Tahlia’s Field

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This is a larger version of a view I painted last year. I do miss my Michigan fields. I’ll be showing this painting as well as some others at the Farmhouse Show in Middletown, NY this Saturday. Reception is 1-5:00. This should be a lovely group show, in a wonderful location. Plus it’s a gorgeous area for a hike before or after the reception…

Evening, Late Summer

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2014 was a great year for hay in Michigan. Good for the farmers, and good for me. My dad took me to see this view, thinking I would like it. Yup!

Bovina No. 3

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I learned something useful, completely by mistake, with this painting. I like to paint roads, and often the best view is from the middle of the road. So I take photos from the car. (Usually when I’m in the passenger seat.) But they’re blurry, which is annoying. So it was a happy accident that my camera was set to “video” here, and I shot several seconds before realizing it. Back on my computer, I made a cool discovery—I can pause that video anywhere I want and get exactly the view I want, in focus. Cool, eh? So now I take a lot of very boring videos.

Two Horses and a Donkey on a Rainy Day

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Well, I guess I don’t have much to add to the title. Just a little painting of farm animals eating in the drizzle.

I've updated my Upcoming Events links to the right. Hope you can come by to say hi and see what our many talented local artisans are up to.

Sunflower Field

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I painted this from a photo that my daughter took this summer, by the side of the road in Michigan. I often shy away from painting foregrounds, opting for distance views, but this one forced me to paint the stuff that was close up. And I liked it.

Bovina No. 2

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While in Bovina we took a bike ride along the Catskill Scenic Trail, a rail trail that runs across fields and small farms and between mountains in Delaware County. So beautiful. I also like that the trail is unpaved, which makes for a more interesting ride. Along the way we said hello to some pretty, long-horned cattle and steered clear of an especially fragrant billy goat.

Bovina No. 1

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Well, there’s a lot of glare on this photo; sorry about that. We spent a few days last week in the western Catskills, in a pretty perfect spot. This was our view! Farmland AND mountains—I couldn’t ask for anything more. There was a lovely pond on the property, where I took a very brief, VERY bracing morning swim. Nearby, the town of Bovina has only one store, but it’s just the right store—a general store where the owner, Bea, makes scrumptious sandwiches, and local people and cats gather for meals and conversation. I am definitely going back to this very special place.  

Clouds Over Hemlock Hill

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Summer is here—green, green, green! Thank goodness the copper beech, smack dab in the middle of the field, contributes a little purple to the mix. There isn’t a lot of farmland in this area, so I really appreciate being able to wander about Hemlock Hill Farm. Plus, they sell amazing organic meat, including the best bacon I’ve tasted in a long time.

Spring Baby

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This little lamb is one of several babies born recently at Muscoot Farm. Some of them had to be only a few days old, with their shaky legs and baggy skin. This tiny one was old enough to stand steadily and look at us with the sweetest expression, which my daughter captured perfectly in the wonderful photo on which I based this painting. It’s fun to observe lambs and ewes for a while; you realize that the lambs and moms call to each other. The good mamas recognize their babies’ calls and stand up, tired as they may be, find their lambs, and feed them.

Summer Storm Clouds

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I thought it was time for a little warmth. This was one of those hot summer days when the clouds roll over the sky, and the thunder rumbles, and the rain may or may not come down, and then suddenly it’s sunny again.

This is probably it for this week. I’ll be hanging my show at the Flat Iron Gallery tomorrow. If you’re free Sunday afternoon, come by and say hi! Reception is Sunday, March 2, 1-5:00.

Tahlia's Field

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I’m lucky to have a sister with a good eye for fields!

Summer Clouds

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Summer in Michigan—fields, wide-open space, big skies. A storm thinking about developing, but then deciding not to.

Maney's Pond

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I’ve been pausing along the dirt road to take in the view over this pond for as long as I can remember. It’s comforting knowing that the owner of the farm is the son of the man who owned it when I was little. And that home is just over the pond and across two fields, with a stop to say hello to the horses along the way.

Michigan Field

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Small farms make for the most beautiful land, I think. You get so many different colors in the fields, nice lines of trees and stones separating them, and pockets of woods to break things up. There’s a thriving organic dairy farm just to the west of this farm, and a sheep farm to the north, with lots of lovely fields and rolling hills in between.

The Bloom Farm

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This is another of my favorite Michigan views, looking north toward the Muskegon River valley. These fields are beautiful no matter the season or the weather. Long ago, I picked out my first, beloved kitten at the farm just down the road. 

View from the Hill

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This is a quick sketch of the view that I woke up to every morning in Maine. I was enchanted with this view and spent several hours working on a larger painting of it, which ultimately, after a bit of cursing and a minor temper tantrum, had to be scrapped. I took a hike to the top of the farthest field that you can see here, got some perspective, and came back and did this little study. 

Morning in Maine

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As it turns out, I was trespassing when I painted this one. But no one was around, and even if they had been, it probably would have been ok. And this view was worth it—one of those vistas that make me laugh, they’re so beautiful. I was up in a high field, looking out over fall forests stretching to the White Mountains in the distance, heavy morning clouds scudding overhead, casting long, fast-moving shadows over everything. I suppose the speed at which the high clouds moved should have given me some warning, but down in the field all was calm and perfect. For a few hours. Then, in what seemed an instant, gale-force winds (OK, probably just 25 mph) were whooshing through the grass, and I was using my body weight to keep the easel steady while I hurried to finish the painting. A 12x24” board can catch a lot of wind. I finally figured I was done, waited for a pause between gusts, and hurried the painting to my car, praying the wind would hold off until it was safely deposited in the trunk. It did. Whew.

Louise's Field

I had a fantastic time in Maine. I’m incredibly grateful to my friend Sarah for offering her wonderful house on the hill, where I spent three days painting, exploring, and relaxing, with only the blue heron (and yes, a few mosquitoes) for company. I came down off the hill to paint this field at just the right time; the dairy farmer haying the field had just baled up the hay the day before, and they were scattered prettily about, with their morning shadows stretching across the grass. The sun moves across the sky pretty quickly up there this time of year, changing dramatically how the light hits the trees in the space of one painting. A good opportunity to practice picking a moment’s light and sticking to it.