Wrapped Up

Blanketed, 6”x6”, Oil on Panel, now on Etsy

Thanksgiving weekend was a chrysalis, populated with crowds of family and friends of ever decreasing sizes until we were left with just a few family members and a sustained sense of gratitude. Family left just as snow began Monday afternoon. It’s Wednesday, and it’s still snowing. The cocoon is thicker, a blanket, and it only seems right to get back to the studio again.

Thankfully Mindful

There won’t be much painting for the next few days as cooking and communing take precedence over brushes and palettes, but that does not mean there will be no creativity. Indeed, there will be creation and re-creation.

Wednesday morning as I was cleaning and preparing for our guests, news came that a dear friend had passed away just hours before. The news was not unexpected. There was comfort that she had not been in any pain and had been with her husband more than 40 years at the time, and at first I did not cry. I kept working, kept preparing for the arrival of family.

Tears came later throughout the day as memories of past Thanksgivings when this couple had joined our family at our place and theirs. I thought of this friend — a former nun and later wife, a teacher, a volunteer in the community. I thought of how her life had been defined by giving love to the people around her and how it was reflected back by her friends and most especially her husband who had recently remarked that he was thankful for every second of their 40 years together.

My parents and sister are with us today for Thanksgiving. Our friend, now a widower, will join us for comfort food.

I got up early today, like many housewives around the country, to start cutting and chopping, drafting a list of chores for the kids to help with, and preparing tonight’s feast. Sometimes I question the sense of the over-the-top meal I prepare every year. It’s more food than we normally eat in a week, and surely there are ways to make it more casual.

This year, however, I don’t want it to be casual. I want it to be an over-the-top expression of how I thankful I am for the people in my life. Today I want to focus on who and what make life meaningful — creating, family, making even a small contribution to the common good. And as the onions and turkey brown while Grandma plays Monopoly with her mostly grown grandchildren who insist on keeping certain uproarious traditions going, I will be thankful for every second of it.

Spice Rack

The B side turned out to be practical both in terms of speed and kitchen style. We haven’t dried herbs since the first or second year we were in Vermont, but I love seeing them in the kitchen garden. They seemed like they wouldn’t kill any appetites while people are piling up the turkey.

On to the B Side

The best part about painting a door is that when one side done, I get to go to the B side and start over. This is the side people will be looking at when they sit down for turkey next week. Next up, what do we want to look at when we’re serving the bird?

Works in Progress

This has become a slightly longer and winding project, but it has been fun going home and going big. My new temporary wall should be done tomorrow night, and then it’ll be time for a new blank canvas.

Big Sky Country

Painting the bifold doors is giving me a chance to get a new take on an old scene. The original of this scene was an 8×10 that’s found another home, and it’s turning into even more fun now that my little dirt road is looking like big sky country ( about 4 feet by 3 ft so far).

Oils at Oldcastle

For the past few months I’ve been playing with oil, and because of work and family, most of the work has been done in my ‘studio’ or on the roadside very close to home. None of the spots in my show are famous (except for the Battenkill River), but they pull me back again and again, and the ritual of visiting these places in my very small world has been at once soothing and inspiring.

I’m including a list of the pieces hanging at the Oldcastle Theatre in Bennington, VT below, and you can see a quick video tour on my Facebook page.

There will be no artist reception because the theatre schedule is quite booked this month. They are open between 10AM and 5PM during the week and for their scheduled evening events. They are holding their annual Gala on the 17th of November at 6:00PM, and , if you are in Bennington, it’s a wonderful chance to look at oil paintings and the many other items they’ll have up for bid to support the theatre and the work it does. December 7-8 they are performing a play called the “Curious Savage”, and in between those dates they will be hosting a number of plays and gatherings.

Prints and originals (when still available), can be purchased on Etsy here.

“Under the Apple Tree” 11” x 14” Oil $200
“Return of Cold Rivers” 11” x 14” Oil$200

“Battenkill in the Shoulder” 8” x 10” Oil $125 – SOLD

“ Saturation Point” 4” x 6” Oil – $65

“Piece of Perfect” 4” x 6” Oil$65
Fall, 9×12, $150 Winter, 9×12, $150 Spring” 9” x 12” Oil$150
“Respite” 8” x 10” Oil $125

It Does Get Better

So my show is hung – more on that later- and between classes and work, I haven’t painted more than a few strokes in a few days. I’m heading into a week of cleaning and Thanksgiving preparations, and I’ll do some writing , but I’m also looking for new ways to play.

Anticipating a bigger crowd this year, I did a little bit of rearranging of the living room so that we could pull out our antique dining room table that has been mothballed while the boys were still in their soccer-in-the-house-phases. I was pretty pleased with the results, but as you can see from the picture above , our open floor plan, which is usually perfect for a very casual lifestyle, makes it hard to really dress up the layout for dinner.

If only I had some way to divide the spaces, I have been thinking. The only obvious way was to build or move a wall, but that might result in the Big Guy choosing to spend Thanksgiving somewhere else. I knew I needed a temporary wall, and Pinterest came to the rescue with a few ideas for folding screens and carefully situation plans. There were some fairly simple screens, and there were others that were decorated with Georgian style paintings. Can you guess which ones I decided I could make myself?

Yep, you can,

And as luck would have it we have a pair of unused doors from when we first built the house. The Big Guy listened to my plan with the tolerant (even encouraging) smile that all men who have been married successfully for two decades have learned, and I dragged my new “canvas” back to my studio.

Because the only answer to what could possibly be better than a blank canvas is a lot bigger one.

Believe

Believe in the Sun

Thing2’s chorus teacher, apparently mindful of the potential impact of current events on his students, shared with them a song that had been discovered in the barracks at one of the concentration camps after World War II. I’m printing it up for my bulletin board:

“I believe in the sun

even when it is not shining

And I believe in love,

even when there’s no one there.

And I believe in God,

even when he is silent.

I believe through any trial,

there is always a way

But sometimes in this suffering

and hopeless despair

My heart cries for shelter,

to know someone’s there

But a voice rises within me, saying hold on

my child, I’ll give you strength,

I’ll give you hope. Just stay a little while.

I believe in the sun

even when it is not shining

And I believe in love

even when there’s no one there

But I believe in God

even when he is silent

I believe through any trial

there is always a way.

May there someday be sunshine

May there someday be happiness

May there someday be love

May there someday be peace….”

– Uknown