RED MAPLES AND FOR GET ME NOTS

For Get Me Nots make sure you don't forget them by appearing every spring whether summoned or not.  I love their cheery blueness and welcome them even though they are never exactly where they were intended.  They have a way of their own which makes them truly unforgettable.  

The paintings I am posting lately began years ago and have been updated recently, probably yesterday or the day before.  I am having fun digging in to the old paint to bring it new life.

RED MAPLES AND FOR GET ME NOTS

Nancy Herman

12" x 12"

oil on stretched canvas

$50.00

Korean Lilacs and Katsura

Here are a couple of immigrants who have settled in to a glorious existence in my garden.  They get along very well in this country and certainly reward all efforts on their behalf with show after show of exuberant beauty.

KOREAN LILACS AND JAPANESE KATSURA TREE

Nancy Herman

12" x 12"

oil on stretched canvas

inset Lilacs

SOLD

$50.00

FORSYTHIA AT SAINT JOE'S

One of the things I look forward to in the early spring is the lively dancing Forsythia pushing itself joyfully around corners and through dense brush.  One place where there is no contest for its spirited display is this huge hedge bordering a dorm at Saint Joseph's University campus which is on my dog walking route. Here it gets a beautiful dark green background of towering pine trees.

FORSYTHIA AT ST. JOE'S

Nancy Herman

12" x 12"

oil on stretched canvas

inset FORSYTHIA AT ST. JOE'S

$50.00

IN PRAISE OF WEEDS

Spring is finally here and things are beginning to burst forth in all their glory.  Some of the first beauties to arrive are the weeds.  The weeds that like the conditions in the lawn and can get out there and bloom and go to seed before the first mow have a permanent place in my lawn and my heart.  Here are just a few.  Weeds are, after all, the easiest plants to grow.  Whatever green is left over after they bloom is a pleasant variation in the lawn.

Marsh Marigold

Veronica

Violets

PEACH TULIP

• 
• 
  
• PEACH TULIP
• Nancy Herman
• 6" x 8"
• oil on stretched canvas
• 
  
• I love tulips.  They are so pure and simple.  The sun shinning through their rich colored petals seems the essence of new life and the heart of spring.
• 
  
• This from Wikipedia
• "In Persia, to give a red tulip was to declare your love. The black center of the red tulip was said to represent the lover's heart, burned to a coal by love's passion. To give a yellow tulip was to declare your love hopelessly and utterly."
• Here is alink to a very fine poem by Sylvia Plath about tulips she received in the hospital.
• http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178974
• 
  
• $150.00
• 

Weepping cherry and Veronica

WEEPING CHERRY AND VERONICA

nancy Herman

8" x 6"

oil on canvas

This year's Weeping Cheery was especially beautiful.  It came out early and has remained because of the cold weather.  Now the petals are drifting gently down into the garden with every breeze.  The wild Veronica is gracing the lawn in all its glory as well.  There is one beautiful flower after another in the untreated lawn when it is allowed to grow to several inches in the spring.  

SOLD

DAFFODILS

DAFFODIL

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

Daffodils with all their pristine beauty say "spring".  

After reading Wordsworth's simple but elegant poem once again I realize how art and nature can intertwine and etch our psyche.  The poem reminds us of how nature can be a solice even when we are "on the couch in pensive mood" and it echoes in our mind when we see daffodils dancing o'er the hills reminding us of the power of poetry.

DAFFODILS
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
what wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Weeping Cherry (again)

for those of you who were not able to see the video I am trying again.  Let me know if it works.

Many years ago I planted a weeping cherry in the center of my garden that blooms around the time of my mother's birthday on April 15th.  I have painted this tree over and over again from different angles and at different times of the day.  I am always in a frenzy to capture the tree as the light changes and the weather does not cooperate and before the petals fall to the ground and I have to wait one more year to get another chance.  I am never satisfied with these paintings.  Here is a video of most of them.  They are not necessarily in the order painted but the last three were painted in the last two years in my studio.  These lack the spontaneous brush strokes of earlier years but begin to capture some of the magic of this time of year for me.

(Click on the small square at the far right of the video to view in full size and then the ESC key to exit.)

WORM'S EYE VIEW

WORM'S EYE VIEW

Nancy Herman

8" x 6"

oil on canvas board

Good morning.  I have not been posting lately as I have been getting started in my garden and trying to clean out my house from it's winter doldrums.  Since spring is rolling in faster than I would like, I hope to get outside and paint this week.  

I find spring is such a thrilling time of the year, I really don't know what to do first.  All the crocuses I planted sprang up suddenly one day last week, the forsythia is out and the trees are starting to get that rosy hue that lasts such a short time but is so very beautiful.  The weeds are also thriving and some must be removed before they go to seed and weeding becomes a battle as the seeds are projected into your eyes as you pull them out, and of course all over the garden. 

The view in this painting is where I will be for the next few days and weeks, down on the ground smelling nature come alive again and reveling in the renewal of life, with Bay somewhere near by and Jake pretending he doesn't care not far off.

CROCUSES 2012

CROCUSES 2012

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

About 2 weeks ago, on a warm day, I was strolling in the neighborhood and spotted several lawns on Birch Avenue covered with Crocuses.  They are the first flowers I have seen this year and they were alive with bees!  It is too early for Crocuses really and since then it has been cold and they are all closed, but seeing the bees is perhaps a sign that the bee population is coming back with gusto.  Let's hope so.  These were fully open as you can see, welcoming the bees.  The pollen was spilling out all over the petals.

Spring has officially begun!

ARGYLE AND ALBEMARLE ROADS

One of the prettiest streets in Brooklyn is Albemarle Road with a median planted with trees and seasonal flowers.  I am a fan of porches and this one beats all.  I believe this house is one of the ones described in this entry in Wikipedia.
Tomorrow back to Merion.
SOLD

OUT THE WINDOW IN DITMAS PARK

Everything in spring has a burst of energy.  Trees are blooming in the neighbor's backyard and even the little plant on the window sill is full of new growth.  Another painting from my trip to Brooklyn out the kitchen window.

EARLY SPRING

I will be in Brooklyn this week so won't be posting any paintings.  I will leave you with this print of early spring colors.  It is a signed, limited edition digital print on archival paper with archival inks, 30" x 30".

SPRING 2011

It isn't officially spring for me until the weeping cheery is in full bloom and the wild veronica are carpeting the yard.  I think this is as close to paradise as it gets.

SOLD

LOOKING UP

The weeping cherry was not completely out on the day I painted this but it is in all its glory now.  It bloomed right on schedule for my mother's birthday April 15th.  This year I decided to look up into the tree and was richly rewarded as I never noticed how beautiful the buds are before.  Here is last year's painting.
SOLD

WEEPING CHERRY AND KATSURA

I wanted to capture the soft colors of early spring in this painting of my weeping cherry.  It isn't fully blooming yet and the Katsura leaves in the forground still have that combination of new green and red that is so elusive in the spring.  It is the most beautiful time of year and the most dificult to capture in paint.  Everything blends together in a fine mist of color as the whole world slowly comes to life again.