The Mystery Orchid Blooms

The most recent of my orchids to put out a flowering spike, which I'd been referring to as the "mystery orchid," finally opened! It has very curious flowers, the sepals and laterals petals are a greenish yellow speckled with red-purplish brown spots. The labellum is creamy white, also speckled, sporting the classic mimic bee to attract pollinators.

I wonder what its parentage could be? Odontoglossum seems the most likely, at least from the flower's shape and markings, although it could be a hybrid with perhaps Oncidium. Whatever the hybrid or species may be, I am having a good time sketching it with an eye to doing a finished work later on.

Diane Tesler Workshop

Diane corrects proportions on a student's painting.

Recently I had the privilege of spending a long weekend focused on art. On Saturday I had signed up for Brookside Gardens' colored pencil class. Much as I would have liked to, I was not able to be at Diane Tesler's workshop at VECCA on the first day. I joined the group for the other two days and had an epiphany.

Over the years, other artists have recommended Diane Tesler as a truly accomplished artist and teacher, but I had not had the opportunity to take one of her workshops before. She still teaches classes at the Art League School at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, though she now lives full-time in Kewanna, Indiana. This weekend was my first chance to work with her, and so conveniently close to my new home.

Diane and students at 7 East Gallery VECCA space.

This workshop has been held for the past 27 years in various locations around Woodstock, VA; some of the students have attended regularly since then. VECCA's 7 East Gallery space has been used for the past 8 years or so. There were 14 of us participating, working mostly in oils, but also in pastel, and space in the gallery was tight; two back rooms absorbed the overflow.

Betty Weathers concentrating on her painting.

Elaine Boomer with her lovely still life.

Diane travels with wonderful props she has collected over the years. She comes in the day before to set up the still lives that the students will work from and the set-ups all seem to evoke something beyond mere objects piled up together... all of her assemblages seem to imply a story, a mood, or theme. Some students prefer to bring in photos of what they want to work on; the workshop format allows for a loose structure.

Donna Patton working on her wine festival still life.

Jane McElvany's fabulous crab feast

 By the time I joined the group on Sunday morning, most of the others were far along on their paintings, and I could see from their work that they were all experienced, talented artists. Some of the still life set-ups were quite elaborate and would take a lot of work to finish. Some artists were already working on a second painting of the several canvases they had brought.

There was only one set-up that had had no takers--a pair of old, weather-beaten work boots on a paint-stained cardboard backdrop sitting in a corner of the last room. Not a very appealing subject, but this was the only one available for me to paint. There was nothing to do but embrace the challenge and try to have fun with it, to love the subject as a mother loves her ugly child.

I was going to sketch directly on my small canvas panel, but Diane instructed me to sketch it on paper first, and, of course, she was right--this saves a lot of wasted effort. I borrowed some sketch paper from another artist, and saw right away that my panel was too small for what I had drawn. But I hadn't brought anything else larger, so I was stuck with either having to drive home to bring another panel, or trying to find a place nearby where I could buy a larger canvas (good luck with that on a Sunday morning!). Providentially, another artist, Betty, offered me one of the extra canvases she had brought along--she had one that was just the right size--but it was toned with a deep brick-red gesso! (I prefer neutral toning like cool or warm gray, Burnt Sienna at most). We negotiated a price.

Putting the first strokes on that dark red background was intimidating. What was there to be afraid of? Nobody here was going to beat me or laugh at me if my painting didn't happen to turn out well. As the day wore on, the bright sun coming through the window behind my canvas didn't exactly help, but I slogged on, enjoying the conversations of my fellow artists.

Diane made her rounds, offering helpful suggestions and comments to each student, sitting down at an easel here and there to demonstrate, or make a correction if the student asked. After lunch break, she asked us to bring our paintings over to the main room for a critique.

Suzanne Arthur 's ironing board painting

The crits were thoughtful as well as constructive--Diane found something noteworthy in each piece and commented on aspects of mood and feeling that would enhance each painting, pointing out problems with composition, or areas that could be confusing or mislead the eye. Every student took away something of value, not just about their own painting, but in viewing the others' work we were training our eyes to see what worked and what didn't, and apply those lessons to our own work as well.

Lewis Anderson's pastel of peppers with pot & vase.

Workshop organizer Barbara Randel had made reservations for dinner for our group at Sal's Italian Bistro in nearby Edinburg on the weekend's two evenings--an opportunity to get to know each other better. Dinner at Sal's on Sunday evening was great fun--we had the place pretty much to ourselves (I can't speak about Saturday night) and that was a good thing--I was afraid we'd drive our waitress nuts, but she took it in stride.

I'd arranged for a day off on Monday so I could continue painting the next day. Monday was cloudy and the lack of direct sun worked for me. On the second day I managed to see more and get down the details of the shapes better.  The longer I looked at those boots, the more Attitude they seemed to have. Something about the way the empty boots stood there suggested the classic contraposto stance, as if the wearer had stood in such a pose habitually for so long, that the boots had frozen in that stance. Now that I could see the attitude, the painting became much more fun. Or was it that had begun to identify and project my own personality into the boots? Whatever it was, I felt myself becoming emboldened by this realization, and confident enough to add bits of cadmium red light straight from the tube into the reflected lights, and leave a few areas of the dark red background showing through in places. Diane reminded me to put in the shadows of the shoelaces for a final touch.

The result is so striking, all I can say is I've never done a painting like this before--I'm really pleased with it. I would never have thought of this on my own. Thank you, Diane, for being such an inspiration! I am really looking forward to the next workshop in the fall.

The Painter's Boots, 20" x 16" oil.

Winter Blooms and Sketches

Winter blooms.

Miltassia hybrid "Scent of a Woman."

My orchids really seem to like our new master bath--they have been putting on a wonderful display this winter. Above is a photo of one of the plant boxes surrounding the bathtub, and below a detail of the current blossoms--a pink Miltassia hybrid named "Scent of a Woman." I bought this orchid at a clearance sale for $5--the plant looked as if it might not make it, but I decided to take a chance on it anyway. A little TLC and not only did it bounce back, it has blossomed faithfully every winter since I bought it. This flowering spike is the largest it has produced to date, with more than 22 individual flowers.

Graphite sketch of Brassidia hybrid orchid.

The sketch above is of one of my "mystery orchids" bought at a roadside stand in Florida three years ago. This is the one that blossomed on Christmas Eve (recorded in photos that were posted here in December) that I believe may be a Brassidia hybrid (a three-way hybrid of Brassia, Miltonia and Oncidium). I plan to turn this sketch into a watercolor illustration later on. 

Below is another quick sketch done last night. My camera is currently undergoing repairs, so I need to sketch this orchid to record the development of its large and fascinating flower spike. What will the flowers turn out to be like and what colors? From the structure of the emerging buds--very similar to the Miltassia--I'm guessing it may be another Oncidium-Miltonia hybrid, but who knows? This is part of the fun.

Mystery orchid #2

Painting Practice and 7 East Gallery Reception

Dendrobium Orchid practice painting

Yesterday in class we continued to work on various watercolor techniques we can apply to our paintings. One interesting one I tried out here was to use colored pencil to shade the veins in on the petals and sepals and include a subtle touch of yellow-green at the tips of the sepals. This is done before the watercolor wash is applied and allows one to add detail that would be difficult to put in with a brush. I still have a ways to go rendering the flower color accurately, and will practice more before starting on the final painting next week.

Catching up with my other art activities, last Sunday was the opening reception at for my featured artist show "Life Impressions" at 7 East Gallery in Woodstock, VA. Snow flurries had been forecast for the morning, and sure enough, dry flakes were blowing about when I got up. Checking the weather report on-line, there was no accumulation expected and the snow was supposed to clear by afternoon, so I went ahead with my preparations for the refreshments. I was bringing two more paintings to add to the show; at the gallery's request we would display those on easels set about the floor.

Herb and I headed out a little past noon to be there at one o'clock to set things up, driving through more thick flurries, but these stopped before we reached the town of Woodstock and the sun actually came out. I had a lovely table set up but only a few artist members of the gallery came, and our son David and his girlfriend. My public may have been small compared to other shows, but as Spencer Tracy would have said in character, "what there was, was cherce".

Me in front of 7 East Gallery (photo by David)

Inside the gallery (photo by Herb)

Featured Artist at 7 East Gallery

After the Blizzard, oils on panel, 11" x 14."

Next week my art will be having its first exposure in the Shenandoah Valley at VECCA's (Valley Educational Center for the Creative Arts) 7 East Gallery , 123 S. Main Street in Woodstock, VA. I'm honored to be the Featured Artist for the month of February.  And that is a nice way to celebrate the beginning of this blog's fifth year.

I thought this painting of the winter of 2010 blizzard would be appropriate for the invitation. We've been extraordinarily lucky these last couple of winters have not been severe. This winter has been quite civilized so far... cold enough to let us know it's here, a few inches of snow now and then, but nothing epic like the winter of 2010 with its record-setting back-to-back blizzards. How we'll fare during the rest of the winter in the Year of the Snake remains to be seen.

If you get a chance, please join us for some refreshments at the opening reception next Sunday, Feb. 3 from 2-4 PM at 7 East Gallery in Woodstock, VA--"the other Woodstock," the townspeople like to say.

Winter Break

 

Herb looks over the Shenandoah Valley

Last Sunday was a rare, near-record warm winter day--almost 70 degrees! Such weather was too good to waste, so Herb and I drove up to Skyline Drive for the afternoon. We parked at the Dickey Ridge Visitor Center lot (the visitor center was closed) and took the Fox Hollow Trail down a hill on the east side of the mountain. At the lower part of the trail there is an old cemetery and several large rock piles that must have been part of an old homestead before this became a national park. There were only two gravestones, and it was not until we saw the names on the them that we realized that the trail had been named after the Fox family's homestead, not the animal which we see infrequently around here and our hunt country residents love to chase.

It was so warm we shed our coats and wool scarves on the trek back up the hill. There was not much in the way of wildlife to observe--a family we passed told us they'd seen some woodpeckers up the hill, but by the time we got back up they were gone. I spotted some feathers and remains of a small woodpecker on the ground--a hawk must have made a meal of one of the birds a few days before, as the feathers on the muddy ground were matted.

Low clouds washed like an ocean around the mountain tops to the east when we started our hike but by the time we returned the skies were starting to clear. We decided to drive on a bit farther and stop at a few of the overlooks nearby to prolong the outing.

It was great fun to survey our new home here in the Shenandoah Valley from above. We lingered at Signal Knob Overlook watching the play of light and shadow across the landscape as the clouds opened up here and there. The sun lit parts of the valley casting the hills in sharp relief while other parts remained in shadow; a glider soared silently near Signal Knob. I wished I'd had my kit and the time to paint this drama, but the light changed so quickly, that would have been impossible anyway. It was enough for now to be able to enjoy and photograph it, perhaps for later use.

A Christmas Orchid

Brassidium, Miltassia or Miltonidia?

One of the mystery orchids I bought at a roadside stand in Florida a couple of years ago put out another flowering shoot recently--in fact, four of my orchids have developed flowering stems this fall. One orchid actually has two flowering stems! They really seem to like the environment in our new house, perhaps because it's a bit chilly at night. That 10-degree difference between day and night-time temperatures seems to play an important part in coaxing orchids to bloom.

The first bud on this plant began to open on Christmas Eve, the second a few days later, and it looks like the third one will open in another day or two.

I've tried to identify the genus-- it's likely a hybrid of two or perhaps three different genera, but which ones? The shape of the flower appears to indicate perhaps one parent is Brassia, the spider orchid, because of the longish tepals. The bi-color hues and ornate labellum are similar to some of the Brassidiums (Brassia and Oncidium hybrids) I've seen on-line. But there are also hybrids of the Miltonia genus known as Miltassia or "Mtssa." Another of my orchids (greenhouse-bought) is labeled as "Mtdm" short of Miltonidium, presumably a hybrid of Miltonia and Oncidium.  Not being a botanist, I'll probably never be able to determine for sure, but it's fascinating to try to guess. I can't wait to see what the other mystery orchid will look like when it blooms.

Close-up of flower.

The Magic of Twinkling Lights

Driving to Front Royal in the evenings at this time of the year when the sun is setting and dusk sets in before one is halfway home, it's wonderful to see the Christmas lights and decorations spring up along the way. It never ceases to amaze me how a few strings of colored lights and decorations can transform the humblest bungalow or ramshackle old farmhouse into a shining wonderland...

This part of Virginia's countryside seems to make a tradition of lighting the seasonal gloom with a particular charm. The town of Middleburg with its store fronts all lit up becomes a story-book village during the Christmas season, and some of the old houses in Upperville look just like gingerbread cottages.

You can imagine my delight as I was driving over a hill on the other side of Upperville to come upon the sight pictured above: a house and pond with a small island outlined in lights. At first I thought it might be a creche on the island (that would have been gutsy), but upon closer inspection, like most decorations today, it's purely secular--a Santa, a sled and some reindeer. The ambiguity of the scene is still very evocative.

A few evenings ago I stopped to take this photo and found a plaque at the gate of the estate--Mulwyck it said. Over the summer and fall I've observed the little island furnished with Adirondack chairs, and now this lavish display! I wonder how the owner reaches the island--does he have a canoe or pontoon boat at the back? In any case, this one wins my best of the season award for the year.

 * * *

 We too have done our best this year to decorate the new house enough to match our neighbors' splendor. It's almost a necessity when you live where there are no streetlights. Merry Christmas, y'all!

Our house.