Whitney

oil on board, 12″ x 16″

Shelli's view in Bennington, Vermont

oil on board 12″ x 12″

Peter

Oil on board, 12″ x 16″

Click the links below to listen to Viola’s August interviews with Willy Jones on WBTN.

Willy & Guest – Viola – 09 Aug 2010

Willy & Guest – Viola – 30 Aug 2010

Truck at Whitmans

12″ x 12″ oil on board

Las muertas en el cementario

Calavera con flores en el cementario, reed pen and inks, 10″ x 15

Esqueleta con vestido rosada parada en el cementario, reed pen and inks, 10″ x 18″

Esqueleta sentada en la tumba, watercolor, colored pencils and micron pen, 8″ x 13″

Esqueleta con chiles en el cementario, watercolor, colored pencils and micron pen, 8″ x 11″

Esqueleta descansando, watercolor, colored pencils and micron pen on watercolor paper, 11″ x 10″

Esqueleta con vestido anaranjado parada en el cementario, watercolor, colored pencils and micron pen, 8″ x 13″

Calavera en el cementario, watercolor, colored pencils and micron pen on watercolor paper, 8″ x 6.5″

Chiles del Amor Verdadero

oil on mdf board, 8″ x 12″

Last weekend we picked our first two bushels of anaheim chiles from True Love Farm.  As I was roasting the green ones and making the ristra from the red ones, the aroma of fresh and roasting chiles filled the house.  Today when Stella came over for our weekly painting date, she suggested that instead of landscape painting we stay and paint the chiles!  It was one of the most loving paintings I have ever made, because these chiles are so important to my life here.  When  Jon first convinced me to move out here from Denver, I said the only way I would do it was if we could find a way to have our annual batch of chiles.  The farmers here said the growing season is too short, the air too humid, etc.  So, for 12 years my good and true friend Michele Kelley has been sending me four bushel of green and either a bushel of red to make the ristra— or a ristra already made of red—anaheims from the farms outside of Denver.  This is the first year I will not have to import the chiles.  We are buying local and the chiles are becoming part of the local landscape, thanks to Karen and Steven Trubitt of True Love Farm in Shaftsbury, VT.

Every year when the chiles come I get so involved with roasting and hanging them, that I don’t get to painting them (though I did put a few in a bowl for the graveyard sketches on Tuesday).  Thanks to Stella, this year I finally stopped and really painted them.  This might be my favorite little painting ever.

Graveyard Pen and Inks

Today was gorgeous out and I enjoyed working in the graveyard with my mini-Fridas (for those of you who don’t know, Frida is my most trusted and faithful model–my skeleton.  She’s about 5 feet tall, and I’ll be taking her to the old first church graveyard,too, but I need a little help on that since I don’t drive.  So, I got out my trusty “townie” cart and shlepped my little Fridas, dressed to model for the first sketches for this year’s Los Dias De Los Muertos paintings.

I spent a lot of time today giving directions to Robert Frost’s grave.

Each of these paintings is made with reed pen, brushes and inks on Canson and Arche watercolor papers, 1 hot pressed and 2 cold.  9.5″ x 12″, 10″x 15″, 10″ x 18″

Easy Fast

To everyone who is fasting tomorrow night through the next day of Yom Kippur, I wish you an easy fast and a good year:  May we all know peace.  May we all be inscribed in the book of life.

Viola

Farmers’ market and Harrington Road

Some landscape sketches in oil from last night (12″ x 12″ on mdf boards) and a photo of Stella, Leslie and I after painting on Leslie’s land—the blue tree sketch is my first attempt at painting after dark–I had no idea what colors I was using!  We’d gone to the farmer’s market first, and then to paint the sunset at Leslie’s.

I was unsatisfied with all of these, for one reason or another, but I learned something from each one.  I am tempted to hold onto them and rework some things.  I’ve never done that before, so it would be a new challenge and new information.

Working and preparation right now is all about the landscape….moving into these end of summer ochres and the first hints of fall.  How to let these come through the canvas.  This is exciting work for me and a time of experimentation.