Old Paint: February 2010

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Jan's Summer View

Last summer, in July, a friend from Mexico came to visit.
July in Up-State NY is clear and lush. My birthday is on the 25th, the Cicadas have just started their welcome buzzing a week before and it is usually hot. Mexico is also hot, but really dry.
My Mexican friend lay in the grass, walked on the grass and reveled in the "green" that went from his toes to the sky. When he came into the house and saw my paintings, he got what I was trying to do and commissioned one for his home in San Miguel Allende.
Here it is finished, 60"X36".
I am a studio painter, but I do enjoy my plein-aire painting time ...and I have put in my time, but it was so nice to put my mind and heart into summer, while the snow was falling.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Alice Characters

Alice in Wonderland (The Cut Outs Story)

"Macy's exhibits a flower show for spring which invovles an elaborate display of flowers through out the first floor and the windows are decorated with themes which change each year.

Crowds gathher each spring to veiw the spectacula, much as what occurs during the Christmas season on Fifth Avenue.

One particular year, My friend who was the chairman of the music department of City College told me that her colleague David Del Tredici, who is famous for his Alice music, amoung other compositions was having his Alice music piped onto the street for the onlookers of the Alice themed windows.

The sheet metal sculptures were the focal point of the windows. They depicted various characters and segments of the Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

As a member of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, I asked the president if they wanted the sculpture and they said they did.

I contacted Macy's and they said I could pick them up in Hoboken at their warehouse. No charge.

One rainy and windy day I got a station wagon and some help and we brought most of the sculptures back to my house. Two pieces I brought to a lady who had contacted the society and wanted them for her daughters bat mitzvah. I dropped them off in the cty before storing the others in my garage. There they stayed for at least 5 years. Finally the society realized that there was nothing they could really do with them so I decided to line my backyard with them. I so enjoyed them for awhile until I discovered that they were not waterproof and they rusted and peeled.

Enter Dan.

Dan came for a couple of years and scraped and repainted a couple at a time.

I gave the Society another year to see if anyone wanted them and when no one did, Dan did a total refinishing of them and they now reside on a beautiful piece of property in Bedford, New York"

Elinor H