March Madness Project, "Nebraska: a view from a plane" & Raindrops Sneak Peek

Nebraska 2011

 I spent a lot of time on the road and in the air in March 2011, speaking 9 times at 8 law schools in 6 states on two topics. I took paint and paper on every trip, but I admit that there were days when all I could do was turn on the tv, open a book, and fall asleep. I did post a March Madness basketball to Facebook every day, and, now that I'm home, I have a stack of paintings to finish. 

The nanoscapes calendar is odd -- I began the Nebraska painting after my trip to Creighton and U of Nebraska in October 2010. I finished it today -- the last day of March. This is the first of the landscapes-from-the-planes paintings. I researched contour plowing, and solved some mysteries that curved-furrows had always presented to a suburban native.

30 Raindrops for April

The March Madness Basketball Project was a February painting project. I finished "30 Raindrops for April" today -- the last day of March -- and I will begin posting them to Facebook tomorrow.


Sneak peek here.

New nanoscape: The Blue Silos of Iowa

The Blue Silos of Iowa

Growing up with the limited horizon of 1950s suburban shopping malls in Washington DC left me unprepared to be entranced by vast expanses of field and prairie that I have found in Minnesota since moving here in 1992. The fields are alternately flat and rolling, the sky is BIG, and the vistas are endlessly interesting and wildly different from one another.

I was similarly unprepared to have been dazzled by silos, which I saw by the dozens on the road from the Moline IL airport to Iowa City where I spoke at the University of Iowa College of Law in September 2010.

Thanks to the enthusiasm and encouragement of Employment Programs Coordinator Craig Spitzer, I looked closely at the silos and painted nanoscapes. "The Blue Silos of Iowa" is the first of three silo nanos.  It is very small (3x8 inches) and began as a sketch for the two larger works-in-progress. I painted on Arches 140# hot press paper with Daniel Smith Autograph Series 44 Kolinsky Sable brushes numbers 3,2,1, and 00.

Pass the Baton llc has taken me to many places, and I plan to continue to look closely at them for inspiration. On my easel now: "Nebraska's Contour Plowing," which jumped onto my sketch pad as I flew over Nebraska.