Floral Fantasy on a Snowy Day

It's snowing outside; the tree branches are outlined white on black.  It's a world of lace except where evergreen provides an accent.  In a minute I am going to take out my brushes and ink and see what I can capture of this silent world where flakes drift slowly.  Work appointments cancelled, I am taking the day off!

In contrast to today's black and white world of positive and negative, I discovered a world of color this summer when a cousin showed me an old railroad bridge in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts that had been turned into an extensive garden covering the span of the bridge across the river.  The garden was spectacular with every bloom conceivable from lace-cap hydrangea to tiger lilies, to coneflowers, to daisies, to gooseneck loosestrife, to balloon flowers, to roses, to... That so many of these bloomed at the same time in this climate zone that is cooler than my hot Maryland summer was a delight to me.

Enjoy the snow today (I understand that over two-thirds of the United States is covered in snow) and, if it is too cold, snowy, icy, or treacherous, here is a breathe of spring-summer to gladden the heart.

Have a nice day. 

New Mexico Skyscape

I promised I would post this painting; I just didn't realize it would take me several months.  In fact the painting has taken several years to complete.  I started this painting a few years ago after visiting New Mexico.  I was so taken with the amazing cloud formations across the vast expanse of sky. On the way back to Santa Fe from visiting Ghost Ranch I stopped my car on the side of the road one afternoon to record this vista.  I knew only a large painting would do justice to the immensity of land and sky.  My usual scale is small and my medium watercolor, but I hung a 36 x 48" canvas on my studio wall and pulled out the oils.  I tackled the cobalt and cerulean sky and the scudding clouds.  The landscape remained a charcoal sketch until this summer when I could open the windows wide open for good ventilation.  When I picked up my brush to finish this painting, I knew using a brush would take forever.  I bought large palette knifes and attacked the canvas with gusto, loving the resulting texture and impasto.  I picked up a rag and my arm seemed to follow the sweep of the wind.  When I look at this painting, it takes me back in time and place to that far off autumn day when my gaze took in the silhouetted mountains, the deepest blue sky, and the clouds flooded with the late afternoon sunlight.  That autumn I fell in love with the southwest.

Summer Palette

No sketches or paintings to post today.  Flowers and fresh summer produce have been my palette this month.

'Fairy Queen' Mealycup Sage, 'Debonair Dusty Rose' Petunias, and 'Marguerite' Sweet Potato Vine grace the planters on my deck.  This year at the suggestion of a friend I mixed Osmocote into the soil and the plants are blooming as if they were on steroids.  Perhaps they are!  Lots of rain and lower temperatures than normal have helped as well.

About 4 months ago I decided to try a vegetarian diet.  I discovered Martha Rose Shulman's cookbook, The Very Best of Recipes for Health, and Mark Bittman's, VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00.  Both write for The New York Times and I love their articles and recipes.  These two books, together with lots of recipes from the internet, have made eating a vegetarian diet fun and delicious. 

My first meal of the summer enjoyed on the deck: a lentil and bulgar salad with tomatoes and olives.  Fresh mint and parsley from a hanging basket added zing to the salad.

You might wonder why there is a knife in the picture. It's an Oxo knife I bought for $12 at the local hardware store. Cutting and chopping with this knife is a wonder it's so sharp.  Little things like this knife, the blue and yellow napkin with lemons I bought in Provence, or the reusable mesh bags I bought to use at the grocery store instead of plastic make me happy.  What could be better-sun, flowers, a beautifully prepared salad served in the wooden bowl my father enjoyed!

Stay tuned for my next post!  I'm in the middle of a large 36 x 48" painting (for me that is large) of a southwest sky and mountain landscape.  One day I threw caution to the wind and painted with palette knife and cloth.  What freedom!

My Cylburn Art Show Reception

Here I am at left with a friend

The reception for my art show at the Cylburn Arboretum was held on May 24.  It was a wonderful party with over 60 friends there to support me-what a wonderful tribute!  Lots of nice compliments and out of 13 works for sale, 7 sold.  It's a great feeling to have people respond to my work.

Cylburn Art Show Review

Great write-up about the Cylburn art show this weekend by Kathy Hudson. Check it out!

The Watercolors of Joan Elisabeth Reid: Baltimore Fishbowl

Art Exhibit at Cylburn

April Showers

Spring blossoms are all too fleeting.  It seems they have just arrived and already this morning's rain has caused many to cascade to the ground carpeting it in white and pink.

A Fairyland of Blossoms

Baltimore is awash with blossoms.  After weeks of cold weather we suddenly experienced two days of 90 degree weather.  Bradford Pear trees planted along the streets create a drift of white that remind one of snow.  The cherry trees are at their peak and Cylburn Arboretum has a particularly lovely orchard.  Accents of golden forsythia peak from gardens and hedges.  It is a fairyland.

The Limonaia, Boboli Gardens, Florence

The Limonaia

A year ago at the end of April I returned to Florence after many years.  I spent both my junior year abroad and a graduate year in Florence, studying Italian and art history.  What a pleasure it was to spend so much time in that magical city where around every corner an architectural or sculptural treasure awaited!  I loved wandering through museums, attending concerts, walking through the streets, watching people in the piazzas, shopping in the markets, and learning to cook wonderful Tuscan meals when not studying.

But I also found special places to retreat from the city.  The cloistered garden with its towering pine tree in San Marco was one such place.  Climbing the hill toward Settignano and looking back at Florence far below was another.  The gemlike church of San Miniato al Monte with its striated black and white marble always lured me to climb high above the city.

The Boboli Gardens is another oasis.  Located behind the Pitti Palace, the gardens provide shady paths that soothe and cool after the summer heat of Florentine streets.  The paths lead down to the wonderful Piazzale dell'Isolotto where immense terracotta pots filled with lemon trees surround a pool of water at whose center rises the fountain Oceanus.

The first year I was in Florence I bought a small watercolor set and tried to paint the fountain, but was lacking in skill and confidence.  I vowed I would come back when I could paint it.  Last year I had the opportunity and it was wonderful to sit there and see this magical place come alive on the pages of my sketchbook.  In my mind were the watercolors John Singer Sargent painted of the sculptures and potted lemon trees in the Boboli Gardens.  He was a master of light and painted with bravura.

After painting, as I walked up the hill on the path that would lead me back to the city, I saw that the doors of the limonaia--the lemon tree greenhouse--were open.  I slipped into the cool interior. Sunlight flooded the floor from the windows.  Rows of lemon trees in their terracotta pots receded into the distance where a window hinted at the world beyond.  The painting above is my homage to Florence, to the oasis gardens that I loved so much, to Sargent, to sunlight.

Spring Hellebore

Bear's Foot Hellebore

It's Easter Sunday, somewhat rainy and cold here in Maryland, but signs of spring are definitely here.  Some early cherry trees are in bloom although the one outside my window teases with branches loaded with burgeoning buds.  Just one warm day will bring them out.  The weeping willow down the road shows a fine yellow-green haze--a promise of spring to come.  The deepening alizarin crimson buds on the trees behind my house are a prelude to unfurling, green foliage.  Here and there, where the sun has warmed the soil, are a few snow drops, crocuses, and, increasingly, bright daffodils.

In my studio all is spring.  I'm preparing for an exhibition at Cylburn Arboretum this Memorial Day weekend.  This watercolor is of hellebore that were blooming in early April a couple of years ago.  The name doesn't do justice to the loveliness of these pale green blossoms.  The "Lenten Rose," also a hellebore, wins in the name category.

I've just finished an oil of the limonaia (lemon greenhouse) in the Boboli Gardens, Florence, Italy that I saw last April.  I also painted an oil of apple blossoms, so close that I often feel lost in the profusion of petals.  Yesterday, an oil painting of the cherry tree orchard at Cylburn just seemed to paint itself.  I'll post these soon.

In the meantime,  a very Happy Easter to everyone.  Enjoy spring if it has come to you; if not, know that it is coming.

Ta Prohm Temple, Cambodia

Ta Prohm Temple, Cambodia

I have just returned from a painting trip in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  When signing up for the trip, it seemed like a wild and wacky thing to go half way around the world, over 9000 miles, but the allure of the ancient Khmer temples of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, and Banteay Srei was too much to resist.  How could I pass up such an opportunity when it dropped in my lap?

It is Ta Prohm that most enchants.  Imagine coming into a jungle forest clearing to find a lost and forgotten temple. Tall fig, bayon and kapok trees send their roots down into the stone imprisoning ancient sculptures, toppling stones into walkways and uprooting terraces.  Yellow and green lichen soften stone with the patina of age. Sunlight filters through a leafy canopy above casting shadows here and warming stone there.  Excavation of the site has been with an eye to giving the visitor a sense of the archaeologist's discovery and wonder.

Angkor Wat is a majestic temple complex surrounded by an immense moat.  A mountain rising out of a vast ocean, it is symbolic of the paradisiacal Mount Mero.  Angkor Thom, ancient city, once home to over a million people proclaims the majesty of its then kings through its terraced, towered and sculptural temples rising above the forest canopy.   Banteay Srei, the woman's temple, is small and intimate with beautifully carved reliefs of pink sandstone.

Angkor Wat

Baphuon, Angkor Thom

Bayon, Angkor Thom

Banteay Srei 

Happy New Year 2013

A Happy New Year to Everyone!  These figures are of ornaments I bought in Russia in 2002 when I went to bring back to the Walters Art Museum an exhibition of Russian avant-garde art from the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburgs. The one in the middle says Happy New Year.

When I first began my blog, I was so excited to see that people around world were looking at my blog. I had a number of hits from Russia and thought that perhaps one person was particularly interested in what I was posting.  It occurred to me to paint these little figures in honor of the people from far away that look at my blog.

So, again, a Happy New Year to all in this country and abroad.  May it be a year of peace and understanding.