Visit to Olana

I visited Olana, Frederick Church's estate in Hudson, New York, over the weekend with friends. What a fabulous home! The architecture was inspired by their trip to the middle east in the 1800's. Church had a hand in every part of the design, including the laying out and colors of the tiles, bricks, and paint. The interior furnishing are eclectic, but are mostly decorated with 10,000 pieces of items collected during the family's travels to the middle east. It is considered one of his major works of art.

Frederick Church studied under Thomas Cole, who lived in a town nearby. He is one of the famous Hudson River Painters, known for his realistic style of landscape painting during the early 19th century. Many of his best works can be found in the Wadsworth Museum in Hartford, CT. The view from the front of the home overlooks the Hudson River. Church dug out land directly in front of the house down an embankment to create a pond in the shape of the river. He also planted trees and landscaped the property.

Large Sunflower Paintings

I have been wanting to do some large paintings of sunflowers for a while now. The flowers here were pieced together from photographs, which I don't normally do. It was the only way to get the look that I wanted, though. I also tried using gallery wrapped canvas, which is great fun. Both are large, 30" x 24".

I will be having a show at the Woodbridge Town Library on November 10th from 12:00 to 3:00 pm. These and sixteen other new paintings will be on exhibit. All are welcome. The exhibit will be on view throughout the month of November.

Baur Farm Paintout

I joined the Madison Art Society Wednesday plein air painters recently. The group paints in locations all around Madison, including the farms and rural areas of CT. Two weeks ago, the destination was Baur Farm, a beautiful old farm that is preserved for everyone to visit. There are interesting old barns and an old farm house, ponds, a covered bridge, and public garden spaces. It threatened to rain, but I went anyway and was the only one to risk it.

It didn't rain, and the light was steady and perfect. The leaf colors are beginning to change and you can see it in the background trees. A while after I started, the organizer of the group came by to see if anyone showed up. We talked for a good while and then I went on to paint in this beautiful quiet setting.

Painting: Covered Bridge, Bauer Farm, 9" x 12" Oil on Canvas over Panel.