Prints

The rocks, the hills, the cows; the quintessential New England meadow. I drove past this particular one over and over again until I finally took the time one day to preserve it for posterity.

I read somewhere that paper whites bring luck in the new year. Whether or not this is true, they certainly bring a smile to an often challenging season. Planted just after Christmas, they can make mid-January another gift as one follows the daily progress of those bulbs sitting on the window sill.  The fragrance when they finally open is an added reward.

My garden is replete with lilies that fill the air with a sweet scent on August evenings.  Uncharacteristically, I planted them at strategic locations so one walks from one fragrant spot to another on my garden pathways.  This one usually grows to be about five feet tall, an impressive effort indeed.  I like to think of her as having a special mystique, as she is certainly worthy of a place in any White Flower Farm catalog. Her kind has also been in art throughout history. So, it seemed a portrait was in order, hence the “Lady”.

A couple of phoebes have built these wondrous moss nests several years in a row in a spot off my back porch. Though I have removed more than one nest and saved it for a drawing model, the ones I gather are always replaced with new models. This is one I saved and drew, with a little artistic license where the coloration of the eggs is concerned.

Despite the challenges they afford with respect to garden scourges like scale and Japanese beetles, hollyhocks are one of our garden staples.  Here, along with nascent lilies, they rise elegantly against the siding to provide a visual treat that varies from year to year, depending upon who managed to weather the winter.  This crop was particularly good and made for an image I couldn’t resist.

I’m not really sure when this crew finally left the nest, but the day I took this photo they were all sitting there watching me as though they were waiting for permission to try to leave the nest. I was particularly amused by their crew cuts and the goggly eyes. One day they were there for this portrait and the next they had disappeared, leaving their happy home behind.

Over the years I’ve visited beaches in many locations, and inevitably they have had sand dunes like these that provide aisles beyond which surprises appear when one makes one’s way to the shore. The “castles” in this print are the kind of weathered beach homes that one often discovers in such places.

One day, on the way to the dump, I passed the home of a lady who has a number of grandchildren who live next door.  The yard featured these elegantly attired snow folks, complete with gossamer wings made of some sort of sheer material.  I particularly liked the touch of the matching flower brooch and chapeau décor on the lady.

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.