Loving Color
Loving Color is a two-artist exhibition at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland. Along with Joanie Grosfeld, I am one of the artists exhibiting 21 of my botanical paintings which runs through September 14. I’d like to share the paintings of the exhibition and a little bit of the stories behind their creation.
Black Eyed Susans
This 18 x 24 painting of a Black-Eyed Susan’s combines an abstract background created with high flow liquid acrylics with a detailed foreground of the yellow and brown flowers which grow not only in the backyard of my former Maryland home but throughout the gardens of Brookside as well.
Metamorphosis
I came upon this sculpture in the gardens a few years ago when I realized that what was once a favorite tree of mine, had been transformed into this incredible sculpture and surrounded by a rock garden. This 18 x 24 painting is my tribute to a fantastic metamorphosis from tree to art.
Daisies
This 18 x 24 painting uses the same techniques that I used in Black-Eyed Susans to create that wildflower feel inside a planned garden that I first saw at Brookside and later built in my own backyard garden.
Sheldon Reynolds Falls
In the wild mountainous area of central Pennsylvania lies Rickett’s Glen State Park. One of 23 named waterfalls in the park, I set this 18 x 36 painting in Autumn splendor. It portrays a falls tumbling through the rocky forest floor where the trees, creek and steep ravine all come together in a crash of thundering falling water.
Purple Petals
An 18 x 24 close up of purple flower petals surrounding a bright orange center brought these complimentary colors together to provide a powerful contrast that I just couldn’t resist. It was the first flower painting that I created and I’m happy to say I have enjoyed painting the ones that followed.
Pink Peonies
This 24 x 24 painting was the second close up in my flower series. Utilizing a pour of several green shades high flow acrylic paints for the small background area, I focused on the curves of the petals and repetition of shapes to create this light pink painting.
Cherry Blossoms
I have spent many spring mornings at the Tidal Basin in Washington DC to see the Cherry Blossoms at their peak. This 18 x 24 composition caught my eye because I liked the contrast between the trunk sitting back in the shadows and the snow white and soft pink cherry blossoms.
Sunrise in a Lily
A friend of mine took a photograph of this wild Tiger Lily and I just had to add this 18 x 24 painting to my garden. I love the contrast between the greens and the oranges plus the yellow highlights. The water droplets were a huge added bonus.
White Daffodils
I took a photo of this spring garden at Brookside Gardens a few years ago and loved bright white blossoms and the linear greens below them. I wanted a very graphic look for this 24 x 36 composition.
Heavenly Autumn
These two splendid golden trees live up in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland at the base of a rock formation named Cat Rock. After a two mile hike up the mountain side, I enjoyed a picnic lunch with two of my closest friends. While enjoying our just desserts for a good hike and Cat Rock Climb. I noticed the sun shining through the autumn trees and was inspired by the light to create this 24 x 36 painting.
The Twisted Tree
My favorite tree and best of all located right in Brookside Gardens. I have photographed this tree many times, in spring, in summer and in winter, morning and late afternoon and I just love the way the branches twist and turn. The 24 x36 painting has a unique way of feeling very spring fresh in the bright light of day, but as evening rolls around the painting gets a darker and spooky feel to it. It’s a trait that it shares with tree itself.
Solitary Sunrise
One early morning, on my way to a hike on Maryland’s C&O canal, I pulled off on a narrow rarely used farm road to enjoy the sunrise that was chasing me to my hiking destination. I stopped in the middle of this back country lane and watched as the sun was rising and lighting the morning clouds that were lifting from the farm fields. This solitary tree standing in the slight breeze at the top of the rise captured a moment that only the two of us shared. I painted this large 30 x 40 canvas a few days later.
Autumn’s Last Color
I saw this scene at Black Hills State Park on late Autumn November day. This small group of leaves were about all that was left of falls colors along this area of the woods. They shimmered in the wind and caught my eye a good quarter of a mile away. I knew I wanted to catch that feeling and ended up painting this scene in reverse. I splattered the 24 x 36 canvas with yellow, orange and red and then painted the tree and sky around the bright colors to form the shapes of the leaves. The final touch was adding the foreground branches.
Spring Tree
This 24 x 36 canvas based on the woods surrounding Brookside Gardens is another reverse painting. Using high flow liquid paints, I splatter three different greens and yellow on the 24 x 36 canvas first. I then used high flow browns to form the main trunk of the tree and let the paint flow off the bottom of the canvas. I then painted the sky to shape the tree and added the smaller branches.
Vermont Autumn
In 1985 on an autumn trip to Vermont, I stopped at Moss Glen Falls to photograph the falls. The light was very poor for the falls, and I left without taking a photo. On the trail back the parking area I stumbled upon these birch trees in full autumn splendor. I have always wanted to paint this scene but couldn’t figure out how to portray them. Sometimes, it takes 39 years for a painting to spring to life. This 24 x 36 canvas was painted in 2024.
Coneflowers
This 18 x 36 painting was the last painting for this exhibition. Finished the Friday before I hung the exhibition. It was a replacement for “Tulip Fields” that I sold at my studio in Art Amelia in Fernandina Beach a few days earlier. I may have saved the best for last.
Waiting on Spring
This 22 x 28 painting swirled around in my mind for a few years. I just couldn’t find a tree that fit my vision. On a warm sunny November day, I found this tree just after it shed its leaves. I added some girth to tree and the red bench and tire swing. I then buried it in a swirl of snow. I titled it Waiting on Spring because I felt the tree was waiting for its spring friends to sit on the bench, read a book and watch children play on the tire swing.
Tulip Swirls
Again, painting a little backwards, I swirled yellow, orange, pink and red on my 18 x 36 canvas, added the details to the flowers and then painted the green leaves under the tulips and the green background above the tulips came last.
Morning Daffodils
This large 24 x 48 painting is from another spring morning at Brookside Gardens. This larger than life scene Is hoping to find a permanent home, brightening up someone’s morning as it has mine since I painted it.
RB Ricketts Falls
Nestled in the central mountains of Pennsylvania is a state park named Rickett’s Glen. There are 23 waterfalls that tumble down as Kitchen Creek travels down two gorges. It’s 9 and half miles of hiking trails that take through a wonderland of forest, rocks and thundering falls. The gorges are deep enough that the trees block out the sky and for a day. All you experience is the sound of the creek as it splashes down the mountain side. No airplanes flying overhead, no trucks rumbling by, even the voices of other hikers on the trail are drowned out by the sounds of water. This 24 x 36 scene of two separate falls dropping into the small hollow is a favorite spot of mine.
Smoky Mountain River Autumn
A graphic abstract this 22 x 28 painting focused on the overall shapes of the scene above a large waterfall in Tennessee. I found the stepping rock drop off of the creek above the falls more interesting than the falls itself.
I hope you get a chance to see this exhibition. together with Joanie Grosfeld’s impressionistic work it is an impressive ehibition of color in our landscape.