Prints

Spring Dance

An apple orchard in early Spring drew my attention first because of the luminous, pinkish color of the branches as they began their annual budding exercise. The more I looked at them, though, the more they became dancing figures, figures I thought were celebrating the coming of Spring. It was this dance I sought to capture in this print.

St. Cirice Stone

This wondrously character-laden doorway is on a barn in the ancient hamlet of St. Cirice in the Gascogne region of southern France. Whether the date is 1617 or 1677 is up for debate, but whichever one you choose, it’s clear it’s been standing a long time. The stone work, particularly in the arch, is impressive, indeed, and drew me to want to make this print. The door, clearly reinforced more than once, made me smile. And, I never tire of the colors added to the stone by mother nature’s decoration with lichens and mosses. All these things combined to make me decide to record this scene.

St. Remy Sun

St. Remy was the home of the asylum where Vincent Van Gogh spent time trying to soothe his troubled mind. It is a truly peaceful place. It is also a village where I purchased some sunflowers which then were the subject of a number of drawings. This print is one of those drawings, done in front of the door into our kitchen when I was on a visit one summer to a nearby Provence village named Lioux.

Ste. Adresse – Oxford MD

This was inspired by Monet paintings of seaside terraces at Le Havre and Ste. Adresse. Looking out the attic window of my house in Oxford, one saw the fenced yards of the homes and their coveted views of the river. In this scene they are not inhabited, but come weekend evenings, those back yard terraces were high value real estate.

Tanglewood Evening

Anyone who has ever taken a picnic supper to Tanglewood can relate to this scene. It was great fun to sit and sketch this scene, including folks both settling in and already set up for the evening’s feasting and music beneath those wonderfully protective trees.

The Alcove

An extremely deep wall in an old half-timbered building I encountered in a village in southern France had this niche that had been tasked with providing a perch for a potted plant. I liked the scene, the colors, and the composition as well as the thought of a wall so thick you could perch a big plant pot in it and still have lots of depth to spare. So - this image found its way onto paper.

The Bleeding Heart Society

All prints in this edition have been sold.

Bleeding hearts are an old-fashioned bloom I associate with my grandmother’s era of gardens. They thrive nicely in shady areas, are undeterred by our Maine winters, and happily endure with minimal attention. This particular plant has been holding court outside my back porch for about twenty years and keeps company with violets, lilies-of-the-valley, and casablanca lilies. I like to think of them as a group of shade-loving ladies who share their secrets and observations on the world that passes by each day, much as the ladies in my grandmother’s sewing circle did in a long-gone era. So - I have named their coterie and take delight, as well, in the gathering of green shades this “snapshot” provides.

The Cellar Door

One of my neighbors’ houses has this wonderfully character-laden door into the cellar. When the tree in front of it matures, the door will definitely be out of commission.

The Cellar Window

The garden in front of this cellar window provides a succession of colorful images throughout the growing season. The hollyhocks always seem to provide my favorite set of coloring against what I find to be an appealing architectural backdrop.

The Conversation

Two blue porch rockers sat under a tree in our garden for several years.  They were a great place for visits and conversations.  One day I decided to do a drawing of their section of the garden.  When I got finished, it looked like the rockers themselves were having a conversation, so this print became an homage to the rockers, their conversation, and the conversations they’d hosted over the years.