Dorie's Peony - SOLD

You know how peony heads can 

get so heavy they topple over?  

Dorie is no longer with us, but her 

peonies are still belong to her family, 

and this beautiful white blossom is 

from one of her plants, so heavy 

with blossoms this past summer that 

they were indeed toppling.  This single 

flower head was so white, it seemed 

to reflect the colors of the room around 

it as it perched primly on the table top.  

This is a quick study of that lovely 

singular bloom.

Dorie's Peony 

~SOLD (Somebody liked this!)

6 in. x 6 in., acrylic on canvas

$72 (gallery-wrapped canvas, no frame needed)

Toward Mackworth

Toward Mackworth 

9 in. x 12 in., acrylic on canvas

$170 (framed)

Mackworth Island is an almost perfectly round little island in Falmouth, Maine.  It sits in Casco Bay, right along the border of Portland.  We frequent Portland often, and this view is from the little rock jetty near the boat launch on Portland's Eastern Promenade.  The island is heavily wooded with walking trails, is home to a school for the deaf, and is accessible by a narrow causeway from Falmouth.  From the perimeter trail on Mackworth, you can enjoy lovely and unique views of the peninsular bluff on which the city of Portland is perched.  

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Quechee Gorge

Quechee Gorge

16 in. x 20 in., acrylic on canvas

$270 (framed)

A mile long and 165 feet deep, Quechee Gorge in Quechee (Hartford) VT has been an enduring source of wonder and awe for me since I was a small child and we lived in Andover, NH.  My parents would regularly travel the bridge crossing the gorge in the painting (which is U.S. Route 4) to a Whitehall, NY campground with our camper in tow for summer weekends.  It was our custom to pull into the Quechee Gorge gift shop for a "pit stop" and to walk out onto the green bridge for a look down into the deep canyon where the Ottauquechee River burbled and splashed below.  My mother was afraid of heights and was a good sport, but really could not tolerate being on the bridge near the railing for more than a minute or two.  Me?  To this DAY there is nothing more thrilling than walking out to the middle bridge seam, waiting for one of those heavy-laden Vermont logging trucks to thunder over the span and feeling the roadway shudder and flex under my feet.  The misty, distant atmosphere looking up the narrow chasm from the surface of the water, the steep, metamorphic rock walls like a deep, great hall, the verdant Vermont foliage, and the beautiful, familiar curve of rust-spotted, green bridgework captures this beloved and special place for me.

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Winter Ascent, Kearsarge

Winter Ascent, Kearsarge

8 in. x 8 in., acrylic on canvas

$130 (framed)

When my friend Jennessa scaled the side of my favorite mountain last February, she took some great shots during her climb.  The moody sky and light snowfall she climbed under created an ephemeral atmosphere in her photos, and, with her permission, I wanted to capture the odd combination of the softness of the mood with the stark crispness of the scene.  I decided to eliminate all extraneous bits and pieces from the forest floor and distill the simplified elements of the landscape into cool sky and warm shadows, sharply sloping mountainside, trees and snow.  I used ragged ribbons of acrylic texture paste under the paint layers of the near side trees to pull them forward into the space in front of the canvas and build a textural and dimensional experience for the in-person viewer.  

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Pemigewasset River in June

Pemigewasset River in June

11 in. x 14 in., acrylic on canvas

$185 (framed)

Last summer, this was my view from the steam train at Clark's Trading Post in Lincoln, New Hampshire, while having a fun day with our grandchildren, Gloria and Wesley.  The train at Clark's crosses the Pemigewasset River by way of a covered bridge from 1904, and opens up briefly into this vista over the waters.  It was day of increasing cloudiness, but for a short time, a bit of blue sky and sun decked the mountains and water with light, briefly changing the moody appearance of the valley and riverbed.  Looking north toward Franconia, the exposed rocky riverbed of sandy-colored rocks and gravel created a lovely, sunlit field of stone on the opposite shore. The Pemigewasset River starts up at Profile Lake in Franconia (home to the former Old Man of the Mountain which fell from the Cannon Mountain cliff face in 2003) and runs south through the White Mountains.  It continues down to Franklin, flowing for almost 70 miles before joining the Winnipesaukee River.  The two join to become the mighty Merrimack River that ultimately takes those waters to the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport, Massachusetts.

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Mom Always Called Him Sunshine, II - SOLD

Mom Always Called Him Sunshine, II 

~SOLD (Somebody Liked This!)
12 in. x 12 in. acrylic on canvas

$190 (framed)

Bruce was my mother's only son, and from the time he was a little shaver, even when he grew up to be a big, burly man, she often would address him as, "Sunshine."  When asked, she said it was because of his headful of unruly golden brown curls that framed his face as a little boy, and that to her he looked like a round-faced sunshine.  When my brother died unexpectedly in January and we were fumbling around in our grief trying to put together a fitting funeral for him, I could think of nothing other than somehow getting my hands on a big glass ginger jar full of brilliant sunflowers in his honor, even in the midst of a snowy New England winter.  This painting is of a few choice blooms from that gorgeous and nourishing riot of sunshine that will always, always, always be a symbol of my funny and precious Bruce, who is now most definitely basking in the light of the face of Jesus.