sculptural.  I have to see if they vary from one part of the country to another or even one part of the city to another, depending on when they were manufactured.  Stay tuned.

$125.00

OAK LEAF ON ROUGH CEMENT

Nancy Herman

6' x 8"

oil on canvas board

This is the time of year when nostalgia fills the air.  Memories of the past swirl around and drift to earth with the leaves.  The scent of pine needles brings echoes of camp fires and the light is so sharp and clear, the shadows so deep it has to be autumn in Pennsylvania.  

School is beginning again in my heart.  I surely will be wearing my plaid skirt and my new sweater to school with knee socks.  I might be skipping along the sidewalks of Glenside to Glenside Welldon or walking hurridly to avoid the visious dog in Oak Lane to Pennypacker.  Or am I waiting for the bus in Worcester or walking to Penn down Walnut Street?  It's all in the sights and smells of this glorious season when life seems to renew in the heart and the mind as it dies out in one last magnificent show of color in the surrounding world.

$125.00

DANCING SHADOW

DANCING SHADOW

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

This shadow of a railing seems full of dancing energy as it leaps down the stairs.  Shadows vary in color depending on the light, as you can see here, where the tops of the stairs have a bluish tint.

Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve. Did you never see it?
Henry David Thoreau 

$125.00

KEYHOLE

KEYHOLE

Nancy Herman

8" x 6"

oil on canvas board

I often think about what I will say about each painting when I am lying in bed in the morning waiting for my dog, Jake, to come in and nuzzle me up and let he and his buddy Bay out for their morning search for wild things.

This painting about a lock took me back to our earliest ancestors living in caves.  They surely chose a cave with a very narrow opening so it would be possible to role a stone over the entrance or have one or two people guarding the "door" at night.  What a confined, frightening, existence it must have been.  Quite a contrast to this small secure looking lock. 

Too often, the opportunity knocks, but by the time you push back the chain, push back the bolt, unhook the two locks and shut off the burglar alarm, it's too late. 

Rita Coolidge 

$125.00

NO PARKING

NO PARKING

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

If you thought yesterday's painting was created in the fog, you are right in a way.  I seem to have been in a fog when I posted it, as the version that appeared on the screen was enveloped in a haze and I didn't notice it until I had posted it.  This is the way the painting really looks.
It is worth noting that, had there been a fog, the outlines of the shadow would have been very blurred and probably nonexistent.  Without a strong light there are no shadows.

$125.00

NO PARKING

NO PARKING

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

This oak leaf, defying the "no parking" sign shadow, is showing its' color as it peeks into the light.

$125.00

GIN SHADOW

GIN SHADOW

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

Shadows are not usually colorful but this bottle of gin stands out as the sun reflects through the green glass.  It is as if even its' shadow offers entertainment.

$125.00

CROATIA

CROATIA

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

Off to Croatia with Virtual Paintout this month.  This is the way I like to travel, sitting at home in front of my computer, watching the world go by.  I wandered around in Croatia for a while and settled on this image which is the way I imagine I would feel if I lived there.

$125.00

CURTAIN SHADOW

CURTAIN SHADOW

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

The simple chair spindle takes on an elegant air when its shadow falls on the curtain.  Shadows take on a life of their own on curved surfaces.  There is often something exciting happening behind the main event.

$125.00

WATERMELONS

WATERMELONS

Nancy Herman

oil on canvas board

6" x 8"

I like the way this watermelon seems to be jumping out of the bucket ready to quench a thirsty passerby with its red juicy sweetness.

SOLD

TRACKS - Shoe

Nancy Herman

oil on stretched canvas

6' x 8"

How much more complicated the soles of our shoes are compared to the simple beauty of our feet.  Imagine an alien coming accross this track in the sand.  What sort of a creature would he conjure up?

$125.00

TRACKS - HUMAN

TRACKS - HUMAN

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on streteched canvas

Humans leave their tracks everywhere but here on the beach their footprints are simple.  It would be better for the earth as a whole if they had stayed that way.

$125.00

Tracks - Sea Gull

TRACKS- Sea Gull

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvs board

If you are feeling that your life has no signifigance, consider this:  everytime you do or say anything your actions create a ripple in the fabric of the Universe.  We leave our tracks.  

I am taking a little detour from my examination of shadows and looking at tracks in the sand.  I believe this one was made by a sea gull.  This looks black and white in reproduction but it is actually created with many shades of brown, grey and white.  Sand is actually quite colorfull close up.

$125.00