SOLD - Winterberries

I felt the need to paint something holidayish. When I can finally take a moment to ponder the holidays, I usually see winterberries. They're a pleasant respite from the overwhelming economics of the season. 

They seem to be more abundant to me this year. I saw some bushes last week that knocked my socks off.  Maybe they're trying to tell us something like, it's time to take a serious jump into merry.
 
Winterberries • 8" X 8" acrylic framed to 12" X 12" • $200

SOLD - Winter's Coming

Don't worry.
Winter's coming.
 It's inevitable.
 

And though I dread 

the long dark,
I look forward,
to the brilliant

and brutal beauty. 

Winter's Coming • 8" X 8" acrylic framed o 12" X 12" • $200

SOLD - Twilight

Twilight can be so other-worldly when, as the sun descends on one side of the horizon, there's a full moon rising on the other. Spectacular!

It's a bit disturbing however, that the word twilight is now associated more with the Twilight movies than it is with the event, and that what was once a romantic time of day has me thinking more about whether or not I should be draping garlic around my neck. 

That in turn brings me full circle back to the werewolf thing, which is actually a full moon event. Of course you have to believe in all of that nonsense for it to be scary in the first place. Unfortunately there is still a little part of me that does thanks to early indoctrination by Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney.
  
Twilight • 8" X 8" acrylic framed to 12" X 12"• $200

SOLD - Remembering Fall

I feel like I missed fall up in the mountains this year. It could have been a preoccupation with hauling down the screens or putting the garden to bed. Or maybe, for the first time since I was a kid,  I took the whole spectacle for granted. In this sketch, I simply try to remember it.

Remembering Fall • 8" X 8" acrylic framed to 12" X 12"

SOLD - Island Sheep

I may have mentioned that the first time I ever saw island sheep was years ago on our little boat "claudia." We were close to shore when we spotted a big old ram that looked like he'd been left wild. His coat in mid summer was dripping off little by little, great swaths of gnarly wool trailing like entrails as he ambled along. He looked prehistoric.

I tried to find a history of sheep herds in New England - how they got out to the islands. This was all that was readily available including a new word to me:


Ovine: of, relating to, or resembling sheep
Origin: Late Latin ovinus, from Latin ovis sheep — more at ewe 
First Known Use: 1676

Columbus' sheep
The first domestic sheep in North America were most likely of the Churra breed which arrived with Columbus' second voyage in 1493.

Corte's sheep
The next transatantic shipment to arrive was in Mexico with Cortes in 1519. No export of wool or animals is known to have occurred from these populations, but flocks did disseminate throughout what is now Mexico and the Southwest United States with Spanish colonists.

Churras were also introduced to the Navajo tribe of Native Americans, and became a key part of their livelihood and culture. The modern presence of the Navajo-Churro breed is a result of this heritage.


The Susan Constant sheep

The next transport of sheep to North America was not until 1607, with the voyage of the Susan Constant to Virginia. However, the sheep that arrived in that year were all slaughtered because of a famine, and a permanent flock was not to reach the colony until two years later in 1609.

In two decades' time, the colonists had expanded their flock to a total of 400 head. By the 1640s there were about 100,000 head of sheep in the 13 colonies, and in 1662, a woolen mill was built in Watertown, MA. During the periods of political unrest and civil war in Britain spanning the 1640s and 1950s which disrupted maritime trade, the colonists found it pressing to produce wool for clothing. 

Island sheep
Many islands off the coast were cleared of predators and set aside for sheep including Nantucket, Long Island Martha's Vineyard and small islands in Boston Harbor. There remain some rare breeds of American sheep—such as the Hog Island sheep—that were the result of island flocks. Placing semi-feral sheep and goats on islands was common practice in colonization during this period. 

Island Sheep • 8" X 8"acrylic framed to 12" X 12" • $200

SOLD - Late Fall

So it's coming on up Halloween and the only thing I could think of to sketch was crows. I often find myself watching crows out there in the landscape. They can be pretty entertaining - they're so smart. And though there is no reason why I decided to paint three (for those of you who study this stuff, as you know there is quite a bit of mythology about three crows), here's something I had never heard or read before:

Stock market investors sometimes refer to three crows as a pattern of successive declining stock prices over three days often identified by overlapping candlestick patterns. Three crows are often seen as a warning of a period of powerful selling pressure on the stock market.

Thankfully, I don't have to watch the stock market. I can just watch crows.


Late Fall • 8" X 8" acrylic framed to 12" X 12" • $200

SOLD - October

So if anything octo in most languages is eight, why is the tenth month of the year October? Shouldn't it be the eighth month? I queried and found the following:

c.1050, from Latin October (mensis), from octo "eight," from PIE root *octo(u)- "eight." Eighth month of the old Roman calendar (pre-46 B.C.E.), which began the year in March.
 

The original Roman calendar had just 10 months, starting with Martius (became March), and then after December came an indeterminate "winter period" of about 61 days that were not assigned to any month. The original months were: Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Iunius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September (7th), October (8th), November (9th) and December (10th). Note that the Latin names for the later months actually do correspond with their numbered positions.

The last two months added to the Roman Calendar were Ianuarius (now January) and Februarius (now February). This pushed all the other months forward two numbers when later people came to regard January as the "First" month. Probably because of the winter solstice, January became regarded as a time of "renewal" for the sun, and hence the start of a new solar cycle.

September then became the 9th month, October the 10th, and so on, but the original names remained, without matching up with the number their name was first based on. 

In the meantime, the bright colored leaves have dropped in the foothills and mountains, but the landscape is still spectacular. 

October • 8" X 8" acrylic framed to 12" X 12" • $200