Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Florence Griswold Museum



Over the Memorial Day weekend we visited the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT. Miss Florence Griswold ran a boarding house in the early 1900's that became extremely popular with a group of well known artists (men & women) who painted almost exclusively in the new art form known as Impressionism. Her boarding house, which was really a beautiful mansion, eventually became "The Home of Ameican Impressionism" on this side of the Atlantic, and better known simply as the Lyme Art colony.

The original home has been preserved as a museum along with a few of the out buildings and beautiful gardens. In the main house the down stairs portion is a self guided tour, with one room set up as an artist's bed room. There is the main hallway with paintings from the many artists who stayed there over the years and the main parlor. The upstairs now houses paintings done in that time period by many of the famous artists, such as Childe Hassam and Henry Ward Ranger, along with many others. The last room in the house that you see is the famous Dining Room, which is lined with wall panels that were painted by resident artists. This was done by invitation only, and considered a great honor.

There is also The Kreble Art Gallery on the grounds that houses temporary exhibitions. Currently there is an exhibit of Impressionist paintings by artists from Giverny, France which became "The Home of French Impressionism" on the other side of the Atlantic. Many of the American artists at "Miss Florence's boarding house" spent much of their time, when away from Lyme, in Giverny France, and that famous art colony.

From the Kreble Art Gallery, the lawn slopes down to a salt marsh & the Lieutenant River, where we sat and watched a pair of Osprey feed their young. As the day wore on I noticed more people bringing their own chairs down to river's edge to just sit and relax, while some even sketched with their children.

It was a great day and worth a trip to check it out - but watch for ticks - as my husband brought one back with him.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Pewter - Kitten on Back - Sketch for Oil Painting

This is a sketch of Pewter sleeping on the couch as a kitten. I will post updates on this piece as I work. This is going to be an oil painting on board


I am going to take some artist license with the couch and background. What I do is use tracing paper on top of the original sketch to layout a new drawing. This way I can keep moving elements around until I find something that works. I do work from photos, and now with the digital camera it is so easy to collect reference material. When the final sketch is complete I'll post it.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Guido's - Scallions & Radishes


I live fairly close to the Bershires in MA., it is a great getaway drive for a day and one I take as often as I can. One of my favorite stores is Guido's Marketplace in Great Barrington which has the most beautiful displays of produce around, you can just drink in the color. I am not a gourmet cook by any means but we always manage to come home with a shopping bag full and the inspiration to try and eat a little better.

Scallions and Radishes on White Plate is an oil painting on 5" x 7" hardboard.

Saturday, May 03, 2008

Twist Tied

This title may change, I could not come up with anything creative last night when I finally got to the point of putting this print onto Etsy. However, this morning I see a note on my drawing table with a possible title from my husband. I will give it some time today and see which way to go.

I did want to mention that the color of the sanded paper I used on this piece was peach. I work with pastel pencils and hard pastel sticks to sketch out my image and to achieve detail, along with soft pastels for color. My pastel pencils are Derwent and the hard sticks are Faber Castell but on the soft pastels I have several different brands. When I go to the store to pick up some new supplies I just love to look at all the pastel sticks out for display, so many colors and I am still experimenting learning what works for me. This could get a little expensive.

From NPR, May 2, 2008 Storycorps. This was the last line from the interview with Lyle Link.
"Live with courage"