The Last Page

Some two years ago now I complained to my son Coert that I couldn't find a mention of my work on internet. He suggested I start a web-log and make myself known. Coert got me started and I enjoyed regularly posting my activities for friends and family abroad, picking up a client along the way and, of course, "seeing my picture on the cover".
As time passes I look at all the posts and see I am having much fun doing pretty much the same.... but different. I feel, anyway, that it's not exciting enough to keep posting it here so I'm going to call this "The Last Page" for now.
For those who feel the urge.... you can keep up with me and my work via Facebook.

Welcome to My Internet Exhibit......

Welcome to the opening.
As this is a virtual exhibit I invite you to pour a glass of wine for yourself, sit back, and scroll through the paintings below.
Looking down through the next 5 posts on my blog you will encounter an oversight of some 30 paintings I made on Cape Cod.
The subjects range from inland landscape to dunes and surf all over the Cape but concentrated around Sesuit Harbor in East Dennis Ma.
Enjoy.

Cape Cod Lighthouses, Landscapes and a Portrait

During the seventies I painted pretty much every lighthouse on Cape Cod. We had a yellow 4 wheel drive jeep back then and were free to drive over the beach and through the dunes with a pass from the National Seashore. We would drive from Truro along the Atlantic coast all the way out to Lands End in Cape Cod bay.




We call this the "Secret Valley". It was just around the bluff from our beach and we did some of our best beachplum picking there. The first painting hangs in Coert's house and is scene from the valley looking back to an abandond beachhouse on the dune. The following two paintings are in the valley itself where the colors in the shrubs always blew me away.


This painting I found after having posted last week. It is another view of the meadow between Stone's mansion and Stephen Phillips Road. Look at the dune....
This is a portrait of my daughter, Cornalijn.

the Next Chapter on Cape Cod

During the Cape Cod years I was painting quite a lot.. so much and sometimes so fast I would just recycle canvases. This week we'll start with the Bagley house but then beach-side on the back-side.
The second painting is of the old Stone- house. A sprawling estate that used to be on the hill above Stephen Phillips Road, surrounded by meadows and hedgerows.
Just accross Bridge Street from S-P Road and down along Old Town Lane I painted this scene. Painted on a recycled canvas this is the only one that ever started chipping. In the background you might see two people walking along Sesuit Neck Road. It is from about there that I painted the Pear tree below. This tree still stands some 32 years later.
I got up really early one morning and went down to Sesuit Harbor to paint the colorful boats in the morning mist. This painting is in private collection.
These are the flats outside of Brewster, Ma. nearby the estuary of Quivet Creek. We call them "Crow's Pasture". This painting is in private collection as well.
This painting is of Quivet Cemetery in Brewster, painted from Sea Street the closed road as we call it. See the next painting.

I would like to express my appreciation to family members, old friends and valued customers that were so kind to send me photographs of paintings I knew were out there but in many cases had not seen for many years.

Cape Cod Bay

This is a summer scene facing east from (what used to be) the Bagley house. In the background, the horizon you might say, is the jetty at Sesuit Habor. To the right is the East Dennis public beach. Off the beach, halfway "up the jetty", you can see "Gull-rock". This rock stands dry at low tide but is now in about eight feet of water. Here is a painting of a summer storm. I admit openly that this one was most likley painted from behind glass. This painting is in a private collection.
This painting we call "the Rolling Waves". Also in private collection.
The last one for today I call "the Morning Sea".... even though it is Cape Cod Bay.

Chapter Two: the Marsh and Bog Scenes

This in a picture of me painting on Bridge Street in East Dennis somewhere between 1976 and 1980..... I ended up cutting this painting in half and selling the top half in one of those Cape Cod artist events along route 6a.

The painting below is pretty much the same but from closer to East Dennis. I painted this one from someone's backyard.This painting is the view upstream from the same spot on Bridge Street above.
This painting is now in a friend's private collection and they call it "Our Little Cottage". In the foreground is the flooded cranberry bog on Stephan Phillips Road in East Dennis. Coert mapped this one on Panoramio.
Here another of the same bog.... but earlier, signed 1974. Coert and Peter are walking back to the house after coming to visit me while painting. This one hangs in Coert's house and has been mapped as well.

Cape Cod Summers 1

During the seventies my family enjoyed summers on Cape Cod. The July month was spent at the house of a dear family friend; H.P.Bagley II.

My children were young and played on the beach in East Dennis, next to Sesuit harbor. This gave me plenty of time to paint in the area.

My son Coert remembered, during a recent telephone call, having to “lug that tote-bag and paintbox” all over the place…. My reply was that someone had to carry the stuff.

Moving on:

This portrait is of Prescott Bagley (Jan. 1927- April 2005) painted in '75-76.

Below cottage is where Peter and I spent our honeymoon in 1964. This painting must also be from 1975 or 76.

Here a painting over the beach towards the jetty at Sesuit Harbor.

Seeing these paintings again (and there are some more to come) remind me of how much I was very influenced by my teacher at the time, Robert Hunter. He taught me to paint with thin layers. The "van Gogh" in me came out later.

Coert mapped the above paintings on his Panoramio site. Have a look there (be sure to zoom in) to see how, in some cases, the world has changed.

Sharing the Statistics

I have been busy putting together a blog-exhibit these past weeks….

Whenever my web-log slows down you can count on me being up to something.

This exhibit will entail paintings made on Cape Cod in the 1970’s it has taken quite the effort to find them. Most I have spread around (stacked away) in my studio but some have been either sold or given away in the course of time. So I’m trying to remember what went where and to whom and contacting people for photographs.

In the mean time I thought it would be fun to share some “blog stats” with you.....

As of today we have had 3,162 “visits” to the Joy of Art, with 1,109 “absolute unique visitors”. The 3,162 visits show an average 1.78 “page views” per visit (total 5,621 “page views”) with an average of two minutes on-site.

The visitors to the Joy of Art are spread out over 60 countries around the world. In the top-ten, not surprisingly, we see the U.S. and the Netherlands, followed by Canada, Israel, U.K., Germany, Belgium, India, France and Turkey.

All in all quite some attention for a woman just doing her thing.

Been Delegating the Panoramics...

I somehow got the date-function on my camera turned off and sent Coert another set of photos. Although this one does not offer a wider range of view I do like the way it "flames" (o.k. distorts)in the margins.... It's about time that Coert posts a few new pictures on his own Panoramio site.

Panorama over at the Pond

My son Coert has been playing with panoramic-photo-stitching for some time now.... We both have space on "Panoramio" (his & mine), a site that links our photos to Google Earth and Maps.
Below my first attempt at a panorama compiled of three photos (Coert did the stitching for me). Now I'm trying to get the !@#$% date function on my camera turned off.
Hopefully more to come but for now the breathtaking colors of Cooks Pond.... you can click on the image for a larger view.

An Altogether Busy Week

This week we had a guest from The Netherlands.
Nel is the widow of one of Peter's oldest friends, Gijs van Barneveld. Nel lives in the city of lives in Dordrecht. When Nel arrived on the 2nd of October Autumn had just set in. and when she left on the 10th the season was in full glory.
Nel was awestruck by the colors of our New England season and was constantly making photo's.... Below is one I made of her.
On Tuesday we painted the grandson of Charles Grey. The photo of my painting did not do enough credit to my work, but here is one of Victoria, I liked her painting as well.
Besides playing tourist with our guest touring around, shopping at Macy's, visiting Boston, art museums, etc. etc we celebrated the 50th birthday party for a friend of ours.
Yesterday Nel left, we had a little bit of an empty nest syndrome. She was such a good guest, full of enthousiasm and joy.

Art in the Bank

This month I have a little exhibit at the Princeton branch of the Barre Savings Bank.
There was space for nine paintings.
The branch manager, Mary Tomasello, invites a different atrtist in each month to exhibit. Custumers seem to really apprecitate the monthly change of scenery.....it also gives everyone working in the bank something new and interesting to look at.

The fact that my work is being displayed in an area where people are working, waiting or doing business appeals to me. The space is alive and that adds to the vibrance I try to convey with my work... Plus, I enjoy the exposure I am getting for my art....

Here's a picture with one of my sunflower paintings on the left and a portrait of my grandson Thomas Patrick on the right. As usual you can click on the image for a larger view:
Another one of my sunflowers behind the branch manager's desk (a clutterd workspace is a sign of a clear mind):
A portrait of John in Native American dress on the left and a topographical abstract on the right:

From Tradition to Prehistory

While in The Netherlands, just about a week ago now, we sometimes had a evening treat called “Advocaat”. Dutch tradition is to eat this alcoholic beverage with a spoon from a small glass. Today I made a batch….. Here’s the recipe:

• 12 eggs
• 400 gr sugar
• Two tablespoons of vanilla
• 1/2 quart of Brandewijn ( as this is hard to find here in the USA brandy or rum will be a good option, spiced rum even better.)

Break the eggs one by one into a bowl and beat them until smooth. Pour through a sieve and mix once more…. You want this really fine and creamy. Add the sugar while mixing the egg mass and then pour in the alcohol.

Warm the mixture in a double boiler (au bain marie) and keep stirring. Your “product” will start to thicken at about 140 degrees. When the foam is all gone the Advocaat is ready.
Allow it to cool, stirring occasionally.

Advocaat is traditionally served in little glasses, a little larger than a shot glass, topped with whipped cream and eaten with a little spoon (like one of those souvenir spoons).
That is the way it was done when I was growing up.
You might try using it as a pastry filling...
Whatever you do with it, it is delicious.

Paintings this week areTraci from the Nursery and John my neighbour in Native headdress, he collects these artefacts.

Last but not least a photo Coert sent me of a pot he made. He has been interested in prehistoric European “Linear Pottery” for so long he has started making replicas, firing them in an outdoor pit.

Back from Vacation.... Zucchini Soup Recipie

Back from vacation and the garden is overgrown.
What to do with zucchini that is as thick as your fore-arm?
I don't know what I did with my camera so the date is not correct.

Anyway, I was in luck because Dorri had a recipe and had writtren it down for me.
I will translate it from Dutch:
For eight people, (invite friends because it is really very tasty)
Courgette soup (courgette is the French word for zucchini)

• Three pounds of courgettes (zucchini), seeded.
  
• One pound of potatoes
• One onion
• Two pounds of chicken breast
• One stick of butter
• One little jar of green olives with pimento
• Half cup of cream
• One quart of chicken bouillon

Cube the zucchini, potatoes and onion. Put them into the melted butter in a great big pan. Add the bouillon, put the chicken breast on top and bring everything slowly to a boil. Simmer for 20 minutes, until meat is cooked. Take out the chicken and puree the soup with a mixer. I do not own one so I mashed it with the tool I make mashed potatoes with....it worked fine.
Cut the chicken in small pieces and return it to the soup. Slice the olives and add them with the cream to the soup.
Bring to a boil and add salt and pepper to taste.
This soup is really delicious! Enjoy.

Second Week of My Field Trip Abroad

Well, I've been up to quite a bit this last week. Here's a photo-impression of a few of my activities:

1. I attended my granddaughter Dana's riding lesson:
2. I visited with my sister in-law, Joan Herweijer, a sculptor:

3. I attended a country fair where lost and dying arts were demonstrated, this is a wooden shoe maker making a pair of miniatures:
4. I went with Dorri to the Saturday market in Harderwijk and arrived home laden with flowers: