Lake Windwing

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Ridgefield Connecticut, Lake Windwing, one of a chain of ponds, of which Bennett's Pond is included. Late November and all the trees are bare now, the hills covered with russett-colored fallen leaves.

- Nancy Boudreau

This painting is about 5" x 7" acrylic on gessoed mat board, protected in a cream-colored mat. As with all these little studies, the text above is handwritten on the back of the painting, which is also signed and dated.

Bittersweet Crown

This is a painting of a windbreak along one of the fields of Hadlow Farm in Sherman Connecticut, part of the Naromi Land Trust. The break is crowned by a beautiful invader, a heavy growth of bittersweet, a glorious blaze of orange, topping the grey and brown tangle of bare branches. The trees carry their burden like a talent, an unbidden asset that they're obliged to display. It weighs them down, but makes them beautiful.

"Just Looking: Essays on Art" by John Updike, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1989 has insightful and entertaining writing about a wide variety of painters and sculptors. The last essay in the book "Writers and Artists" is especially meaningful, today. Prior to the existence of the internet and blogging artists, the best of us were adept at expressing ourselves with pen and paper, lines on a page that formed either letters or symbols conveying meaning. Today, the internet is simply a public space in which to busque, a kiosk for posting. The best of us are still succeeding because of an ability to convey meaning to a broad audience, through written word and visual image. - Nancy Boudreau

Friends and patrons - you can help, by passing this website on to others that might enjoy the art and thoughts expressed here. Improving "traffic" on the blog, leaving comments, starting dialogue is valuable food for thought, fueling the development of ideas. Your input, is as they used to say, "as good as gold" and an essential part of the artistic process.

This painting is about 5" x 7" acrylic on gessoed mat board, protected in a cream-colored mat. As with all these little studies, the text above is handwritten on the back of the painting, which is also signed and dated.

Shadows at Noon

Back to the Pootatuck River running under the bridge on Church Hill Road in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. It is noon, and in mid-November the low angle of the sun causes the trees to cast long shadows over the water. Do you see the little triangular rock, the one that appeared in two earlier studies? Here it is in a larger context, set against the forces of two opposing diagonals: the long shadows laying against the rush of white water, both bearing down, down, down. How heroic this common little rock seems, holding it's own against relentless forces. We are like the little rock, one among billions, difficult to discern from one another when seen in the larger context. We are the heroes of our own stories.
- Nancy Boudreau

This painting is about 5" x 7" acrylic on gessoed mat board, protected in a cream-colored mat. As with all these little studies, the text above is handwritten on the back of the painting, which is also signed and dated.

Reflections of Two Trunks

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The reflections of two tree trunks dancing on the surface of Quaker Brook in Patterson, New York at the Walter G. Merritt Park in November. How strange the shapes, Dali-esque they are.
- Nancy Boudreau

This painting is about 5" x 7" acrylic on gessoed mat board, protected in a cream-colored mat. As with all these little studies, the text above is handwritten on the back of the painting, which is also signed and dated.

Sky and Trees Before Daybreak

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A November morning in the wooded hills of western Connecticut, just before sunrise, the sky is an incandescent blue decorated with a black lace of tree limbs, branches and twigs. It's only a week since the last leaves fell and will be six months more before new leaves appear. The season of green is over. Maples, oaks and locust have begun their long sleep.
- Nancy Boudreau

This painting is about 5" x 7" acrylic on gessoed mat board, protected in a cream-colored mat. As with all these little studies, the text above is handwritten on the back of the painting, which is also signed and dated.

Late Afternoon in November

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Late afternoon in November, hiking through Walter G. Merritt Park in Patterson, New York. Here on the east facing hillside everything is in shadow, bathed in a dim blue light. As the light wanes, the damp chill increases. The cold seeps inward. Hills in the distance reflect the low angled sun and I am reminded of how dependent we are on this single source of heat and light. How cold would a sunless world be?

I've included a photo of the painting in the studio this morning, so that you can see it in situ. Sunflowers from a friend and an earlier painting brighten my working space. Brushes and computer, a french easel with it's legs tucked up out of the way, these are my tools. Music is my studio companion, a mix provided by Pandora Radio and gotradio.com.
- Nancy Boudreau

This painting is about 5" x 7" acrylic on gessoed mat board, protected in a cream-colored mat. As with all these little studies, the text above is handwritten on the back of the painting, which is also signed and dated.

Water Under the Bridge study 2

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Reflections are more than illusion. Nearby objects color our lives, influence our existence whether we notice it or not, whether we wish for it or not.

This painting is another view of the Pootatuck River, colored by autumn foliage and nearby buildings housing Chao restaurant and Mocha coffeehouse, at the cozy heart of Sandy Hook, Connecticut. On Memorial Day, this is the sight of The Great Pootatuck Duck Race, not to be missed!

- Nancy Boudreau

Today's painting is about 5" x 7" acrylic on gessoed mat board, protected in a cream-colored mat. As with all these little studies, the text above is handwritten on the back of the painting, which is also signed and dated.

Water Under the Bridge Study 1

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Painting reflections as they're seen in the surface of moving water, is the act of creating a visual metaphor with layers and layers and layers of significance. This painting is a literal rendering of a photograph of my own shadow on the Pootatuck River, which qualifies the painting as being Realistic. If a viewer didn't know this, they might look at the painting and think it was some kind of an Abstract. Not trying to fool the eye or be clever, I'm simply fascinated in the many ways that we take innumerable bits of information on canvas, in our relationships, in the way we exist on world wide web, to build recognizable identities. Painting water has got to be one of the most apt ways of expressing this. As I've said before, and you may quote me, "There is nothing so fulfilling as expressing oneself well."

Having been a blogging artist for more than two years now, the whole process have become very integrated, a work of art in itself and quite an education. The creative workflow is generally: gather photo "sketches", conceive a project, paint while scribbling down notes, record the art digitally, write and refine the text, research facts, definitions, ideas and other's views, and then finally post the whole shebang to the blog, making sure to link other relevant websites to the text.

More time is spent on the management side of the business, promoting the blog itself through sites such as EBay, Technorati, GoogleAnalytics and Google Webmaster Tools, and the nitty-gritty of running the old fashioned brick-and-mortar studio: ordering supplies, preparing painting substrates, cutting mats, maintaining tools, packaging art, shipping, and documenting everything for posterity, provenance and perennial taxes.

And so, the innumerable bits of information, innumerable actions culminate to build an identity - an artist.

- Nancy Boudreau

After all my "blah, blah, blah" if you can still manage to share a comment, please do so! Also, it would be mightily helpful if you were to share this with others so that they too can contribute to the flow of ideas (and traffic on the website).

The above acrylic painting is about 5" x 7" done on gessoed mat board, housed in a cream-colored mat.

Study of Running Water2

Another study of running water, working from an enlarged photo, the same one used for the last study. I can get downright obsessive about copying a photo, but will that get me where I want to go? Where do I want to go? How am I going to find out where I want to go? Fumble blindly forward? Research the paths of others? And which others?

On that subject, here's a tongue-in-cheek essay by Ken Rockwell, "The Seven Levels of Artists", and more serious ruminations by emptyeasel.com. Best of all, here's a great essay written by David Byrne, published in WIRED magazine, examining the same question but from the view of a musician, "David Byrne's Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists."
- Nancy Boudreau

This painting is approximately 5" x 7" acrylic painting on gessoed matboard, in an 8" x 10" cream-colored mat, unframed, shipped to you directly by the artist. The title and prose that appear above are handwritten on the back of the painting. The painting is also signed and dated on the back.