Cob Cottage Studio

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Waxing Poetic And Painting Too

Nell and I took a walk to the back of our fields today.We have had a rash of gray days with rain, rain,rain....so today's sun beckoned, so we enjoyed a longer walk and the sunshine. The horses are grazing in the back fields, and will until deer hunting's gun season. I took my camera with me and succeeded in capturing some wonderful photos that I can use to compose a painting I am planning. Nell had fun smelling all the wild animals smells that cover our farm.

Now ,back in the studio, I have to get back to work. Nell sleeps under my drawing board. I have finished an oil painting of the ripe grapes on our arbor.....it took me a while.

During the recent rainy spell I spent time walking in the wet woods....and on one of Nell and my walks, I composed this poem......

The Woods Today

The woods today, seemed dark and gray

Until I stepped inside.

Then orange and red

Covered green moss bed

Of paths I walked beside the upright trees

That dropped their color, bold and bright.

Though rain had wet the fields from skies above, all dark and gray,

The woods were decked in colors that brightened up my day.

Now I need to get to work, while Nell sleeps. Paperwork is waiting for an invitational art exhibit I have been invited to participate in. It opens next week!..I will write it a bit later!! I am stoked to be invited!!! AND it IS in MAINE!!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Pondering.....and Two New Paintings

When the days get shorter, my studio time seems to get longer. It doesn't really compute, but it seems to be the norm. I am sitting here now looking around my studio and trying to figure out how I can get more room in the studio that I was sure was "big enough". It now seems to have shrunk. Funny how that happens. So as daylight shrinks by the minute....my studio shrinks by the day. I need to get more creative on how I use the space available to me. So I sit here pondering.......

I love where we live. Periodically I need an ocean fix. Maine's coast calls to me, maybe because I was born in a water sign month.....or because I was born on the coast. I need to be near water. And lately I also have been feeling the need to paint work depicting the ocean too. Luckily, I am near it.....inspiration is only a short ride away. Pictured above is one of my latest works, a small gem of a painting depicted our rocky coast of Downeast Maine.

And then after I picked the very last of our pears from our small orchard....I set up and did a small still-life painting. It seemed only fitting. Small and small....!

And NOW I am thinking that my studio is small........

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Still Studying - After All These Years

My vegetable garden is in fall mode.My perennial gardens are growing rampant. I have been busy painting and drawing .....and studying.Yes ,studying. I recently bought several books in my never ending quest to tweak my artwork and stretch as an artist. I strongly feel that if I want to grow as an artist, I need to read and learn from artists past and present.So I study!!

But I have been painting too. The above oil painting is of a Welsh Cob.....our Welsh Cob mare, Victoria. She does NOT like to have her photo taken and dislikes even more having me doing a painting of her. What started as a plein air painting became a studio painting as she decided that she had had enough of me.

And as the days get shorter and the afternoon sun dips lower and lower in the sky I felt the need to paint my last roses blooming in my studio garden. I just finished this 6 x 6" oil on copper......so two paintings done recently. I have been drawing too This is good!

. So what books am I reading now???? "Hensche On Painting" What have I learned? To get OUT OF THE STUDIO.....and paint outside to learn color!! And I am also reading "Childe Hassam - American Impressionist" So what am I learning there? [It is a big book!] that I need to paint more!! That being said....I am off to paint!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Working On Memorabilia

Our home is filled with old memorabilia.... with memories of my childhood, growing up in Italy where I collected nic-nacs on any road trip we went on., and memories from before Italy, when we lived in New Hampshire and I played with doll houses and made fairy houses in the woods surrounding our farm in the granite state's forests. Over the years some of these figures and toys have gone missing, been broken, or traded for something better. But until today some of my "old friends" have remained intact and still provide me with joy. And I have been feeling a need to immortalize these friends...and so I have done two still lifes.....two casein paintings , maybe to "play again" with these old friends....?

'Jumble Of Friends'", above, depicts a bowl that now sits in my studio with some of my old figures,and after seeing it, day after day, the idea to paint it seemed appropriate. I do have other figurines that need to be highlighted in a second painting...that will come. But after doing the friends in a bowl, I decided to paint an antique watercolor paint set that I was given to me years ago by my granddaughter. Jackie saw it at a shop and thought I needed it! I love looking at it and wondering who the child was, who owned this set...?? And did they grow up to be an artist? So this has become my second still-life painting....."The Artist's Tools" .

So there will be more still-life paintings in the works.....and maybe others can relate

to my fascination with things old and memories immortalized.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Summer Is Done [Almost] And So Are Three Paintings

The past 2 weeks we have had company ...family has come.... and gone.... and the end of summer is marching by fast paced and on time !! I have picked almost all the veggies from our garden.I have bagged and frozen bags of tomatoes and am eating my fill of sweet tasting juicy fresh tomatoes.How I miss them when winter settles in and we are forced to eat tomatoes from the supermarket that taste so bland compared to our summer's bounty.
In between the farm's daily chores and gardening ...and company....I have done 3 small paintings.......and here they are.

I am so looking forward to a productive creative winter cloistered in my cozy studio ....

and singing my art's song!!

Saturday, August 25, 2012

OIl Painting of Acadia, Done

"Starting The Drive At Acadia" Oil on copper panel 12 x 12" Sold

I don't know where the days have gone! I just realized I haven't blogged in 2 weeks!! I have been busy though......I finished the painted I had started at Equidae Gallery for my demonstration on oil painting on copper...and it has been sold. And I did a self- portrait study in casein on board. Every so often I do a self-portrait as a sort of landmark of the passing of time and maybe of my growth as an artist. .

I am having trouble downloaded images to my blog....I don't know what THAT is about. So let it suffice for now, I am alive, and kicking.....but frustrated with Blogger problems..... and so I am headed outside to "play" in my gardens and maybe paint a bit!!!!. I will deal with my blog posts later!!

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Saratoga and More More More

I let the demo audience try their hand at oil painting on copper!!

It has been a while since my last post.We have gone to Saratoga Springs and back....Had a wonderful vacation of sorts. [I think they call it a bus-man's holiday??} I did a painting demonstration at The Equidae Gallery that represents me in Saratoga Springs in the summer and then in Vermont the rest of the year. I talked about how I got started in oil on copper paintings, [Thanks to artist Renee Lammers !! ] and why I work in that medium on copper and not so much in oil on canvas. I painted in the demo too, starting a new work depicting a four-in-hand in Acadia's Wildwood Stables. The Friday night Champagne Reception was packed and I was pleased to be greeted by the proverbially "red dot" that every artist hopes for when we arrived at the opening!! A good start of the race season!!

Les and I had time to explore the parks and gardens of Saratoga, visit the track, enjoy the carousel in the park and the artists' retreat and wonderful gardens of Yaddo, with its lovely statuary and fountains,rose gardens and woodland walks. We also managed to have some wonderful tasty meals at Saratoga's awesome restaurants. One could say we ate our way through the city!! Indian,Thai,Italian....and of course Mrs. London's pastries extraordinaire! We met friends there and when I wasn't working we just had a great time!!

Visited Spa Gallery with friend Juliet Harrison & we called artist friend Kimberley Santini

to congratulate her on her work hanging there!!

Saratoga Springs Park

In the gardens of Yaddo

One evening I even sat on the Saratoga Lake-side and plein air painted the wonderful brilliant sunsets our B&B afforded us each night. But Saratoga was hot...and felt much hotter than Maine's hot weather feels. We were happy to be on our way back home, and travelled back taking the "high road" through Vermont and New Hampshire, where we enjoyed the beautiful landscapes of each New England state.

"Saratoga Lake Sunset" Oil on copper 6 x 6" plein air

So we are home. Nell is happy to have us home. ...and I am back working in my cool basement studio with Nell by my side....Life goes on.......and wonderfully it seems!!

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