Tropical Treat

  

I spent this very cold day here in New England on a visual journey to the tropics,  a design for the door exiting a tanning room.  We'll be happily hunkering in tonight to welcome the New Year.  My best to you and yours for 2015!

  

                                    D. 

A Prince Among Dogs

We lost our wonderful oversized sheltie "Rudy", just this past July at the age of 14.  He was truly a Prince among dogs, we named him after Rudolph Valentino, because he was such a lover boy.  He was the most engaging creature, full of play, handsome, great with other dogs, and devoted to watching over his humans.

He would never get very far away without turning back to check, I loved doing the "lost and found " of the white parts of his fur against the snow, and visually remembering my beautiful boy....

Holy Cow!

I love to give a smile with my work, and I love coming back to do another of this series.  I had my first encounter with cows at a family farm in Maine.  I loved the soft light and earthy smell of the barn, and the gentle solid nature of the cows.  Their anatomy is both very angular, and then rounded in some places, with so many different colors and patterns, and they almost always seem to group together in a social way.

I also have been fascinated with the ornament and content of religious icon paintings...
 So far I have done a small Holy Cow screen, a gemstone and glass mosaic, a three dimensional flying Holy Cow of armature wire, metal mesh, handmade papers, and glass beads,  and two additional paintings of a "Madonna" cow and calf ,  and Holy Calf.   This is "Holy Cow VI" , an 8"x10" mixed media painting on a metallic copper ground, done in water soluable colored pencils, acrylic moulding paste, and acrylic paints.

Holy Cow folks, truth is often stranger than fiction....



                                                 

MassMaineiac

Okay, I'm giving a new label to myself, as a resident of  coastal Massachusetts, and a frequent appreciative visitor to a family place in Maine, where my Mother's roots lie- " MassMaineiac";    The unionI of the positive parts of two nicknames...

I had the very unusual experience of seeing a group of seven loons visiting together in the middle of Watchic lake on an early morning kayak, and have included them in several paintings done this summer; celebrating  both the beauty of a small lake in Maine, and these majestic birds with their haunting cries, and special life cycle.

Gotham Mural

My mural painting partner, Kate Gennelly and I, just finished this mural of a customized Gotham City for a young boy's bedroom.  Requested were certain favorite buildings and super heroes.  The wall was painted in a lovely blue gray that was a great base color for this painting.  We incorporated glow in the dark paints that look quite magical under black light,  a dramatic scene for day, and also as a big special night light, what fun!

Rough , day one, day two, and finished mural...

Jungle mural

This is a continuation of mural work I have been doing in a private residence three days a week since March.
Certainly the most interesting and larger scale painting I have done in some time, rendered in acrylics.  Each floor has a theme, or series of  environments, painted from  baseboard to ceiling.  I work with artist
Kate Gennelly, so I have good company, sometimes working together on different parts of the same room, and sometimes separately.  It's excellent to have another set of eyes for instant feedback.

With some illustration back ground, I think of them as rectangular picture books, pushing out the interior spaces,  with a cast of characters that might lead the viewer to create their own stories. 

Here is corner of a small dressing room of the third floor, featuring all veldt and jungle themes.  The wall was primed in a deep Chinese red, rolled with gold, which although was a little strong to cover,
resonated beautifully with the applied colors.

Monhegan

I spent another week on Monhegan island off the Coast of Maine recently;  It's a truly unique place, that I find both centering, and breathtakingly beautiful.  This is a study in acrylic of a large sailing vessel coming about, to anchor just outside the harbor.  The masts were so tall you could see them over Manana before it even came into view.

Murals

These paintings were done in a tiny bathroom that was primed with silver paint.  I loved the idea of creating the illusion of limitless space in such a small area.  I draw and glaze with many transparent layers of acrylic paint, so the silver was a perfect base to create a shimmering coral reef fantasy.

Ignition

This is my slightly belated challenge painting for this month's girlsjustwannapaint.blogspot.com, and the theme was "Magic".  The fairy spirit is an hommage to a favorite illustration on an old card, who is inspired out of two dimensions to re-ignite a candle of hope in my studio during this cold and snowy New England Winter....   You GO Girl!!!

This piece was started in colored pencil, on a very textured panel of gray pastelboard,  and finished with acrylics;  The camera interestingly saw through some of the top layers of pigments, but the "gist" of the thing is still there, stay warm folks.

I'm looking forward to starting a new project, helping to finish a series of fantasy murals on location in a condo in a nearby town...  My first task will be undersea, based on the reefs of the Caribbean, fun stuff!