Brickyard Beach Spring

A pleasant day in late March. The local buffleheads were out – that’s a kind of black and white duck. Plein air painting can be such a wonderful way to connect with the world. Looking at a painting I have done in nature always takes me right back to that moment.

Tom wrote a haiku for this painting celebrating spring …and buffleheads!

bufflehead breezes
wander down island narrows
ruffling spring waters

Pansies and Weavings

I painted this one for my Mother. She’s an avid gardener and loves pansies. She also weaves, so I combined those two loves here. If you look closely, you can see subtle hearts in the background.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! (She got the painting in the mail a couple of days ago, so it’s OK to post!)

Tom wrote a beautiful haiku tying this painting to the larger world.

every year in spring
nature weaves her colours deep
soft fabric petals

Apple Blossoms

Playing with twisting branch shapes and spring blooms, this was done from my imagination. It is a very freeing way to work! …And a bee because then you can smell the apple blossoms and hear the hummmm of activity when looking at the painting.

Here is Tom’s delightful haiku for this piece.

crooked branches trace
stark shapes across winter sky
where bees buzz in spring

The Old Crabapple

This one started as a few abstract squiggles and evolved into a memory of a tree from the farm I grew up on. An old gnarled tree, it was really tall for a crabapple. It was gloriously covered in blossoms in the spring and small hard fruit in the fall that my mother made mysteriously delicious jelly from.

Tom’s poem is just perfect for it.

Four-score and ten: my season’s span
from summer warmth to winter snows
from spring’s first bud to autumn’s fan
of drying leaves. My circle’s closed

by blossoms blousing in the breeze
which grow to apples in the heat
turned hard and tart by fall’s first sneeze
then frost like diamonds dusts my feet.

Four-score and ten: my season’s span
’til hence I go where I began.

Bright Varied Thrush

Painting birds is so joyful for me so I wanted to revisit the varied thrush but this time in oils. This piece was not painted alla prima. I let the first layer dry and then was able to scratch through to some of the bright under-painting where I wanted. Check out near the bird’s claws for example. I was quite pleased with the balance between representing something real and having an abstracted feeling. There is a very free feeling in that colourful background.

Here is Tom’s poem that goes with this painting. He actually wrote this one separately from the painting but it turned out to be perfect for it!

Branches glow like ladder-rungs
up, up the trunk in springtime sun:
a thrush alights upon the bark,
it’s orange breast a joyful spark
of colour after winter’s grey
that ushers in the brighter days.

Lady bug

I was going to call this “Forget-me-not my Lady Bug” but that seemed too big a title for such a tiny painting! Anyway, another fun piece to create. I hope you enjoyed this series!

And here’s Tom’s poem for this Lady!

So much to do: the social calls,
the charities, the proper tone
to be maintained, lest standards fall.
A lady by her work is known!

Spreading Wings

Butterflies are so beautiful! …and challenging to paint. I tried to not get too caught into all the intricate details while still making it look authentic.

Tom’s poem for this painting will help conjure Spring for sure!

Hallelujah! Hear the news!
The spring is here and sun is warm!
Spread your wings and pass the booze!
Join with me in coming swarm!

Hummingbird on a Wire

Another Anna’s hummingbird because …they are just so sweet. I had fun playing with colours as well as form.

Here is Tom’s short poem for this tiny painting.

So kind of humans to erect
a fence like this through open fields
where the flower’s first effect
is to make me many meals!

Bumble 3

OK, this is the third and last bumblebee of this series …but who could blame me? They are so cute and this one even has a heart on its back. I scaled down my brushes a bit to do these but you can clearly see the brush strokes because the painting is so small.

Here is Tom’s poem for this one. I think this bumblebee deserves his nap. 🙂

Not every bee’s a working worker:
some like me are known to chill
upon a leaf. But I’m no shirker!
I just rest when all is still.

Bumble 2

I had so much fun painting the last bumblebee that I did another. It’s a challenge to get the fuzziness just so and the transparency of the wings too. Don’t forget how tiny the paintings in this series are – just 4″ x 4″.

Tom’s poem reflects the bustling busy-ness of the bees!

Scurry, shuffle, search and sniff,
gather pollen all the day.
Circle, flying, catch a whiff
of new flowers… On my way!

Green Tea Doodles

take some time for tea and check out my doodles

oil painting