Antique chairs part II

Chairs around the old house in Boxford. 

Oil on masonite. 5x7". 

Look for them at the Islesford Dock next week!

Rainy Day Sunflowers

 Rainy days can still have some sun...

 ...Sunflowers at our CSA pickup and Clover with her sunflower.

My rainy day companion 

Grandma's Shallots

Andrew's grandma, Carmelle, gave us some shallots to plant in our garden. They are a true family heirloom: she brought them from Quebec and saved them year after year, until they were placed into Andrew's hands with a blessing. They are some of the most interesting veggies we've ever grown. Not only do they clone themselves like garlic, they grow bulbs on the end of their stalk, which fall over and re-root themselves like a chain. I dug some up today and had fun painting them on this rainy afternoon. Thanks, grandma!

Here is my sister, the Italian chef holding a shallot at a younger stage. When she visited last month we needed onions for a meal and this was the closest alternative in the garden. We ate the green parts too! 

Antique chairs, part 1

Islesford Dock Gallery

Thanks to the Islesford Dock Gallery for showing my paintings this summer. Be sure to stop in to check out all the great artists featured there this year! Some new and interesting artists include Daniel Minter, an African-American artist from Georgia and John Urbain, a Belgian-American artist and poet from Detroit.

Daniel Minter: Judgment House, mixed media acrylic wood, 50x24x10"

John Urbain: Homage to Dylan Thomas, mixed media/collage on illustration board, 9x15"

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Below are some of my own that can be seen among these brilliant artists this summer.

Happy Birthday, Doug!

Our housemate, Doug turned 30 today! To honor this milestone, I made him a birthday painting of my new favorite vegetable, the Hakurei turnip. It is a vegetable he introduced to Andrew and I last fall when he moved in and planted a few things in the garden. We were delighted! Both by the arrival of this turnip, and by the arrival of Doug, who like the turnip, is sweet and tender!

Doug works managing a vegetable farm in Concord, MA on Thoreau's old farm. It is called Gaining Ground and serves to provide free vegetables to the underprivileged. Not only does he do genuinely good work in the world, he is a genuine good guy, just like Thoreau. Happy birthday, Doug!

Music Monday

School's out! Back to the easel.

After a visit to my family last weekend I ended up with this sketch of my sister, the cellist with her 4 year old fiddler friend, Finn.

Then a painting...

Finn visits Heather every Monday morning for a music jam. They play their stringed instruments and sing together. Sometimes they play the piano. What a joy to witness this as a music teacher, two lives enriching each other by sharing music. I just had to do this painting.

Also neat to compare the size of their two instruments: Finn's a 1/16 size violin an Heather's a full sized cello.