URBAN LANDSCAPES

SUMMER 2004

This body of work began germinating in 1995 while I was establishing my studio at the Brickbottom artist building, artist lofts/studios which formally had been an A&P bakery and cannery building in an industrial area in Somerville, MA.  As a landscape painter, it occurred to me that I would need to bring a “patch” of a green garden with me in my new studio.  I purchased wonderful statuary, garden ornaments, trees, and an assortment of plants to create, initially, an atmosphere of an urban garden.  This was a start, and for the five years I was painting there, my interior was a respite in an urban/industrial setting.  I began offering "en plein air" painting workshops at the Boston Public Gardens and dedicated myself to painting "en plein air" whenever the weather permitted.  When I moved my studio to the South End I created my own “urban garden” adding bistro chairs to my interior vignette.  Last year I painted a series from Palm Beach, “Botanical Gardens".

This project is a by product and continuation of my passion for landscapes, gardens, statuary, and architecture.  It seemed a natural progression to paint the Gardens of the South End.  I was traveling during the 2004 South End Garden Tour which benefits the South End/Lower Roxbury Open Space Land Trust.  Upon my return, I contacted them to see if they had photographed the gardens, and would they make some photographs available for me to paint from.  They were immediately interested in accommodating my request.  It was then that I was compelled to offer a benefit for the Trust.  It is so rewarding to show my related paintings during the South End Open Studios.  The pictures in this series are inspired by photographs of the Concord Street fountain and park and the combined gardens at 5-9-11-13-15-17 Wellington Street, taken during the 2004 garden tour.

Working in my studio, I reflected on the compositions of each picture and began the cropping process to create new compositions.  I realized that I wanted to capture these stimulating images in a monochromatic format, choosing ink and washes on archival paper.  I call these works “ink vignettes.”  The paintings are dramatic and yet have a visual ease to them.  This body of work will continue to fifteen paintings.  My enjoyment of painting these gardens has been enormously enhanced as I pass so many of the gardens on my daily walk to and from my studio.  It is so pleasurable to have lovely green spaces in the community in which I work and live....it is truly a respite.  

All pieces are ink vignettes on archival paper