Prints

Tulip Trio

When winter sets in, the fresh flowers offered at a variety of markets prove to be completely irresistible as a way to lift one’s spirits. That was the case with these tulips, which then became the subject of a drawing and successive print.

Two Boscs and a d'Anjou

This pear trio puts me in mind of a group of frumpy middle-aged people. They wear a few battle scars and their figures have slipped a bit, but they've still got more than a few interesting thoughts and ideas to share with the world.

Victorian Summer

The screen door, the cool darkness behind it, and the geranium in the crock somehow epitomize summer. It’s not hard to find this scene. It was in my childhood; it’s right down the road now. For many of us, the summers of youth lay behind a screen door like this one.

Vita's Watering Cans

On a visit to the gardens at Sissinghurst I came upon these watering cans situated by a wall hosting a leafy curtain. They were clearly long-used and posed in a way that made the composition of this drawing appear before my eyes. Now they are a visual reminder that allows me to return at will to that setting and day.

Vulture Roosts

Though these naked trees were not inhabited when I drew them, they were clearly the kind of place vultures would be likely to gather. I found them at the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, an ideal place for anyone who loves to see birds.

Wash Day

All prints in this edition have been sold.

Much of my work is about ordinary, everyday events or items which strike me as beautiful in their simplicity. The sight of laundry drying in the breeze is one of these events. The person who got up this morning to wash those sheets undoubtedly will enjoy a sense of accomplishment tonight when they’re back on the bed, clean, sweet-smelling and a little stiff. I feel a similar sense of accomplishment when I’ve finished a new print.

Wash Day at Jo Day’s

For many years a formidable little lady named Josephine Davis Day ran The Trailing Yew, a boarding house on Monhegan Island where you could pay a modest fee and have a bed, breakfast, and dinner, an arrangement that felt like summer camp when you sat on the porch waiting for Jo to come out of the kitchen and ring the bell announcing meal time. My first visit there was in the early 80’s. My travel companion and I slept in a room above the kitchen and wakened each morning to the wondrous aroma of frying bacon. Our time on the island was filled with hiking and drawing and the production of some watercolors that pleased me so much I didn’t think about selling them. One of those watercolors was this scene of bed sheets on the clothesline. I have kept it all these years thinking I would one day do a print, and this is that print, full of the memory of the place and the scent of those freshly laundered sheets.

Water Meadows

All prints in this edition have been sold.

The water meadows that grace the village of Sheepscot host an unending variation of colors over the course of a year or the passage of a day. The tide rises and falls, changing the colors of the islands of grass as silt appears at low tide. The varying light amends the colors of the shore land and the stands of water grasses; so, too, it changes the color of the water. And, of course, the surrounding foliage adds another pigment range, revised with the season’s and the day’s light. Each visit I make to this spot offers another visual treat. It’s fun to muse upon what Monet might have done with this little scene and another lifetime to paint.

Water Meadows II

Anyone who is familiar with Sheepscot Village has seen this image in real life. It is a truly remarkable little Eden, not least because the scene changes constantly both with the ebb and flow of the water and with the variation of light as the sun and clouds move overhead. And then, too, there are the changes brought by the seasons. The colors of the grasses change; the water color changes; the surrounding foliage changes. This is my second print of this spot, my own little version of Monet’s changing light endeavors.

Wells Cathedral

The color of this odd blue door, tucked under an archway at Wells Cathedral and contrasted with this display of hollyhocks, made this an irresistible visual feast. On the other side of the wall encircling the close there was a serious lawn bowling contest under way while I drew this scene. Consequently, this picture gives me fond memories of a glorious midsummer English afternoon.