Pink Chair: New Friend

Pink Chair: New Friend: "New Friend" 11x14 Oil on linen panel We took “Mom” on our trip to Canada stayed with my cousin Bill and his wife Marnie at their home...

New Friend

"New Friend" 11x14 Oil on linen panel

We took “Mom” on our trip to Canada stayed with my cousin Bill and his wife Marnie at their home right near Desert Lake Resort in Canada, a beautiful camping resort that they founded. It was great to have some time to get to know them better. By this time, everyone was just casually speaking of the chair as “Mom” We would say "be careful when you back up so you don’t run over Mom”. On this particular day, we were going on a boat ride through the 1000 Islands and we could not take the chair there. So I chose a spot for Mom high on a hill overlooking a view through the trees around a small lake that connected to Desert Lake. There was another chair already there, a hand made Adirondack chair of strong dark brown boards. As I painted this piece, I became taken with how different the chairs looked, one hand made, one mass produced; one bright pink and one dark brown. I realized I was thinking of them as male and female chairs. Well, how appropriate! Mom would have loved sitting there with a new found handsome man. She was quite a flirt.  My sister told of a doctor, after seeing Mom in her last year, saying incredulously, “she was flirting with me!” My sister said. “Yup. That’s Mom.”

Bill and Marnie

Pink Chair: "Full Nest"

Pink Chair: "Full Nest": Full Nest 11x14 oil on paanel Right from an early time in the project, I knew I wanted to paint a piece with birds. I ...

"Full Nest"

Full Nest 11x14 oil on panel

  

Right from an early time in the project, I knew I wanted to paint a piece with birds. I have some of them in the studio that I use when I teach classes; we use them for models. I saw them perched on the back of the pink chair, even taped them up there. I was clear on why: to celebrate Mom’s joy in singing. She was part of singing groups for many years, and would easily burst into song. As we did the dishes each night, we would sing together, all the old ones. I called them “kitchen sink songs”. Or so it was planned.  I started the piece and placed the birds on the chair in front of a tree that was in its autumn splendor out my studio window. But I could not get into it somehow; it just wasn’t right. I also had a nest I bought at a flower show and I kept putting it on the chair, it seemed to be telling me to put in. So I did, but I had to turn the tree to springtime dress, because that’s when eggs are seen!. As the green started to take over, I opened my eyes and saw what I had. Why 5 birds? Why THOSE five birds? Why was the nest so important? Ahh, the awakening. Lynne, Ricky, Paul, Georgie, Joey…I can hear her call us to dinner now. This piece is a celebration of my mother’s family, her five children. Mom loved us and was always ready to drop everything to be with us; no matter if the house needed cleaning. Our doors were always open to welcome our friends and her heart expanded to hold many foster children. The nest is still full because the door is always open. I even know who these birds are though I didn’t paint them deliberately; From the left: Me, Georgie, Joe, Paul and Rick. Rick died at age 27; he is flying away in the upper right. Mom’s children were her song, and the songs were joyful, energetic, mournful, loving, and heart lifting.

Pink Chair: "Wet Feet"

Pink Chair: "Wet Feet": "Wet Feet" 24x18 Oil on Canvas One of the most powerful pieces in the original exhibition, you can almost feel the water lapping aroun...

"Wet Feet"

"Wet Feet" 24x18 Oil on Canvas

One of the most powerful pieces in the original exhibition, you can almost feel the water lapping around the feet of the pink chair. This painting took a lot of preparation in laying it out. The ratio of water to chair seemed incredibly important to me. I measured canvases until I found the perfectly proportioned one I used. Later, considering cropping it, I found that my care was wise. The piece lost all its power when the water to chair ratio was different.


The painting was done from a photo taken at the end of an awesome boat ride on a pontoon boat at Desert Lake Resort, the kind of dreamy, all the time in the world kind of day. My cousin Bill drove the boat, his wife Marnie made the lunch, and "Mom" held the towels. We looked for loons, picnicked and swam in a cove off the boat. It was a perfect day. The title of the piece came to me out of the blue and for a while I have wondered what it meant. I thought that perhaps it was because both Mom and I have suffered from painful feet, which would have loved having the cool water wash over them. But a gift of understanding came from Barb Bodengraven, a writer, who said that the chairs arms were "open to whatever treasures the incoming tide will bring". Yes. That's it! My mother had experienced the joys of the day with us and took that same openness to all of the events her life would offer. She just jumped right in at every stage of life.

Pink Chair: Incoming Tide to Solo Exhibit

Pink Chair: Incoming Tide to Solo Exhibit: This is the very first pink chair piece that I painted. It was before I had the revelation that happened in the next one. It was a lovely da...

Incoming Tide to Solo Exhibit

This is the very first pink chair piece that I painted. It was before I had the revelation that happened in the next one. It was a lovely day and the tide was coming in, making the water glow green over the rocks that were often exposed. This painting was later reworked in the studio, making it more dramatic than initially. It was a foretelling omen, yet I could not see what would be happening. The repainting in the studio would be part of a loosening up of my abilities to compose away from the subject matter,and this has resulted in an ability to produce large dynamic work, like the poppy piece you saw last week. 

Incoming Tide 8x8 Oil on Canvas

That day, after painting away from the cottage, I decided to paint off of the back deck. But first, I enjoyed the view for a while, sitting in the pink Adirondack chair in the back yard. It matched the shutters of the house. As I rested and, I thought of how much Mom would have loved that chair because of the color. Not thinking much more about it I painted it into the small piece. The chair looked good there, adding a touch of color. Little did I realize that the title I gave it was was foreshadowing what was about to happen. It was, indeed, an incoming tide of art work, all on the pink chair theme, that morphed from a few pieces done as grief work into a glorious celebration of my mother's life. Eighteen pieces of artwork hung in the Topsfield library and brought joy to many people, who responded to the images and the stories. The show will now hang in the Scala Art Center in January, and then travel to the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. I have not stopped, as there are now three new pieces that will be shown in the January show. The waves continue to lap higher on the shore.

The exhibit beginning area with my mother's autobiography 

and explanation of the exhibit

The chair itself at the exhibit!

The end wall with the three large pieces

The entry/hall wall

the board where people left notes for their loved ones

Pink Chair: Garden by the Sea

Pink Chair: Garden by the Sea: This painting will really grab you when you first see it. It is the biggest one in the series and has 25 bright red poppies in it! And like a...

Garden by the Sea

This panting will really grab you when you first see it. It is the biggest one in the series and has 25 bright red poppies in it! And like all of the others, it has its own story.

Garden by the Sea 36x48 Oil on Canvas

When I was in Rockland I was very taken with a pretty town park by the edge of the sea and took pictures there three times. I watched these beautiful poppies open and expand and start to flop a bit during the time I was there. There was also a small gazebo. While I was there, I met a woman, an artist also, who arrived on a bike, and who maintained the garden. She said she was not part of a garden club, she just did it because she wanted to, including putting plants in and maintenance. This painting was not working until I put her in and later I realized why and the connection to Mom. Mom was above all, committed to people around her. In each of her areas of connection, she had many friends and she was always contributing to some aspect of making her community better. Not only is there a community of 25 poppies in this piece, but when I put the gardener in the piece came together. Its not about the poppies, its about community, another surprise. My art always knows where I am going and it always gets there first.

Gardener by the Sea