"911 Friendship St." acrylic 23x32

June 29 2011

The 4th is almost here, flags fireworks and picnics so i have chosen this painting as one of my favorites. It has nothing to do with the 4th. but the flags reminded me of this painting. It was painted after the towers came down September 11th 2001 and many people  at that time put flags in their windows. This is a window in a downtown store front. An artist put up this display of a row of flags and a painting of the airplane about to hit the tower. Reflected in the glass are buildings of the town, the yellow building was at that time the library, originally the customs house. Strange as it may  be, the address  is 911 Friendship Street...    Audrey

Find more paintings here  http://www.bechler-arts.com/audrey/paintings/newwork_fr.html

"Boat in the Fog" acrylic 12x16

June 29 2011

This day is foggy and wet. So far the spring weather has ben cool and wet, with a few sunny days in-between. This is an appropriate painting for the day.

Boat in the Fog

I like small boats and I have my favorites that I put into some of my cove scenes. This part of the cove I have painted many times here scene on a foggy day. 

http://www.bechler-arts.com/audrey/paintings/newwork_fr.html

June26 2011

The iris are blooming in my flower garden. It is a regal plant and a flower that artists like to paint. I have a few favorite paintings of iris.  I took a photo of the iris with the orange background  from a book and I can't remember who painted it. The garden of iris was painted by Sally Loughridge. It was in the last show at Tidemark and sold. Sally works in pastel and oil and if you like this painting look her up on the internet. Two Iris, acrylic 18x24 is my painting. One of my favorite painters is Georgia O'Keeffe. I have several art books of her paintings. This is one of the Black Iris paintings. The last painting is by Charles Reid. He paints equally well in watercolor and oil.  This  image was taken from one of the  books I have of his work and teaching method. I have many art books and I treasure them. If I had money I would be an art collector. Looking at paintings gives me great pleasure.

June 21 2011

The first day of summer and it is a beautiful day. I will be outside as much as possible.

My favorite painting for today's post is Spring. Spring does not come to Maine on March 21st. There may be snow on the ground on that date. I consider it spring when the trees start to leaf out the end of May. Spring is a slow process where I live near the water,  which is a cold 40 degrees in March. The east wind, that is the wind off the water keeps the coast cool. Now on the first day of summer the water temperature is almost 60 degrees. This painting, Spring, is more like it is now on the summer solstice. This painting is about growth, new life, feminine nurturing, softness. The woman and young girl are friends sitting on the couch. Behind them through the windows is the spring landscape. The dog is attentive.  Not long after Charlie died in May 2007 Mocha was killed by a car.

June 18/11

Saturday June 18
Another drizzly day. I haven't cut the grass for two weeks. The garden takes priority. Yesterday I planted potatoes, beets and carrots. The peas are breaking though the ground, and I pray they don't get eaten by bugs. Lettice is ready to eat and I have been eating kale for a month. We have had so much rain and cool weather that the vegetables are hardly growing. The weeds on the other hand are thriving. So much for gardening. It is a love hate relationship.

My favorite paintings for today are small 5x7 acrylic paintings. I did ten small paintings for a Christmas show. They were very inexpensive and fortunately I only sold one. I gave two away and I will keep the rest. A small painting takes me just as long to paint as a larger one. They are not sketches. I like the small paintings as much as large 3x4 feet. It is the quality, the design, the feeling in the painting. Small paintings are intimate. You have to be close to them to appreciate the detail. Spring on the Cove I gave to Chris's daughter. It is hard to let go of paintings I like. With all the wonderful technology I have prints of the paintings that have sold.

June 17/11

This is a good day to work in the garden so I will just give a description of my favorite painting wich is Wild Crab Apple. A couple of years ago I visited my son Chris in Eugene OR. I was there three weeks during the Christmas  season and I painted every day in Chris's studio. Chris taught me his method of oil painting. I was really into it and painted eighteen  good paintings. The  crab apple was in my field in Maine and I took a photo of it in full bloom. I was a little afraid to attempt this scene with the large area of field. I was very happy with the result. Chris works on many paintings at once and builds up the color by glazing. I painted his method and started all my paintings at once painting on each one a shot time each day. I was amazed that I finished them all.

June 16 2011

The sun was out yesterday and the night was clear so I saw the full moon. It was cold so I didn't walk the dog. I like to take night walks especially in June when the fire flies are out,  moving  pulsating lights in the dark over the field. Yesterday was a windy day and I stopped to watch the tall grass in the field as the wind moved it, undulating waves, another magical sight. Today is warm and sunny and I will work in the garden until I go to Tidemark in the afternoon to sit the gallery. I took a picture of a duck. They are growing fast and the box I have them in is to small. They are starting to get feathers  but can not go outside yet.

My favorite paintings for todays post are two of my son's paintings. I don't get to see him very often because he lives in Eugene OR. I was out there a couple years ago and he had a lemon in a still life. I made my own set up with the lemon and painted lemon and squash. I love his lemon on the bottle and another small painting with the pomegranate.

June 12 2011

Sunday and it is a cold wet day. I started a fire in the woodstove. The heat feels good. The dog is lying close to the stove. She also enjoys the warmth. Today I can rest my back and do some painting.  Last night, Saturday, there was a great opening at Tidemark Gallery in Waldoboro. The guest artist Julian Sacks has been my friend for years.  All his friends and family were there plus others and the gallery was stuffed with people. I love to see what everyone wears. The artists members bring the food which is always great. After the event I went to Julian's home for more food and good conversation.

My favorite painting for today is January Moon, acrylic 18x24.  sold. The winter before last was very warm about 45 degrees daytime temperature. There was a little snow in December and no snow for the rest of the winter. I was able to walk with my dog down to the cove. I love to be out when the moon is full and this scene depicts the moon rising over the cove and reflecting in the low tide channel of water. Normal winters the snow is to deep to get to the cove. It is interesting that my neighbors who have a summer house on the cove were at the opening last night and bought a print of this painting.

June 9, 2011

This is a perfect June day. I will be working in the garden. The ground is wet from yesterdays thunder storms, so I will wait a few hours to let it dry out enough to dig in. My back is sore. To much exercise at once. Yesterday was hot so I went to the cove and had my first swim, actually I just floated on the top of the water where the water was warmer. It felt great and I cooled off fast. Walking the dog every day gives me the opportunity to observe my surroundings. The fields are covered with buttercups and the lupine are coming into blossom.

My favorite painting I will talk about is Cabbage and broccoli leaves. It was a cabbage growing in my garden. I love the way cabbages grow. When they are small the center reminds me of a rose. I plant my vegetables close together and as they grow they entwine with the other plants. In this painting the broccoli is covering the cabbage and also a few weeds are poking through. The painting was sold so I just have the image of it. Most of the time in the garden is spent weeding, so I get to watch the plants grow.

June 1, 2011

June 1st was a strange feeling day, windy, heavy, humid, just weird. I didn't even take the dog for a walk. It thundered in the morning and afternoon and was very dark. After a nap in the late afternoon I did paint for about 3 hours.

Painting is my passion and I have favorite paintings. Each blog will have a explanation of one of the paintings .

I am choosing them at random. I live my life randomly. I have always liked geometry. From time to time I study sacred geometry, numbers, the golden mean and fibonacci series. I have used this information when composing a painting. I have three different paintings that use these theories. Artist at the Easel uses the golden mean proportion. It was painted from a sketch of my friend in the Newburyport Art Assoc. This is not the best color photo. You can see the use of gradations from cool to warm, dark to light. It is spacious. Mary sits in front of a white blank canvas. Every day starts as a blank canvas. Everything we do can be interesting and enjoyable depending on our approach to life. It is all about attitude. My canvas may not have much in it, like the painting of Mary. She is precious, departed now, but she was a beautiful person, and a good friend.

Shapes 3,4,5 uses the triangle, the square and the pentagon. I did this small painting this winter. I never loose my interest in sacred geometry. I have read these shapes are the building blocks of matter. The last couple of years I have become interested in crop circles, which use the geometric shapes in there designs. I have several books of photos of them. They seem to become more complex each year. I am sure they hold energy and important information.

Red Triangles, an abstract of vertical lines, is based on the fibonacci series. I did it a while ago, so I don't' remember the sequence of divisions. The colors are pleasing and joyful.