Small Stones Festival of the Arts, 2022

I've had two paintings accepted by the jurors for this year's Small Stones Festival of the Arts, in Grafton, Massachusetts. "Freeman Farm in the Afternoon" and "Daffodil Waltz" were selected to be shown in the exhibition, and also will be included in the hardcover exhibition catalog. Jurors of selection and awards for the 2022 festival's fine art painting category are JoEllen Reinhardt, Susan Termyn, and William Pope. 

Both paintings will be on exhibit in the Great Hall at One Grafton Common, beginning with the Opening ceremony on October 14, and continuing through October 23, 2022. 

Daffodil Waltz
transparent watercolor    17.25" x 17.5"
SOLD

This stylized watercolor rendering of springtime daffodils was informed by my appreciation of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Modernist motifs influenced by Japanese art in a style that became popular during the early twentieth century. Having studied illustration in Boston during the late 1960s, I find that some of my watercolor paintings continue to refer to that long-ago training. My painting "Daffodil Waltz" leans in the direction of formalized, decorative art although the asymmetry of the image contributes to an Art Nouveau feel which keeps it lively.

Freeman Farm in the Afternoon
transparent watercolor  14.75" x 11.75"

I regularly visit Old Sturbridge Village, and enjoy painting scenes that reflect the changing seasons of New England. This rendering of the Pliny Freeman farmhouse was done on a very hot July day in the early afternoon. My goal was to convey the feeling of bright sunshine. Transparent watercolor is my preferred medium, which I find well-suited to landscape paintings including both architectural elements with crisply accurate edges, and the softer details of grass and foliage. I paid careful attention to the color of the farmhouse, hoping to achieve the "just right" shade of dull red common to many rural buildings of the Federal period (1789-1840).