"Painting Motif #1"

8x10

Oil on Prepared Panel

framed

$295

It was the first day of my painting outdoors season. I went to my favorite place, Rockport, and decided to start with a classic, Motif #1. It was very cold by the sea. Because it was the first time that year, I forgot stuff. Like my solvent. Like my white paint.Like my gloves. I did the best I could but it remained in my studio for two years and every time I looked at it, I could feel the chill in the air. This week, I took it out and dressed it up and warmed it a bit, allowing some bells and whistles, including a bit of white paint. I don't know if I like it better of not! Comments welcome. It doesn't look quite so chilly now. 

"At Rest on the River" (framed)

At Rest On The River

11x14

Oil on Panel

Gold Frame

$325

When I was in Maine, I met fellow aqua-workout lovers. One lady invited me to paint at her house. She lived on the widening river that runs through Thomaston and becomes a cove to the sea.What a gorgeous view! Though she had beautiful gardens, I stayed on her deck high up and painted the water. The "at rest" refers to the seals (lower right) and birds (center) that regularly take breaks at low tide.

Remembrance - The Pink Chair Project" #19 "Full Nest"

FULL NEST

11X14

AVAILABLE FOR DELAYED SALE (SEE BELOW) 

$450

Right from an early time in the project, I knew I wanted to paint a piece with birds. I have some of them in the studio that I use when I teach classes; we use them for models. I saw them perched on the back of the pink chair, even taped them up there. I was clear on why: to celebrate Mom’s joy in singing. She was part of singing groups for many years, and would easily burst into song. As we did the dishes each night, we would sing together, all the old ones. I called them “kitchen sink songs”. Or so it was planned.  I started the piece and placed the birds on the chair in front of a tree that was in its autumn splendor out my studio window. But I could not get into it somehow; it just wasn’t right. I also had a nest I bought at a flower show and I kept putting it on the chair, it seemed to be telling me to put in. So I did, but I had to turn the tree to springtime dress, because that’s when eggs are seen!. As the green started to take over, I opened my eyes and saw what I had. Why 5 birds? Why THOSE five birds? Why was the nest so important? Ahh, the awakening. Lynne, Ricky, Paul, Georgie, Joey…I can hear her call us to dinner now. This piece is a celebration of my mother’s family, her five children. Mom loved us and was always ready to drop everything to be with us; no matter if the house needed cleaning. Our doors were always open to welcome our friends and her heart expanded to hold many foster children. The nest is still full because the door is always open. I even know who these birds are though I didn’t paint them deliberately; From the left: Me, Georgie, Joe, Paul and Rick. Rick died at age 27; he is flying away in the upper right. Mom’s children were her song, and the songs were joyful, energetic, mournful, loving, and heart lifting.

I am now sharing my current show with my readers and daily paintworks viewers. This show is currently traveling and unreserved work will be available for purchase after the travel is completed, around mid-2014. Paintings may be held until then with a 10% down payment. E-mail me or see my pink chair project blog, for details. High quality giclee prints are available on paper or canvas in a range of sizes as well as blank cards with this image. E-mail me for further information.

This exhibit tells the story about painting a pink plastic Adirondack chair. The chair represents my mother, Carolyn Elizabeth Pedersen Schulte, of Rochester, NY, who passed on June 5th, 2011. She was a wonderful woman, full of love for everyone around her, and she loved this bright color pink. She was proud of me as an artist and would love what I am doing. I take the chair to favorite places of hers and to places or situations I know she would have liked. It is a way for me to grieve and to celebrate her life. I talk to her as I paint and make sure that she would want to be where the chair has been placed.

Plum Island: Waiting for Wildlife

Plum Island #1: Waiting for Wildlife

12x12

Oil on Cradled Panel

$325

Plum Island is a wonderful National Wildlife Refuge in Newburyport, MA. Click the link for some beautiful photos of it. I go there many times - to paint, to photoghaph the beauty, to walk the beach, to think, and just to eat my lunch. This is an overlook of a lovely watercourse and there is almost always some avian wildlife here. But not the day I painted, hence the title....