Impossibility

Impossibility
is this week's theme at Illustration Friday. My work almost never deals with things that are impossible...I so deeply love the real and physical world that I rarely feel the need to go beyond its inexhaustible inspiration. Nonetheless, I am enjoying looking at other people's flights of fancy!

The tie-in with this week's IF theme is that it is an impossibility to make a dog pose for you for more than thirty seconds at a time! I had to take about 30 photos of this good-natured corgi, only one or two of which worked as painting reference. Thank heavens for digital. (The island referred to in the painting's title is, of course, Monhegan Island: how I love that place!)

Island Dog, oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches, 2008

Fleeting

Fleeting
is the theme this week at Illustration Friday. Thought I'd put a toe back into those waters. It's been a busy and difficult winter. Fortunately time is fleeting for both the good times and the bad (although the tough times sure feel longer don't they?)

The woman holding the little girl in the this picture was actually pregnant at the time, and now both her children are past the toddler phase. Talk about fleeting! This painting is currently hanging in the biggest one-person show I have ever had: 50 paintings! Not quite a retrospective, but something approaching it, for my Genre of Inclusion project. If you want more info on the show, which is up thru the 22 of April, click here.


In the Gallery, 16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas, 2004

Flawed

FLAWED
is this week's theme over at Illustration Friday (yeah it is indeed Thursday, I am just squeaking in under the wire here!) This is a painting I did last spring, and it was the card image for my one person show at Sherry French Gallery in June. I remember the canvas was still wet when I photographed it. Down to the wire is my usual state I am afraid!

While painting the set up I became entranced with the big tear in the broad hydrangea leaf. Which I guess qualifies it for this week's theme of flawed.

Blue Hydrangea and Bagels, oil on canvas, 24 x 18 inches, 2008, Nancy Bea Miller

SUGARY
was last week's theme over at Illustration Friday. Unfortunately, I did not realize it was last week's theme till after I posted this and entered my link in the IF linkslist. Sorry! Since my entry cannot be retracted I'll just carry on as though nothing was wrong. ;-)

I certainly have an embarrassment of riches to choose from in the sugary images department! I painted this little piece in August...I'd always wanted to paint a broken piece of pastry or bread but have always had some inexplicable block. I know this sounds weird. Why do we have these odd internal harnesses? Anyway, my son Henry (who has autism and mental retardation) got into my studio and got into my still life set-ups (he likes to eat the pastries and candy, even if they are stale.) This doughnut fell to the floor during the raid and broke beautifully in half, so, despite the wreckage I ended up feeling very grateful to him! It was as though I had finally gotten permission to paint a piece of broken pastry, because after all, it would have been a shame to let it go to waste!

Not sure what all that stems from, and probably best not to inquire too deeply. But anyway, here is my late, sugary, post!

Broken, oil on canvas laid to wood, 5 x 7 inches

ISLAND
is this week's theme at Illustration Friday. I am just back from a week of painting on Monhegan Island in Maine, so I have a lot of paintings to choose from. I painted this sitting on the highest point of Monhegan (Lighthouse Hill) looking over towards Manana, a small uninhabited island which helps form Monhegan's harbor. It seemed to be hunkering down comfortably, like an animal enjoying the brilliant sunlight.

Landscape is a medium for ideas...the various details in a landscape painting mean nothing to us if they do not express some mood of nature felt by the artist.
~Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

Little Manana, oil on canvas, 5 x 7 inches, 2008

BABY
is the theme at Illustration Friday this week. What fun, I love painting babies! I was one of those little maternal girls with a family of dolls I lovingly tended, and I still like to draw babies whenever I get the chance. Very rarely does anyone ever commission a painting of a baby however...I guess because they change so dramatically in such a short span of time. Often there is only a faint resemblance between an adult's face and his or her baby face, but there is usually some likeness between a child's face and an adult's. Personally I love the face morph time. I love doing teenage portraits as well, again, a time period only rarely commissioned.

Well whatever, this challenge has made me realize that I have only ever painted five or six portraits of babies (!) and I'd like to do more. So maybe I'll just do some for fun. If you live near me (Philadelphia) and have a cute baby, send me an email!

I was shocked to realize it has been several months since I last participated in IF! I have been busy preparing for my first one person show in New York; it's called Still Moments and I just delivered all the paintings on Tuesday. Now comes the nerve-wracking period before the opening, where I worry about the work and its presentation even though at this point there is little to do except try and find a nice dress for the reception. If you're in Chelsea on June 7th, please stop in Sherry French Gallery and say Hi! And if you say Hi Baby I'll know you got there from IF ;->

Nya and Katina, oil on canvas, 28 x 24 inches

CHOOSING
is the theme this week at Illustration Friday. I am using a painting I did several years ago...but it was a big leap forward for me at the time. Taken me quite a long time to catch back up with myself, if you know what I mean? Anyway, it's about having to choose. Taking one thing, then looking again at what you left behind and thinking "Hmmm..." Concept embodied by a small boy eating cupcakes!

Desire, oil on wood, 16 x 8 inches

P.S. Penelope may be too modest to mention her interview in the latest issue of Artful Blogging magazine. I was thrilled to be one of several artists whose images were used as visuals for the article. For more about this, see here!