This painting is an extreme close-up of a small Virginia Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana) blossom. It is one of 75 species in the Spiderwort genus. It is native to the East coast of the US. It is a beautiful, and easy to grow and maintain addition to just about any garden in Pennsylvania. The bees and butterflies will thank you for it. I painted this on four 14″ x 14″ panels with 2″ gaps. Perhaps it mimics the effect of viewing the blossom through the window of a tiny dollhouse.
The painting comes with Command strips affixed and instructions for hanging.
Many people consider wild violets to be a weed. We enjoy them and plant them! They are wonderful, native perennials that provide sustenance from early spring through fall to bees, rabbits, and other insects and small animals that are essential to a healthy ecosystem. Plus, they add delightful spots of color and bits of softness to a lawn. These tiny blossoms are scattered all across the back yard of the house in Perkasie where we rent an apartment. Each bloom is less than an inch across, so this painting is an enlarged view.
This painting is acrylic on 14″ x 14″ stretched canvas. The edges are painted purple, so framing is optional.
There are many species of finches and many varieties and subspecies within those species. Many times one will see a brightly colored bird that doesn’t seem to belong. And one finds out it doesn’t. It is an escaped pet, hybrid finch.
Goldfinches seem to be plentiful in this area. I believe that is largely due to the revival of the popularity of planting native flowers, and the understanding of the need for native plants in the life-cycle of birds, insects and bees. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, North America was losing its bird population at the alarming rate of an average of 5% each year. By around 2011, the trend was reversed and birds started to recover. This happened as people planted more natives, reduced lawn areas and increased planting areas, reduced or eliminated the use of pesticides and herbicides after educating themselves about the benefit of living in the ecosystem not off of it.
Goldfinches are beautiful and are capable of several songs. We are regularly visited by our yellow friends in our yard in Perkasie. This painting is based on an experience I had in June 2016 at our house on Front St., Souderton, shortly after my open heart surgery to replace my damaged aortic valve with a pig valve. I had just exited our house and was passing the front “garden”, a jumble of native plants and weeds. I was moving slowly. A male goldfinch landed on one of the many Echinacea that were in bloom. He was within arm’s length of me. He tilted his head and looked at me; then he began to sing. He went through all of his repertoire, then it seemed as if he turned to me again for a response. I said, “Thank you, Mr. Goldfinch!” He nodded and flew off, It was a magical moment, like something from one of those classic Disney movies.
For Valentine’s Day, this year, I painted on 6″ x 6″ stretched canvasses for each of our five grandchildren. It was not planned this way, but as it turned out, they all have purple or lavender in them. They say purple is the most provocative of colors. I think it is fun. These paintings have been well received on Facebook. Here goes!
Asters, etc.
“Asters, etc.” is for Brigitta, age 9. She loves green and is a very good, abstract artist in her own right (better than me). In art, anyway, I find it hard to break free from physical reality. This is a freestyle interpretation of asters, with a couple of undefined, red weed flowers blooming, above the jumble of mixed foliage below.
Goldfinch with pulple coneflowers
“Goldfinch” is for Elijah, age 9. He loves it! It is based on a photograph I had taken through the front door window of our house on Front Street. It was the same goldfinch who had serenaded me at arm’s length while I paused on my morning walk just after my open heart surgery.
Lavender Sunflower
My painting for Isabella is of a sunflower, but with lavender petals. When she saw it, she said, “Poppop, you are a genius!” I surmise she likes it.
Bizaro Skittles
Jacob’s 11th birthday is next week. He wants a cat. His dad does not want any more animals in addition to his three sons in the house. So I painted him “Bizaro Skittles.” It is a portrait of my cat, mirrored, in purple and pale green.
yes!
“yes!” is for our 12-year-old grandson Aidan. I wrote around the sides: “Even when the answer is No, it says YES! I love you. 2 Corinthians 1:19”
It came to me that he is of the age and temperament that he needs to hear this. When his parents or other adults tell him no, it is not because they don’t want him to have fun, it is because they love him and want him to have a long and happy life. I explained this to him when I gave him the painting. He gave me a huge, tight, long hug-of-war hug.
The Founding Fathers had great hopes for hemp as an export crop for the fledgling republic, and for a subsistence crop for homesteaders. Jefferson and Washington both grew it and smoked it. They promoted it for a primary crop for the new nation. because of its many uses for rope, structural beams, smoking, tea. It is even reported that they smoked some after signing the Declaration of Independence.
It has been shown to repair the damage done by strokes. It can stop migraines, some of which (mine) cause strokes. It is not physically addictive. It does not cause cancer. In fact, it has some curative properties. Smoking it has actually been shown to have a positive effect on the brain of stroke victims, actually repairing damaged areas and restoring lost function. It is a non-addictive, non-damaging painkiller to provide relief for people with chronic pain and degenerative diseases.
Not just the legalization of marijuana, but the affordable availability of marijuana without prejudice is a hope for millions of suffering people. It is also a much healthier high than alcohol, so wouldn’t damage families with alcoholism.
Painting is acrylic on 6″ x 6″ x 1.75″ stretched canvas.
Price: $40reduced to $15 plus postage
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This is the second in my series of paintings portraying aspects of hope. This is a pine seedling that has emerged from a crack in a rock. I find this hopeful and encouraging. It demonstrates the persistence of life in the world. There are actually some pine cones of certain species of pine that will not open to release their spores unless and until they are exposed to the extreme heat of a forest fire. The seeds or spore are so tiny and resilient that they can find purchase in the tiniest cracks. After a flood has washed away all topsoil down to the bedrock, these trees can seed themselves and start to break up the rock and drop needles and provide habitat for birds and other animals, etc.
This painting commemorates the day last June, shortly after my open heart surgery to replace my damaged aortic valve with a pig valve. I had just exited our house and was passing the front “garden”, a jumble of native plants and weeds. I was moving slowly. A male goldfinch landed on one of the many Echinacea that were in bloom. He was within arm’s length of me. He tilted his head and looked at me; then he began to sing. He went through all of his repertoire, then it seemed as if he turned to me again for a response. I said, “Thank you, Mr. Goldfinch!” He nodded and flew off, It was a magical moment, like something from one of those classic Disney movies.
The painting is acrylic on 6″ x 6″ stretched canvas.
These globular blossoms are about 1″ in diameter with tiny tendrils poking out on all sides. The bushes are native to Pennsylvania. They were here before white men arrived. This is a painting of a blossom on a buttonwood bush in front of our house. That is why the red siding color is in the background. This is acrylic on a 16″ diameter canvas. The edge is painted bright yellow to facilitate frame-less hanging.
This painting was inspired by our visit to Edge of the Woods Native Plant Nursery. They have a beautiful butterfly garden that contains all of these plants plus several more in a dense, four foot tall jumble. We have all of the plants portrayed, in our yard in front of the little house we rent. They are goldenrod, milkweed, boneset, butterfly weed, native bee balm, oxeye daisies and red lobelia.
Several types of bees were all over the blooms, this summer, along with about a dozen types of butterflies.
Echinacea is commonly known as coneflower. It is native to where we live in southeastern PA. By native, I mean it was here before European settlers arrived. Yes, it is the same Echinacea that is in your cold remedy to help dry up sniffles. They grow and spread quite nicely in poor soil, as long as there is good sun and drainage. They are my kind of flower, as they thrive on neglect and attract all sorts of beautiful birds, butterflies, moths and bees.
Painting is acrylic on 12″ x 12″ stretched canvas.
Price: $60 plus postage.
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We replaced 30% of our lawn with native plants and always see lots of bumbles and other bees, along with butterflies, moths and birds of all types. Native plants are those that were in the area before Europeans arrived about 400 years ago.
The painting is 6″ x 6″ acrylic on stretched canvas, so is about life-size.
Price: $40 plus postage
Fill out the form below so we can arrange payment and delivery. I take PayPal, so all credit and debit cards are accepted.
This painting really makes an impact at four feet wide and three free tall! It was such a beautiful weekend, I decided to accompany my wife and daughter to the Franconia Township Fall Fest, where they were selling their wares. Bethann makes clothing, purses and quilts. Hilary makes jewelry. I went along to help set up and take down and took this painting, along with my good easel and supplies, to work on it Saturday 11 to 6. Last week, when our daughter, April, saw it, she said it looked trippy. I said, “Yeah, sunflowers on acid.” She said, “More like the artist was on acid.” Full disclaimer here: neither one of us has ever done acid. (At least I know I never have. I mean, not that I remember.)
Illustration of Vogel’s model for n = 1 … 500
Sometimes, while I am painting, I learn more about my subjects. April mentioned the Fibonacci Sequence in the pattern of the florets in the heads of Sunflowers. In 1979, Helmut Vogel devised a formula based on it. His formula looks like this:
On Saturday, Hilary also mentioned the Fibonacci Number. She has a friend who gets excited about all of the different places it shows up. I mentioned that Sunflowers always face East to greet the rising of the Sun. She replied, “Except when the sun goes down, they turn and face each other.” Another person told me that later that day. I don’t know if that is true or just a romantic folk tale.
I had so much fun interaction with folks, especially the little ones, at the festival. At one point, about a half dozen 4-foot tall girls were walking down the path in front of my easel. They all happened to look left at the same moment, and in unison exclaimed, “Whoa! That’s beautiful!” That’s when I knew the painting was a success.
This work was what I did over the canvas I re-primed after giving up on the Indonesian floating market painting I had stewed over all Summer.
The painting is acrylic and marker on 48″ x 36″ stretched canvas.
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