EMERALD NECKLACE SERIES
SUMMER 2006
“What artist, so noble…as he who with far-reaching conception of beauty and designing power, sketches the outlines, writes the colors, and directs the shadows of a picture so great that Nature shall be employed upon it for generations…”
- Frederick Law Olmstead, SR., 1852
It was a natural for me to begin a series of lush paintings on special sites of the Emerald Necklace. I asked Simone Auster the director of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy to accompany me on a photo shoot of her favorite and most significant locations of the Emerald Necklace parks system. We spent a morning and drove to seven locations for the shoot. It was such a wonderful morning last June...sunny and so quiet as we went along the Emerald Necklace from the Rose Garden, through the Fens, Brookline and out to Jamaica Pond—just brilliant! I have always admired the work of Fredrick Law Olmstead and have felt so privileged to live in Boston with such a magnificent public park system.
I had been "en plein air" painting and teaching landscape painting at the Boston Public Garden for over ten years before I was invited to serve on a committee for the Emerald Necklace Conservancy (ENC). The ENC is a non profit organization dedicated to protecting, restoring, maintaining and promoting the landscape, waterways and parkways of the Emerald Necklace parks system as special places for people to visit and enjoy. Last year I also painted Gardens of the South End/ Urban Landscapes. I offered a portion of specific sales from this series as a benefit for the Emerald Necklace Conservancy. This body of work compromises of eighteen paintings.
All pieces are painted in gouache on archival paper