Fall Fungi - Puzzle Designs for Eeboo.

What a fabulous project this was: to be asked to design two puzzles around the theme of Mushrooms: A Poisonous Mushroom design and an Edible Mushroom image. This brief involved a serious amount of research online and in the library. It also involved many walks in the local woodlands searching for and photographing specimens. Fortunately, this is about my favorite Fall occupation, walking and looking. There is something so magical about Mushrooms, appearing one day and disappearing the next.

The two puzzles are now available on the Eeboo website www.eeboo.com and are so much fun to do!

"The Seaside Garden" at Round Hill Community Church

Help!! Time vanishes and now it’s June. To mark the beginning of Summer - my favorite season, I have a small show at the Round Hill Community Church in Greenwich. It’s a show devoted to the sea and to flowers and landscapes, and it’s guaranteed to bring calmness and peace and cooing sea breezes.

The Gallery at the Church is open from 9 to 3 pm, Monday through Friday. The church is at 395 Round Hill Road, in back country, Greenwich. www.roundhillcommunitychurch.org or call 203 869 1091

Peonies - Cooling Blue and white for Summer time

Happy New Year

Happy New Year - somewhat belatedly but it I am hoping it’s still ok to be celebrating since this year is The Year of the Dragon and who does not love a good dragon? We painted dragons in class and online and there were some fabulous dragons. I always love a good dragon, they are so helpful when it comes to lighting the candles on the a birthday cake or for persuading people to observe personal space and socially distance. Here are just a few fantastic specimens.

I made some Giclees

In addition to having about 40 paintings, large and small, in the Images show I also had giclees made of some of the images. If you are interested in a giclee you can order one from Images - at www.imagescenter.com or contact me here. Below are some of the prints to choose from.

Prints range from $80 to $600 depending on size and the quality is amazing. The Owl Butterfly, for example, looks wonderful at its full size of 22 x 30”.

"Recent Work" show at Images of Old Greenwich.

How can this be? Where has the year gone to? For the past 6 months or so I have been working on a show for Images of Old Greenwich. The opening was last week, November 18th, and it was a wonderful event in spite of the freezing weather.

The show will be up until the end of December so if you are local, do please go and see it. If you are not local, the artwork can all be seen on the Images website - www.imagescenter.com

Bristol - my Home town.

My guide to map making is published in the April issue of Leisure Painter. So fun making this map and remembering afternoons and outings to the Downs, the City Museum and the zoo. Bristol was a great city to grow up in. The article lays out an accessible step by step process. Making a personal map is always a lovely adventure.

Diana, Hazel and Italian Fashion

Additional image used by Marta Rubertelli in her article on Style and fashion.

More Iconic Ladies.

Long dark days and few daylight hours mean taking a class or two. I have found it’s the best way to get through January and February. Take a class that really interests and challenges you. So, with this in mind I signed up for a MATS (Make Art That Sells) course taught by the amazing Lila Rogers and the wonderful Tamisha Antony. The class, Redrawing Black History, consisted of 4 weekly introductions to different Black artists and the assignment was to create a portrait of each of them. In the interest of challenging myself, I decided to do the portraits digitally, instead of in paint or fabric, as I would normally do. It was fascinating and I learned so much. I decided to use the same color palette for all 4 portraits to try and give class an internal harmony. I can’t say that January raced by but I can say I am almost looking forward to next year……. Seen here: Elizabeth Catlett, Edmonia Lewid, Gwendolyn Brooks and Betye Saar.

Elizabeth Catlett, Edmonia Lewis, Gwendolyn Brooks and Betye Saar

November Pattern Challenge

So fun to enter the pattern challenge, PatternMood21, hosted by August Wren, Snippets of Whimsey, loriseibert.studio and michelleallenart and such a thrill to win a win a prize for my “Seasonal and Conversational” pattern which depicts squirrels sharing a pot of tea. ( Squirrels in party hats, I hasten to add.) I love creating patterns, especially based around fauna and flora or the South West. Below is a selection of some of the patterns I designed for this competition.

Greenwich Tree Conservancy Award

This woodland scene, based on the Greenwich Botanical Garden, just won first place in the “Walk in the Woods “ category at the Greenwich Tree Conservancy award ceremony today. During the Winter and early Spring I walked there almost every day and being there helped get me through the early months of this very strange and unusual year. I felt so fortunate to be able to walk somewhere safe and quiet and green. I could feel my blood pressure drop as I took my first steps onto the path into the woods.

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Art to the Avenue. Athleta and Iconic Women

Art to the Avenue is a month long event in Greenwich, CT. Stores on or near Greenwich Avenue display the work of local artists. Normally there is a wonderful opening day with concerts and bands, balloons and bubbly, when the stores host receptions for their artists and art lovers, shoppers and the curious wander from store to store, thinking about new Spring/Summer looks. This year will be very different even tho we are starting to emerge from the pandemic. No celebrations and no parties. But I am still very happy to be showing at Athleta, 350 Greenwich Avenue. With a motto like “The Power of She” my Iconic women feel very comfortable and very at home. Here are just a few of the mini portraits I have done for this project. They make a wonderful inspiration board. With many thanks to Claudia and all at Athleta for hosting me so generously.

I am a Good Boi

A few weeks ago my son and daughter in law got a puppy. A Corgi named Napster. Napster is so full of life and energy. Painting him is such fun, especially when it is a cold, drab February Day. Acrylic on wood panel, 8 x 8”

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Vintage Japanese Textile Collage

A couple of weeks ago I learnt about the amazing textile collages of Ayako Miyawaki. These extraordinary collages were begun during the darkest days of World War 2. Using rags and scraps Miyawaki created a beautiful visual language documenting primarily food, fish and vegetables. Miyawaki survived the war and continued to sew. I came across her work when exploring a website devoted to this year’s “Outsider Art” fair. Since I love Vegetables and had already embarked on a personal project of sewing with my own textiles it seemed like extraordinary serendipity. Below a detail of red peppers, inspired b Miyawaki

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