FORSYTHIA 2011

Trying to catch the wild beauty of the forsythia is one of my favorite spring pleasures.  My neighbor's large collection is a favorite place to start, and in this case end, looking for the best subject.  Several of my favorite places were hacked to pieces this year unfortunately.  Check out last year's selection here.  Check out some pure color prints using forsythia colors as their theme here.

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SHADOW PLAY

I was drawn to the way the shadow of this tree, in this moment, knits everything together.  Shadows are to me a visual reminder of the way we are connected to everything, although those connections are always changing.

SCILLA

Scilla or Siberian Squill does actually grow in Siberia.  This tiny but very hardy flower is probably coming up somewhere in your yard if you have some property in the North East.  It not only comes up every year but spreads in mysterious ways all over the place.  I look forward to discovering what new place it will pop up every year.  Last evening I passed a front yard completely covered in blue.  What a treat.

TULIP LEAVES

It isn't just the flowers that greet the new season with a sense of triumph.  All the new leaves are bursting with life.  These tulip leaves seem to be dancing in time to some universal rhythm.


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SNOWDROPS

These delicate little beauties are popping up all over.  There is an interesting entry in Wikipedia about them.  Here is part of it under ACTIVE SUBSTANCES.

It was suggested by Duvoisin in 1983 that the mysterious magical herb moly that appears in Homer's Odyssey is actually snowdrop. An active substance in snowdrop is called galantamine, which, as anticholinesterase, could have acted as an antidote to Circe's poisons.^[8] Galantamine (or galanthamine) can be helpful in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, though it is not a cure; the substance also occurs naturally in daffodils and other narcissi.

SECRETS

My needle felted piece SECRETS is hanging in a show called UNCOMMON THREADS at the ARTWORKS GALLERY in Trenton.  To read about needle felting click HERE. To read about SECRETS click HERE.  The show is there from March 26th to April 15th.

JAPAN CHALLENGE

The Blog Daily Paintworks is sponsoring a challenge to artists and collectors.  Artists are donating their work to be auctioned off to benefit the people of Japan.  The theme is appropriately "home" and what it means to you.  I have donated my painting TULIPS IN FEBRUARY to the challenge because flowers in the house always give me the feeling that everything is okay.  I wish I could give that feeling to the people in Japan who have lost everything but since that is impossible this token will have to do.  You can bid on it, or any other of the many paintings donated so far.  I will donate the profits of the sale of my painting to SAVE THE CHILDREN as it seems children, our most vulnerable, are often the most hard hit by these tragedies.
Please go to Daily Paintworks for more information and to bid or donate art work.
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REVERANCE

This week I have only posted one painting as I ran out of canvas panels, but I have been busy planning for next week.
Meanwhile in my spare time I have been translating a piece of music to color using my "tuned set" of colors.  This is a project I have been working on for years in both two dimensions and with animations made in Bliss Paint or with Flash.  You can read all about it if you are interested on my web site.  Here is the latest piece REVERANCE.  The music is a piece by Offenbach played by Tatyana Featherman from the CD STEP UP. (The piece repeats automatically - haven't figured out how to control that yet).
In this piece I leave the colors on the screen to complete a 'phrase'.  Each time I animate a piece I try something slightly different to see which things seem to hold together in the mind best.  You can check some of the other pieces out to see what you think if you have time. "Having time" - what an interesting expression that is.  How much time do you have - the ultimate question.
Tatyana Featherman often accompanies the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet classes in Narberth.  This is a real gem in our community...and they have adult beginner classes! 

OPEN TULIP

Right before all the leaves fall to the ground, the tulip really is quite magnificent.  I'm not sure if this show attracts pollinators, as the info on line is not clear.  It seems tulips may self pollinate or the wind blows the pollen around.  Anybody know?  It seems this lovely show must have a purpose. One thing is sure, the pollinator, if there is one must, is diurnal as the tulips close up at night.

LIGHT PATTERN

Since I have been painting the light as it appears in dazzling displays around my house, I have become aware of light patterns I never saw before.  Just shows what a  large role our attention plays in what we actually see.

CAPE TOWN

This month I traveled to Cape Town, South Africa looking for a spot to paint for the VIRTUAL PAINT OUT.  These palm trees caught my eye as, along with the pastel architecture, they correspond to what I imagine it is like live in this balmy port. According to Wikipedia, the city has one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world and is home to a total of 19 different vegatation types, of which several are completely endemic to the city and occur nowhere else in the world.

TIME IN A BOTTLE

Okay here's something for everyone that may seem off track and may make you cry.  The latin form of Croci reminded me of Jim Croce.  I saw him once in a little coffee house in Philly.  There used to be places where you could actully go and have a cup of coffee or two and listen to live performances for hours.  

He was wonderful.  I loved his songs and his sincere and really moving performances.  Unfortunlately he died in 1973 at the tender age of 30 in a plane crash.  While looking up his music on youtube I was struck by the number of young people who bemoaned the loss of performances like his in the comments.  No electronic back up, no lip synching, just a guy with a guitar and a couple of back up players making their own music. 

So here is a link to one of his best known and most poignant pieces.  There is more to mourn than a talent lost young in this saga. LINK  If you really want to cry check out some of this other songs with him playing.

SPRING STREAM

The crucusses (or croci if you want to be true to the latin form) are gloriously covering the banks of the stream that runs through Merion park and spreading their joyful faces in blankets of pale purple under the trees.  From now until July for me is the best time of the year.  Everyday something new arrives to brighten the heart.

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INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

Today is International Women's Day and this year marks its 100th anniversary.  I am participating in a show in Canada of art work by and about women from around the world at Ayrspace.  I contributed a 24" x 24" version of my work SHE WHO WATCHES. (Click on the title to see the work after you read about it) I thought it would be appropriate for an American contribution to be at least tangentially from American indians.  There is also a group of 100 artists exhibiting on the International Women's Day sight. 

LAST SNOW

My neighbor's garage is such a simple old structure that it calls out to be painted and I have painted it many times.  This time I have opted for a very clean controlled vision.  Here are some of the other paintings done on the spot. I was surprised to note that these very same shadows were the subject of a painting done many years ago.
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SECRET GARDEN #2

SECRET GARDEN #1

EARLY SPRING

ROOF SHADOWS

FIRST SIGN OF SPRING 2011

In Merion Park these beauties are lighting up the banks of the stream allready.  Here is a link to last year's version of the same subject. (scroll down to March 17th)  You'll note quite a difference in style between the two paintings.  I "stumbled" upon this link to Japanese posters in the 20's and 30's and tried to keep that elegant line in mind while painting this one.  Check out STUMBLE if you like to surf the net but don't want to waste too much time.  They select things that you might like based on some computer digging that is probably better not thought about.  Every once in a while I get an email from them that is packed with items I really like, so they do a good job.

BRYN MAWR FILM INSTITUTE

Just in time for the oscars I am proud to present the Bryn Mawr Film Institute.  Saved by the prodigious energies of Juliet Goodfriend, who has lived up to her name by being a good friend to all in the area by creating this wonderful cultural gathering place.  Read all about it in Wikipedia and by all means attend their Oscar party if you are in the area.
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FRIENDS MEETING STABLES IN WINTER

These stables, that have probably been around for 400 years or more, lend their stately presence to Merion.  Read some of the interesting history of the Friends Meeting House and its stables here. I painted another part of these stables last April but could not resist this view because of the lovely long horizontal of unbroken snow on the roof of this simple elegant structure.

FIVE OCLOCK SHADOW #2

This is the same light seen in the last painting looking in the oposite direction away from the source of light.   We think of shadows as being cast by people or objects, but there is no word, that I am aware of, for images cast by the sun like this one. Of course there are always both elements in play, but sometimes one is stronger than the other and the sun really creates an image for a moment or two that is quite striking.   I love the diference here between the color of the light from the east window on the right and the light from the west coming through the arched window on the stairs.

FIVE OCLOCK SHADOW

As I am following the sun around my house, I came upon this composition.  The sun was shining through the window on the landing through the bannisters on the second floor.  I had not seen it before or since so I guess it is a rare find.  The sun at just a particular spot - my stonehenge.  Not sure why the blue is where it is, but who am I to question the mysteries of light.

ROMANIA

This month's Virtual Paint Out visited Romania.  This is a country with an amazing history of being conquered, reconquered and divided and redivided.  Especially amazing when you wander the roads today.  What exactly were these folks conquering? It looks like there is nothing there accept a few humble one and a half story abodes and a lot of very treacherous looking mountains, where even Google maps refuse to go.  Tried finding Dracula's relatives in Transylvania but alas there were none in sight.  Couldn't even find a wandering gypsy.  These houses with their aging patina were the most exciting things I could find.  I added the grey skies as I felt if I lived in Romania I would always feel a little grey.

AS TIME GOES BY

Here is a belated Valentine for all of you who have ever been in love.  It is an oportunity to step into the past in a profound way.  Watching and listening to it made me so grateful to artists of all sorts who bring us this kind of magic.  It all started with Herman Hupfeld who wrote AS TIME GOES BY.  Then there is the genious of Frank Sinatra whose voice because of all its resonance over time touches so many emotional buttons.  Ingrid Bergman is  limpidly beautiful in every scene and Humphry Bogart - well he's Humphry Bogart - the hard as nails, smoking machine who could turn up his mouth at the corners and light up your heart.  Hollywood at its best....and now of all things - Youtube, an ever evolving art work that never stops giving.

TULIPS IN FEBRUARY

I love the pristine beauty of tulips.  Here I am following the light around my house again (My winter substitute for gardening).  This is just before sunset, which, I'm happy to say, is getting later and later. Here is a link to the tulips in my garden last spring.

To buy this painting go to DAILY PAINTWORKS and bid on it to benefit the people of Japan.

Brahm's Waltz

While waiting for paintings to dry, I finished my latest translation of music to color.  Brahms' Waltz in A minor.  Each note is chosen from a set of tuned colors. C is Red  and the colors are tuned having a full spectrum of colors in each octave. In this set all colors are moving from dark to light through the whole range. The notes are then animated in Flash, one at a time. Each note is faded to black as it disappears in time.
When you get to my page in youtube, click on Brahm's Waltz to check it out.

JAPANESE CHERRY TREES IN WINTER

These 100 year old Japanese Cherries can be found in one of the most tranquil places in the Merion area, the graveyard of the Merion Friends Meeting House.  I missed painting these old beauties when they flowered but hope to catch them this year.  If you want to cummune with the imagined spirit of the long dead, this is the place to go.  Click on this link to read about the interesting history of these trees.  Here also is a link to other paintings of this site.  Friends Meeting building and Stables.

from THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG

Waiting for my latest painting to dry - lots of white - takes time - if YOU have time read this wonderful description of the mystery and glory of great art by Muriel Barbery from the Elegance of the Hedgehog.  She is referring to the painting that is linked to the title of the book. (the colors are way off here)

"The enigma is constantly renewed: great works are the visual forms which attain in us the certainty of timeless consonance.  The confirmation that certain forms, in the particular aspect that their creators have given them, return again and again throughout the history of art and, in the filigree of individual genius, constitute nonetheless facets of a universal genius, is something deeply unsettling.  What congruence links a Claesz, a Raphael, a Rubens and a Hopper?  Despite the diversity of subject matter, supports and techniques, despite the insignificance and ephemeral nature of lives always doomed to belong to one era and one culture alone, and despite the singular nature of a gaze that can only ever see what its constitution will allow and that is tainted by the poverty of its individuality, the genius of great artists penetrates to the heart of the mystery and exhumes , under various guises, the same sublime form that we seek in all artistic production.  What congruence links a Claesz, a Raphael, a Rubens and a Hopper?  We need not search, our eye locates the form that will elicit a feeling of consonance, the one particular thing in which everyone can find the very essence of beauty, without variations or reservations, context or effort.  In the still life with a lemon, for example, this essence cannot merely be reduced to the master of execution; it clearly does inspire a feeling of consonance, a feeling that this is exactly the way it ought to have been arranged.  This in turn allows us to feel the power of objects and of the way they interact, to hold in our gaze the way they work together and the magnetic fields that attract and repel them, the ineffable ties that bind them and engender a force, a secret and inexplicable wave born of both the tension and the balance of the configuration- this is what inspires the feeling of consonance.  The disposition of the objects and the dishes achieves the universal in the singular: the timeless nature of the consonant form.

"  

WINTER SUNRISE

This morning the sun rise really intensified the blues of the snow.  Winter is so full of a variety of blues it is a joy really, if only it weren't also cold.  Here is something from the BLUE MAN GROUP to chase those winter blues away.

DOGS AND SNOW

Dogs seem to think that snow is nature's invitation to a boisterous romp.

UNDER COVER

The delicate branches of our split leaf maple are weighed down by snow (along with everything else, including our spirit).  I hope their brittle branches can make it.

BOSTON

  I have been wandering around Boston off and on all month, unable to decide which site to paint for the Virtual Paintout.  Finally, exhausted, I decided on O'Reily's Restaurant and Pub just so I could sit down, relax and have a Martini.

MONET

I am working on three paintings at the same time and none are finished, but here is a very interesting Monet, looking out into the snow at his wife.  Be sure to read about the painting.  One wonders if he intentionally painted his wife this way or the painting just happened to express his feelings so perfectly.