THE FOOD ISSUE... Mid Winter Edition

WHAT!  LOBSTER AGAIN?

Lobster
James Aponovich
oil on panel, 10" x 8"


THE ELEGANT FIRESIDE DINNER
(or if you must, brunch)

The last time we encountered lobster ( blog post #6), it was stuffed into a hot dog roll, fun and delicious but definitely not elegant. It is my opinion that lobster meat does not lend itself to diverse
 preparations, ( unlike say, chicken), although they do refer to a small lobster as a "chicken lobster." The meat tends to toughen with prolonged cooking, so if you want to avoid the 'dunk in the butter' thing, there is......


BUERRE BLANC

White butter sauce, usually made with white wine, vinegar, shallots and of course butter. Since no drink goes better with lobster than Champagne (or Prosecco) and Meyer lemons are ripening in the atrium....This just might work. So combine-

1 small glass of Champagne or Prosecco
2 Tbs. lemon juice and some zest
2 Tbs. shallot, finely diced
2 Tbs. cream
Lots of Butter


Bring some champagne, lemon juice and shallot to a simmer and reduce to not much at all. Add the cream and zest and reduce some more, then add the butter until glossy and irresistible....salt, pepper. Done!

" Lobster Fired Over Cold is some wicked good"
                         - Basil Ladd, Bucks Harbor, Maine

A Downeast expression that some call 'Lazy Man's Lobster' But it is just lobster meat taken out of the shell and finished in a saute pan with butter, enhancing the lobster taste.



HOW TO SERVE

You could serve the meat by putting it back into the lobster carcass, but I find that a bit gross
( plus you can't eat he shell), so I turn to
 Elizabeth and ask," could you bake some profiteroles?
Please?"

Lobster and Cream Puff Pastry Shells (profiteroles)


Baseball size profiteroles are perfect, but nobody minds puff pastry shells from the supermarket.

Now, put a little buerre blanc sauce into the shell, stuff as much lobster as you can, then drizzle more sauce on top, pour a glass of bubbly, sit by a roaring fire, and as they say Downeast....
"Finest Kind! "




{week 25}

Copyright 2015 James Aponovich

CASTING A LONGER SHADOW (part III)

The Sevigalla Madonna
Piero della Francesca
Urbino, Italy

For awhile it was quite fashionable while touring Tuscany to engage in cultural pursuits,judging from the lines to see Michelangelo's David ( a.k.a. Naked White Guy), I guess it's still sort of true. If you belong to a certain 'set' and are more adventurous, you embark o the"Piero Trail", seeking out frescos by Piero della Francesca, in situ. They cannot come to a museum near you, so you must go to where they were painted. After all you must do something between that last caffe doppio in the morning and your first sip of Chianti Riserva in the evening. It becomes somewhat of a life list game.......How many Piero's have you seen?

Federico da Montefeltro 
Battista Sforza
Piero della Francesca
Uffizi, Florence

As an introduction, the trail begins in Florence at the Uffizi. Federico and Battista from Urbino sit in the middle of the room, husband and wife in profile in front of an imaginary landscape. They are paintings on panel and critically many feel these are lesser works, charming, as they say. But, to me they are splendid, there is an instant clarity of form and a real sense that these figures sit in air ( sfumato). Piero manages to paint atmosphere in front, around and in back of the figures. He paints the invisible. This was a big deal at the time when the Renaissance was abandoning gothic flatness. Take a quick look around and then onto the first stop.....


AREZZO, CHURCH OF SAN FRANCESCO

Legend of the True Cross ( detail)
Piero della Francesco
Church of San Francesco, Arezzo


Leave Florence and head east on the Autostrata ( S1) and you will soon arrive at Arezzo, a gritty thug town. The city was heavily bombed by the Allies during World War II, so much of its presumed charm has been lost. Make your way to the Church of San Franceso, walk past it and try to find the          
ticket office ( Bigletteria) and hope that its open. Return to the church and you'll see the fresco cycle of The Legend of the True Cross. Don't forget your binoculars, you'll need them. O.K. Next stop.....


SAN SEPOLCRO, MUSEO CIVICO

The Resurrection
Piero della Francesca
Museo Civico, San Sepolcro

As you drive east from Arezzo, the landscape changes, more resembling northern New England. You emerge to a large plain, Anghiari is to the north and further east is Borgo San Sepolcro, the birthplace of Piero himself. Here you will see The Resurrection, a painting that Aldous Huxley
 referred to as, " The greatest picture in the World." ( I wonder what Trevor F. would think of that!).....
Onward!


MONTERCHI

Madonna del Prato
Piero della Francesca

Quick! grab a bite at a Tavola Calda, no time to sit, we still must 'do' Urbino, but first we have a pregnant Madonna to visit.
I don't know ..... you know how far Urbino is? Anyway, it's almost 'Happy Hour' back at the villa and we do have reservations for dinner at Cibreo.... well...maybe next time.
Siamo Stanchi!  ( we're tired!)

The spirit is willing
but
the flesh is weak

Madonna and Child with Four Saints
Piero della Francesca
Clark Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Don't fret! Back here in the U.S.A. you can find a handful of Piero's, Washington, D.C., New York City, Boston, and right here at nearby Williamstown, MA.  This is why we came here, to the Clark.  It is what is called an easel painting and it probably hung on a wall to the right of a window.
 How do we know?........ The angel is casting a shadow.



~~~~~~~~~~

Il Duomo and Campanile,  Florence (in progress)
James Aponovich


"This is insane, this is insane."
                                                -Tom B., appliance repairman

He might be correct. More on this later.




{week 21}
Copyright 2015 James Aponovich

Casting A Long Shadow (part II)

CASTING A LONG SHADOW

(part II)

Il Duomo ( in progress)

James Aponovich

pencil on panel, 12" x 17"

To: Aponovich 43

Re: Piano Criticism

Ref # : Blog #19

Q.  I am troubled by your last posting concerning Renzo Piano's stunning completion of the Fogg Museum at Harvard. Renzo has managed ( brilliantly) to unite the Crimson Trinity of The Busch-Reisinger and The Sackler Collections into the original (faded) Fogg to create an ethereal, unified masterpiece. I have admired his achievements at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston as well as The Pierpont Morgan here in New York. He is truly a genius of our age and he has my imprimatur.
    To my surprise, I have discovered that your work is in the collections of quite a few museums, or as you so glibly refer to them as"zoos." You are not a critic and have not had any such training. Should't you just stick to your dabbling and leave the critical analysis to professionals?           
                                                                               -Trevor F., Manhattan

A.   I seem to recall that once upon a time, many, many years ago, Apollodorus of Damascus and Hadrian had a similar conversation, it led to unpleasantries. So, all right, lets leave Renzo The Magnificent behind, but allow me one more shot. This time with a guy from The Land of the Rising Sun in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts at...

                                                     

THE STERLING and FRANCINE CLARK INSTITUTE

If you drive west from Peterborough along The Mohawk Trail ( Route 2) you will eventually come to Williamstown, Massachusetts, the home of the Clark Institute ( Museum). Again, we with with our friends, Bob and Sylvia. Williamstown seems to be a serene New England college town and was endowed with a considerable personal art collection that was amassed during the early part of the Twentieth Century by the Clark's ( Singer sewing machine fortune). 

The original building is some fifty years old and starting to show it's age ( who's not?). So the Trustees raised a whole bunch of money and commissioned the Japanese Architect Tadao Ando to transform it and thusly us. The problem is............

After you park your car, it is not evident where in the world the entrance is... maybe it's a Japanese thing. What you do see are 'art mark' walls of granite extending in various directions, although, by following one I did manage to find a bathroom. After some exploring, we finally entered the admissions building, a large airy space with glass walls that contained one desk, the admission desk and the architects gift shop. Stairs led down to 'the special exhibitions space', ubiquitous cafe and bookshop. To me I felt like I was in the basement, which I was.

BETTER LIGHT CONTROL I THOUGHT

or

MAYBE JUST AN AFTERTHOUGHT 

The Weight of Water

But, step outside to the utter tranquility. Two enormous but shallow pools reflect one another and are harmoniously set into the landscape ( Landscape Architect, Reed Hilderbrand), rounded stones cover the bottom, the sky is reflected on the surface, talk about 'in situ'! Sylvia mentioned that the people on the far side looked like figures in an architectural drawing......I replied,"Believe me, they are."

It all makes you almost forget why you are here........the art!

Coming up next week:

The Outside May Be Pretty

But

It's Whats Inside That Counts.

{week 20}

Copyright 2015 James Aponovich

CASTING A LONG SHADOW {part I}

CASTING A LONG SHADOW

{Part I of II}

Q.   Why do you go to so many churches when you are in Italy?

A.   Because thats where the art is. (maybe)

Duomo and Campanile*

James Aponovich

12" x 15"  ( in progress)

IN SITU  vs.  INSTITUTION

I must confess that my endurance level in most museums is (by professional standards) rather low. That does not make me a bad person or even a bad museum goer, I've been to quite a few. I find that there is a certain disjunct that occurs when a work of art is taken out of its original context and brought to an institution 'in perpetuity', think zoo. I know that it's necessary, but the whole museum-go-round experience often makes my head spin. My brain has a difficult time transitioning the radical shift that occurs when you move from one room ( or culture) to the next (era). It's cultural whiplash.

! DENSE FOGG WARNING !

Beth and I traveled down to 'The People's Republic' of Cambridge last week with our friends Bob and Sylvia, and also Tom and Shannon, who we had not seen since Florence, to check out the newly renovated Fogg Museum at Harvard University. Talk about spinning heads! 

The Italian Architect, Renzo Piano was hired to retrofit the original gem to accommodate two other museums under one glass ceiling ( architecture seems to be a man's world).  As soon as you enter the hermetically sealed chamber of what was the inner courtyard, the air becomes leaden with pedagogical antiquity. You stand in a clinically sterile environment, more in tune with a medical research facility. I say stand because there is no place to sit, unless you sit at the ubiquitous "museum cafe." Vacuous rooms, sharp angles, lots of glass, massive confusion of cultures, no logical flow, and oh, that stuff on the walls, the art? We are talking purity of architecture here folks, not clutter...whew.. my comment on leaving...........

"I need a Martini."

ON THE OTHER HAND

Panicale, from Piazza San Michele Arcangelo

James Aponovich

pencil on paper/ from the sketchbook

Panicale has three piazze, the lower one being the commercial (shops, cafes, etc.), the upper houses the old civic center, and in between is the religious piazza with the church of San Michele Arcangelo dominating. As a Christian church it has occupied this sacred spot for a thousand years and has accordingly undergone many transformations architecturally. By Cathedral  standards, it is 

quite small but put a coin in the box as you enter and the interior lights up to it's current Baroque splendor.

The Adoration of the Shepherds (detail)

Giovanni Battista Caporali ( 1476-1560)

The church also houses works of art, in particular three paintings of note: The Annunciation, by alleged home boy Masolino di Panicale,  The Adoration of the Shepherds, by Caporali, a pupil of  Pietro Perugino, and a small painting , possibly by another of Perugino's students, a boy from Urbino named Raphael. They are all set in their originally intended places (in situ) and it is a delight to be there, without guards, and absorb it all. After about ten minutes the lights go out....time to leave.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Coming up in Part II

"The Angel Issue"

Finding A Bit Of Tuscany In The Berkshires

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

*I have always wanted to do a painting of the Duomo in Florence. This is a fairly detailed drawing on panel that will serve as an underpainting. I will post the progress.

{week 19}

2015 copyright James Aponovich, text and original artwork

E~N~E

E ~ N ~ E

"The dogfish are back" *

                                                    -Kimball Petty, Little Deer Isle, Maine

* Local Mainers response to the returning 'summer people', who like the small sand shark ( dogfish) only come when the weather is warm (er).

DOWNEAST

 Blue Hill From Parker Point

James Aponovich

oil on canvas

As far as I know, there is no agreed upon point as to where "Downeast" actually begins. To mariners gunkholing up the Maine coast, it starts when you set your compass East / Northeast to follow the coast after Cape Elizabeth. To others, it is when the glacially fingered Mid Coast opens to Penobscot Bay, home of ancient volcanos. To diehards, it's only after you reach lonely Naskeag and set out onto Blue Hill or Jericho Bay that the real Downeast begins,. It is also, as they say.....

.......A STATE OF MIND

Pine Tree, Sebasco, Maine

James Aponovich

oil on canvas

We have lived there, for fifteen years we owned a house on Eggemoggin Reach,  about a mile from the Deer Isle bridge. We lived amongst the aging hippie diaspora   who settled there seeking the "good life,' albeit on rocky soil and frigid waters. We also knew the Grindles and Grays,  descendants of English prisoners released on the shore of what was then Massachusetts Bay Colony, later the British exported 

their 'unwanteds' to Australia. We were friends with Consuela and Julia, aristocratic Atlanta belles who taught us gardening and grace. We were all there bound by one common question, often asked: "How did you ever find this place?" We all came there from different circumstances and for different reasons, but the convergence united us all until the tide turned and it was time to move on.

THE TIDAL POOL

The Tidal Pool, Low Tide

James Aponovich

Oil on canvas, 8" x 12"

The current thinking is that early in our planets life, the earth was only rock, no water and little, if any

atmosphere. Our little sphere endured an aerial bombardment of asteroids, leaving craters and somehow, water, which after countless eons, created oceans.We still go to the coast of Maine and find that primordial scene recreated, the ebb and flow of water and rock. The scars from that violent epoch are still visible on that other rock, our Moon. On Earth the scars are hidden, but here the sea gradually erodes the granite shore exposing the once molten, ancient basalt. As the land slips under the sea and the Earth spins under the Moon, it all becomes magic.

Moon Rise Over the Gulf of Maine, High Tide

James Aponovich

"The sea has many voices, many gods and many voices."

                              -T.S. Eliot, The Four Quartets

THE POSTSEASON

THE POSTSEASON

Three Leaves

James Aponovich

oil on panel, 14" x 11"

In New England, the fall foliage season rolls down from Canada in early October and cascades over Cape Cod and the Islands around the beginning of November. This arboreal technicolor review is witnessed by countless tourists in large buses as well as 'daytrippers' from all parts of New England, New York and beyond. They come to catch the first glimpses of the yellows, oranges, vermillion and magentas of the sugar maples and myriad of other trees. There is nothing subtle about a 'peak' New England fall.

Japanese Maple

SECOND ACT

Personally, I wait for the tide to roll back, after the maples have dropped their leaves and the tourists have bought their souvenirs and left, a quiet returns and a second 'fall' occurs. It is now time for the majestic oaks, rugged hickories and elegant birches to step forward. The oak eschews the brilliant chroma of the maple and instead dons a more regal mantle of burnt orange and russet. The hickory turns gold, the envy of any potentate or commodities trader. This thunderous chord is offset by the lyrical dance of the white birches with lemon yellow leaves. Only the beeches will keep their leaves all winter, a ghostly presence, rattling in the wind, waiting for spring.

Shagbark Hickory

NOVEMBER LIGHT

The angle of sunlight is now low and sharp, the clear, piercing light passes through the bare trees, casting long shadows on the dry fields. Deer are on the move. It is time for sheep to find winter shelter. Birds are agitated, preparing for their long flight south. Overhead, a river of hawks arrive from Mount Desert in Maine and catch the thermal updrafts above Pack Monadnock mountain and continue down  the coast.

There is a certain nostalgia or sadness to this time of year. Firewood is stacked strategically around the house. It will be needed to ward off the bitter cold of winter, gardens are put to bed and everyone waits for the first flurry of snow. Storm windows are fastened and everywhere you begin to see the unofficial flag of New England unfurl, the blue plastic tarp that covers everything for the winter. 

LATE HARVEST AT LULL FARM

"Live Free and Farm"

This is also the time for the rural farmstands. Not far from us is one of the best, Lull Farm, in Hollis, New Hampshire. I spend a part of my youth nearby at my Uncle's farm. Here bins of apples compete with mountains of pumpkins and squash for attention. The weekends find the stand crowded with families in festive moods. Children scamper over piles of pumpkins trying to find the perfect one, classic country mirth. It is an event that reminds me of a Brueghel painting.

 The Wedding Dance, 1566

Brueghel

Tip 'O The Hat and my thanks to  our friends Judith and Robert Oksner
for on call editing 

THE FOOD ISSUE ( week 6 )

THE FOOD ISSUE

Basket of Fruit with Grapes and Morning Glories

James Aponovich

oil on canvas, 26" x 26"

YOU WANT FRENCH OR ITALIAN TONIGHT ?

It is said that if you ask 100 professional French chefs to each make a Bearnaise  sauce you will get 100 sauces exactly alike. On the other hand, ask 100 Italian cooks to make a ragu and you most certainly get 100 versions along with some heated arguments. In Italy things change , not just from region to region, but even town to town..

So, when I speak of Italian food, I am referring to the places I am most familiar with, Umbria, Tuscany and Rome. When I speak of food from my native New England, the conversation

 gets kind of sparse.....what dishes most represent New England? bluefish and beans? New England boiled dinner? Boston cream pie?

THE ROGER SWAIN SIX

Roger Swain, the eminent Botanist, Horticulturalist, Public Television personality, listed only six indigenous edible crops in the United States, they are:

Fox grapes ( Concord grapes)

sunflowers

wild rice

cranberries

blueberries

pecans

"That's piss poor!"

                       -R. Swain

Throw in a roasted wild turkey and you got a pretty decent Thanksgiving dinner. My point is that we don't have much to work with here in New England......well, thinking about it, there is one thing we do have.............

Lobster
James Aponovich
oil on panel, 16" x 12"


HOMERUS AMERICANUS

The North American lobster abounds off the coast of New England. Purists say you must go Down East in Maine to where the frigid Labrador current is home to the best lobsters. Having lived there, I cannot disagree.
Although most people prefer to dunk their boiled lobster in copious amounts of melted butter, ( and yes the bibs you wear around your neck do make you look silly ) there remains an ardent group that searches out the quintessential New England lobster recipe.

Sanders Lobster Pound, Portsmouth, NH.

Inside Sanders Lobster Pound

THE ALL AMERICAN
NEW ENGLAND
LOBSTER ROLL

Some recipes are all the more difficult due to their simplicity.
 Try boiling an egg.....perfectly.
It  may be axiomatic that less is more, but what is most important here is balance.
If this were a painting ( and it is a work of art) I would be referring to proportion, how one area relates to and balances the other. So, I have chosen to profile the lobster roll not because of its "chefy" complexity, but  because of its seemingly infinite variations on a relatively simple list of ingredients.


INGREDIENTS

Lobster, freshly caught is best, preferably from waters on or above the 43rd Parallel. Boiled and cooled then diced or torn. If you can buy shucked lobster meat, make sure it is fresh.

Mayonnaise, yes, some is necessary, it is after all, lobster salad. The amount you add is up to you. 

Make your own mayonnaise or use Hellman's, or if you are a true New Englander, Cains.

Celery, crunchy and finely diced.

Scallion, only if you must.

Lemon Juice, for brightening

Salt & Pepper

New England Style Hot Dog Roll,  buttered and toasted.

A bag of Cape Cod potato chips, if you live in Maine, Humpty Dumpty potato chips.

Prepare the lobster salad, it should be chilled, but never cold. Keep the lobster pieces the right size to comfortably fit the roll. Reserve the claw meat to decorate the top. Brush the sides of the roll with melted butter and place on a hot pan until toasted a golden brown, open the roll to release some of the heat and fill with lobster salad mixture, do not overfill.

Lobster roll from Alisson's
Kennebunkport, Maine

There is a continuing controversy that never seems to be resolved....
What is the best thing to drink with lobster?
There is nothing wrong with a tall glass of Geary's Ale to have with your lobster.
But, our choice  of beverage is a cold crisp Prosecco when lobster is on the menu.
Our  favorite is Turina Lugana Spumante Brut.
CHEERS!

APPLEDORE, Isles of Shoals ( week 5 )

APPLEDORE,  ISLES OF SHOALS

"It must be so nice to be able to paint on an island off the coast of New England...."

"Appledore ain't exactly Martha's Vineyard, lady."

West Wind, Isles of Shoals, 1904

Childe Hassam

The Isles of Shoals are a group of islands lying ten miles off the coast of New England and are divided between Maine and New Hampshire. Appledore, Smuttynose and Duck belong to Maine, Star and White to New Hampshire. It is not easy to go ashore on Appledore. Both Cornell and the University of New Hampshire have research facilities on the Island. Beth and I managed to hitch a ride on a supply boat out of Portsmouth, NH.

BLACK BACKS AND MUSKRATS

Appledore Basket

James Aponovich

oil on canvas, 18" x 24"

In many ways Appledore is not a comfortable place. Hundreds of Black Backed gulls fill the air with their screams. Don't go there when they are fledging, they will attack you. Their white droppings are matched by the brown of the muskrats that roam the island, fearless and nearly blind. Poison Ivy rambles everywhere. Rogue waves have been known to sweep people off the rocks. Great Whites feed on the seals off Duck Island. Yes, the wild is still here.

AN ISLAND GARDEN

Poppies, 1891

Childe Hassam

" Like the musician, the painter, the poet, and the rest, the true lover of flowers is born, not made."

                                                                                             Celia Thaxter

I had heard of Appledore as the summer home of Celia Thaxter, the Nineteenth Century poet and celebrated gardener who would host artists and intellectuals in her home. The American Impressionist painter, Childe Hassam was one of the more noteworthy and spent some twenty summers on the island.

DEATH BY WATER

Little Pond, Appledore

James Aponovich

oil on canvas

The Little Pond, Appledore,  1890

Childe Hassam

Thaxter had a charming summer cottage near her father's large hotel on the island. Many people from Boston would travel to the island to take in the therapeutic "airs". The Boston painter, William Morris Hunt, suffering from depression came to Thaxter's cottage on advice from his doctor. One morning she found his body floating in a pond behind her house, an apparent suicide. Eventually fire swept through both her father's hotel and later her cottage, leaving only foundation rubble. Her garden survived and is currently being restored. Appledore has a melancholy side.

ON THE OTHER HAND

Appledore in Fog

James Aponovich

oil on canvas, 20" x 22"

Beth and I came to see the garden and to paint it. It was a brilliant, sunny day and as I painted, I struggled with the buildings that survived the fire, as well as

 the large watchtower, a remnant of World War II.

Earlier, as we were approaching the island, I had noticed something on the horizon. I knew all too well, having once lived on the coast of Maine.....fog. The fog banks that roll in from the Gulf of Maine are thick and dangerous. Mariners say, "the ceiling has dropped," and so it had.......

But it erased the watchtower and softened the buildings, I loved it. It reminded me of a painter from Prouts Neck, Maine

The Artist's Studio in an Afternoon Fog, 1894

Winslow Homer

They will close Appledore soon for the winter. The ice and snow are too harsh, but come next season I will return whenever I need to wash my vision with sea, rock and gulls. Just watch where you step.

Agapanthus, Appledore

James Aponovich

oil on canvas

THE LANDSCAPE OF TIME AND OF TIME LOST (week 4)

THE LANDSCAPE OF TIME AND OF TIME LOST

The landscape of Italy ( here I am referring to Tuscany and Umbria) is not necessarily overpowering. Romantically breathtaking, yes, but it is too refined and well thought out for high drama. The land has been sculpted by a succession of hands for thousands of years. The layers of numerous epochs reveal themselves subtly. An Etruscan wall borders a path trod by pilgrims in the 10th Century. It is a grand palimpsest  of time, but if you seek raw splendor, then you must go north to the Alps or better yet, cross the ocean to the "New World."

CHASING EDEN

Little Harbor ( New Hampshire)

James Aponovich

oil on canvas

Early in the 19th Century, European artists grew bored with this groomed, orderly landscape. They had read Rousseau and they wanted to embrace the primitive, aboriginal eden, untouched by the European model. They came to America, primarily to the coast of New England and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Here, they thought they had found the raw, savage nature they were seeking.... until someone said,"the mountains are better out West.".......Bye.

THE FALLOW LAND

What happens when the vision of the landscape dies? We, in the United States, have always been interested in the next, better thing. We are always ready to drop what we have and move on to the next chapter. Our attention span is measured  not in minutes but seconds. A landscape thrives in direct proportion to the love and need we imbue it with. When abandoned and we turn our backs to it, the wild returns. By the wild, I am not referring to the trees reclaiming the land, but something more sinister, highways, malls, fun parks, and fast food joints.

LANDS END AND A BIT BEYOND

North Wind Clearing: Appledore Island

James Aponovich

Oil on canvas

The vision still breathes, but you must look for it, you have to seek it out. One such place lies seven miles off the New England coast, again, on the 43 Parallel, The Isles of Shoals. The original wild is still very much evident there.

Let us make our visit.

To be continued........

PANICALE HORTENSIA PAINTING UPDATE

Panicale, Hortensia ( in progress)
James Aponovich

Uh Oh....Heaven and Earth ain't workin' together. It's getting away from me a bit and I think I know why. You can paint from your mind or you can paint from your heart, rarely both. This is like sucking on a lemon. I'll see if I can fix it.



AMOSKEAG HYDRANGEA UPDATE

Amoskeag, Hydrangea ( underpainting/ in progress)
James Aponovich

"Va bene!"  The Italians would say. It is going well. It has taken a while to get the East Side washed in. Now, onto the West Side.