Chasing the Sunset, 24×32” I didn’t get there in time, but I discovered something else.Cypress Shadows, 24×32” I saw stripes of pale pink and cobalt blue. I had to paint.Dune, 24×32” Drawn to the ‘in-between’ the horizon always beckons me.Walking the Fiesole Hills, 24×32” Suddenly the road dropped off to an unknown.Fiesole Sunset, 24×32” I was struck by the endless layers, so vast and iridescent.Harvest Moon, Montauk, 24” sq. Watching it rise out of the sea, I heard Neil Young. La Terrazza, 32” sq. Looking through to the terrace beyond to the hills of Tuscany.Tracks of Summer, Montauk, 24×32” The sundown turned the beach an iridescent green.Olive Farm, 24×32” Surprised, I saw a yellow triangle against a cobalt blue wall.Quince, 24” sq. The yellow quince vibrated against the cerulean sky.Red Roof, 24×32” Against the dazzling white lake, the red roof popped!Bells of Santa Margherita, 14×18” Late day the bells rang out across the hills of Fiesole.Tuscan Olives, 24” sq. Suddenly looking up the contrast was startling. Umbrella Pines, Roman Forum, 24×32” The Umbrella Pines appeared like ‘clouds on stilts.’Winter Shadows, 24×32” Coming straight toward me were stripes of cobalt. Striking!’Birches, 24×32” Fondly I remember wearing a birchbark headband one childhood summer in NH.
WATERCOLORS
Orange Sunset, Montauk
Tudor Montauk
Navy Road Beach
Fiesole Sunset
One Geranium
Cypress Shadows
Dune
Chasing the Sunset
Lazypoint
Olive Farm
Quince
Canaan Museum, N.H
Tuscan Olives
Winter Shadows
Clouds Montauk
COLLAGES
Water Towers
Umbrella Pines
Olive Farm
End of the Line
Chasing the Sunset
Cypress Shadows
Dunes
Summer Tracks, Montauk
STORY
Staying with dear friends, on an olive farm near Fiesole, Italy, jumpstarted this show, which is called “The Experience of Seeing!” Stepping out of the villa, I already saw differently. The Cyprus shadows looked like bold stripes of cobalt against the pale pink ground. I turned to my right, the wall of the farmhouse appeared electric blue with a triangle of warm yellow on the adjacent wall. Startling light! I was walking a country road when I stopped in my tracks…the road ahead fell off so sharply, I was headed for the unknown. With senses perked, I had to paint, to share how I was seeing the moment.
The paintings of the Northeast present, in contrast, a cooler, water-inspired mood. With the same eyes of ‘seeing anew,’ I painted only what excited me, only what I felt connected to. The juxtaposition fascinated me.
To paraphrase Goethe:
“The beginning and the end of all creative activity, painting included, is the reproduction of the world that surrounds me by a means of the world that is in me, recreated in a personal form and an original manner. It’s fundamental.”
