RMW Ramblings

  Cork Coasters One more re-use of the star pattern that bordered our dining room in the late 1800s, stenciled onto cork coasters.   An earlier cork coaster project, these coaster sets were stenciled with a deer head decorated for Christmas, presents for my brothers. They remember the mounted deer head in the living room that our mother decorated for the holidays, a tradition continued by my brother Anson and his wife who now own the deer head.         More recently I hand painted this set of floral-themed coasters as a present for our granddaughter-in-law who shares a birthday with me.      

The Dining Room Stencil   Here's the dining room window in the process of being converted to a display niche in 1966. When the old wallpaper was stripped we found the remains of an old stencilled border from the days this room was a kitchen, late 1800s.   Here's a detail of the stencil.  I have since used that pattern in other projects.     When we replaced the hood over our kitchen cook-top the new hood left a four inch gap over the Corian backsplash. I filled this gap with a metal-faced panel I made, stenciled with a scaled down version of the old border. A nod to the history of our house.    

  The Dining Room Niche Our brick house was built in about 1882 and soon after, frame additions were made and the original kitchen became the dining room. When we bought the house in 1965 a window which was originally on an exterior wall remained, now opening into a pantry.   We had the sash removed and the pantry side closed, retaining the casing on the dining room side, creating a niche we use for changing displays. Here's one of my Christmas paintings and a painting by Mary now in the niche.  

  Seasonal Painting Change 2 Ending the Christmas season in our dining room, Annunciato ut Pastores has come down... Arrival of the Guests has gone up... The couple have arrived at a Venice palazzo by motor launch.  What is the event?  Who are the women greeting them?  And who are the couple?

  Seasonal Painting Change 1 I frequently change the paintings we hang in the house, especially before and after the Christmas holiday season.  Today I replaced Virgin Annunciate ... With Beth Salem... The paintings, both on thin plywood panels, occupy the same frame, with the out of season painting behind the current display.  The title plaques above the paintings are also switched front to back. Virgin Annunciate shows the visit of the archangel Gabriel to tell Mary of her destiny.  His greeting, which now forms part of the Hail Mary prayer, is shown in Latin and Greek.  There are several Marian symbols including  the crushed snake, twelve stars, and rose pattern.  Here is the titular plaque with a flash forward to the Holy Family...... The frame is modified from a calendar display enclosure rescued from a clearance sale. Beth Salem is an allegorical representation of our home, a "house of peace."  The the upper of the two bands across the bott...

  Bringing Home the Christmas Tree Our First Christmas In December 1961 Mary and I had been married less than a year.  We dove into having a family Christmas before we had a family.  Here is a reconstruction of our bringing home the Christmas tree from our 2011 Christmas card.

  Alexa y Frida Today is granddaughter Alexis' birthday.   In 2017 we went with Alex to a Frida Kahlo exhibit at the [Salvador] Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL Alex had her hair up in a bun, not here usual look.  Among the many Frida Kahlo self-portraits I saw a slight resemblance. I later painted this dual portrait, copying one of Kahlo's paintings.  Here Here is an in progress photo...   Under the Frida portrait I signed the painting with a metal plaque with "AyF" and "RMW" monograms.