Archive for the ‘acquarello’ Category

A murder of crows

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Still freshly smitten from visiting Maine with the Farnsworth Museum full of Andrew Wyeth’s sketches and paintings, and the Olson house, where he painted over 300 paintings, I decided I should take some of Andy’s unspoken advice and study my subjects a little more. For some reason I wanted to study crows.

In real life, the green painting is more yellow —- The blue painting is done on blue paper

It appears that the yellow background of the last painting has been muted by my scanner..

Crows are ubiquitous wildlife in Seattle. They are noisy, they are devious, smart, and really wild. They are iconic. The Inuit tribe believed that it was crow who brought the daylight back to them after the long dark winter.
But I digress. I wanted to use the crow to enhance the mood of my paintings, so study them I did. I tried to entice them to approach me with offerings of food. Nothing doing. They waited until I walked away, then they’d strafe the ground, pick up all the food faster than I could turn around and take two steps towards them! As you can see, I did benefit from their presence however. Although each of these paintings needs a home, they are also studies for perhaps some more profound painting that I have not yet realized.
Stay tuned, I’m going to have a contest..

Of course you know I always like to hear from you so feel free to comment. Which of these paintings is your favorite?

  • Share/Bookmark

Cornish, Maine – plein aire

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010


My husband and I went to Maine last week to attend the Boothby family’s 100th reunion. We stayed in Cornish, Maine, a tiny township in what they call southern Maine. The reunion was in the next town over, called Limington.
To keep the character of Cornish Township authentic, they have some zoning laws that prevent new-style buildings
from being built in the center of town. The center of town was only about 3 blocks long so there was a lot of room to build anything else out further down the road, including hardware stores and a restaurant called “Phat Boys”. (and yes, they were!)

We were particularly impressed with this antique store, the loving detail that showed in the way it was constructed, finished and then cared for. We bought a Pennsylvania Barn Star there, you can just barely see them on each side of the entrance of the building.

We stayed at a place called the Cornish Inn. It’s the building on the right with the red roof. In the center house, I saw a tiny elderly lady come out and check her mail. I loved her pink door which nicely offset the copper (green) roof and white house. I did not finish this little painting because it began to rain. A “rare” Summer Northeaster blew in, and eventually it poured.
As for the Boothbys, one of the first houses built in the are belonged to a Boothby but it burned down many years ago. The street is still named Boothby road.
Painting “Plein Aire” means I was outside with my little pad sketching and painting.

  • Share/Bookmark

What is a MimiTabby?

Thursday, August 19th, 2010


Once upon a time a little girl was born who loved cats. She loved not only cats, but stories about cats and books about cats. She also started drawing cats when she was 3 years old.

As soon as she was able, she made sure that cats were always in her life and of course she learned to take care of them. Her best friend in the world was a cat for most of her childhood. Today, she’s fostered cats, rescued cats and supported cat rescue associations, often by donations of paintings of cats. She even managed to raise two wild rambunctious sons with perfect cat taming and handling skills. I know, enough about cats. But I figured someone might want to know what the story was behind the name Mimitabby.

And onto tabbies. Tabbies are cats with stripes or spots, one of the most common markings found on felis domesticus. While I’m at it, there is also a word in Italian that describes exactly a dark tabby cat. That word is soriano. I’ll bet you’re glad you know that now.

Models for these paintings include Aggie, Barbie, Nutmeg and Enza (oh, and Mimi). Featured here either in personality or actual portraits are many of the cats that I had the pleasure of sharing my life with in the past. While I was painting these cats I had several of them posing for me, purring at me, watching me, and letting me know it was time to feed them. Special thanks to Arabella for giving me the idea for this painting.

  • Share/Bookmark

The Lady in Green

Friday, August 13th, 2010


She’s back, yes, I had to paint the lady in green again. Why? I am not sure I can answer that. Why is one woman at a party sad and conflicted? Was someone cruel to her? Was she threatened? Will she be in trouble when she gets home? What is clouding the brow of this lovely young face? Did she ever tell anyone? The mystery of this woman’s face really haunts me. Somehow, I feel like I am getting closer to expressing her pain and sharing it with you. This time I gave her hair a more modern appearance. I hope no one minds.

  • Share/Bookmark

Tour of downtown Seattle – the rest of the story

Saturday, August 7th, 2010

My roving photographer Donald Boothby works downtown where it is easy to encounter fellow businessmen, tourists and homeless people. The curious juxtaposition of this Duck boat filled with smiling tourists looking unseeing across this little plaza where a woman is warming herself in the sun really struck me.

  • Share/Bookmark

The Cookie Lady

Friday, July 30th, 2010

With so much going wrong these days in the world, the state, the city, a small thing going right is our local Georgetown Farmer’s Market. It is in its infancy, its very first season, and lots of new merchants and farmers are setting up their stalls and trying their luck at open market each Saturday from 10 until 3. I have been delighted with some of the new vendors, we had Indian food featuring fresh Naan, Argentinian Empanadas, Vegan chocolate cake, a northern Italian selling pasta made from chestnuts, a southern Italian selling eggplant casserole, and lots of organic farms selling gorgeous fruits and vegetables. Some of them seem to have already given up on our small market, I haven’t seen them come back after the first few Saturdays. So it seems I have a huge emotional investment in this market succeeding. This past Saturday, there was a cookie seller. And the woman who ran the booth called herself “The Cookie Lady.” There she was, the kind of woman who clearly could do anything if she wanted, surrounded by all kinds of wonderful concoctions – her creations. We asked for samples. Each tidbit we sampled we ended up buying a batch. Her stuff was good. She was sassy and confident. We’ll be back! (I hope she comes back too) This is a watercolor on 9 x12″ arches paper and it is for sale. Photo reference by Donald Boothby.

  • Share/Bookmark

By the big barn

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010


From the number of dilapidated huge barns that we see on our bike rides, western Washington state used to be a big dairy producer. Every one of these barns shows pride, industry and independence to me. Some of them are unique.
This is another painting based on my husband’s collection of photographs. We rode by this barn on our tandem and had to stop to gaze at it. I confess that it is actually more decrepit in person than it appears here.

  • Share/Bookmark

A log cabin past its prime

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010


Bicycling is one of our hobbies, we cover a lot of miles on country roads at a leisurely pace. Unlike traveling in a car, we are exposed to the elements, the smells and the sights that you might miss at high speed. On a bike it is easy to stop to pick some flowers, or feed grass to a friendly horse. Near Winthrop, Washington, we found this cabin in a field. It was important to take a photo of it, because we knew that it would eventually collapse. Many of the barns and buildings that my husband has captured with his camera are now gone. The reference for this one was one of his photos.

  • Share/Bookmark

How does a cat smile?

Monday, July 26th, 2010


There are two kinds of animals who chose to live with human beings for companionship. The domestic cat is one of them. How well we get along with each other is partially measured by how well we learn each other’s language. This little kitty is air kneading, to show his pleasure. His eyes are also half-closed, which means he is really relaxed and happy. I’ll bet he’s purring too. Everyone has had a tuxedo cat. I had one named Figaro before I was born!
Thanks for the Reference Photo, Jeannie! This painting has already sold..

  • Share/Bookmark

Giuseppina – incredible lady

Friday, July 16th, 2010


When my grandmother, Lucy Melino Fressola died, she left each of her descendants; children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren some money. With part of mine, I took my entire family to Italy; my husband, my two young adult sons, and I. We decided that it was about time to go visit my grandmother’s home town, Sant’Agata di Puglia, one of many picturesque hilltop towns in Southern Italy.

There was one little lady who still lived there that remembered my grandmother, her name was Giuseppina. She was short and spry with twinkly eyes. She welcomed us to her town with smiles and told us how she was the oldest of 8 children and how they had absolutely nothing. She was not able to go to school because she had to work instead and never learned to read. She eventually married my grandmother’s cousin, Saverio Fabbiano. They bought a house with the sweat off their backs and raised their children in this pristine little village. She radiated joy as she reminisced my grandmother’s last visit. It seems that the day my grandmother arrived, Giuseppina’s daughter had a baby. I later met that baby, a woman close to my age.

There was nowhere to park our car near her home or near our hotel, so this 80 something year old woman led us around on foot, we had to work to keep up with her. Every one of us has a story about our time in Sant’Agata di Puglia, but each of us remembers this smiling old woman who shared her town with us.

  • Share/Bookmark