https://marciazweig.com/home daily 1.0 2022-09-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663258611011-245AJ5TF8X9K6BTMK4MM/Marcia%2BTree%2BPainting.jpg Home - Red Oak and Pear Field Initially I saw this field of invasive Callery pear saplings in Harding township (NJ) on an autumn day when they were turning and wanted to paint them. I went back at dawn and noticed that the early morning sun was really lighting up the oak tree, whose leaves were actually russet. Raking dawn light might be the best. As are oaks. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663013400483-SJX94GFWWRXUHL2C4K2O/Marcia%27s+Landscape.jpg Home - The Severn at Halmore This is the view from a very small pub in Halmore. I watched a fellow salmon fishing just past this cow pasture here, and we drank cider and ate potato chips until the sun set. That’s Wales across the river. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663259665262-UXTXPFXS7A5AFKAS5TU1/IMG_8348.jpg Home - Steam Fog at Dawn This fog appears almost every early morning on the lake, unless it’s a very hot spell of weather. It rolls quickly all around the lake and gradually disappears; sometimes it reaches as high as the fir trees. In the fall it’s worth getting up early for. When a storm’s approaching, it rolls down from the head of the lake towards our cabin. It actually seems to be rolling faster and faster until the lake disappears completely and it’s a cloud nestled between banks of the deepest green. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663259942602-XNREOCI67T63DYZBFBBA/IMG_2131.jpg Home - A Church with No Congregation I especially liked painting the plywood window and steeple bell on this church face in Lafayette, New Jersey. They likely held ice cream socials here in the early 1900s, and strawberry festivals and weddings, too. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663260483895-QAVUR4UHB78N7V98TY0O/IMG_0046.jpg Home - Sunsetting Light on a Stillwater, New Jersey Farm Just another example correcting the mistaken popular opinions about the state of New Jersey https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663013388853-TQ0PN0QIJ614SH1NDKV1/IMG_3283.JPG Home - Ketchup and Mustard The purity of these primary colors appealed to me. Nice canoes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663260455050-V2PGAWP0ISSDYCKTBN68/IMG_3821.jpg Home - Snowy Stubble Field corn stalks always create a stubbled geometry; I liked their patterns just after the sun set. And the clouds were full of color and more snow on the way. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663260622323-4J6O7RGZTNIOJWKSF9O9/IMG_8349.jpg Home - Hollyhocks in Indiana Hollyhocks remind me of midwestern summers like no other flower. Always against barns. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663013388112-SZVIZM8AUR731TK39X0K/IMG_2808.JPG Home - Iowa Corn Crib Up close, this corn crib is one of the best. Beautifully constructed at least a hundred years ago and still housing the old buckboard wagon used for hauling shucked corn. But that would be a different painting. I couldn’t resist this light on the structure from the farm road approaching it. A road my Grandfather and Mom rode horseback. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663260768682-U26YMR1XZWMOOMWSDY08/IMG_3577.jpg Home - Farm outside Gilman Iowa’s metal siloes and barn roofs shimmer at dawn and dusk; this was at sunset. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663260857057-89FSONHETYQY5IMLTLW2/IMG_5388.jpg Home - Spring Brook I’d like to be able to capture the palest and softest greens that seem as if a spring fog is enveloping the woods - before the ferns have unfurled and the very week when the leaves just emerge. Swedish painters seem to be good at this; maybe their woods have more birch and light-barked woods, allowing the fresh greens to dominate. What they do, and the American painter Twachtman manages, too, is pretty mystical. Rocky Run in foreground. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663013393068-DEYO41RZNR3SN4P6UPB7/IMG_5447.JPG Home - Four Corners in Gilman I spent my childhood summers in this little town in Iowa, more specifically, sitting on the sidewalk next to this stop sign. The white building, Joens’ Hardware, was usually my destination. It’s abandoned now, as are most buildings on Main Street, but the corn elevators are still full. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663260971935-47XUK7D2LDJ8KTEIOYQO/IMG_5853.jpg Home - Wave Hill Wave Hill is one of the loveliest botanical gardens I know, and in the early Spring, the chionodoxa and corylopsis are brilliant companions. A painter could spend her life painting in this garden and never run out of subjects. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663261069270-WBB8TD6FTXIJ3THK26UF/IMG_7740.jpg Home - The British Canal in Castine Who knew the British built canals along Maine’s coast to thwart Colonial soldiers? And embarrass Paul Revere in his less than glorious retreat there… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663261668939-6479Q085WPM8FFYO8LDU/IMG_8394.jpg Home - The Frozen Narrows at the Big Eddy This view looks across the narrowest and deepest points of the Delaware River towards the hills of Pennsylvania. It’s a beautiful prospect from the village of Narrowsburg, New York, in all seasons and times of day. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663261722347-YUI94LMGVGB8QNJ6JZPM/IMG_9627.jpg Home - Lupine outside Orson These Lupine weren’t planted by friend, Dennis, but most likely by a farm wife many years ago. They didn’t show up until Dennis pulled out some old lilac bushes and more sunlight was provided, as is seen in the background. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663261827092-K0HIBS5PM2QUKGJ33OI3/IMG_1243.jpg Home - Rocky Run Brook My favorite spot on Rocky Run Brook. No question why it got it’s name; the receding glacier left great boulders and table rocks in its wake. Our Welsh terriers have always enjoyed the views from atop glacial erratics. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663261934272-JBY0R17M0W0IV33XEUC0/IMG_3086.jpg Home - Montauk Aftermath of a very serious winter storm. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663013390145-461QJU9Q5FXSRITFJAYS/IMG_4155.jpeg Home - Sunset Cloud Sunsets can be too flashy as subjects for paintings, but individual clouds are sweet. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663262098590-DE2KWVDWC5S5EA3I8KEK/IMG_4968.jpg Home - Cherry Allee at Waterloo Village These cherry trees continue to bloom in a completely deserted 19th century village in western New Jersey. I had the whole place to myself. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663013393884-58402B9Z8GMAAGEEWOSE/IMG_6395.jpeg Home - Pleasant Mount These scenes in the highlands of northeastern Pennsylvania are underappreciated. Mostly dairy farms with rocky soil and at the top of every unpaved road, another beautiful view. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663262247568-X0TAPYJ1AXN8Q0BN3S4U/IMG_6397.jpg Home - Sun Pillar on Ridge Road Sun pillars aren’t very common. This was a nice one, if diffuse. Any shaft of sunlight is worth painting. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663262299800-RX3K22CSY9ONU8ROO1Y8/IMG_6679.jpg Home - Wisconsin Storm Storms come up very quickly in the Midwest and can be dangerous, of course. I was terrified of “weather” for my first twenty years, spending a fair amount of time in basements and crawl spaces wherever I could find them. Now I relish a good storm and hate to miss out if I’m someplace where I can’t see the clouds and hear the wind, rain and thunder. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663262366287-AXRZ8XS6038866M1D19E/IMG_7509.jpg Home - Milkweed and Monarch Chrysalis My friend Peggy and I watched this chrysalis on her kitchen table as it became a monarch butterfly over several weeks; we took it into her garden and sat with it for several hours as it rested on a verbena bonariensis bloom and then flew away. I think it’s remarkable that the spots on the chrysalis are such a metallic gold. Just amazing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663262448502-Z3DL9Q06KHMV70GPM0VE/IMG_7570.jpg Home - The Best Farm This is the farm where my Mother grew up. It’s changed a great deal and this is a view from behind its farm buildings, but the red barn’s roofline is unique in the area, and it was pink 90 years ago, after it caught fire and my Grandfather threw milk on it to stop the fire from spreading. It’s some of the best farmland in Iowa, and my Grandfather was the national cornhusking champion a hundred years ago. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663013398132-BAONR5VVF1W7OBIRFPRP/IMG_8440.jpeg Home - Along the Road to Madison The skies in the Midwest are spectacular - always changing and always inspiring. Painting clouds must be a form of meditation for me; I find myself in the middle of skies painting in and out of what amounts to droplets of moisture. There are always new cloudscapes to paint. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663262606845-BXJ34ZX5OH48VVJQ9AAG/IMG_9244.jpg Home - Cat Ice I think cat ice is really a thin layer of melted snow on top of a frozen surface. It makes for interesting reflections where none would be seen if the temperatures were just slightly colder, or the sun weaker. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663262681851-C4DN3JQFM2SXT2HCOGZ7/IMG_9249.jpg Home - View from the Cemetery This is the view from my parents’ graves in a cemetery outside Laurel, Iowa. We always visited on Decoration Day, bringing iris and peonies which bloom in May, to leave for my great grandparents, grandparents and now parents. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663262767499-B96U71G11JIOTJUZUTWW/IMG_1015.jpg Home - Late Autumn Dawn The bright orange trees are bare. The light at dawn illuminates them for just a few minutes until the sun rises higher in the sky. The only trees left with leaves are some maples and the larch at the head of the lake. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663262848296-1A4FN6GNYC9SNEY5IY03/IMG_1019.jpg Home - Evening on the Lake I’m drawn to skies and clouds and their reflections on water, but not those on such a calm surface that it becomes mirror-like. It seems to me that makes for an impression that denies the real nature of water and creates confusion. It’s water, not glass. Ripples and waves and whitewater are better. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663262907383-Z9J0WGY4E1J63W3UL0NI/IMG_1020.jpg Home - Grinnell Field Fallow farm fields’ grasses and weeds are most vivid in the fall. The greens and golds go on and on. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663013385688-S6IXWMFHW4USMAQGIAG2/IMG_1022.jpeg Home - Gilbert’s Outbuildings My cousin Gilbert lived to be 100 on this farm where my Grandmother was born. Gilbert built the barn and never replaced the windmill blades after a storm ripped them away. The farmhouse is in disrepair now. I spent so much time here when I was young. Gilbert made intricate black walnut toys from trees felled on the property; he was a very capable farmer and a smart man. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663080290870-WPUOYYY7B2IRGG5LBXQV/IMG_0781.jpg Home - Lighthouse Point, Eleuthera One of the most untouched and beautiful places on Eleuthera, now being developed by Disney for a cruise port and artificial settlement. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663263001764-XBAFXLB5H0JNG15IH3IK/IMG_0003.jpg Home - Upper Peninsula Lake Michigan feels like an ocean and the protected dunes of its northernmost shore are much like those on Cape Cod. It’s remote and pristine, readily lending itself to painting. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663263046356-MUJCWXLEBIWJG36QU3IG/IMG_1931.jpg Home - Wheelbarrows at Cothay Manor We arrived at Cothay Manor in Somerset just a bit too late to really explore the garden. I think it was closed. But we did look over a stone wall into the gardener’s shed and see these wheelbarrows. The visit was worth it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663263111650-98TJRL1JLRIJ1829GJ17/IMG_2241.jpg Home - Hay and Snow in Wisconsin I guess this hay was still good for livestock. It wasn’t wrapped, but this farmer surely knew what he was doing. And this isn’t the first painting of hay stacked in the snow. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663263155557-BAO61CTDOG1TC134HFL1/IMG_0477.jpg Home - Ancient White Park Family in Decorah I spent a day in Iowa at the Seed Savers’ Exchange with this herd. They have quite a history, being one of the five ancient breeds found in Britain. During World War II, some of these cattle were brought to America to preserve the breed in the face of the the blitzkreig threat. To be true to their breed, the must have black nose, ears and knees. Some have reddish brown “trim” instead. Such fun cows to paint and very easy to spend time with. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663263193859-E5VFZHQUVADJA26E8XVZ/IMG_4374.jpg Home - White Park Calf White cows are the best to paint. They reflect the colors of the grass, sky, sunlight and shadows. Angus look like two-dimensional cut-outs by comparison. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663013394796-4S4JBH895948I2QSIK7S/IMG_6515.jpeg Home - Lincoln’s Beach This beach is just next to Lighthouse Point and Lincoln kayaked here when he was at The Island School. Think he spent two days here by himself. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663263282385-8LUTJ6GS3AKIU0MCAXH0/image0.jpg Home - Sweetpeas at Tintinhull These are Penelope Hobhouse’s sweetpeas. The variety of this flower’s colors and it’s very sweet fragrance make it one of my very favorites. That they require staking is no matter. I love the iron rail fences enclosing English gardens. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663013395241-C829WJD74ZYQ7J5OGRUS/IMG_6625.jpeg Home - Folly at West Wycombe That the British went to the trouble and expense of building these elaborate neo-classical follies in the 18th century is just remarkable to me. I wish I could paint more of them. They’re to be found in most of the great landscape gardens in England and someone should paint each and every one. Maybe Stourhead’s are the best, or Rousham’s, or Stowe’s, or Castle Howard’s … I can’t decide, but they’re all fantastic. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663263446449-8AGWGE55STUDMZ5KUZMW/IMG_5066.jpg Home - Weaver’s Farm before a Storm I often walked along the railroad tracks to this farm. Mrs Weaver was from a Norwegian Iowan family and she was a great baker. She and my grandmother were always very competitive with their raisin cream pies. She’d usually give me a popsickle or a slice of pie and then I’d walk the tracks back to my Aunt Genevieve’s farm, collecting railroad spikes along the way to spray paint silver, copper and gold in a chicken coop we converted into a “studio.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663263510100-1G08EDRJ8FKEYJSWMG6F/IMG_4111.jpg Home - Water Pump at Laurel Cemetery I played at this pump every time we went to the cemetery, and we filled buckets to water the peony and rose bushes at all our relatives’ graves. We all had great fun at the cemetery, remembering eccentric family members, philandering scoundrels, the sweetest aunt, the meanest farmhand, the fellow who always just sat on a stool behind the kitchen door, and most remarkable of all, a great great uncle who died laughing, was laid out in his coffin on the dining room table and the next morning found in the corner, finally truly departed. One of the largest wind farms in the country now surrounds the cemetery. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663263601096-N2GJO6DCWQZ5KIHND13H/IMG_5111.jpg Home - An Old Cherry This tree was planted around 1935 in Pleasant Valley, New Jersey. It’s lost major branches and all the spruces which surrounded and sheltered it. Fortunately, several generations have valued it and tended to it with the loving care I’ve seen Japanese gardeners use to support treasured trees. It seems to me that this strong old cherry is now essentially a Japanese resident of the valley, quietly standing still in gnarled elegance. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663013396013-PMVOOF9EYW4JZBLRZA9L/IMG_6855.jpeg Home - Angus at Sunset The late evening sun on the far hills in Far Hills drew me to this scene. But then I couldn’t resist the mauves of the Joe Pye weed and these Angus enjoying a grassy supper. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62f124a149c48e19f0f01008/1663263643386-7YMQTYL9N9R2OV9JRVDS/IMG_5140.jpg Home - Evening Snow in Arkansas Doesn’t happen often …