My gardens are fruity- the apple trees still have tiny apples that haven’t yet been decimated by worms or copper rust, the strawberry beds are producing faster than I can pick them. And I’ve been eating asparagus every week since April. The bunnies ate the tops off all of the snowpeas, but left me one plant. So much for the eco-friendly gardener. I’m almost ready for a Hunter Thompson showdown.
Â
I’m also working on a couple of peony paintings…
Â
The following paintings were begun while I was in Italy at a residency in 2007. After a year or so of not being content with the first piece, I finally finished it last week. The second work is a view from the same locale and I had photos and sketches that I used as reference.
 I drove with the resident artist to a spot just outside the medieval town of Montecastello, to paint this seemingly abandoned house in an olive grove with mountains in the distance. The weather that day in early September was quickly changing, winds came up and a storm threatened to blow down my plein-air easel. But I kept going.Â
These are both available in my EShop here.
Umbrian House, oil on wood panel 14.5″x18″ 2007-09
Â
Umbrian House on the Hill, oil on canvas board 12″x16″ 2009
Â
original painting on site-
Â
and the real thing-
That’s extraodinary to see the paintings next to the photos, all of which were made at different stages. With the passage of time the building recedes into a swirl of dust and colors. The sequence seems to capture the very passage of perception into memory, where things are wilder and more impressionistic but less detailed.
…the second painting was done from a greater distance.