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'Porcelain Maiden' in the collection of the MFA, Boston / Oil on Canvas 12" x 5" , 'Panel' - With reflections from the courtyard window while ascending the stairs at The Gardner 1990s/ Oil on Canvas 20" x 16", 'The Archaeological Museum' along the canal in Venice 1970s / Oil on Canvas 30" x 30"
'Sketch / In Venice' 1970s/ Oil on Canvas 16" x 16", 'Giotto's Angels' egg tempera and gold leaf on panel, 1960s (First Prize in Technical Painting, SMFA / On loan to a private school in 1970/disappeared)
'Window' - Visit to The Gardner Museum 1990s / Oil on Canvas 40" x 50",'Aegean Vessel' in the collection of the MFA, Oil on Canvas 16" x 14"
'Giotto's Narrative' at The Gardner 1990s, Oil on Canvas 15" x 15", 'Ascending', Soldiers marching up a ladder, angel and a chorus at The Gardner 1990s, Oil on Canvas 16" x 16",'Weighing Souls', by the window at the MFA 1990s, Oil on Canvas 16" x 14"
'Porcelain Shepherd' in the collection of the MFA, Boston / Oil on Canvas 12" x 5"
'Ancient Glassware' along a sunlit corridor of the MFA 1990s / Oil on Canvas 16" x 20", 'Reflection' in The Gardner, 1990s, Oil on Canvas 18" x 14"
'Drum' and cast shadow at the MFA Boston, 1990s, Oil on Canvas 18" x 20"
'Porcelain Vessel' in the collection of the MFA, Boston 1990s - Oil on Canvas 18" x 16", 'Chinese Lion' in the collection of the MFA, Boston 1990s, Oil on Canvas, 16" x 18", 'Porcelain Serving Dish' in the collection of the MFA 1990s, Oil on Canvas 16" x 18"
'Chinese Lintel' on display in the MFA Boston, 1990s, Oil on Canvas 14" x 16", 'Ancient Greek Mirror' in the collection of the MFA, Oil on Canvas 14" x 18"
'Chinese Wei Horse' in the collection of the MFA 1990s, Oil on Canvas 18" x 20"
Encouragement at an early age, classes, and many visits to museums and galleries do have an effect, and my attachment to both the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Gardner Museum goes way back. My grandmother studied music (piano) at the New England Conservatory around 1915 and was invited by Mrs. Gardner to perform in the Tapestry Room at Gardner Court. Over the years I would wander through with my family and later alone -enjoy the music as it could be heard outside in the courtyard and throughout the museum as it was performed in the Tapestry Room. It was 'home' . . . . a home filled with one discovery after another!
And not long ago -when I was a student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts -eating my lunch in my jeep in the Museum parking lot -I would wander into the MFA -whenever as a member -and explore one wing and gallery after another with hardly a soul about. One could 'own' the experience -except for a museum guard here and there . . . and it was a sacred space and place to be.
There is no end to my greed when it comes to discoveries in the MFA . . . . The ancient Near East, the Pompeii murals, the remarkable finds from the Aegean . . . The visual language of formal Egyptian culture . . . . The incredible collection of Chinese Art and Japanese Kimonos and Indian narratives . . . . The cheerful and fresh impressionists paintings . . . . etc. etc. Porcelain. Textiles.
Clueless well into my age, and at a time overwhelmed with 'the world' somehow crashing in on my private endeavor, I was for many years at a loss as to what to do and where and how and would retreat to my museum homes. This gave me a connection and a direction through which to build the language of what I do -to paint. The random selection, here, represents an endeavor in the 1990s to steady on . . . . a course of endeavor outside of my previous determination to appreciate time and place as it is in the world about -and a course inserted into my more common modes of impressions and expressions plunged from my imagination.
I was surprised, at 4, that there was paint other than the primary colors offered at nursery school. My brother was being born -a week long project in those days, and my older brother and I were staying with my mother's family -and my grandmother explained the large pallet where she painted in one of the guest rooms ("You must see the painting!!") -and put me to work doing what she did the first time she painted -a small harbor scene. I was so surprised that I could use colors that matched what I could see, and I was even more surprised that I could make a picture that looked like what I could see. "Use a wide brush and sweep upwards!" my grandmother advised -about the sky -and "notice that what is in the sky is reflected in the water . . . . How does grass grow?!" It is ordinary, therefore, that I have projects that approach a painting not as a painting but as a view. This requires, always, that I move outside myself to really see and challenge my vision, plunge my imagination to get the view in space and the relationships clear and the tones appropriate -not in a mode of painting but in bringing out the view. So . . . I reach outside of myself to understand. It is also my admiration for very early renaissance works in which artists endeavored to tell a story and with genuine belief in it. It is this approach that I used to share experiences I had in the Peace Corps -portraits in the late 70s -and then my determination to appreciate time and place (Scenes) with a series of works focused on activities in my home town in the 80s.
'Contemplation' - Venus and other figures in a gallery of murals from Pompeii at the MFA, 1990s / Oil on Canvas 16" x 20"
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Note - The photo reproductions of the oil paintings are significantly smaller in size and not of print quality.