Shroomscapes: My Paintings at the 39th Annual NEMF Sam Ristich Foray

"Portabello Blues" 

Oil on panel

8" x 10" 

Eight of my "mushroom paintings" will be on display at Crozier-Williams Center on the Connecticut College campus in New London, Thursday, July 30th - Sunday, August 2nd New London for the 39th annual Northeast Mycological Association (NEMF) Sam Ristich Foray. Connecticut Valley Mycological Society (CVMS) is hosting the event this year at Conn College. 

My friend Laurie Gorham told me that She'd seen my earlier mushroom paintings and thought I could come up with more "portraits" for the conference.  Thank you Laurie for the heads-up!

Check out the organization's FB page here for more infomation on the conference, updates and   photographs by NEMF member of locally foraged mushroom, morels and fungi. 

"All in the Family"

Oil on Panel

8" x  8"

                                        

"First Pepper"

6" H x 8" W x 1/4" D oil on panel

"First Pepper" was an opportunity to preserve in a still life one of the fruits of my summer gardens, and at the same time play with the lush, sensual qualities of oil paint.  It's now available for sale on my ebay auctions.  (You can check out all my works for sale on ebay in time for the holidays here.)

Mushroom & Sweet Pepper

8"x 8" oil on panel

I love how the portobello mushrooms look this year as subjects for still life painting. Their unusual shapes and subtle colors offer opportunities to play with paint; in this case, the muted "flesh" of the mushroom reflected the blue-green backdrop. The pepper gave me a chance to play with cool and warm reds to create form, and contrast the neutral tones of the mushroom. This organic mushroom and sweet pepper came from Fiddleheads Food Co-op in New London.  

Portabella Mushroom Family

Oil on Pan
8"x 8"
SOLD

I could not resist creating a still life oil painting of a beautiful organic portabella mushroom I bought last week from the Fiddleheads Foods Co-op in New London, CT.  This one had little mushrooms growing at its base; it made me think of a family or of a "hobbit home"of mushrooms.  The beautiful white stem provided me with an opportunity to depict for the reflected red and blue-green colors of the background. 

Plane Time

4.5" x  7" Oil on Panel

This is the 2nd oil painting in my "Hardware Series" of tools, etc.  I have alway loved old wood planes: their beautiful wood handles, worn from use, against the streamlined steel metal parts; and to top it off, finely machined brass knobs, etc.  So I decided to pay homage to this little block plane that I have and put it in the spotlight as my model for an oil painting.

First Tomato

6 x 6" oil on panel

This was our first tomato of the year ( a late tomato) which I decided deserved to be the subject of a painting.  I thew in some of our green basil from the garden  as a color compliment to the redness of the tomato.  Just having fun with the plasticity of the oil paint and striving for subtle color variations in the white table to add interest to the simplicity of the composition.

Awl Shadows

7" x 5" oil on panel 

This is the first in my "Hardware Series".  I used to do a lot of woodworking and still enjoy making some things out of wood.  For years I have admired tools, especially old tools.  Some of these tools are works of art themselves and this awl is a beautiful piece to use or look at.  I thought, why not let the tools be still lifes like a flower or food?  They deserve to be in the spotlight.

Lemon Reflections

6" x 6" oil on board

SOLD

One of my favorite recent (still-life) paintings, in terms of achieving what I wanted: using thick, buttery impasto both to convey a lusciousness of surface texture (so you're aware of the paint), but also to convey the reality of the objects shown. This was particularly challenging with the smooth, transparent surface of the glass, as you might imagine, so I'm pleased with the result.

My FVAC Juried Show Entries

Last month I entered two paintings into the 2008 Opened Juried Show at the Farmington Valley Arts Center in Avon,  CT.  The show is called Interpretations and Inspirations, juried by Philip Janes.    These two canvases were accepted into the show. 

Animal skulls lend themselves to much interpretation and reflections of color.  I see the skull not just related to death but a structure that life emanates from.  Of course, the childhood fascination for digging up things in the backyard or woods that your parents find weird or dirty ("Don't you dare bring that thing into the house!") - and the ability to hold onto that fascination into adulthood - is a very useful tool for an artist!  

Check out the Farmington Valley Arts Center website:

www.fvac.net/

6 x 6 inches, oil on panel

As with the previous painting, this is an image of bison skull I sculpted, rather than an actual skull.  (Which, in turn, was copied after an genuine skull, which still hangs on my wall.)  This is also another palette knife painting, and the physicality of painting this reminded me of how it felt to lay down pieces of clay to create the original sculpture.

Wolf Mystery

6x6", oil on panel

Wolves have always felt like kin to me.  No, this is not a painting from a live wolf; I painted this image from one of my sculptures.  I turned the studio lights down low, just enough to see my paints, and lit the wolf head from the side.  When the painting began,  I had no idea how it was ever going to turn out.  In fact, I embarked on the process expecting it not to work because the room was so dark!  Now and then I turned the lights on to see what was happening.  I was surprised to see the image of the wolfhead appearing before me on my painting panel, in a way that seemed magical to me.

Mortar and Pestle

This was painted the same week I painted "Cup a Day" in the previous post.  I chose a similar color palette but a much different textured effect, using a palette knife rather than a brush.  It's an old technique, but for me there is still something new and even exciting about using the knife rather than a brush.  Working with impasto is like literally sculpting in paint for me; I love thick textures, which only the knife can really shape to my satisfaction. 

A Cup A Day

6 x 6" oil painting on panel

Originally I was attempting a more "representational" image, but the result was lifeless.  So I decided to take a risk and literally wipe it out.  In the process of finding the lights, I was able to complete the painting.