Sunset, Charlestown Breachway

 

Sunset, Charlestown Breachway

Oil on canvas, 10 inches by 10 inches

sold

I am still dilly-dallying with notions about this 100-painting project I'm on the brink of starting. 

For anyone who missed it, I am embarking on a project to make 100 10-inch-by-10-inch paintings. On the advice of Chris Rose, curator of the Lighthouse Gallery, and an artist and teacher whose insights I trust, I am working to limit the scope of the project - and it is tough! 

Instead of 100 random paintings, Chris is encouraging me to make some choices before I set out. Subject matter is the major choice, but there are others, too, including palette and tools/brushes. 

My brother Rand says he loves the idea of doing 100 dog paintings and then putting them together using mymosaicreview.com to make a giant image of a cat. I like that, too, but wonder if it seems too obvious, too easy. 

Of course, if I am going to do something like this, maybe obvious and easy is the smart way to go? 

At any rate, I tried a couple 10x10s the other day, and this is one. It did make me wonder if "Reflections" would be a theme, a focus. It is pretty broad, though, perhaps broad enough to get me in trouble. 

One of the followers of the blog here said that I will probably wake up one morning and find the idea full-blown in my consciousness, and I do like that thought. Meantime, I'll make one more call here for ideas. Got one? Please let me know! 

Jacobson Arts is located in beautiful downtown Gales Ferry, CT

The Way Home

The Way Home

Oil on canvas, 16x20

Please contact me for price and delivery options

Every time I drove to Griswold to paint sunflowers at Buttonwood Farm, I passed this - road? driveway? - that curved off into the distance, and always had puddles in it. No matter what time of day I drove by, the puddles always were reflecting something interesting, and the whole scene had the most inviting look.

I set out yesterday afternoon to find something else, but saw this and stopped and set up.

I believe I met the entire family, while I painted. I don't think I've ever seen a busier driveway! There are four kids, and the three I saw all had their own cars... as did their mother, who was charming and sweet, and invited me to paint the maples in her back yard, when the color comes.

At any rate, I felt a little rusty... but I like the painting a lot, and look forward to returning, and painting again.

Here's my painting in their driveway

jacobson arts has its world headquarters in gales ferry, CT

More Sunflowers

Sunflowers

Oil on canvas, 18x24

Please contact me for price and delivery options

Jill Blanchette and I went out to paint Tuesday at Buttonwood Farm. The big sunflower extravaganza is over (they raised more than $100,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation!) but there were still plenty of sunflowers.

The heat and dryness is catching up with them, though, and they are starting to tip over, faces turning toward the ground.

I've had crazy success with my plein air Buttonwood Farm paintings! One sold before it was finished. The next sold before it was dry. The third, I still have, and this is the fourth.

I am so happy with this painting! Partly, I think, because I was so happy with the day. It was a joy to be with my old friend, and to laugh, and to know that this friendship has lasted, through thick and thin, joy and grief, over many years.

And partly, I am happy with this painting because it came without thought or effort on my part. It came through me, a gift from God, or the universe, or the muses, or whatever name you'd like. I was a vessel with this one, and it's a cool, fun painting - and the best of experiences.

jacobson arts world headquarters is in gales ferry, CT

Dusk, Stonington Point

Dusk, Stonington Point

Oil on deep-cradled canvas, 16x20

sold

The days are getting shorter, and I feel the tug of winter settling in.

I know it is a million weeks away, but every day brings it closer. In the mornings I sit here and look out my window and before I remember, I wonder if it's storming, or if today is the day that the sun will not come up.

Hawks nested in the driveway this spring, and had two babies. The parents were vocal,  watching us and announcing our presence and their own for the whole summer. We watched the parents build the nest, catch a multitude of creatures to feed themselves and their babies, and then we watched as the young hawks learned to hunt.

I saw one of them in the yard one day, sort of stomping around on the grass. I thought he had caught something, but in fact, as I looked closer, I could see that he had not. I think he was trying to step on bugs.

I watched him, and honestly, I began to think he was developmentally disabled, too stupid to last in the world he lives in, the world of eat or be eaten.

One afternoon, he caught a worm, and flew off with it, clearly not quite understanding what to do.

Days later, he caught a vole.

Days after that, they all were gone.

I cling to these hot, bright days, live on the glory of sunflower fields, and day lilies and the delightful presence of the summer's crop of hummingbirds, and the knowledge that all of this will go, and will come back again.

jacobson arts world headquarters is in gales ferry, connecticut

Addendum

Sunrise, Sunset

Oil on canvas, 12x16

sold

As my friend Carrie Jacobson so intelligently asked me after my most recent post... which painting had I so serendipitously brought to Art on Groton Bank and sold? (Those Carrie Jacobsons are smart, aren't they?)

So here it is. From November 2009.

You know, I focused on that experience in my most recent blog post, but there was much more to the day. For starters, the fact that AOGB happened at all this year is somewhat of a miracle.

It was started in 2007 by Audrey Heard, a marvelous artist, and friends Lana Orphanides, Judith Winder and Millie Carlson. Audrey and crew ran the show through last year, when Audrey apparently decided that she wanted to devote her time to painting.

For a while, it looked like there would be no Art on Groton Bank. Then Chris Rose, curator of the Gallery at Lighthouse, stepped in, and the show went on.

The work this year was lovely. Friends came to see it, and friends came to be in it. Mary Stepanian of Groton showed beautiful, lively paintings and cards, and had a great time. Kelly Jarvis of Westerly brought her gorgeous jewelry, and had an excellent day. It was her first time at AOGB. It was also Ronet Noe's first time. She's a wonderful and incredibly creative painter who builds up 3-D stuff on her canvases and then paints them - I've never seen anything like it. She didn't sell anything, but she had a good time.

Friends came from work, from the neighborhood, and a woman who works at Jerry's Artarama in West Hartford even came by.

Art on Groton Bank always happens around the anniversary of my mother's death, and so there is always an undertone to the event for me. But I know how happy Mom would be with what I'm doing, and so there is great solace in that for me. And while my dad is in Arizona and couldn't be at the show, I feel lucky every day to still have one parent living and seeing my painting, and loving it.

Jacobson Arts world headquarters is in Gales Ferry, CT

Dawn on the Marsh, Essex

Dawn on the Marsh, Essex

Oil on canvas, 16x20, $380

The Wickford Outdoor Art Festival turned out to be wonderful for me on many levels.

For starters, many of my paintings sold. Eight or nine all together, I believe. They were bought by people who absolutely loved them. People who lost their hearts to the paintings. And I got to see that happen.

It's great to have the income, yes, indeed it is. I am, after all, on my way to supporting us by making and selling art. But in addition to the income, and far more meaningful and lasting, is the interaction with people, especially with the people who buy my paintings.

People at Wickford - buyers and lookers alike - seemed to go out of their way this time to share their feelings with me. The buyers, especially, did.

In that interaction, it seems, there is the very best of humanity. I love hearing their stories. I love hearing about their lives, and knowing that, in many ways, the paintings that I made have sparked their willingness to share - and often, these people are sharing very deep feelings, very intimate moments in their lives.

It enriches me, these interactions, and I hunger for them and thrive on them. And I am grateful.

The world headquarters of Jacobson Arts is in Gales Ferry, CT

First Day on the Marsh

First Day on the Marsh

Oil on canvas, 11x14

I feel like an addict who's found her drug of choice: the Great Marsh.

Essex, just up the road from where I am staying in Gloucester, MA, runs along the edge of this gigantic, gorgeous, wildly living marsh. Everywhere you turn, there is something beautiful to see.

The water snakes through the rich grasses, and the wind ruffles it in waves, and when the tide goes out, you can smell the salt and the brine and the centuries of animals and plankton and grasses that have lived and died on the marsh.

Egrets and cormorants, ducks and seagulls, crabs and snails and who knows all what gathered on the marsh, eating, swimming, darting around. And above it all, a huge sky stretches out, wide and blue and open.

A woman and her granddaughter and their poodle came and looked at my painting, and invited me to park in their driveway whenever I wanted.

The marsh is gorgeous in the fall, she said, and in the winter, it looks like it goes on forever.

In the summer, it looks like it goes on forever, too.

The World Headquarters of Jacobson Arts is in Gales Ferry, Conn.

Chelsea Groton Bank Exhibit

Pieces of mine at the Chelsea Groton Bank on Long Hill Road, Groton

I am having a heck of a summer, in terms of painting and opportunity. My stuff has been selling well and steadily, which gives me all sorts of hope, and makes me worry about the consequences of hoping too much.

I've gotten into a series of good summer shows again:

• The Wickford Outdoor Art Festival, July 9 and 10, in Wickford, R.I.
• Art on Groton Bank, July 16, Groton, CT
• The Mystic Outdoor Art Festival, Aug. 13 and 14, Mystic, CT
• Paradise City Northampton, MA, Oct. 8-10 (Columbus Day weekend)

And there might be more! I am hopeful!

Right now, I am really enjoying this small show of my animal paintings in the lobby of the Chelsea Groton Bank on Long Hill Road. For anyone in the area, the building is on the corner of the little road that goes back to Benny's and the post office, pretty much across the street from CVS and Starbucks.

Chris Rose, who runs the Gallery at Lighthouse, arranged the show. The bank had invited him to invite local artists to exhibit, and I am the ice-breaker.

I am starting to understand what my paintings do to the rooms where they hang. They are really very bright, and they change things. They changed this lobby, that's for sure!

When we were hanging the pieces, someone who works in the building came along, and told us how happy it made her to see something colorful hanging there. She left smiling - and left me smiling, too.

jacobson arts world headquarters is on whalehead road in gales ferry, CT

Nellie, and thoughts on Father's Day

Nellie

Oil on canvas, 12x12, commission

It's Father's Day today, and that's led me to all sorts of thoughts about the shape of family and the shape of parenting.

The family that we have - a grown daughter, four grandchildren ranging in age from 25 to 8, and here in our home, seven dogs and three cats - this is not the family that, when I was growing up, I imagined I'd have.

I thought I'd have a "regular" family. A husband who earned the money. A big house in the suburbs. Two kids, maybe three, and a dog. When the kids were young, I'd be in my 20s or 30s. By the time they went to college, I'd be the age I am now.

I thought my house would always be clean. I'd be svelte, and lineless, and absurdly fit. I would have garden-club friends, and give elegant dinner parties and have plenty of savings in the bank for old age.

Of course, I thought old age would never come. Heck, I thought middle age would never come.

Well, middle age has been here for a while. The family is an interesting amalgam of stepchildren, step-grandchildren, and the vanished fathers of grandchildren. Our own house is never clean, we scrape to pay the bills, Peter does the cooking and the cleaning and the housework, and I am far from svelte or lineless.

But what we have is so much richer than anything I'd imagined. There is love and honesty and courage and inspiration in this house, and in this family. There is art and creativity and kindness. There is honor and faith and a belief in the best of people, and, having seen some of the darkest stretches of life, there is a belief in the best of possibilities.

To read my Father's Day story, and see a photo of Dad and me when we were both about 53 years younger, click here.

The world headquarters of Jacobson Arts is on Whalehead Road in Gales Ferry, CT

Moose

Moose

commission

Our old dog is still hanging on, and most days, I think we're doing the right thing for her. I wonder if it is the right thing for us.

Most days, she has the bright look in her eyes, the sparkle that is hers and always has been. Some days, it's not there.

She is painfully thin, though we spend our days feeding her. She's gotten very picky, knowing, I believe, that we will give her better and better stuff. Peter bought her her own already cooked chicken last week, and she ate it (we feed her by hand) pretty much all by her lonesome.

Most days, she can't get up by herself, but will exhaust herself trying, so it's become necessary for one of us to be here with her pretty much all the time. At night, this often means waking up five or six times, and staying up for hours while she paces.

Her coat is falling out, so there is no more brushing her. We cut off pieces when we have to. The vets don't know why this alopecia has happened, but it shows no sign of leaving. Kaja's once-beautiful plume of a tail is not a mostly bare rat tail.

When I write it like this, it sounds like we should euthanize her. I know it does. But then she will see me coming and take a little hopping jaunt to greet me. Or she will come over and lean against me, smiling with her eyes, as she always has. Or she will follow Jojo into the bedroom and snap at her, in play, when Jojo is too rambunctious.

She is an old girl now, unsteady and slow. Her beauty has spun to dearness, her strength to resilience, and the place she has always held in my heart has grown. 

I watch the old girl walk around the yard, clearly loving the feel of the grass beneath her feet, and the smells that float on the breeze, clearly still loving her plodding explorations, and I think, not today. Not today.

And I pray that death will find her on its own, as she sleeps, one day not too far from now.

the world headquarters of jacobson arts is in gales ferry, connecticut

Maple Avenue, Hadley

Maple Avenue, Hadley

Oil on canvas, 11x14

Please email me for price and shipping/delivery information! 

The third day of the Paradise City Arts Festival was not a day of sales for me, but a day of meeting people and connecting. And while this doesn't put money in my pocket, it does put joy in my heart.

I spent a lot of time looking at my paintings with people who were entranced by them. The looks of delight on these people's faces, the smiles that my paintings brought to them, the recognition of the soul, these are things that mean a lot to me.

A couple special treats during this show were visits from friends and family. On Saturday, I heard someone calling my name and turned to see my niece Larkin racing toward me, arms outstretched, followed by my brother Rand and his wife Molly. And on Monday I turned around and found my dear friend Jill Blanchette standing by my elbow.

To have people I love go so far out of their way means a huge amount to me! And the support of all of you, reading this blog, sending me emails and thoughtful comments, I appreciate it enormously.

Pam Nelson, a neighbor and a woman who has painted, shown, taught and earned her living through her art, loaned me a couple exhibition panels for the show. When I confided in her that in spite of everything, my lack of confidence is at times nearly paralyzing, she admitted that even for her, the same was true.

A show like this, visits from people I love, and a day of touching hearts like I had on Sunday, gives me a little break from the traffic of self-doubt that is so often snarled up in my head.

Jacobson Arts World Headquarters is in Gales Ferry, CT

Jersey Girl

Jersey Girl

Oil on canvas, 16x20

sold

Today, I turn 55.

I'm not sure how I feel about it, really. I mean, of course, it's just another day, and I am no older today vs. Sunday than I was Sunday vs. Saturday. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't think of the passage of time, and the passage of my time in particular.

On Friday, I had an assessor come over and look at the stuff of my mother's that's been in our garage for the past two years. Today, I gave my daughter my mother's old spice rack, with spices intact, that I'd been using - even though it didn't fit at all in the spot we have for spices.

These days, all these days lately, I've been watching the ebb and flow of what must surely be the last weeks of my ancient and beloved dog's life.

And today, I turn 55.

There was a time, not so long ago, that the thought of dying terrified me. Life felt like a corridor lined with doors, and I could hear them slamming shut behind me as my choices decreased, day by day.

Sure, the doors behind me are shut - but the ones in front of me are open.

While death is surely approaching, I can say that if I died today, I'd die happy with the life I've led.

And that is saying something.

The world headquarters of Jacobson Arts is in Gales Ferry, CT