Above photo credit: Jaylyn McFadden
My studio is the former taproom in an 1830s brick house in rural Vermont.
But my favorite studio is under the sky where I get started on most of my paintings. The French call this en plein air, meaning in the open air. My brother gave me an old easel and it accompanies me around the back roads and hillsides near my home. In 2022 I started painting from the bed of our old pickup truck (I saw the Irish artist Elizabeth Cope doing this on the pages of Faire magazine and had to try it). I spend the winter months finishing my summer paintings, and creating dreamscapes that are composites of the places I’ve been fortunate to go. I work in slow-dry acrylics by Golden Paints and use wide hardware store brushes and Rosemary artist brushes. Just love them!
From my journal
Planting Garlic Before the Sun Goes Down
My husband came through the door about 30 minutes earlier than usual this evening. "Quick!" he said, "Let's plant the garlic before the sun goes down." I was fiddling with an image in Photoshop and the glow of my computer screen temporarily blinded...
Stage Plays, a Blanket of Autumn Leaves
An autumn bed of leaves under our maple tree reminds me of a performance of Midsummer Night's Dream that I saw in Stratford, England, when I was 19. It was the later 1980s. Life was my oyster. Before the woodland scenes the stage crew rolled out a carpet of...
Columbia Road, London, First Stop Cake Hole
Several weeks ago I arrived in London after the red eye from Boston. It was a Sunday morning, but noontime by the time I'd settled in my hotel. The bed was calling me, but not as strongly as the Sunday-only markets of London. I set out for Columbia...
Follow Along
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I send emails when the stars align (every so often).
See Original Art Here
- Flower Festival Exhibit, Artistree Gallery, Pomfret, Vermont, through August 17
- Royalton Memorial Library, South Royalton, Vermont through mid August
- Bank Street Gallery, AVA, Lebanon (New Hampshire) ongoing
- First Branch Coffee (Vermont) ongoing
- In my home studio by appointment
Where I'm Teaching...
- Fall Classes and Workshops open for registration. More details here.
