Barnes Arboretum #3

Back to the open symmetry of the formal gardens one walks from one level to another, gradually moving down the gently sloping property through three distinct "rooms".  Each with a different center piece and each having unique characteristics.  In the background of all are the towering trees,  the beckoning woods and the sweet scent of lilacs.

Room #1

Room #2

Room #3

Trees in the background

Barnes Arboretum #2

After you pass through the arch of the arbor at the Barnes gardens you see down the expanse of the carefully laid out tiers of plantings.  The space is surrounded by stone walls and in the background are huge trees.  It is a symmetrical formal garden.

Around the walls are other paths lined with lilacs.  I opted to first walk down these paths to get a whiff of as many lilacs as possible.  This path is an intimate space, it felt like a secret tunnel of pleasure.  Lilacs of every shade were in full bloom.  Over 100 varieties are included in the collection.

Looking back at the arbor on the path.  Tomorrow into the formal gardens.

Barnes Arboretum

On Sunday to treat myself on Mother's Day.  I went to the newly opened Barnes Foundation in Merion's arboretum.  I had not been through the grounds for years as it has not been open. 

It was a perfect day and I knew the lilacs would be in bloom.  I went at 10:00 and was the only person there at that time.  It was absolutely silent except for the birds chattering and the low hum of insects.  The aroma from the hundreds of lilacs was intoxicating. The beauty of the meticulously cared for gardens was staggering.  I was moved to tears by the experience.  In the next few days I will try to capture some of what I felt there.  I took pictures of everything but when I came home and looked at them they simply didn't get it.  Maybe later I will paint what I experienced but for now words and photos will try and recapture those moments.

There is something about being alone in someone else's garden that is a little scary and quite wonderful.  As I walked into the space, along the path leading into the formal gardens, I felt the magic of the place rising up to meet me.

The gardens are tiered and the path leads past some glorious trees down  through an arbor.  The arbor frames the entrance to the wider experience.

More tomorrow.

Marsh Marigolds

MARSH MARIGOLDS

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

It looks like a rainy day so I can get back to painting and let all my transplants settle into the garden.  Still plenty to do.  The spring is such a beautiful time to paint but the garden must be dealt with now or the whole summer is spent regretting.  I pulled plenty of these beauties out of my flower beds this year.  They have a brief moment and then they take over.  One great thing about a lovely "weed", you know it will be back again no matter how many you pull.  I wish that were true of the not so lovely ones!  You can find this painting at Graver's Lane Gallery now.

Grape Hyacinths

GRAPE HYACINTHS

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

Blue Hyacinths symbolize constancy, and they are a constant pleasure in my garden, where they slowly mulitply every year. My gardening continues, so I am not painting, but this painting is still blooming and can be found at Graver's Lane Gallery.

FIRST SIGN OF SPRING

FIRST SIGN OF SPRING

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

The crocuses (not croci because it is a 

Greek word) are gone in the garden but still blooming in Chestnut Hill at the Chestnut Hill Home and Garden Festival. Today May 4th from 11 to 5.

This painting is framed and ready to adorn your walls at Graver's Lane Gallery. 

Daffodil

DAFFODIL

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

Finally finished my on line retrospective for now but I am not back to painting just yet as I have a lot of gardening to do to get the season started right.  Meanwhile some of my paintings are all framed and ready for new homes at Graver's Lane Gallery in Chestnut Hill.  Here is one of my favorites.

NEW WEB SITE

My web site is finally on line.  It is an on line retrospective so it is filled with lots of art work that I have created over the years.  I would love to hear from you if you have any trouble navigating through the various parts, or if there are any spelling mistakes - my specialty.  Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Here is the link -  Nancy Herman Retrospective 

EASTER BUNNIES

EASTER BUNNIES

Nancy Herman

20" x 20"

signed limited edition giclee print on archival paper with archival ink

Stamps used in EASTER BUNNIES

At this rate I will never finish creating my new web site as when I go through different periods of my art work I get the urge to create another in the series.  So far I have made several more Pure Color pieces, 3 new stamps, and revised several poster collages.  I am having so much fun that I feel guilty.  Now what's that all about?

$250.00

FORSYTHIA 2011

Forsythia 2011

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

I have been busy creating a new web site for the past two weeks, so have not been painting, but last year's Forsythia painting fits the moment perfectly.

I love Forsythia.  It is for me the real messenger of spring as it is so jolly in its thrusting glory.  I hold in deepest disregard those who turn their Forsythia bushes into crippled balls.  Every year I shudder past Merion Mercy Academy in the spring as they have a whole row of Forsythia hedge that could be a glory of spritely delight brightening Montgomery Avenue.  But no...they always trim the hedge so there is only a strangled few blooms.  It is as if the gardeners can't stand the exuberance.  Yet this has gone on for years, and gardeners come and go, so I can only conclude it is orders from above.  How far up I don't know.
SOLD
$150.00

New Stamp

JEWISH STARS

Nancy Herman

20" x 20"

Limited edition signed digital print on archival paper with archival inks

I have always enjoyed the beautiful lithography on old stamps.  A few years back I began collecting them and with the help of friends and sometimes just people I met on a train or airplane I amassed a huge collection of stamps of all kinds.  I then began sorting them out according to color and theme and created collages.
At the moment I am putting together a new web site that is really an on line retrospective.  When I came to the stamp page I decided to create two new stamps.  One in honor of Passover  "Jewish Stars".  Here it is with a link to the new page.  The stars are Raoul Wallenberg, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Golda Meir, Ben Gurion and Ann Frank. (Christmas is the other new stamp just to keep a balance in the stamp family)

$250.00

UNDER THE HIGHWAY

UNDER THE HIGHWAY

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

The train has come to the end of the line and just as it is when I am really on the train I am more than ready to get off and begin the next adventure.   However, there is still the business of getting through the station and out into the world again.  In this case there is one more painting from the series.  By now the snow is melted and spring is here but on this canvas it still exists and I must deal with it.

At the time it was interesting to see little glimpses of nature through the bridge abutments.  Now I wish I could see the new life that has sprung up there or have a painting of daffodils to show.  And so it goes in life, our unfinshed business keeps us from the pleasures of the day.

But wait...  Here is last year's Daffodil which along with some other of my spring paintings can now be seen at Graver's Lane Gallery.

SNOW AND FENCE

SNOW AND FENCE

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

Still on the train on a wintery day.  An old tin fence, some empty containers,  snow and a set of old train tracks create this compostion in shades of blue and brown.

$150.00

NIGHT SETS IN

NIGHT SETS IN

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

Night from a railroad car window

Is a great, dark, soft thing

Broken across with slashes of light.

WINDOW by Carl Sandburg

$150.00

THE GREEN DOOR

THE GREEN DOOR

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

From the train window I spy this green door with a car parked out front.  This combination stirs the imagination.  Who chooses pea green for their door?  Is the car visiting pea green door painter or does the driver live there?  What goes on behind the pea green door?

$150.00

LAYERS

LAYERS

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

  Another scene from the train, this formerly quiet little square that I painted a few days ago (CLOSED )is gradually giving way to nature.  We fight it back every chance we get and carve it into symetries we can grasp in our gardens, but it is relentless.  When humans are forgotten it will rage on.  We forget, to our peril, that we are only a very small part of the miracle of life on this planet.

$150.00

Empty Platform

EMPTY  PLATFORM

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

Lately I have not been drawing in the images before I paint.  This leads to wavey lines that used to be straight and proportions that are less than perfection.  As a result of not following the lines I can use more paint and get into the feeling of the brush rolling along the canvas.  In this painting of the empty train platform I especially enjoyed painting the funky pink pipe.

$150.00

BROOKLYN ROOF TOP

BROOKLYN ROOF TOP

Nancy Herman

6" x 8'

oil on canvas board

My destination when I go to New York is always Brooklyn, to visit my children and grandchildren.  I love the old Victorian houses in Ditmus Park.  This one is a symphony in shades of grey.  I wonder who lives in this room near the top.

$150.00

CLOSED

CLOSED

Nancy Herman

6' x 8"

oil on canvas board

Still on the train, we stopped next to this square that could have been from a French town. 

This odd building with shutters closed and a narrow door with no stairs seems right out of a Hitchcock movie.

$150.00

RED AND RUST

RED AND RUST

Nancy Herman

6' x 8"

oil on canvas board

Back on the train to New York from Philly this simple pleasing composition of a corrugated red and white tin fence, a rusty pole and its shadow appear as we hurry by.   It's an excuse for some juicy paint, which unfortunately you can't see in this photo.

$150.00

Art Critism

When I was around 6 or 7 I took a painting class at the local library.  It was taught by an enthusiastic young man who took a special interest in my "work".  I think I was pretty good at watercolors and able to get the way things looked, sort of, with not too much messiness. This has to be unusual for a child that age.  He insisted I have a "one girl show" at the library to celebrate my “genius” as the local newspaper put it. 

In that show there was a landscape with only the head of a horse in the middle.  My enthusiastic teacher, who was probably just a young art student, said this was part of my talent. Meaning that I was free to put just the head of the horse in the picture because I knew that was all that was necessary to indicate “horseness”.  I thought that I had only included the head because I had no idea  how to draw the rest of the body.  I didn’t tell him that.  I liked his idea better.

I think this small incident pretty much defines for me everything there is to know about what other people think an artist is about and how that influences what artists say to other people about what they do.

But, suppose he was right.   It certainly is true that children, if they have not been overly praised or scolded about their art are freer to do what they want to than they will be as they learn more about what "art" is.  It is also true that the head of a horse does indicate "horsiness" and I felt free to put it in the painting without the body, even though I would have included the body if I knew how to draw it. 

When an artist in full control of the power of expression chooses to leave something key out of their work to create a certain feeling, that is art.  When someone simply doesn't know how to draw and so only includes what they can do comfortably...not so sure.  A lot of outsider art has this feel to it and often it is very moving.  If this concept is to hold water then art education is a big mistake and everything that is taught except how to wield a brush or sharpen a pencil leads to the burying of "talent".  

What do you think?

Little White Building

Little White Building

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

If you look out the window of the train, as you ride from Philly to New York, you will see more than one of these small buildings along the tracks.  Not sure what their use is.  Could be small people live there to make sure none cuts too much of this rich grass or goes swimming in the freezing water? Storage house for skis?  Playhouse for lost children?

$150.00

Spaces

SPACES

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

Still traveling on the train I find many bridges near the train tracks cut out interesting shapes in space.  Here the sky is sliced into a pattern of abstract patchwork as the Swift truck cuts its path over the bridge.

$150.00

In the Station, Father and Daughter

IN THE STATION

(Father and Daughter)

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

More painting from the train windows.  What is going on here?  Is it a father and daughter?  She looks like she might be guilty about something, head down in a gesture of humility.  What did she do?  He looks straight ahead, unforgiving.   Or is she just examining her new boots?

$150.00

TRUCK DESCENDING

TRUCK DESCENDING

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

Trucks all over the country are bringing us fresh produce and other goods so that we can step into the markets and buy pretty much whatever we want, from clementines in January to caviar from Russia.  Not too many of us are going into the root cellar for our shriveled beets stored from the summer or eating our own canned tomatoes.  We should have the skills that would allow us to survive if the trucks could not bring our food. I wonder if school would feel more relevant to kids if these skills were taught there.

$150.00

HOUSES BY THE TRACKS

HOUSES BY THE TRACKS

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

What is it like to sit on these porches and watch the trains go by?

$150.00

Graffiti and Snow

Graffiti and Snow

Nancy Herman

6' x 8"

oil on canvas board

This building resonates with color. The graffiti seems to be blending with the snow.  Or is the snow creating its own lively statement?

According to Wikipedia, "Both "graffiti" and its occasional singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato("scratched"). "Graffiti" is applied in art history to works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito",^[4] which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν — graphein — meaning "to write."

$150.00

Taking the Train

GRAFFITI AND OLD FACTORY

Nancy Herman

9" x 12"

oil on canvas board

For the next few days I will be posting paintings done from photos taken from the window of the train from Philadelphia to New York.  For some reason the old factories covered in graffiti, houses by the train tracks, and yards full of old cars fascinate me when I travel by train.  There is something lonely, sad and at the same time reaffirming about what exists by the tracks.  Life goes on in the graffiti and the small often colorful homes.  Things start to blend together as the weather wears away the buildings and even the layers of graffiti become a part of nature's design.  The colorful marks are the flowering of the exuberant youth making themselves known to the world as it goes by in the comfort of the train.

$250.00