A Still Life Story

Sweet

I like the way still lifes can tell a story and help to savor a memory.

This past September, I felt blessed to take my Mom to the farmers market on a perfect late summer day. I brought her some dahlias from my garden, and off we went.

After parking we continued straight to the flower grower's stall; I was thrilled to snag the last clutch of sweet peas. Their delicious scent kept me company as I laid down the bones of this painting in the days that followed. After the bouquet was long gone, I continued working on the painting here and there, as I'm wont to do, each time savoring the memory of a very sweet day.

Thank you for being there and looking at my art.
Have a sweet start to your 2018!

Standing Up for Ourselves

"Reclaiming My Time"
watercolor 10 x 14

"Reclaiming My Time" is inspired by Senator Maxine Waters. Her actions have shown me how confidence and sanity can prevail. I call on her example to get through the days, and wanted to paint a tribute to her. Next time you are finding there is too much crazy I hope you, too, can reclaim your time. And it might even be with a paintbrush in hand :)<3 .="" br="">

Roses and Ranunculus in March

'The Tolerations of March'
16 x 10 watercolor

The month of March tests the patience of New Englanders. Everyone finds their own way to tolerate the days spent ready for spring when spring is swelling but not yet arrived -- still covered in chilly rain and iratic bursts of windy snow. The birds are singing, but it's too cold too play in the garden.

Flowers, perhaps, might be just the thing to help us get through. These roses and ranunculi certainly made my March! I hope you like them too -- please comment and let me know some of your favorite March tolerations. Or maybe you rather let me know your favorite things about April...

Happy Spring everyone!

Roses and Ranunculus

Hello Art Lovers!
Just wanted to give you a glimpse of this work in progress. Nothing more soothing than a bunch of roses and ranunculi with some quiet time on a Sunday to play with brushes on paper. Stay tuned for the finished piece.

Watercolor still life w pear

Appearing/Disappearing
5 x 10 Watercolor on paper

When truth shimmers in and out, I'm grateful to know that a pear is a pear.
I painted this over several months, letting the layers build until the atmosphere felt right.

Last of the flowers, with Mt. Tom

Glimmer of Hope
Watercolor 10 x 14

During hard times some flowers are still blooming -- even after the first few frosts-- giving us a glimmer of hope.

Red tulips in a blue sky, watercolor

Tulip's kind of day
10 x 8
watercolor on paper

Those days, you know the ones, when perfection rules the breezes and flowers
bloom as loudly as they can.

Pink Peonies Blooming in Watercolor

Cluster of Lush
Watercolor on Paper
16 x 18

I wish I could take the whole month of July off to gaze upon peonies -- and paint them of course.
I do make sure to take lots of photos so I can savor the beauty -- minus the fragrance and texture of course -- those parts are in the imagination.

Pink roses in full bloom, watercolor

Title: Cascade
watercolor on paper, 20 x 12

Happy New Year viewers! Thank you for looking.
May your new year be as sweet as a cascade of roses.

Chrysanthemums in autumn, watercolor

Title: mums in the field
7 x 6

The fields are fading, but the mums are glowing! I thank the great flower forces for making the mums bloom right through the first few frosts (and keeping the flower painters away from the store for another few weeks).

Friends in the Cosmos

I appreciated a visit from old friends this summer.
We made a still life and whipped out the paints, just like back in the day.

Title: Friends in the Cosmos
watercolor on paper, 7 x 5

#cosmos, #old friends #flower power

Red Dahlia in September, watercolor

Red Dahlia for Tom Doe

This painting is a tribute to my father in law, who passed away on 9/25/15 at age 93.
He was a wonderful man who will be always remembered and loved.

10 x 13
watercolor on paper

#Tom Doe #Thomas Aiguier Doe #red dahlia #treasuring memories

Tribute to a beautiful life

Tribute to a beautiful life
Watercolor on paper, 8 x 10.5

Dedicated to the memory of Suzanne River. Flying free.

Calendula in the October Sky

'Calendula in the October Sky'
10 x 17
Watercolor on paper

January is starting to get long and cold here in Western Massachusetts.
Catalogs are arriving to get folks thinking on seeds, which is a very good thing to be thinking about right now. Especially if you are concerned for bees. Calendula are wonderful hosts for honey bees. Last October, when all the other flowers were browned over from cold, I walked in the calendula row at Next Barn Over farm under a manganese blue sky. Thank you calendula, thank you farm, thank you bees.

Chrysanthemum on the windowsill, watercolor

Title: for you
Size 10" x 6"
Watercolor on paper

After the first frost, when the calendula outside had bowed down reverently to the power of freezing, the ones indoors were still singing their heads off.' Anyone you know have surgery?' they asked. 'Or illness? We can help, just send us there and we will be unerringly cheerful!'

the joy of spring

Title: the joy of spring
size: 4.5 x 6
price $25 + $10 s & h

Dreaming about it while gazing on last year's photos is one thing, but sitting there with the first of the warm breezes -- and bugs -- painting fresh blooms is a truly sublime other thing. Thank you, universe, for bringing Spring back.

Dreams of April

After a long winter, with a bunch of ice still out there, one dreams relentlessly of things to come. Daffodils, for example, shall begin in a few weeks and continue to open, one variety at a time, all spring long. This is a take off from a photo of early daffs I found outside the Lilly Library last April.
Chins up!

Whiff of July

Title: Whiff of July
3 x 5
$30

Too much snow calls for an antidote, non?
I pulled out some height-of-July pics I took at the Smith Botanical Garden last summer
and whipped y'all up a little cure for the winter time blues.

jj's in jars

Title: jj's in jars
3.5 x 7.5
watercolor on paper

Sniff the sweet little flowers and be assured that they are soon to jump up from under the snow!
To all my kind viewers, Happy Valentine's Day with wishes for your happy heart.

Why are they in jars? The jars emerge after a spring rain, from the soil down near the swamp at the back of my yard. Perfume, nail polish, god-knows-what. The johnny jump ups I find in December, rolled up in to themselves, well after the first or second frost, under perhaps a brown maple leaf or two.
I bring them in, put them in jars, and they unfurl to reveal their sweetly scented, multi-colored faces.
Be sure not to leave nose marks on your computer screen :).

Friends

Title: Friends
10 x 5.5 watercolor on paper
$30

These two cuties met in a vase, struck up a friendship, and chatted for hours.
Weeks later, when all but a sliver of water was left in their shared home,
you could still hear the rustling -- if listening carefully -- of their sweet intimate whispers.

Frost Finale

Title: Frost Finale
Size: 7 x 10
Watercolor on paper
for sale $75

The last bouquets before frost are so grand.
Are they a fireworks, a funereal tribute to the season, simply an abundant last chance,
or a source of faith that Spring will come again?

This one contains Sheffield Mums, Cosmos, and Scabiosa.

In a National Geographic Article, authored by Michael Klesisus, he writes that  flowers first appeared over 130 millions years ago, during the Cretaceous period. In geologic times, this is relatively recent.

He goes on to say that” if all Earth’s history were compressed into an hour, flowering plants would exist for only the last 90 seconds. But once they took firm root about 100 million years ago, they swiftly diversified in an explosion of varieties that established most of the flowering plant families of the modern world.”

- See more at: http://www.gardeninggonewild.com/?p=25339#sthash.VkiJXKeY.dpuf.
“Today flowering plant species outnumber by twenty to one those of ferns and cone-bearing trees, or conifers, which had thrived for 200 million years before the first bloom appeared. As a food source flowering plants provide us and the rest of the animal world with the nourishment that is fundamental to our existence. In the words of Walter Judd, a botanist at the University of Florida, “If it weren’t for flowering plants, we humans wouldn’t be here.” - See more at: http://www.gardeninggonewild.com/?p=25339#sthash.uupuyKVi.dpuf

pear for nancy miller

Title: pear for nancy miller
pastel on paper
Size 32 x 24

This pear is a tribute to my pastel teacher, Nancy Miller. A gifted artist, she died tragically two years ago. The pear was a life long study of hers.

And just so you don't think life is all flowers and no fruits.
Happy eleven twelve thirteen, thanks for viewing.

#pear #pastel #fruit #Nancy Miller

just becosmos

just becosmos
7 x 7
watercolor on paper
for sale
contact info@amajoy.net


The joy, the song, of summer!
They float tall and delicate, abundant, until the first night of frost.

Marry Golds and Batchelor Buttons

Title: Marry Golds and Batchelor Buttons
Size: 10 x 7
Watercolor on Paper

The last flowers before frost are so colorful!

NG gazing

My wonderful younger nephew gazing at the camera.
6 x 8 watercolor on paper.

moving day

Title: moving day
Size: 7.5 x 7
watercolor on paper

Its so much work to move, but once it's done, everyone is happier in the new place, even the houseplants!

BRMK w Joy

E.M.G. on 5.12.12

Mom on our happy day 

H. with 3 fingers in her hair

H. with 3 fingers in her hair, Watercolor on Paper, Size 7 x 8, $50 contact the artist

Title: Stairway to Heaven Size: 11 x 7 Watercolor on Paper available For Sale $40 contact the artist With each unique zinnia we climb closer to heaven.