Ah the rights of Spring !
And the time honored traditions of the favorite meal of my “salad days” back in Watertown…Mussels and Fiddlehead Ferns…celebrated now in my dotage…
I’m still lifting a glass of the bottom shelf chardonnay in toast to the delicacy…
But nowadays I am using my organically home grown onions and garlic from the studio gardens…
Progress
It’s this kind of a morning here in the studio yard…although this is a painting of the bluff in Chilmark and those spider webs are over a decade old.
Our spider webs, here in the hollers of Strinestown, are brand new and based on the jungle of gossamer threads that I am pulling out of my face and hair…I have yet to learn this spring’s prime locations.
The experts keep saying our flora are three or more weeks behind this growing season but that is based on the last few years of climate change which has now become the new norm. These long weeks of cool days and cool nights are what I remember as being the springtime of my youth. Slowly warming temperatures and gentle rains gave the gardeners time to ease into the toolshed and let the winter weak muscles wake up gradually.
We did have an early zap of three or four days of 90 degree days and my thriving spinach began to bolt…but almost a month later in which temps stayed 20-30 degrees cooler…it has settled back down and I have been able to test several spinach artichoke dip recipes.
Neighbor Sue and I have noted that this is the craziest grass growing season ever. She can’t keep up with it and she is one who lives to mow.
The peas, radishes, beets and carrots I planted back on St. Patrick’s day are sooooooooo slow to climb up outta the dirt. But the lilacs…oh the lilacs…they are loving this weather and, when I leave the studio late in the evening, their fragrance fills the valley and soothes my tired soul.
So, while the world outside might be three weeks behind and dragging its arboreal heels…inside the studio this artist is racing the clock and hopping.
The countdown is on for the Granary Gallery show this summer…July 21 is the opening date…and I’ve taken on a major challenge which I’ll be telling you about soon. For now I can tell you that the brushes, mostly the tiny ones, are flying from early morning until late and later… and later… each night.
There’s a very large panel on the easel right now and and it makes a hilarious contrast to the tiny brushes that I am using. The detail is electric and the concentration required keeps me so focused that only the thing which has been able to break it is the nuclear bolt of lightening that lifted me off the chair last night.
So…here’s to a real old fashioned spring…
and a face full of spider webs…
and a rich green carpet of grass…
and a studio full of flying brushes.
Enjoy !
In the spring,
at the end of the day,
you should smell like dirt.
Margaret Atwood
Print available for sale in my Etsy Shop…click here to browse.
It’s a beautiful day for a birthday.
Friends have been checking in and the cake is out of the oven. A nice morning sitting in the sun in the garden looking for signs of spring and catching up with an old pal. Might even get a little painting done before the day is out but mostly I’m just enjoying the peace and love the this stage of life is bringing and the great fortunes of good friends.
Another passage of sorts is being played out on the island and our long loved refuge and retreat, Camp Sunrise, is finally facing the ravages of mother nature.
Here’s a painting of the bluff in front of camp from about 2003… and here is a photo of it now…
We’ve all known this day was coming. And I am forever grateful for the decades of opportunities to sit on this very porch and ponder the sea. As well as the gift of being able to chronicle some of its corners and quirks and patina in the paintings over the years.
But now it is time to say goodbye. As you can read in the article in the MV Gazette, http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2013/04/04/second-stonewall-beach-home-teetering-cliff-must-be-moved
the house is now done. The main Camp house will be demolished…I can barely stand to write that…but the garage,
and bunkhouse,
will be moved in tact out to the back of the property…
way out to where that stone wall stands.
So I will take the lessons from this sunny spring day and look forward and ahead to many more years of walking this earth, and what’s left of this bluff and be grateful for each one of the flowers along the way.
in the studio yard…
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.
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…
OK I’m back… if only for what was supposed to be a quick entry and has now taken me two hours just to sort through some photos for ya.
I have begun to get emails and inquiries from some of you who have been worried about my blog absence…along with some not so gentle nudges for updates and more photos…I am heartily sorry and phenomenally busy. More that the usual crazy around here but we are all well and, as you will see in the pics here…just plain plowing through the spring.
With a very few exceptions I have been painting non-stop getting ready for the big Granary show this summer and a June show at Gallery 1261 and a special exhibition in Santa Fe in July ! I promise to fill you in on all of those very soon.
But for now here are some highlights of our early spring weeks…
The Lake Placid Lackeys came for an extended visit that spanned the entire month of April and right on into May. Jon was working on a stunning stone project in lancaster and commuted from our place while Zoe and her mom Tonya hung out with Gran and Mima. When T went back home to her teaching gig Zoe took over grandma sitting and we worked in the garden and built a new arbor with raised beds for some more veggies and herbs and a grapevine. I gave Zoe her first woodworking lesson at the shaving horse. And she got her very first taste of Reeser’s ice cream !
On the back end of that trip we spent my favorite day of the year at the Sheep and Wool Festival. It was one of my all time highlights to introduced Zoe to this event and except for one very big and loud Baaaaaahhhh…she had a blast.
Now it is mid May and the northern visitors have left and all that rain, the wettest April on record, has indeed brought the most beautiful May flowers I can remember. The beach rose which I brought back as a tiny seedling from the island is in full bloom and her scent carries me back to the bluff every morning when I come over to the studio yard to begin the day.
A loving couple of bluebirds has taken up residence in the blue birdhouse in the studio garden and all day long they flit around perching on the tops of shovels and dogwood branches and they have christened the new arbor as their very own sky box for a view of our comings and goings.
Herself and Finnegan have developed a daily walking routine that is getting them both in fabulous shape and they are unchaining my ankles from the easel for a couple hours on the sunny days to let me work in the garden which is helping me to deal with pre-show stresses. Frames and professional photographs are starting to come in for the finished paintings and the studio is a beehive of activity. Look for previews here soon and details on all the upcoming shows.
And last night we attended the Dutchland Roller Derby Bout with the debut roll of our first grandaughter Amanda…or as she’s know in the Rollerderby world…Seeds of Destruction ! (that’s her…the blur of a watermelon helmet with tiny pink shorts complete with sewn on watermelon seeds…of course ). It was awesome and terrifying to watch her confident, atheletic and graceful body spin round and round that track. She jammed her way through that pack with style and grit and, though there just isn’t enough padding in the world for her grandmothers, it was amazing to watch her. (In the bench shot you can just catch a glimpse of the mascot…an Amish girl and her black hatted little brother who ran around the ring with cowbells to rally the fans. It’s not your mother’s roller derby anymore.)
So our spring has been bookended with time spent with the oldest and the youngest grandchild…doesn’t get any better than that.
For now…here is the spring, so far, in pictures…
NEWSFLASH…Vineyard Gazette reports that the Pinkletinks have been heard on the island…
but are they now in danger from a deadly fungus ??? Read for yourselves… ?Frog Fungus Nothing to Croak About by Peter Brannen
Go play outside…
and DIG IT.
Thanks to our friend Susan who suggested we try calling the electric company to see if they would come and take down the 100 foot tall fir tree that was threatening to topple onto their wires that traverse the studio yard. I have been fretting about this tree for a couple years and this winter it began to take on a lean that was terrifying. The roots were lifting out of the ground and I layed awake through the last two nor’easters listening for a crash.
So I called, Micky came out the next morning and said yep we’ll treat it as a storm damage so we don’t have to pay for it and she actually thanked me for calling them. This morning the trucks showed up with a crew of happy hard working guys who quickly and professionally took that baby down…. AND they hauled the wood to the corner of the yard for us AND they raked and cleaned up ! I am impressed and grateful.
Pat and Finn and I watched the show with awe and when they left we sighed a big relief and crossed that chore right off the big list. Now we’re taking suggestions as to what nice shade tree we can plant there …
Here’s a slide show of the tree felling adventure… PS- after a few days I removed the slide show because it was causing the blog to open very slowly…
