Spring to Summer (right panel)

And here's the final panel, with flowers that changed from tulips to peonies as we moved from June to July--and then on to the little green apples of August, and finally in September, the last tarot card thrown on the table.

Spring to Summer (middle panel)

The middle panel continues the Asian motif, with a Hokusai print, a celadon vase, and a crane on a river (origami bird on a cloth, that is...)

Spring to Summer (left panel)

My still life commission "Spring to Summer" is finished, and here is the left panel, and the complete triptych...stay tuned for the other two panels. You can gauge the time from beginning to completion by the fruit I painted, which began with cherries, then raspberries, peaches and plums, blackberries, and finally wild apples.

Spring to Summer--Vignette 16

Wild apples from the meadow take their place with tarot cards and a geisha.

Spring to Summer--Vignette 15

Another detail from my new still life--as I kept painting, ripe blackberries from my August orchard replaced the raspberries of early summer.

Spring to Summer--Vignette 14

Yesterday was all about looking out for tempests and looking at a teapot...

Spring to Summer--Vignette 13

Tarot cards add their voice--always open for interpretation--to the still life's narrative.

Spring to Summer--Vignette 12

A western tea ceremony held atop a Hokusai view of Mt. Fuji.

Spring to Summer--Vignette 11

Paper crane on cloth river.

Spring to Summer--Vignette 10

Here's the white river flowing back to meet a tea cup (stamped "Made in Occupied Japan" on its underside, and prized by me for its delicacy) that I've painted many times in a still life "landscape".

Spring to Summer--Vignette 9

A white cloth in a still life is like a river moving through a landscape.

Spring to Summer--Vignette 8

The "floating world"of a ukiyo-e print and peonies from a Vermont garden together on the same table.

Spring to Summer--Vignette 7

In between landscape workshops I've been back to work in the studio on my commission, and am enjoying the close-up focus of still life again.

Spring to Sumer--Vignette 6

I'm saying a temporary goodbye today to my studio and the "Spring to Summer" commission, as I am on my way to Provence to teach a two week landscape workshop. I'll be posting my watercolors and oils daily (and one will surely be a painting of a bowl of French cherries!)

Spring to Sumer--Vignette 5

After so many years of working with watercolors, I've come to approach oils with the same direct approach--each brushstroke trying to unite hue, value and form.

Spring to Summer--Vignette 4

Apricots, peaches, nectarines, pears and plums: they present to the inquiring eye so many violets, yellows, reds, pinks, oranges, magentas, purples, even greens and blues, to investigate.

Spring to Summer--Vignette 3

Even on the first pass through a painting, I try to draw with color, turning shapes with the most exact reading of a hue that I can muster.

Spring to Summer--Vignette 2

Painting flowers is the exhilarating if pressured exercise of trying to keep pace with beauty for a few fast hours between bud and wilt.

Spring to Summer--Vignette 1

I've been working on a new commission, an oil still life titled "Spring to Summer". I'll be posting vignettes as I develop the large triptych--an interesting way to keep my attention moving from details to the whole.