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.