Save Your Holiday Cookie Cans!

Holiday cookie cans make THE perfect airtight storage cans for the rags used in oil painting! I put a fresh plastic bag in before each painting session to make it easy to clean up and seal the can up tight when I'm done painting. Each week right before trash pick-up, out the bagged up rags go. So, eat up the cookies (save a few for Santa, of course!) and hijack that can straight to your studio!

N.C. Wyeth's Painting Supplies

The studio of the great illustrator N. C. Wyeth, in the Brandywine Valley of Pennsylvania, is fascinating to visit because everything has been maintained pretty much as it was during his lifetime.  You can walk right up to his easel with his last work in progress and see exactly what painting supplies he used to create his masterpieces. Here is the table to the left of his easel. The tin boxes in the back contain (or contained??--I did not get see inside these!) his paint tubes. Thanks goes to his children who had the foresight to preserve this wonderland for generations of future artists!

The Season's Last Roses



Painting a color sketch featuring David Austin roses.

The profusion of roses and their looming absence from the garden over winter has had me focusing on a series of studies featuring roses. Focusing on David Austin roses and tea hybrid roses, I've been analyzing roses' colors and form, drawing charcoal studies, painting full-size value studies, and capturing quick color sketches.



Painting a value study featuring hybrid tea roses.

George Cochran Lambdin (1830-1896), was a Philadelphia area painter famous for his roses. He began painting roses as a means to explore the subtleties of flesh tones for his portraiture work.  He painted roses in natural settings and in the greenhouse; one painting even includes a wheelbarrow full of roses. Happy will be the day when my garden yields such a profusion! In the time being, I treasure the small handfuls offered up daily.

Henry Lea Tatnall's Studio - Wilmington, Delaware

How I would love to spend some time in my great grandfather Henry Lea Tatnall's studio! And to think that his easel was later used as firewood. Ahhhh!

All Shook Up!

With the epicenter of Virginia's 5.8 earthquake just a few miles away from my home, I am still shaking. The thunderous sound was long and rumbling. Thankfully, except to numerous historic chimneys, there was minimal damage across the region which hasn't had such an event since a 5.9 quake in 1897. It did leave a souvenir of its visit on my studio wall!

Finally Warm

Painting is hindered by freezing extremities and bulky coats, so not much was happening in my studio as the winter descended into its depths of cold. The ornamental JOTUL wood stove is quite charming, but I feared, too small. Turns out it just needed even smaller "logs" what for most fireplaces and stoves would count as kindling. It means being able to paint, so all's well that ends well.

Studio Progress

Although moving took its toll on my painting output (an understatement), great progress on the studio has been made. We sheetrocked the walls, and along with repurposed wood floor laminate and pink marble at the entrance, it has become a really nice place to be. Pictures will follow as soon as I take the plunge of hammering the first nails into the walls and get some paintings hung. More slowly, the former driveway is evolving into gardens (an overstatement). In the not too distant future, I'm hoping to invite everyone to visit for coffee and cookies by the wood stove!

Studio Awaits

After many years of painting in a spare room, the dream of having a studio has finally come to be. The effect upon my productivity by having a separate space in which to paint has been the most profound benefit. The progress of its interior accoutrements have slowed along with our national economy, so there are no photographs of the inside yet. The building is a 24' x 24' former garage. Three pairs of French doors replace the garage door. With time I will convert the gravel driveway into gardens. Seen through the lush growth of summer, this view has lapsed into the quieter colors of winter. Many of the plants in the bed are dormant or in the greenhouse. I built the garden wall with bottles and mortar. Later, the bottle wall will be topped with flat river rocks. So, after many years of waiting the studio now awaits.