Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Dewey Ave

Dewey Ave
11x14, acrylics on canvas
AVAILABLE

Wow, two paintings in one day! I'd never manage that if I wasn't on vacation. I've been at this one since noon, working around phone calls from my kids. I was driving in Old Orchard Beach last spring and saw this very, very yellow house. The afternoon sun was making interesting shadows, so I snapped a photo. As usual, I simplified. I left out street signs and pretty much did my own thing with the buildings across the way. But I think I succeeded in capturing the flavor of the neighborhood.

Sunset Serenade

Sunset Serenade
11x14, acrylics on canvas
SOLD

Sunrises and sunsets on the UMA campus are amazing and awe-inspiring. This is a view of the winter sun setting directly behind the Michael Klahr Holocaust and Human Rights Center. Hope you enjoy!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

State Street Shadows


State Street Shadows
11x14, acrylics on canvas
NOT FOR SALE


A scene I photographed one day last winter. The tree shadows on the sunny side of the blue house just blew me away. I'm discovering that Augusta (or Disgusta, as I've often fondly called it) is a treasure trove of inspiration, loaded with old houses that just scream New England. All these years, I had no idea I lived in the midst of riches!

Friday, December 26, 2008

Sunny Corner, Old Port
12x16, acrylics on canvas
SOLD

The last time I was in Portland, I drove around town and snapped a few photos. Saw this scene in the Old Port, and couldn't resist that wall of sunshine. This one took some time...I'd forgotten how long it takes to paint windows!

House Portraits




Commissioned House Portraits
Christmas, 2008
Acrylics on Canvas
11x14
SOLD

Here are the three house portrait commissions I painted this Christmas season. Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope the recipients of these gifts enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed painting them!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Bennett Street Houses

Bennett Street Houses
12x16, acrylics on canvas
SOLD

Finally, FINALLY, I'm done painting houses for other people. All the Christmas house portraits are shipped, and now I can get back to painting for myself. This is a little slice of the old neighborhood, at the corner where Prospect Street and Bennett Street come together. I adore these old city houses, and I never tire of painting the wide variety that I find all over the Central Maine area.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Work, Work, Work


My hand and arm are aching and my back is totally blown out. I just finished two more house portraits, both Christmas gifts which will go in the mail today. Can't post them until after the holidays, so I thought that today I'd post one of my early paintings, GREEN LINE, HUNTINGTON AVENUE. I think this was done about a year or so after I started painting, maybe 1994 or 1995. I based it on a photo I took of the subway train at a stop near the Museum of Fine Arts on Huntington Avenue in Boston. Although the "T" signpost is crooked and the perspective is a little wonky in the brick building on the left, it still remains one of my favorite paintings. I love Boston, love the green line trains, and this is one of the first paintings I did that actually had a human figure in it. I don't put a lot of people in my paintings, but this young woman just felt right to me.

I'm currently feeling as though I've run a marathon, painting two house portraits in two days, working around the day job (thank God one of those days was a Sunday!). After three house portraits in a row, I'm itching to get back to painting for me. Because I took so much time off to try to give my poor aching hand and arm a break (which, since I have rampant fibromyalgia, didn't really accomplish much except to drive me nutso because I wasn't painting), I haven't painted anything just for me since early October. Time to get back into the groove.

I had a disappointment this week. I had bid on one of Cooper Dragonette's paintings that I absolutely LOVED. For six days, I was the only bidder. I went to bed a couple hours before the auction ended, and woke up the next morning to discover that somebody else had outbid me. Waaaaa!! I just couldn't stay up any later; I'd been up at 4 a.m., had painted for most of the day, and I simply couldn't make it to ten pm. Oh, well, I'm sure he'll paint another one that catches my eye. I think his work is absolutely amazing! !

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Still Alive

David and Samantha (mostly David)
watching TV. I stole this from my
daughter-in-law's MySpace page.

After a two-month hiatus from painting, primarily because I've been having wicked trouble with my left arm and shoulder (a direct result of raising my arm to paint), I finally finished a new painting yesterday. Alas, I can't post it here yet because it was a commissioned house portrait and is a Christmas present, and with my luck, the minute I posted it, somebody would call the homeowner and say, "I just saw a painting of your house online!" So I won't be posting it until after the New Year. Meanwhile, I'm going to try to get a few smaller works done to list on eBay and in my Etsy store. Sales have been very slow lately. Some of that I attribute to the economy. Some of it I believe is because I haven't been posting new work. People get tired of looking at the same old same old. I did sell one of my older paintings this week, though, titled WINTER SUNSET. There's a story behind it. I painted it in either late '98 or early '99. My mother was living in a nursing home at the time, and she asked me for a winter scene to hang on her wall. I gave her WINTER SUNSET, and it hung there for the last year of her life. After she died, I brought it back home and hung it in my house, where it's been ever since. But I've painted so many new works in the last year and a half that I ran out of wall space, so I decided to let the winter scene go. It was purchased by a lady who plans to give it to her sister for a Christmas present, and I hope its new owner will appreciate it as much as my mother and I did. Meanwhile, stay tuned. There WILL be new paintings posted soon. I'd much rather paint than go Christmas shopping....

WINTER SUNSET
ca. 1999
SOLD