RMW Ramblings

  "Queen Anne" Windows When we found our present home while house shopping in 1965, one attraction was the stained glass-bordered windows and doors in the room that is now our library.      These stained glass bordered windows were a common feature of the late 19th century architectural style that is called "Queen Anne" in the United States.  (It had very little to do with the actual architecture in Britain during the reign of Queen Anne, 1665–1714.)   I eventually made some additional stained glass windows influenced by this style.  In a posting over the Christmas season I showed you our Christmas mouse.  You will note that his door has a circular version of a Queen Anne window.  I have never actually seen a round Queen Anne window or found one on-line.    I've also used this motif in a painting,  Beth Salem, haloing my imaginary personification of our house.  Recently I bought a pendant necklace for Mary that I later re...

  Bacchant Now hanging next to Papageno is a companion piece, Bacchant.   The two paintings have different subject matter, but I painted them with the same color palette, on the same size canvas, and in the same style.      A bacchant is a server or priestess of the Bacchus, the god of wine and revelry. Our bacchant here holds part of the grape harvest.   A golden statue of Bacchus himself is in the background under the domed pavilion.My signature monogram on the lower left  echos the Greek triskelion on the lower right.

  Papageno Our Christmas paintings have come down and others have gone up on our walls  Among them is Papageno.     Mozart's Die Zauberfl öte (The Magic Flute) is my favorite opera .   Papageno, the opera's protagonist, is a bird catcher and is often costumed in feathers which I have reduced here to a feather skirt.   He has his pipes and bells which play a role in the plot.   He has entranced a pheasant here.   Mozart conducts the proceedings from a box bordering the opera house proscenium arch.  Mozart's monogram initials are on the upper right on the curtain. My monogram signature in the same style are in the lower left.  

  The New Year Emerges During a quiet spell over New Years Weekend I painted this semi-abstract picture of the emerging new year.  Her form and substance are not yet well defined; she will become clearer to us over the coming months. The painting is acrylic on canvasboard, 7 x 5 inches.  The fine lines and the signature monogram were scratched into the wet paint with a toothpick.

  Joseph's Dream The Gospel of Matthew recounts four of St. Joseph's dreams.  The New Testament echos, as it does frequently, the Old Testament, where Joseph, son of Benjamin, had prophetic dreams. Here I painted St. Joseph visited in a dream to alert him to flee with Mary and Jesus to Egypt, Joseph's Dream.    And here is my Flight Into Egypt earlier painting.        

  An Intergalactic Storm & Lear's Storm This morning's news feed brought images from NASA's Webb space telescope.  An image of the Pillars of Creation (astronomers' hyperbolic nomenclature) brought to mind one of my paintings.  Years after a flood from hurricane Isabel devastated our cottage I commemorated our recovery with this painting  of Lear chalanging the storm, "Rage, Blow, Ye Cataracts and Hurricanoes."  Shakespeare's breath, upper right, animates the faces of the storm, who in turn blast Lear and his fool.    Do you see the  faces in this intergalactic dust "storm"?  I reoriented the picture to highlight the similarity.    

  Alaina's Room  A Christmas Pop-up For Christmas 2014 I created a pop-up book, A Christmas Visit, a visit to our neighborhood and house during the Christmas season.  (I'll post more on this in the future.)  In the same spirit, this year I made a pop-up of our great-granddaughter's bedroom with an imagined Christmas tree as a Christmas gift for her. Here is Alaina's Room. Closed...     Open...