NORTHERN VIRGINIA FINE ART FESTIVAL

Hope to see you there!

Mind Your Beeswax

Bees are buzzing around the studio this week. Here are  my new tiny paintings of our waxy, winged pollinators. A generous friend who has a studio down the hall recently gave me a few small frames that he could not use. I decided that these little bees would look very cozy nesting in two of the beautiful gold frames. The little oils will be dry by the weekend and ready to rest in their new "hive."

"Small Busy Bee" oil on canvas (4.5" x 3.25") 2026

"Small Busy Bee with Flower" oil on canvas (2.25" x 4") 2016

ARLINGTON FESTIVAL of the ARTS

My first outdoor show of the season is in Arlington, Virginia next weekend. I will have many new oil paintings including this typewriter (featured here) that I found in the attic during the  2016 Baltimore blizzard. Since many of you have made the request, I'll bring additional paintings of vintage objects including the sewing machines and telephones. Hope everyone can stop by my booth. It would be fun to see all of you!

LONG'S PARK ROOSTER

Maybe it's the arrival of spring. I'm not sure but I painted another rooster. This one was a rescued rooster who soon became a resident at Long's Park in Lancaster, PA.

"Long's Park Rooster" oil on board, (11" x 14") 2016

GENTLE HEN

"Gentle Hen" oil on board, (8" x 8") 2016

Spring is in the air and I have chickens on my mind.  I like this quiet hen who appears to be carefully preening herself in the sunshine. I looked in my sketchbooks of hen drawings and she was there on the page in a quick dash of lines. So I did this little oil painting of her.

SEWING COMPANIONS

As teenagers in the mid to late 1960s my girlfriends and I often sewed simple dresses for ourselves. We'd shop at  Hutzler's or Brager Gutman's  to select a pattern and then choose our fabric and accessories. One item I never was able to own was a colorful pin cushion that featured cheerful Asian children encircling its circumference. The thought of having their  playful company as I hand-sewed the hem of my latest creation was reassuring. But that idea always remained a dream. A few months ago I was visiting  Renninger's, one of my favorite haunts, when I discovered a dealer with all kinds of sewing paraphernalia. Among the spools of thread, tools, zippers, buttons and needles was the darling pin cushion I had always coveted. These days I no longer sew but paint instead. So naturally I had to do a little painting of my recently realized dream of owning these little sewing companions.

"Sewing Companions" oil on wood panel (6" x 6") 2016

A Rooster Named Jackson

"Jackson Squared" oil on panel (12" x 12") 2016

Jackson was an authentic  flesh and feather rooster who I met on a hot July day at Clark's Elioak Farm in Howard County, MD. Martha Clark who owns the farm  and Enchanted Forest Museum, has a petting area where young and old patrons can see and touch most of the domestic livestock. I've continued to paint Jackson over the years. In fact he was in my first paintings of 2016.   A magnificent and very vain cock of the barnyard, he proudly took charge of his flock. We got along well because I flattered him with buttery soft words that he wanted to hear.
"Jackson, you are such a handsome man, please stand over here in the light where I can see you better," the suspicious hens would overhear me saying to him.

"Jackson Puffy and Square" oil on panel (16" x 16") 2016

In time he would come close, but not too close, and lay on his side so that he could spread his wings and show me his splendid plumage. His flirtatiousness took me quite by surprise but I snapped photos of him in that position and he loved it. One day I might share them here with everyone.
I don't know if Jackson is still strutting around his rural kingdom, but where ever he is, he will be forever remembered in oil paint many times over.
So I want to share with you the two most recent paintings of him. Here are they are still on the easel as they dry.