Beyond Roxbury Falls

•

The Shepaug River beyond Roxbury Falls relaxes into quiet pools, where fish swim peacefully. The currents deliver not only well aerated water, clean and clear, but occasional tasty morsels, so the fish have no need to search for food. It seems there couldn't be a better place for a trout.
- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back

Fish Below the Falls

•

This past Memorial Day the quiet currents and eddies below Roxbury Falls were full of fish. The sandy bottom of this pool was almost obscured, there were so many of them. Though this painting looks like an abstract, it was painted from a photograph and is a fairly true rendering. To me that is the beauty of light on water: beauty that is not dependent on recognizable form to deliver satisfaction. The halfway point between abstraction and literal imagery often occurs in the play of light passing through and being divided by water or glass.
- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back

Shepaug River

•

Just below Roxbury Falls, the Shepaug River runs fresh and clear. This year the eddies are full of fish, beautiful schools of them. Could they be trout? Were they stocked? In any case, they're thriving in the well aerated, cool water.
- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back

Peony Rhododendron Azalea

•

Perennials of May, in shades of red, not much scent, but lots of color.
- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back

Wild Columbine

•
This is one of the rewards of paddling a kayak. The red of wild columbine, a contrast to lush greens of moss and fern, growing on rock walls lining the Housatonic River between Falls Bridge and Lovers Leap. The gardens of this shadowy grotto can only be seen from the water, as the hiking trails are far above in drier woods.
- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back

Falls Bridge

•

Paddling the kayak downstream from Addis Park in New Milford, the Housatonic River soon flows under Falls Bridge. Water levels today are higher and what were once falls are now a navigable turbulence. The bridge and trails that cross it, are part of Lover's Leap State Park. The cliffs through which the river flows show dynamic movement. Strata of sedimentary rock stand nearly on end, and towering layers overhang the water. Could this have been the work of glaciers? Today, the rock walls are wet, streams trickle feeding dense beds of moss, fern and wild columbine.

- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back

Nesting Swan

•

Patience: the word that came to mind when I first noticed this swan sitting so calmly on her nest. She was undisturbed by my presence in the kayak, eight feet away. The reed nest, on a little island in the middle of the Still River had a full 360˚ view, perfect for dozing in the sun while keeping a watchful eye open. Her mate was also unconcerned about me being there, in no rush to shoo me away, all of us enjoying a grand spring morning.

- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back

Still River

•

The quiet backwaters of the Still River are perfect for kayaking. Paddling is easy and there is much for watchful eyes to see. In these warm shallows, carp sunbathe and new grass grows atop muddy banks, a perfect muskrat territory. Orioles with throaty song fly above in the highest branches, defending their pendant nests of grass. They'll soon be gone, disappearing in June with their new brood. Scents of flowering honeysuckle and Autumn Olive come and go with the breeze. I remember last year, watching two little Green Herons dancing up and down a mudflat. It took no words to tell me that they were enjoying themselves immensely. I must have spent three quarters of an hour watching them, just feet away, from the kayak. This is the Still River.
- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back

White Road

•

This painting shows a more typical Connecticut sky, somewhat gray, clouds, the blue just barely peeping through. Lush meadows of vibrant green spangled with dandelions are also typical, thanks to reliable rain and cool evenings from May through September. This is the growing season, the five months that plants have to complete their life cycles.
- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back

Young Beech

•

Mid-May and the Connecticut woodlands are finally greening. The smooth light-gray bark and bright green foliage of young beeches stand out against the dark background of hemlocks and rich humus.
- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back

Housatonic River from Falls Bridge

•
Standing on Falls Bridge looking south, the Housatonic River flows through a narrow gorge down past Lover's Leap. Now, in mid-May, most of the trees have leaves again, some still not fully formed. The vast array of greens tinted with yellow and ochre are a shocking change from the previous six months barren hillsides of russet, sienna and gray. There is a softness to the landscape now. My eyes caress the hillsides like a giant's hand, brushing the contours. The trees are like moss, soft, green, pliant, and rain thirsty.
- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back

From Lover's Leap

•

This is a painting from the top of Lover's Leap in New Milford, Connecticut, a grand view of the Housatonic River. Above this point, the Still River joins the Housatonic and together they flow through an impressive crevasse, past the foot of this cliff, a favorite destination for hikers.

- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back

Ice Plant

•
This painting is a close-up of ice plant growing on a Sonoma County Beach. Originally from South Africa, ice plant was introduced to California as an ornamental ground cover used to control erosion and is now considered an invasive species. I remember as a child, the hillside behind our house which was covered with ice plant. How fun it was to climb the hill, exploring the dense mat of vegetation. How strange the leaves, deep green, firm, fleshy three-sided. I remember how they would snap when broken, a clear wet gelatin inside. Then there were the pink and yellow flowers of which there could never be enough. Climbing, picking, digging, there were also dark excitements to exploration; a nest of biting ants which sent a brother howling to his mother, a black and red caterpillar as large as my hand, and bones. Oh the bones. They were the best discovery! Dinosaurs were they? Or dog bones? Or scariest of scary possibilities… people bones!! Part of me will always be that happy, imaginative child exploring in the ice plant.
- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back

Sonoma Shore

•
With your back to the beach, gazing across the sandy plains, ice plant and beach grasses thrive where nothing else will, on the Sonoma shore. Watered by ocean fog, direct sunlight from dawn to dusk, this is a unique environment that most people see as parking space rather than as wild, open space.
- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back

Sonoma Boardwalk

•
While in California this past March, I stopped by one of the Sonoma Coast State Parks, a beach just north of Petaluma. It reminded me of beaches on the east coast, where dunes had to be crossed before descending a grassy bluff to the shore. Here, an abandoned boardwalk was slowly being consumed by the dunes. Clumps of tall grasses dotted the sandy plain. Ice plant spread over open shadowless areas. Warm sun, cool salty air, the sound of wind in the grass and the rhythmic sigh of waves rushing up the beach.
- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back

Happy Cosmos

•

Out of nothing come happy colors and energetic strokes.

- Nancy Boudreau

Some Guy

Some guy, my friend Nick - a masterful host, soup maker extraordinaire and proprietor of Rapscallion Records. Thanks for the wonderful Sunday afternoon, the great meal, the great company and for patiently sitting for this portrait.

- Nancy Boudreau

Mr. Fur

In memory of one awesome cat, much missed by his people.

- Nancy Boudreau

Painting Before Dawn

•

It's dark, the house is cold, I'm tired. I have no subject matter of interest, only the brushes and colors laying there, waiting to be played with. Inside the white 5" x 7" canvas there are no rules, no limits. This is how my day starts. Three hours later, the reward: a bit of organized color, some form to the chaos, a visual treat baked and delivered in the early hours for my friends to enjoy with their morning coffee. Speaking of which, I think I'll have a cup, thanks. Ahhhhh, that's better. Now I can really go to work.
- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back

Andromeda

click here to watch the auction

By our front doorstep, a shrub with rhododendron-like leaves, sports cascades of white bell-shaped flowers. Andromeda is one of the first plants to flower in this Connecticut garden, along with daffodils, periwinkle, violets, and bleeding heart. And of course, dandelions.
- Nancy Boudreau

acrylic painting on gessoed mat board, approximately 5" x 7"
signed, dated and comments on the back
for sale directly from the artist
finished art will be shipped in a cream-colored 8" x 10" mat

Bidding starts Thursday May 1st at 8pm EST

Bidding ends Thursday May 8th at 8pm EST