Boston's Swanboats

"Reflections of Youth" 16X20 oil 2015

 After an especially tough winter, Bostonians look forward to spring. One sign of spring in Boston is the launching of the Swanboats in the Boston Public Gardens. Each day they are lined up awaiting the tourists and residents who flock to ride around the lagoon. At night they return to their dock and bask in the late afternoon sun awaiting the next day's riders. Swanboats were a major fascination for me when my mother took me as a child. I enjoyed outings there with my own children and many students over the years. Now I look forward to taking my granddaughter for her first ride this spring. The sight of the boats brings a smile as old memories surface. It's a happy place. I wanted to create a happy painting. I used greens punctuated by red to create a smooth diagonal path in the painting. My focus was on the variations in the whites as the light bounced off the whites of the swans.  The warm and cool whites presented many variations in tints of color which when put together appear to be white. The ripples in the water formed wonderful reflections as the boats quietly bobbed in place. The horizontal linear patterns and horizontal painting format were employed to bring a sense of peacefulness to the viewer.

Beacon Hill Beauty

"Embracing Winter "of 2015 12X16 oil 

Boston had record snowfall this winter and neighborhoods were coated every few days with a  fresh white blanket. The snow piled up, cars were buried and paths became narrower and narrower as navigating the streets became more and more difficult. While frustrating for many, for me the freshly fallen snow presented an opportunity to see the beauty of the city in a different light. This scene of Beacon Hill is from the first storm, Juno, in January. It continued snowing for another 6 weeks giving me plenty of time to work on my painting. The late night view afforded the scene an ephemeral  untouched, untrodden freshness. The old fashioned lamp posts illuminated the scene in a unifying manner and created wonderful patterns as light and shadow alternated on the banks and buildings. The color harmony was strong and allowed me to focus on creating a mysterious glow bringing the viewer deep into the nocturnal space. I used rags instead of brushes in the first phase of painting. When I switched to brushes later, I kept edges soft and minimized details to give the viewer enough information to fill in the scene on their own.

A perfect combo-Flowers and the finch.

Two of my favorites-the goldfinch and echinacea. My Mom had bird feeders all over the yard.  When I bought my house, I bought bird feeders galore and the two of us enjoyed many hours watching the feeders, looking up the birds in bird books, and keeping track of how many we saw each year. Although my Mom has been gone for more than twenty years now, I think of her when I watch the birds at the feeders. My mother-in-law was an avid gardener and introduced me to many new varieties of flowers to grow. I have been blessed with so many beautiful creations to enrich my life and enjoy and I love to share them through my art. Georgia O'Keeffe said she painted flowers really big because she felt people didn't stop to look closely enough and really enjoy them. Maybe there is a bit of her in me.
I tried to portray the subject matter fairly realistically and contrast it with a  dreamscape-like background. Since finches are tiny colorful birds, I painted this on an 8x8 canvas punching up the color a bit.

The Red Boat

"The Red Boat" on Cape Cod, Harwich, MA

When driving along Rte 28, this red boat and beautiful marsh scene beckon me at every season. I usually pull over and take a few photos or pull out the sketchbook. Sometimes I just sit and enjoy. When I went there this summer and saw that another boat was there with the formerly solitary red one, I felt like the mood was changing. I decided to paint the feeling it evoked before the addition of the second boat.  I loved the peacefulness and serenity of the place. The pop of the red boat was like a jolt of adrenaline.  Perhaps soon I'll do the new scene with the two boats.  It still has the wonderful red/green harmony and layers of receding landscape. I like it, too. It's just a whole different feeling.
I hope you like this one!

Beacon Hill is Quintessential Boston

Acorn Street, Beacon Hill, Boston, MA   16x20 oil on linen

When I was asked to paint a wedding present for a couple moving to CA from Boston, all sorts of ideas flooded into my head. The groom had lived in Boston and especially loved Beacon Hill. Perfect! My son and his family just moved to Beacon Hill last month. It was a part of the city that embodied all the elements of "old Boston".  The brick buildings, cobblestone streets, old fashioned lamp posts that are on day and night, the window boxes and iron work all exemplify my image of old Boston. Almost every doorway demands to be admired and photographed or painted. I was excited to have a destination in the new family neighborhood. I spent the first day photographing all the streets, crisscrossing up and down the hills and looking for possibilities for future paintings as well. I repeated my steps and process that afternoon so I could examine morning versus afternoon light. I broke out my sketchbook on Acorn Street and did some preliminary studies. I hoped this would be the setting for the painting. After contacting the couple to be sure this would be to their liking, blocking in the masses commenced. I took advantage of the lamplight to brighten the colors somewhat as the street is narrow and dark. I chose the spot where the ancient green vine grew up the building to capitalize on the red/ green harmony and echoed this harmony in the window boxes. The colonial American flag that flew above the street clinched my choice of scenes as it defined the character of the neighborhood, being  repeated on other streets around the hill. The flag provided a point of interest to move the viewer down the hill while letting other detail and color diminish in the distance. Although the street was very crowded with tourists on my weekend visits, I decided to leave the people out of it.  I wanted to portray it as I saw it on weekday visits; a quiet, well kept and serene neighborhood with a lot of history.  Next stop- Louisburg Square!

"The Ultimate in Peace and Solitude-" Lake Champlain, VT

"Afternoon glow" 11x14 oil

my painting spot!

Causeway crossing 11x14 oil

Majestic Solitude 12x24 oil

I was fortunate to spend a week on Lake Champlain in Vermont far north of  the noise and bustle of Burlington. In the morning I enjoyed watching the loons glide undisturbed as I had my first cup of coffee. I was even fortunate to observe a great show put on by a group of 11 baby loons. I decided to add loons to one painting as it gave it a sense of place. A few times during the week I saw a sailboat go by. In the evening my daughter and I enjoyed paddleboarding on the glass like surface all alone and undisturbed.  I decided to add the sailboats to the panoramic painting since they were the norm and I didn't see any other paddle boarders all week. I wanted to keep the focus on the distant mountains and the mood and feeling of the spot and not make the loons or boats the subject matter of the paintings. During the day I set up my easel and paints and painted in the morning facing the causeway that joined the mainland to the Islands. The sun would rise behind the Adirondacks which created a beautiful constantly changing skyline in the distance. The misty purples and blues were captivating and I tried to capture the serenity the place evoked. After a mid-day break for lunch and a long walk to photograph the surrounding area, I would return and set up facing in the opposite direction. Afternoons were for painting the rocky shoreline and the glow created by the setting sun. I exaggerated the blue violets with the warm oranges to heighten the effect. By the end of the week I was in love with Milton, VT.  I may have to return to paint some of the amazing sunsets that we enjoyed each evening directly across the lake.

It's all about the light!

"Afternoon Glow" 16x20 oil-Rock Harbor, Cape Cod, MA

One of our rituals when on vacation is to find the "perfect place" for viewing sunrise and sunsets. The hour before is a glow of great shadows, strong light and a warmth that inspires. Rock Harbor provides a multitude of great views with almost sculptural marshes, distant land masses that seem to dissolve on the horizon and a channel where boats come in at last light silhouetted against the purples, blues, reds and oranges of brilliant sunsets reflected in the ocean.  What caught my eye on this particular afternoon was the yellow orange marsh contrasting with the blue violets of the shadows and distant trees. The people strolling on the clam flats were all waiting for the sunset and gave scale to the painting along with the house being struck by a strong last light. I loved the abstract feeling of the distant masses juxtaposed with the detail in the foreground, but most of all, it was all about the light!