Paintings With Glyphs 1

Paintings With Glyphs 1

Often in my paintings I incorporate glyphs, small line-work elements.  Here are two paintings with glyphs based on actual American Indian petroglyphs spanning the continent.

Girl of the Susquehanna is a painting that occasional hangs over the fireplace at our summer cottage near the top of the Chesapeake Bay.  the Susquehanna enters the Chesapeake just a few miles away.

 


The scattered glyphs are modeled on petroglyphs from two locations on the Susquehanna River, Bald Friar, in Harford County, MD, and Safe Harbor, in Lancaster County, PA.  The Bald Friar petroglyphs were removed from the river when the Conowingo Dam was built in 1928 and are now in a museum.  The Safe Harbor petroglyphs remain in place and can be accessed by boat.  In my painting I have added color; the originals are cut into rock, not painted.

 Canyon Greeting is set across the country overlooking the Grand Canyon. 

 

The glyphs here are from the American Southwest.  Prominent is a figure popularly called Kokopelli, a hunchbacked flute player.

As I do frequently I signed these paintings with themed monograms, here mimicking the petroglyphs.


 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Alaina's Book of Animals," Another Homemade Book

Image
 Alaina's Book of Animals Another Handmade Book The books I have made as gifts, one-off or just a few copies range from mostly pictures to all text.  A mostly pictures one-off is a book I printed on Tyvek for Alaina's second birthday,   Alaina's Book of GrGrandad's Animals  is simply an assortment of some of my animal themed paintings with identifying labels. .  
Read more

Artists of W 18th Street: Margo Mavrantonis Johnson

Image
  Artists of W 18th Street Margo Mavrantonis Johnson Margo Mavrantonis Johnson is a W 18th St artist who is still active, although no longer living on our block.  Margo is retired from her art teaching career but continues to paint professionally.  She paints a variety of subjects, but my favorites are the structures and streetscapes from her frequent European trips, especially to her second home, Greece.  We treasure her Christmas cards which depict a peripatetic snowman who has visited New Castle, Tuscany and Greece, but has yet to experience a meltdown.       Margo has a studio and gallery representation in the Opera House, 304 Delaware  Street in old New Castle, Delaware, and a web site at https://margojohnson.artspan.com/exhibits.html.  There is an extensive gallery of her work there.      
Read more

Artists of W 18th Street: John Matassa

Image
 Artists of W 18th Street John Matassa  Several years after Ralph Scharff moved from 2625 W 18th St another artist and family moved in.  John Matassa wasn't a native of the area, but paintings of the landscape and architecture of the Brandywine Valley were part of his eclectic output.  I remember John more for his drawings than his paintings. He was born and received his art education in New England, but had a career as an art teacher at Wilmington Friends School in parallel to his professional art career. We do not own any of John's art, but a portfolio of detailed Delaware steamboat paintings are posted at https://steamboats.com/museum/matassa1.html.  I have not been able to find the back story for this collection or its present location.  Several are clearly marked "Wilson Line," the Wilmington based steamship line founded in the 1880s and lasting until the 1960s.  Here is the "City of Wilmington."    Hagley Museum owns a John Matassa Draw...
Read more