The Woman at the Well

On our trip to Pittsburgh last week we stopped at art museums in Richmond and Washington, DC. At the National Gallery of Art I found inspiration to start a little 10 x 18 oil. It's not from one of the paintings from the NGA that I'm talking about, although there was plenty of that kind of inspiration, but it was just a quick glimpse and iPhone photo of one of their beautiful water fountains where I caught a reflection of Antoinette in the brass.  At the NGA, even the water fountains are works of art. So I'm calling it The Woman at the Well. This is the fountain on the main floor in the northeast corner of the original building --on the end near the modern art wing and at the elevator.

Here is a shot of my first paint, --there's a bit more detail that I'll include, but I feel this is a happy start.
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Delivered Portrait



I'm happy to say that I've delivered a portrait today and everyone is delighted.  This beautiful young woman posed for me and sat several times for this 20 X 30 inch oil on linen.

I've several new portraits underway and a new large canvas for a church --a complex scene of working children on the Sea of Galilee with Jesus visiting.  I've made several such large paintings for churches and am looking for more ways to follow through with plenty of other ideas. If you are interested, I'll send you details.

Mother Earth





















Last week's plein air paining event in Kinston was lots of  fun, although the timing was difficult with so much activity in the city with crews getting ready for the weekend festival.  I mentioned how noisy it was as I made my first pastel at the bridge (River Willows was the only item I offered for sale at the show) -well, painting on the downtown side of the river was even worse as the grass was getting cut, tents and tables were set up, etc., etc.  We experienced a range of weather, too, from a very cool day on Wednesday to a pretty warm afternoon on Friday and it was breezy all that time.  I had a couple of incidents that strong gusts blew over my panels and they fortunately landed with the wet side up!  I always tell people that the way to spot a real Monet is to look for dust, dirt and bugs in the paint.  As someone who mainly works inside and ventures outside in mostly fair weather, I can appreciate the work of others who persevere in the worst conditions to paint on location.

Here is Mother Earth Squared  --Mother Earth visiting Mother Earth --a 10" by 10" oil

River Willows

This was fun to do. Mostly, it is being present to -- attending to a view of these hardy trees and standing for two hours in one place listening and watching and painting. By the way, this is a noisy place!



On to the next image( in the shade) and back to The Nature Center to make a labyrinth this afternoon -- helping a Girl Scout project.


Pictures to come!