Not-so-traditional landscape

“Uneasy Journey, 12″ x 16”. I took the reference photo for this from inside a moving car — no, I was not driving at the time! The lighting was almost eerie. The sun was low in the sky, looking almost as if it were being held by the pattern of the clouds. The car in the picture is dark but carries the glare of the sun. This is unlike my usual work, but I am especially taken with it. NFS

“With One Voice,” 9″ x 12″. This is from a photo I took while in California this past spring. As is so often the case lately, the clouds were what first drew me, but then as I looked further, I also admired the complexity of color in the grasses and the punctuation of the far trees. [$300 framed, plus tax and shipping.]

“California Dreamin’,” 11″ x 14″. Another painting from a California photo. The sweep of the unforested hills is so different from Vermont, and almost lyrical. I have modified the colors, of course! [$400 framed, plus tax and shipping.]

“Splendid,” 12″ x 18″. Perhaps a week or ten days ago I happened to glimpse the tops of these clouds from an upstairs window. I grabbed my camera and car keys and tore out to where I knew the view was unobstructed, then took lots of photos. I’ve amplified the color here, too. I love this piece! It’s splendid! NFS

“Into the Sun,” 8″ x 10″. I took the reference photo for this one with the camera looking right toward the sun. I could not see what I was photographing, so I was glad to see that gorgeous cloud when I downloaded the photos. The camera lens made a curved magenta distortion and I decided that I liked that a lot, so I changed the shape and added to it a bit. A little odd, I know! [$250 framed, plus tax and shipping.]

“Shapeshifting,” 12″ x 16″. That’s what clouds are, right? The shapes of these caught my eye. And of course I have changed the colors! [$425 framed, plus tax and shipping.]

“Not Quite Here,” 22″ x 19″. I distorted the colors to add a haunting quality. I find dramatic skies so compelling, and this was enhanced by that stand of bare trees. [$550 framed, plus tax and shipping.]

  “Purple Storm,” 11″ x 14″. I was coming home from New Hampshire, and taking photo after photo of the amazing clouds. Fortunately, I was not driving at the time! This is from one of those photos, although the colors are from my mind. [$400 framed, plus tax and shipping.]

“Upswept,” 14 1/2″ x 17″ Is this a “landscape”? I don’t know. I have changed the color of the cloud to turquoise and the sky to very dark red. I love the power of this image. NFS

“Everything Is Alarming,” 12″ x 16″. It’s difficult to see in this thumbnail photo, but these trees are bare with tops in neon colors. Several people have said that this reminds them of exposed nerves. We all have pandemic fatigue. We all have political fatigue. [$450 framed, plus tax and shipping.]

“It Was Always Here.” 11″ x 14″. I painted this on election day, 2020. So much was riding on that election. The country appeared torn apart. It seemed to me that much of what was happening could be traced back to our history of exploiting others, starting with the native population and continuing with people of color. Racism was always here. [$400 framed, plus tax and shipping.]

 “Hillside,” 11″ x 14″. The barn is an afterthought here. What matters is the sweep of the hill and its many variations. [$250 unframed, plus tax and shipping.]

  “Look Up!” 16″ x 20″. An abstracted version of a swoopy sky over Caspian Lake in Greensboro, VT. I initially painted the sky more realistically, but the painting did not say what I wanted it to say. I gradually focused more on the swirling shapes, embellishing and accentuating them. NOW it feels right! [$500 framed, plus tax and shipping.]

  “Summer Shimmer,” 12″ x 16″. Oh, those light-drenched days of summer! It was not too far from the winter solstice when I painted this, and I needed a good dose of summer sun. That almost fluorescent green in the sky just sings of summer to me. [$450 framed, plus tax and shipping.]

  “Winged,”11″ x 14”. Sunrise at a friend’s home. Do you see the source of the title? As someone said on seeing this painting, “It makes me feel like flying.” A painting of spirit. [$400 framed, plus tax and shipping.]

  “Golden” 9″ x 12″. I’ve intensified the fall colors here (although perhaps not  as much as you would imagine!) to express the vividness of autumn in late afternoon light. [$300 framed, plus tax a shipping.]

 “Summer Laughter,” 12″ x 16″. Driving the back roads last summer, I came across this field of flowers. What a delight! I combined it with playful rounded clouds, which do make me think of laughter bubbling up. [$450 framed, plus tax and shipping.]

“Worcester Village,” 9″ x 12″. Home! Although this is a very stylized version of the view that is familiar to all Worcesterites. I’ve greatly simplified the scene, and it makes me happy: that sweet iconic village in a purple-green-yellow color palette. [$400 framed, plus tax and shipping.]

 “Saguaro Silhouettes,” 9″ x 12″. Saguaros are so varied. The Native people, the Tohono O’odham, say that they are people. [$300 framed, plus tax and shipping.] It’s worth showing the reference photo for this one…here it is:

   As you can see, I completely invented the sky! The painting is much yummier, don’t you think? I shortened the saguaros a bit to emphasize the sky.

“Along the Way,” 18″ x 12″. This was interesting! I kept the pine needles (and the sky) more or less their actual color, but pushed everything else toward red, even the mountains. I like the result, which has almost a western feel. The linearity of the pines towering over the shed and the sinuous road make a nice contrast. [$450 framed, plus tax and shipping]

“Late-Day Grace,” 16″ x 20″. I make art goals episodically, and one of them is always that I want to make art that I love so much I can hardly stand it! This painting meets that standard for me. I love the colors and the glow of the sun and the complicated sky. [$500 framed, plus tax and shipping.]

“Sky Lilacs,” 9″ x 12″. Maybe I have arrived at a new stage as an artist: most of this image came to me in a dream! I saw the sky – yes, that color and texture – and the large bunch of lilacs at the top more or less as I painted them. I had a vague sense of green underneath, and decided to add the small farmhouse and other lilac bushes. There is something haunting about this image, I think, which makes sense given its origins. [$200 unframed, plus tax and shipping}

“February Dawn,” 9″ x 18″. Oh, my, I love these colors! I took the photo early one morning, looking to catch the early sun on the snow. Then I altered the colors, with magenta light on the blue of the snow and hot red-orange with magenta in the trees. I like how the play of light describes the undulations of the snow. [$350 framed, plus tax and shipping]

“Afternoon Enchantment,” 16″ x 20″. Take a look in the “Sold” page and you will see a painting very similar indeed to this one. “Enchanted Afternoon” sold right after I made it, and I wanted another version of it for a show. So here it is! Almost the same title, too. But there are subtle differences between the paintings: like the parent of twins, I can tell them apart. Can you? This painting won second place at the Champlain Valley Fair!  [$500 framed, plus tax and shipping]

“Suffused With Gold, 16″ x 12”. I wanted to show that look of late afternoon in the early summer, when everything seems gilded, glowing. The sky has almost a gold haze and the trees look lit from within. It’s as if the sun were expressing itself in every leaf and blade of grass. [$450, plus tax and shipping]

“That Slanting Light,” 9″ x 12″. From an early morning photo shoot. I was so taken by the ribbon of bright light across the snow and just striking the tops of the buildings. In reality, this scene was almost all white: white snow, white buildings. But I can fix that! [$200 unframed, plus tax and shipping]

“Two Feet of Snow,” 10″ x 18 1/2″. Very early morning on the County Road into Montpelier, not far from where I live. I decided to play with the snow colors; especially at either end of the day, snow is rarely white. I really liked putting all that magenta in there!($375 framed + tax and shipping)

“Yellow Field,” 5″ x 7″. And this is the second one I made the same day. This sky was not really yellow, either! But I wanted to capture the sense of mid-summer heat and light, and yellow does that better than blue. ($100 unframed, plus tax & shipping)

“Strawberry Skies,” 5 1/2 x 7″. I am enjoying making sky that is pink or yellow rather than blue. In this case, I like the way the pink contrasts with the green of the hill. ($200 framed, plus tax & shipping)