Goodbye Brighton Farms

SOLD

Brighton Farms was established by the Off Family. It was an Orchid farm here in Linwood. It has an interesting history. Lou Off passed away a few years ago and the family has sold the Brighton Farm property which consisted of about a dozen greenhouses lining Shore Road in Linwood. McMansions will fill the void...YUCK. It's heartbreaking to see such a lovely piece of Linwood history be torn to rubble. While I can't judge the family's financial need to do such a thing, it's still so very sad to see the character of my home town slowly dissapear. One consolation is that Waldor Orchids will remain. Waldor was established when a split occured between the Off brothers in the 50s. It consists of several large greenhouses adjascent to the Brighton Property. I buy orchid plants frequently from Waldor, both for business and personal use. It's a wonderful place to visit.
Brighton sold cut orchids; primarliy Cattleyas I think. They delivered all over the greater northeast extension...NYC, Philadelphia etc. Anyway you can read the history with the link I've provided. I picked up this brick from the rubble of the greenhouses as a memento. I didn't have a Cattlelaya orchid, so these two green cymbidiums had to do for the orchid reference. 8x10 oil/canvas.

Childs Play ...Near completion

Some more detail to the guns themselves will finish this off. I wanted this painting to appear Happy and Troublesome at the same time. The technique is far less detail oriented then most of my "Scatter Paintings". Perhaps the influence of all those direct "daily style" paintings...or blog paintings if you will.

Shroom3

I liked the file name on this one...third painting of mushrooms/painting of three mushrooms...it works well as a title I think. Now I can title the first Two "Shroom 1 and 2 respectively. Suddenly I feel pressure to do a fourth with four mushrooms! Another OCD painting from Chuck heheheh. And I was carrying the "Gifts from the Garden" thing a bit too far when I started picking objects from the neighbors yards...like these mushrooms and the green apple from yesterday.
9x12 oil/panel

Gifts from the Garden #5

SOLD
5x7 oil/panel
I bought some pre-primed panels for a change...I found the surface so slick and slippery with this painting...a very unpleasant sensation. I've grown quite fond of the absorbant surface of acrylic gesso. It works well with my technique of drawing/blocking in the intial image with a turpentine wash.

Gifts from the garden #4

One thing about rain...it brings mushrooms.
5x7 oil/panel

Unblock Knives

5 1/2" x 12" oil/birchwood panel

It's been raining for the last five days. I guess this makes up for the drought conditions this summer...anyway I sold the comish without getting a photo. Today is the first day I've been able to take a picture outside...but will I invest in a scanner? someday perhaps. I was going to do some outdoor painting this week, but that was dashed. Then I found myself feeling totally uninspired by everything, including the two works in progress. I brought home really nice flowers...but they just left me cold...so I caught up on paper and house work and felt guilty and miserable the last few days because I wasn't painting. I've been going through my regular mental "clench" over painting what I think others want me to paint ( and what I think will sell) and painting what moves me regardless. Today I gave in and did these knives...they are what I use to do my floral design work. After finishing this I got back into the water-pistol painting with a new and fresh state of mind. I'll try to get a picture of that one tomorrow.
...........til then

Meadows ( from the vault )

12x24 oil/canvas

I did this one about 14 years ago when I first started paintng in oils. It is one of two landscapes I did back then. I used a photo reference. Later I added the red winged blackbirds ( hard to see) in the foreground. I'm posting it now because next week I'm going to be doing some plein air paintings of the same wetlands. A friend has a home on the marshes and offered her yard and balcony as a site to paint. The view is spectacular....Can't wait !!!

My Mother's Birthday Card...a little late

watercolor 5x7
I forgot to get a photo of this last Sunday. My Mother turned 71 on the 12th of August. Since I'm doing a series of fish ( birthday) cards for my Father I decided it would be fun to do a series of flower cards for Mom. Geranium came first since it's her favorite.

Gifts from the Garden #3

Some gifts have a beauty all their own. 5x7 oil

Water Pistol

Working on the larger painting of these I realized that they are not so easy as I imagined. Here is an 8x10 study to help me along.

Work in Progress: Bill's Plant and Bottles

I know I have a tendency to post works in progress and then not show them again...I've been working a little on this each afternoon between 3 and 5. I really wanted to tone down some of the saturated color..nice to compare now with the first layer. I'm also working on yet another commission. Commissions are good for money and publicity, but they really do seem to sap the time I can spend expanding and developing a body of work

Bill's Plant....Work in Progress

I went outside to paint the two new lilys in the pond. It was 95 degrees, totally humid and lots of gnats from the recent rain. The Lillies can wait. I sat in my cool living room and began this cool painting. The afternoon light on that plant has been drawing my eye for weeks now. Really been into the greens and blues lately.
11x14 canvas/oil

Pond study # 7

SOLD
8x10

Ocean City Boardwalk Art Show

I will be up on the Boards for the Annual Boardwalk Art Show sponsored by the Ocean City Art Center. This is my favorite show...kind of like home base. If you're local please do stop by and visit, I'll be between 7th and 8th street, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 8am til 5pm.

Pond Study # 6

Sigh !!!