Next came the pastry blender and the rolling pin. A rolling pin is taperred at the ends and devilish to foreshorten, but it, along with the pan and the tablecloth establish the ground plane.

Would you like to have a Christmas card with an image and the recipe? Use contact to message me, please..

I added some of the utensils for making Christmas Cookies to  the table. My children's favorite Christmas cookies are Pineapple Diamonds.

After he began to work from home, he thought it safe to come inside. One day he brought two pineapples. Another day, a poinsettia. Christmas music was playing. He looked at the largest painting and said, this is a pandemic painting, all the chairs are empty. "Yes," I said, "all the chairs are empty, and that will be our Christmas this year."

Eager to get to work, I stretched a group of large canvases.

I used the dining room table for a setup. I did not think about the chairs. At first, I just shoved them out of the way. My oldest son was leaving groceries on the porch. It was lonely, but I was getting a lot done.

I realized after working awhile, that all the chairs were empty, and I felt lonely because in a normal Holiday season, they would be full. I felt sad and I realized I was making a “pandemic” painting.

Later my son noticing the Clorox wipes in the painting, said, “we’ll always know when this was made.”

Last winter, a little before Christmas, with lockdown in full force, I decided to move my studio downstairs. I was having difficulty with the stairs and downstairs is warmer. Shutting off upstairs would save heat. My family helped roll up the rugs, move painting tables and easels, and we set up the studio in the kitchen and dining room. The Pandemic meant no visitors would come. I could let the house and studio turn into as big a mess as I wanted.

I tend to like accidental still lives, and one was already “setup” on the dining room table.

It takes me about a year to decide whether a painting is finished, and to determine if it is something I want to exhibit. Now I am looking critically at my Christmas Pandemic Paintings from last year.

This still life, done in 1963, recently found, cleaned, and newly framed has never been exhibited. A guitar, chair, green lantern and on the left a Cambell's soup can exist in a complicated composition and is a tribute to the 60's

 

This limited palette still life shows camping supplies: coffee pot, frying pan and a lantern, also used in "Still Life with Guitar and Chair." The palette is subdued, but warm and cool contrasts create dimension.

This painting of objects on a windowsill examines the fading light of a winter day.

A still life from 1966 with "non precious," everyday objects.

Two strong diagonals set up a deep space. The forward movement is stopped by the planes of the drapery in front.

A still Life seen dramatically from above, (notice the white square set diagonally). Very abstract, yet painted from perception.

 

As in the version before it, a strong perspective is set up and mitigated in the blocking foreground shapes. The fruit in the middle is a "knot" that ties the painting together.

"The Garden of Eden" is a gourmet grocery in New York City. Their blue shopping bag is surrounded by good things to eat. Space flows from the studio still life to the urban landscape outside and back again, tied together by repeated colors and shapes, and coming to rest in the cup on the chair. This is an important, large painting. It can be delivered to addresses in the Chicago area.

Here, inside and outside are combined, and a mirror records the impression, including the painter and the larger space of the room..

The Brown of winter has given way to a pervading blue, and warm touches float in it.

This abstract painting of a washstand with blue bowl, white pitcher and red towel was painted in Spain in 1962. My face is reflected in the mirror.This can be picked up in Sharon with no shipping charges, or delivered to addresses in the Chicago area..