Winter Sunset

Every year around Christmas the sun sets at the very bottom of my street.  It is a little past that point by now and I missed the moment this year, but the color is still really good with the very blue snow.

PAINTER'S HALLWAY

The light spilling over the canvasses almost makes this messy hallway okay.  At least that's what I tell myself.

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BLUE AND RED

Snow is blowing around our very old bird feeder but inside it is warm and cozy on this very blue day.  Margaret Whiting died yesterday and here she is singing with Johnny Mercer, her mentor and friend. BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE.

BATHROOM REDS

A little touch of spring in the bathroom.
This painting was done on very flat and slippery board so it had to be painted twice and stippled.  I like the way the stippling unites the edges but I am going back to canvas board in the next painting, still using the stippling.

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CYCLAMEN AND SNOW

This is a painting I did a while back.  The curtains and table cloth have long ago fallen apart and been thrown away, but it could be today as far as my interests are concerned.  I am in the middle of a painting looking out the same window through red leaves to the snow beyond.  I am endlessly fascinated by the same things it seems.  I have no idea (again) where this painting is.  I may have sold it or it has migrated to one of my children's walls, but if you are interested in purchasing it, I will see if I can find it.  I think it is about 24" x 36".

NIGHT SNOW

Out my kitchen window the snow makes lacy patterns in the night.

I am experimenting with different surfaces to paint on.
SNOW BLANKET and this piece were painted on a gesso board which has absolutely no tooth - that is, it is slippery.  I had to paint both pieces twice because the paint slid around in a most unpleasant way the first time.  I tried that because before that BROWN AND KETCHUP and COME ON IN were painted on stretched canvas with a broad weave and the weave soaked up the paint and was almost as prominent as the paint itself,  making too much of a play for attention.

MORNING AFTER SNOW

I want to talk a bit about process while paintings are drying, as I am experimenting with diferent surfaces at the moment.  More about that in later posts.
Most of the paintings I have posted on this blog have been created in my studio from photographs that I have taken and manipulated in photoshop to add, subtract, change the position of things or alter some colors.
This is an older painting that I created outside.
I spent many years painting outside and found that I could stand to be out in some pretty bad weather for a short period of time.  It was very invigorating and filled me with joy.  I may give it a try again, but the whole process of setting up, dealing with the wind or the sun or simply the quickly changing shadows is really daunting.
I just noticed the Barnes Foundation can be glimpsed behind the trees here.  Little did I know when I painted this how much it would occupy my time and energy in the future.
If you are interested in purchasing this painting, email me and I will try to find it.

SNOW BLANKET

  These pines almost seem to grab their blanket of snow.  Peeking under their branches it turns out there is still quite a lot of color after the snow, even before the sun comes out.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

MERRY CHRISTMAS

IRELAND

This painting was created for the VIRTUAL PAINTOUT.  I spent several pleasant hours cruising the back roads looking for just the right spot to set up my easel.  I could almost smell the grass in this spot in County Claire.

END OF THE SEASON

While finishing up a job for a show in Canada I happened upon this slide of an old painting.  I did this on site in my garden and it looks like an old asparagus plant.  Don't know where the painting is but I wish I did, as I think it captures the end of the season very well.

Sorry no paintings for a while.  I have been busy with holiday shopping, creating a family calendar and entertaining.  If you want to review some of my recent paintings you can go here and check them out.

MERION STATION IN THE RAIN #2

Another stab at painting through the windshield in the rain.  This time it's Merion Train Station and Post Office.  Here is the first version of Merion Station in the Rain, painted last March.

COME ON IN

Old houses have the most welcoming doors, in my opinion.  In this one in Bala Cynwyd you can see the arbor cheerily lit up in the front yard through the window of the storm door.  It may be cold outside but it's warm and cozy in here.

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PRINTS

You can order prints of paintings whether they are sold or not.  (Artist's own the copyright to their work unless that is specifically sold separately from the work itself).

PRINTS

THINK GIFTS!

For three days only I am offering prints of any painting on my blog for $25.00- (don't miss the older paintings, they go back to January).  I will print these myself on my Epson R1900 on Somerset Velvet paper.  This paper and the ink in the Epson is archival.  The paintings look great on this paper.  It is very soft, as the name implies.  They will be signed in a limited edition of 50.
This offer ends on and includes Saturday.  I am including a paypal button to pay for the prints.  Be sure to fill in the name of the print when you pay and also send me an email with the name of the print(s) you want and your name and address and I will get them out in a jiffy.

NAME OF PRINT

BROWN AND KETCHUP

This painting is brought to you by the Ketchup Advisory Council.  Click on the link for a chuckle.


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PORTRAIT OF A HOUSE

I love the way the light plays over the curved shapes of this house in Penn Valley.

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FULL MOON IN THE SWIMMING POOL

I rarely go out at night just to take in the scenery but this full moon brought me out with my camera.  This is the moon reflected in the swimming pool with my neighbor's house lights competing with the much bluer light of the moon.  Their house is not yellow but the lights make it seem so by contrast.

ANOTHER BLOG

Here is a link to another blog that I follow.  This entry is especially interesting and beautiful so I thought I would share it.
ART IN CONNO

AUTUMN ZINNIAS

Only a few days ago the trees were still full of leaves and the Zinnias, that this year were at least 6 feet tall, were still proudly showing their stuff.  Today we have frost and most of the leaves are down.  This fall so gloriously filled my head with color, I think I will be able to make it through the winter without too much regret.
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$125.00

RED MAPLES #2

Almost gone today, three days ago these beauties were lighting up my front yard.  "Sic transit gloria mundi" - "Thus passes the glory of the world"
$125.00

MORNING LIGHT

It's getting to be time to enjoy indoor pleasures.  I love to follow the light around my house as it creates compositions all day long.  Here I removed the furniture - not really - just for the painting, because the blue light was a key element.

$125.00

RED MAPLES

These BLOODGOOD maples are pulsing their color all over my front yard.  The final fairwell to summer.  This is from inside the tree looking out on an overcast day.

DOWN TO RIO

Early this week I spent time wandering the streets of Rio de Janeiro, courtesy of Google maps, looking for just the right place to paint for the Virtual Paintout.  I finally settled on this combination of bright sunlit colors and indoor revelry on the Rue Marechal Cantauria. And don't miss this choice few moments from FLYING DOWN TO RIO the 1933 film with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in their usual good form.

WHITE DAHLIA

These pristine white Dahlias are a stand out in my garden at this time of year when everything else is either brilliantly colored or fading into brown.

"White...is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black..." -- G. K. Chesterton

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DOG DIGNITY

A foggy day, the autumn joy at its richest hue and Bay, my shy dog, finally taking his place in the picture as if to say, "This is where I belong".

KATSURA IN AUTUMN

Autumn would not be complete for me without an attempt to paint my Katsura trees.  This one, our big Daddy, is huge, with long pendulous limbs that seem impossible to sustain and yet they grow longer every year. It is about 150 years old.  Katsura trees are native to China and Japan.  There are males and females and we have a beautiful pair that creates babies that have populated our neighborhood and our friend's back yards.  In the fall as the leaves turn yellow they create a wonderful burnt sugar aroma making them a glorious sensual delight in every way.

CONDENSATION

A few days ago it was very warm and wet and the windows were covered with this condensation.  The condensation condensed the fall colors so beautifully I had to try and capture it.

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CARRIAGE HOUSE

There seem to be many more carriage houses than there are stables.  If these places actually held horse drawn carriages, where did they put the horses when they weren't pulling the carriage?  Was there a central stables, where horses were kept for any given neighborhood?  Anybody know?

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NARBERTH AVENUE GLORY

You don't have to go far from home to experience beauty these last days of autumn.  It is like being in a warm mist of color, as if the trees are saying a sweet 'Farewell til we meet again.'

SEASONS' END

One last memory of the ocean.  These two huddle together pondering eternity, the winter to come?...or maybe what's for dinner.