Edging Toward November

Early morning over our pasture. Most of the leaves have fallen from our old Maples, and Autumn’s glory is past, yet there is a sweetness in the quietude of this woodsmoke-scented moment.

I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.  Proverbs 8:17

Au Revoir mes Artistes!

Last night was the last night of a Mixed Media class I have been teaching this past month.  I taught 9 lovely women, who made so many beautiful works of art that we could have had our own art show.  My big thanks goes to Cheryl Baldwin, director of the Georgi Museum, who wrote the grant, and to Larac, the local arts council who granted it, thereby making this class very affordable for all.
Below is a finished piece by Dee Romack, using an avian theme for our Nature assignment.  Now, I'd hang that in my home, wouldn't you?

To see more works by these artists, click on the "Workshops" tab at the top of the page.

Photo Shoot with a young model

Iris arrived 45 minutes late, fresh from the Soccer field, no makeup, other than the war paint she wore under her eyes.  But even though the autumn light was fading, we got her into the dress, [ Crickett's old prom gown] wiped the black from under her eyes, and had her in the leaves in 5 minutes.  This teen really is one of the most cooperative, agreeable models I've ever worked with.  Her natural beauty required no make-up, and her athletic frame moved as instinctively as that of a professional model.

Iris goes to our church, and I  was  concerned that her dad would think these pictures were a bit "sexy",   [ you know how dads are!] but he assured me that he was only surprised at how "grown up" his little girl looked!

!0/!0/!0

No time to post about my busy week now, but I couldn't let a day like 10/10/10 go by without recognizing it, could I?  Here are just a couple of new pieces I've done.  "Misty Morning Farm" is created from 7 of my own photos, blended into a scene which almost looks like Everafter Farm.   Below, in "They danced Giselle In the Moonlight",  I used parts of the same photos as above, and added some ballerinas from eBay.
I hope you are all getting out in this glorious Autumn weather, especially if you live in the Northeast.
We visited many art galleries this weekend, but there is no gallery that mounts a better show than the artwork of the Lord, fashioned in a thousand colors of foliage, on the hill behind our house.

Summer Art Exhibits

Our county is home to a thriving Artists' Community, and last weekend saw many events focusing on the arts, both visual and performing, as well as the local art of cheese making.  I was involved in two art exhibits. the first which opened on Friday night at Gardenworks. In a unique barn setting, my painting teacher, Janine Thomas, presented Lessons from the Country, a show of her work and the work of 52 of her students from over the years.  As before, I won't show you my painting, but I did show this  Mixed Media piece:

l'oiseau de novembre

Here're some of my friends and their work:

Pat and her painting of the brook through her garden

Kathy and her chicken

...and Janine and her chick.  We are all part of the "Georgi Girls", as Janine teaches our class at the Georgi Museum, and we traveled together, with two others, Holly and Susan, to Provence 2 years ago.

On Saturday there was yet another show at the Georgi, called "Gems at the Georgi".  Since I was one of the planners of this show I opted not to exhibit, but my daughter and husband did.  The receptions for both openings were marvelous, with all sorts of  wonderful local foods, handmade cheeses, and breads.

And the art was top notch.  Here's a painting by Will Moses, Grandma Moses grandson.

And Serena's gourd pottery

Cheryl Baldwin, on the right, is the director of the Georgi.  Here she relaxes with her friend, after the excitement of the Opening winds down!

La Rentrée

A few weeks ago in France the children returned to school, and so must I also return to this poor neglected blog!  But it's been hard to post anything here, for I've been so busy on RedBubble, my new Photo and Art site.  Not only can I post my work, but RB also handles the sale of all art work, including cards, prints, and calendars. The people are lovely , the art is superb, and there exists an air of civility that I have not seen on other sites.  Com'on over and explore the Bubble! Just click on the Button below.

la laitière et sa vache

High Summer

"Tackle Box"---our tubing launch spot

The first week of August is High Summer here in Washington County.  Days are hot, nights are hot, and I'm always thrilled to have a thunderstorm to water the tomatoes.  I find the studio gets too sunny to work in by 2:00, so I unplug my laptop and go out to the breezy screened porch to work.  Then, later in the day, we all pile into the Jeep and head for our swimming hole, or the sand beach at the lake, or we take our tubes and float down the river for an hour or so.

There are also so many things to do around here that we can't keep up with them.  Garden tours, church suppers, town-wide yard sales, our Fire Department Carnival.  And festivals.  Two weeks ago we celebrated the Alfresco Weekend, a fundraiser to benefit our Historic County Courthouse.  Local food producers donate delicious dishes of locally grown food, and we, the crowds, come, purchase our tickets, then move from tent to tent with our plates, socializing as we go, and filling our plates with an eclectic assortment of delicacies. This year we welcomed Bryony Graham, and her unique, whimsical, and thought provoking art installation entitled Porch Pieces, which features a freestanding, traveling porch.

This traveling artwork is a project that will inspect the place of porches in present day upstate New york.  Do they still make sense in an indoor culture saturated with TV and air conditioning? Graham, here from the UK, will transport her porch to new locations daily, inviting passers-by onto the porch to converse about their past and present day experiences living in the local area.

I had a chance to sit on the porch again the following week when a young friend and I attended SAWfest, a music festival at our local Sculpture park and school. I have invited Bryony to come and sit on our own front porch, where we will tell her how poor our lives would be without that singular architectural feature on our farmhouse.  [That's Bryony in the red shirt.]

To learn more visit http://salemartworks.com/porchpieces/

rural inception

Last night was date night.  Our idea of a good time consists of hamburgers in Saratoga, an hour or so of coffee and reading foreign magazines at Barnes and Noble, then off to a movie, and a moonlight ride home with the top down. Oh, and an ice cream cone.

The film we saw was Christopher Nolan's Inception , and from what I'd read on imdb and heard from reviews, I knew it would be challenging. But I was "along for the ride", so to speak, and I was not disappointed.  The visuals and special effects were stunning, Leo's performance brilliant, and a lot of it was filmed in Paris!

The whole concept of being the architect of a dream fascinates me.  As one who has dwelt in elaborately constructed daydreams since I was a toddler, I can relate, on some level.  I often tried to turn my daydreams into night dreams, but that could not be done.  I have, however, watched as my daydreams became reality as I grew older. Or, as I grew closer to the Lord, and He drew closer to me.  Spiritually speaking, I believe He places within me the desires of my heart.  This was my devotional verse for today:

Delight yourself in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. ~ Psalm 37:4,5 Artistically, I have been trying to "build" a photo painting from components found in my own photographs. Sort of the architect of my own dream landscape. This is my "rural inception," constructed from elements from 10 of my photos. rural inception The figure is from a photo of Pierro della Francesca's Madonna at the Clark Museum.

cooling down the "painterly" way

march farm

The heat has been pretty intense this past week, so in my search for something "cool" to "paint", I happened across this image.  Of course, by paint, I mean digital painting, and the new textures I used are just perfect for this.  They are called summer painterly textures from flypapers, and I'm really enjoying using them.  I also added a gesso texture to give it that heavy paint feeling, almost like impasto.


And here is a cool evening from last spring on Neil Adam's "Up and Over Farm".  I'll be posting more of his farm, as it's some of the most beautiful land in the county.

Joyeux "La Fête Nationale" or Happy Bastille Day

I'm sorry, but I forgot to wish you a. well, what it says up there...If you're French you say "La Fête Nationale", but here in America we call it Bastille Day.  July 14 is the day the French celebrate the storming of the Bastille, like our Independence Day, but they don't really wish each other a "Happy July 14" like we do.  So in honor of that day I'll post a photo I took in France last summer at Marie Antoinette's Hameau.  

Possibly the most enchanting place I've ever visted.  Someday I'll post  several photos from there [at Versailles] on the Paris page.  But for tonight...a magical French fantasy...

summer in washington county

It seems to happen every year.  We forget that church goes on a summer schedule and meets an hour earlier, so we arrive an hour late, see the full parking lot, and turn around and head for home.  Oh, we could go in.  People are used to our, shall we say, flakiness!  But this Sunday we decided to  get ice cream, listen to Charles Stanley and drive around our beautiful county, soaking up the rural beauty.  All of the fields have had their first haying, and these lovely hay sculptures populate many of the fields. I took a lot of colorful shots, but I tried to make this photo look as old fashioned as I feel when we drive through our unspoiled farmland.

working with a model

I used to work with my husband as a wedding photographer, and I always liked doing the bridal portraits the best. But when my daughter took over our business, I was allowed to "retire" and devote my time to fine art photography.  I still love to photograph women, however, and I recently had the opportunity to shoot one of the loveliest of my former students, Britt.  Having photographed her Senior portrait a few years ago, and some candids of her on a trip to Paris, I knew she was a marvelous model.  Britt is an art student in college now, but I hope this portfolio can help to get her some modeling jobs.

We spent about 2 hours out in the garden and up in the barn, and I didn't go for any conceptual shots, but  just let the shoot flow.  I knew I wanted to accentuate those amazing eyes and lips, so I shot a series of head-on , evenly lit head shots.  The one above is textured with another shot of rose petals, and suggests her sweetness and femininity.  I love the pink tones, but I like it black and white, as well.

I found this headdress in the barn, and had used it in the early '90s and then forgotten it.  It was perfect for creating this Egyptian composition.  I call it "Queen Neferbritti". :~)))

I added the tear on her cheek in Photoshop.

In my vintage '50s hat

Tess of the d'Urbevilles

And this one ended becoming this one...

Lady Brittany

I have a feeling that I'll be editing this shoot for a long time to come!  Isn't she a beauty?  So many ways to present her.  And I hope it brings me some adventurous girls for Senior Portraits!

La peinture en plein air

Recently I took a plein air painting workshop with  Harry Orlyk, the best landscape painter in our county.  I am certainly no painter, but I love the discipline of workshops that force me to get out there, set up an easel in God's gallery, and really spend time admiring creation and trying to put my impression of it on canvas. Harry has a great love of the land, and his distinct style captures the wonderful feeling of our rural area. I spent 3 days in some beautiful locations, in sublime weather and even though my paintings aren't finished yet, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Harry's palette.  I was surprised to see how much paint he puts out!

                                                                          
Here Harry begins to paint a scene at the river's edge.  Look at how large his brush is, yet he wields it like a pencil, sketching in his scene.

The painting is taking shape, but the light is changing.  He'll come back tomorrow to finish it.

Other students did great work!

Cindy lives close by, so I expect to see many more of these by summer's end!

This students filled her whole trunk with paintings...

Happy Independence Day!

We had a wonderful 4th of July, with company for the long weekend...lots of warm weather...tubing on the river...cookouts...s'mores...fireworks...small town parades...talking and rocking on the front porch...naping and reading on the back porch...and a Sunday morning promise to pray for our nation...
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14

Vintage Hats

Lynne, a photographer friend from San Diego, recently came to stay with us.  We had such a good time photographing together around these familiar haunts of mine, and it was refreshing to see our area anew through her eyes.  These hats are from a local store where I shop, but I had never asked before if I could photograph them.  I'm glad Lynne did!  I can't wait to see her take on them.  Here're mine...

The model here was added later.  She is Candace, one of my former students.