My favorite moment of the spring is when this rose bush first blooms. It was brought back to my studio oh so many years ago as a tiny off shoot from one of the grand dames of rugosas that bloom on the bluff in Chilmark. Now it is happily filling out the entrance way to the yard and this week it is full of welcoming wafting aromas that take me right back to the ocean.
As I am grinding away at the easel, burning the candle at both ends of the day to get the last paintings done for the Granary show in July, it is such a gift to see these roses and a much needed reminder that the treasures of that peaceful island are just there… on the edge of this spring breeze.
This sparkly smiling little boy is Blixa, the 3 yr. old son of an old friend of mine…Doug, aka Dug, and Lauren Cawley and younger brother to Dregen. Dug and I go all the way back to Harvard Square in the early 80’s when we worked together in the tiny closet of a frameroom at the Coop.
Now he and his wife own a frameshop in San Francisco and Dug tells me he’s some kind of famous in the screaming grundgy music world since he plays and sings in a band called The Grannies. Now…it’s a good thing for both of us that I’m not a music critic… and when we reconnected via facebook a while back I did take a quick tour of his site and listen to some of the music…and for an old folkie like myself it’s downright terrifying.
So consider yourselves forwarned if you dare to go down that road and look them up…although there are sure to be those among you who will be quick to challenge my narrow gereatric musical tastes and enlighten me to the intricacies of lyrics and costume…have at it.
What I can say, from the bottom of my heart, is that Dug is one of the finest, kindest and dearest humans on this planet. And so it was especially hard to hear the news that young Blixa has just been diagnosed with Leukemia. This is a family that has picked up more than their share of burdens, having been swept out of their home by the mortgage dementors. And, with their lives already out of balance, there is now a different focus to their needs.
I’ve followed along on his facebook page as he kept us all in the loop from Blixa’s hospital bed to his homecoming. That kid is smiling in every single photo and appears to have all the special powers he will need to battle this transformer. But the family could use some help.
The band is doing some fundraising gigs. Their website has some scary posters and gear for sale. And they have just put up a link on Paypal which lets people donate directly to Blixa’s medical fund. I tried that link today and Dug responded immediately so I know it’s up and running and it’s safe….
If you’re moved to want to pay forward some kindness that you were offered when you were in need of help…
I’m just sayin’…
here’s the info directly from Doug’s FB page…
Also a lot of folks have been asking about a donation site and we now have www.paypal.com set up – just use BlixaHeron@comcast.net as the recipient & it will go directly to a health account for Blixa. Thank you!
The painting that keeps reminding me what a small world this is…
As I mentioned in a blog post way back in January of 2011, many members of the original Circus Kirk have contacted me after learning of this painting to share stories of their time in that circus, indeed on that very truck.
This week two more people wrote asking about the availability of prints, Ellie who went on to be a teacher and photographer and remembers the “hectic” schedule traveling with the circus, and Terry who actually painted the name on this very truck.
I wanted to update the information here that yes, the original of this painting has sold and YES, I do have prints available. They are discounted for Circus Alumnae and are $125 – printed on archival paper that is 17″ x 22″ and shipping is FREE. Please send a check or money order to my address (listed on the contact page of the website) and include the address to which it should be sent and off it will go.
Don’t know about where you are but here in central Pennsylvania the seasons have abruptly changed. Since we had no winter to speak of it is not a dramatic shift anywhere but in the closet where I’ve had to dig out t-shirts and shorts from under the fleece.
I’ve been remiss in blogging and will set about to fill you all in soon. The “Big Painting”, which I’ve taken to calling it, is still up on the easel. Been a full month and I am churning towards the finish line now. It’s definitely one that needs to be viewed by the public only upon completion. Looks pretty straggely at the moment. But all shall be revealed soon.
Meanwhile I’m sure those of you who are experiencing these warm sunny early spring days are, like me, tuning up the garden beds, planting those peas and spinach seeds, raking and pruning and … watching the daffodils stretch out of their winter’s nap.
My neighbor Sue has come to expect hammering and drilling around this time of year so as not to disappoint I am building some new raised beds and…a greenhouse. It’s all about recycling and son-in-law Pete has come to the rescue with an offer of windows, a glass panelled door and a sliding glass door which will be sweet and Jon and Zoe are headed this way in a couple weeks to lend a hand with the construction.
I’ve got the foundation set and the floor framing done…
It’s been so nice to spend time out in the fresh warm air doing good hard work. Makes it all the more rewarding when I head back inside the studio to my day job sitting in a chair and lifting tiny brushes.
Here’s to the return of the Pinkletinks and the hope that your daffodils are smiling at you…
one solid month of painting…and painting…and painting,
I offer you…
well, I don’t have a title yet…but here is the final apple series painting…
( remember these are just iphone photos so we’ll all have to wait for it to be varnished and professionally shot…but you’ve been waiting much more patiently than I have…so….)
And here are a couple detail shots with the parts I’ve been hiding…
I usually reserve the treat of sushi for after I’ve sold a painting…but in this case Pat is willing to indulge me.
From the depths of my creative hibernation… I thank you John.
Here’s the extended snippet of the comments I sent to John with my thoughts about the work…
I’ve got this friend Ted who just turned 95 and lives on Martha’s Vineyard.
Ted was a high school art teacher and artist and has spent almost a whole century now inspiring and encouraging artists. I met Ted about 10 years ago and he has been “schooling me” ever since. (I’m working right now on a painting of him in an apple orchard which he posed for last fall.)
We talk often over the phone as he lives alone now but when we are on the Vineyard we spend a lot of time with Ted.
His house is chock-a-block full of antiques and stories to go with each one.
I noticed a tin can in his kitchen one day that had a bunch of those old pencils in it.
Wonderful chunky thick lead Dixon pencils that he used to introduce younger students to drawing.
I got up the nerve on our last visit to ask him if I could have one and he said, “Oh, those old things…here take the lot”.
When I got them home to the Pennsylvania studio and took a closer look I saw that they have the word “Beginners” embossed on them. And, since I’ve recently been hammering home the importance of a strong foundation in drawing skills to a couple of our grandsons who have brought their art questions to my studio… the idea of pencil as prop began to congeal.
The pile of rocks which are from the beach in Chilmark brought it full circle back to Ted and the tiny swiss army knife was one of the few items I brought home from Florida where I had to take my father off of life support earlier this year. That experience and it’s wake have been slowly filtering into my work in some quite unexpected ways. So, while I wasn’t aware of this until I just wrote this out for you, I guess it weaves a thread through three generations… with the iconic pencil as talisman.
Here’s a response to the last blog post about the painting Finding Abstraction which I got from Cori, the daughter of my friend Saren and someone who does that noblest of professions for a living…she teaches children about art !
(Cori is the hard working woman at the right, alongside her mom, on the day that the entire Zink family showed up to help us clean up after the flood.)
Hi
Heather,
Love Finding Abstraction! My 4th graders just read Jackson
in Action in their new reading series. I just finished a lesson with them
using the children’s book Action Jackson and then let them do their own
Pollock (sometimes I’m down right nuts). I did not manage the consistency very
well and most of the paintings look like a mess but they had a blast. I think
they had almost as much fun crawling around with a sponge to clean the floor and
chairs as they did making the mess. And somehow I managed to not lose one pair
of pants to paint splatters!!! Their reading about Romare Bearden now – collage
is next. I’m loving this new reading series.
C. 🙂
I just love Cori’s creative way of putting lessons into action. My brushes are raised to her !
PS – today she sent along a couple examples of the student’s artwork.
They both have nailed the strength of the linear gestures and the resonance of vivid color. Wicked cool as they say where I’m from. These guys are from the Paxtang Elementary School.
Last year I started a series of …well series paintings.
I wanted to work on themes and explore them across several different compositions. There were more ideas than I had time to create and I’ve learned that there is a time, and a season as it were, for each painting. So, as the crisp fall air brings the colors alive, I have been studying apples… anew.
The October before last I spent a day with our friend Ted in the Tiasquam orchards in West Tisbury…
There are dozens of good painting ideas from that modeling session and I decided to elaborate on the “theme” of apple picking. Though I started the series last year with some sketches …
and then this painting from my studio yard…
Like I said earlier… last year life took some wicked wild turns … but life ebbs and marches on…and I’m now reaching back and pulling on the thread that started the theme.
I don’t usually put photos of unvarnished paintings up on the web but the new iphone has a good enough camera to give you a decent representation of what is fresh off the easel.
This painting was inspired by a quote from NC Wyeth, “I have all this and more, yet how I would like to relax; to be content with a wheelbarrow, a rake, an apple basket, a pipe.” He wrote that in a letter dated September 19, 1910. A hundred years later and that sentiment still resonates.
And what to do with all those apples ?
Well that’s the next painting in the series… Skillet Apple Pie.
You won’t be able to get much out of this shot of the still life set up…because I decided to change it up a bit after moving to the easel…but here’s a peak into the early stages of the creative process…
that’s what we’ve had for a whole week and it is healing the souls of flood weary citizens of the commonwealth.
So this morning I harnessed the power of those first rays as they blast through the foggy forest.
Yes, that’s a panel…a blank canvas as it were… which means that YES I am going to be painting again…any minute now. And yes, that’s an apple basket and a Stayman I think on the panel. Last night I took a previousely prepared panel and slathered on a final coat of the primo gesso ( Artboards Panel Gesso ) and this morning it was ready for the gentle wet-sanding which leaves that ultra smooth finish that I crave. You need to find a source of strong raking light to dance across the panel so the otherwise invisible imperfections can be spotted and sanded out. Today I let mother nature be the lightbulb as well as the drying source.
I have come to understand, though not always appreciate, that each painting has its own agenda, its own time to be rendered. I tried several times last fall, and then again in the spring, to work on the apple picking series which I had sketched out and planned to include in this year’s Granary show. But it wasn’t in the cards. Not its time… until now. It made me wait until the crisp autumn air sent me running for the first sweatshirt of the season…and the local orchard was announcing that it was time for pick-your-own…and the saigon cinnamon jar tumbled off the shelf and into my great grandmother’s dough bowl.
OK got it. I dug out the NC Wyeth quote which inspired the series when I read it in his letters last winter, ” I have all this and more, yet how I would like to relax; to be content with a wheelbarrow, a rake, an apple basket, a pipe.” And I sent Pat to her favorite farm stand to beg for a basket and Finnegan and I drove over to the orchard and picked a bushel of the finest looking apples…which, she reports, tasted pretty good too. Then we took a trip to Saren’s house to put the pieces of her old wooden wheelbarrow in the truck and bring it back to the studio for the setup.
With a bit of repair work it was strong enough to hold the apple basket and the rake and the pipe. So here’s a rare look at the first stage of the composition…
I say rare because, like any good magician, you risk letting down your audience if they see what goes on behind the curtain. I’m just so excited to be working at my day job again that I’m throwing open all the windows and doors.
Starting off the day with panel making at dawn… I can’t wait to see what other wonders await…
Awash in flood recovery our family, our neighbors, our community and our state have been blessed with a dry sunny October week. Wherever we go now there are weary faces and stories to match. Everyone around us has been affected and so there is a sort of commaraderie that has swelled and landed us all on higher common ground.
And those random acts of kindness you occasionally hear about…you know those little gestures from someone who doesn’t even know you…that catch you off guard and that take your breath away…as we go about our days wobbling with our tired backs and heavy hearts… we seem to keep bumping into them.
Like when Pat climbed out of her muddy boots and wanted to do something normal and went to get her haircut and her gal Marianne (at Salon Oxygen in York )made a space in her schedule… and listened to Pat’s story (as she always does because Pat tells the best stories) and when it came time to pay she told her Pat’s money was no good. “You’ve been through a rough time Pat, this one’s on me. Don’t you worry. You’ve been supportive or me for all these years. Let me give something back.”
And then today… when after weeks of having the industrial dehumidifier drying us out in the basement (you’ll remember the photo of Pete kindly delivering it to us right after the flood)…and worrying all along how much this was going to cost as the days dragged into weeks. Well Pat and I managed to haul it up one step at a time and got it in the station wagon and off she went to return it. Only to have Mike, and RSC Equipment Rentals in Lancaster, say to her, ” there’s no charge”. What ? “We know you’ve had a hard time. There’s another family who rented one from us too. It’s the least we can do to help out our flooded neighbors.”
Both times we wept.
And there have been so many other small gestures that add up to some very big sighs of relief on top of the huge out pouring of friends who showed up with gloves and smiles on.
We are making great progress. They were here today to measure for the furnace which they will install next week. Here’s a pic of the garage and shed finished with reclaimed flood wood and as you can see I’ve had time to plant the fall crop and Pat helped me get the greenhouse back up around it so our little garden can begin to grow again.
Here’s hoping that your neck of the woods is drying out too and that your October days are full of crisp apples and the kindness of strangers.
