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

THE RED DOOR

THE RED DOOR

9" x 12"

oil on canvas board

Nancy Herman

The shadows create a lively pattern on this very red door in Brooklyn.

Who lives at 349 and why did they paint their door red?

FENCE AND SHADOW DANCE

FENCE AND SHADOW DANCE

Nancy Herman

9" x 12"

oil on canvas board

This fence, dancing in and out of the light, catches my eye as I sit in my daughter's Brooklyn backyard.  Architectural shadows pierce the picture plane in striking ways, darting here and there uniting shapes in ever changing patterns. 

Upstairs, Brooklyn

UPSTAIRS, BROOKLYN

Nancy Herman

9" x 12"

oil on canvas board

Two weeks ago Friday a new member of the Herman clan arrived.  I was in Brooklyn for a week to help out my daughter, and in the glow of the successful delivery and the new life, everything seemed especially compelling - even the fire escape.  My oldest grandson and his new bride live behind the window upstairs from the new arrival, making this an especially meaningful painting for me.  

SHADE

SHADE

Nancy Herman

9" x 12"

oil on canvas board

A window shade can keep the sun out or gently modulate the light.

Can we, in our way, be like a shade, shut out the energy of life around us or let it be filtered through our conciousness and gently fall around us with loving words and actions?

$250.00

This Friday and every Friday this month my video PULSE will be featured on the Crown Lights display as part of the Art in the Air project sponsored by Breadbaord on the PECO building.  Look up and check it out. Here is a link to the small version.  It is only 30 seconds.

SHADOW ON SHADOW

SHADOW ON SHADOW

Nancy Herman

oil on canvas board

9" x 12"

In Plato's analogy of the cave the prisoners only looked at the shadows of life and called what they saw "reality".  He wanted to show that the role of the philosopher was to turn and look at life in all its complexity and bring that back to the shadow gazers.  

Suppose instead  I were to look at only the shadows and bring that to those who are viewing life in all its complexity?  Is there something to be gained by only peering at the shadows?

Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier and simpler.
Friedrich Nietzsche

PEPPERS

PEPPERS

Nancy Herman

oil on canvas board

9" x 12"

The voluptuous pepper kisses the side of the aqua bucket while it rests patiently, along with its fellows, waiting for an eager customer or a painter's brush.  Up close and personal at the outdoor market.

$250.00

SQUASH

SQUASH

Nancy Herman

oil on canvas board

6" x 8"

The sunny squash nestles sexily into its oh so round green bucket as a basket recedes into the background.  A lot of visual excitement in this outdoor market.

SOLD