school days

6 x 12, oil on linen

Memorial Hall, University of Kentucky 

Every autumn finds me longing to return to school. 

I miss the smell of pencils, paper, books...what?

Those are mostly obsolete now? They've been replaced by technology?

 Oh. That. 

Well...in that case, I miss the energy

 and promise a new school year brings,

 along with new classes, friends, and professors...

(and to favorite teacher Katy, Happy New Number!)

"If kids come to us from strong, healthy, functioning families, 

it makes our job easier.

If they do not come to us from strong, healthy, functioning families,

it makes our job more important." 

~Barbara Colorose, teacher~

"In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work.

It is invisible and remains so, 

maybe for twenty years."

 ~Jacques Barzun~

kentucky greens and blues

18 x 24, oil on canvas

"If you tickle the earth with a hoe,

she laughs with a harvest."

Douglas William Jerrold

four-ten

8 x 10, oil on canvas

Centre College

Once again shifting into a new season and subject - this time my focus will be on scenes from Kentucky, and I begin with Centre College, a top-50 liberal arts college, located in Danville where students and faculty are busily preparing to embark on a new year, new life. 

"To be hopeful, to embrace one possibility after another--
that is surely the basic instinct...
Time to move out into the glorious debris. 
Time to take this life for what it is!"
Barbara Kingsolver (who grew up in Carlisle, Kentucky)

light year

8 x 16, oil on canvas

'Yes,' I answered you last night;

'No,' this morning, sir, I say.

Colours seen by candle-light

Will not look the same by day.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

out of the blue

I'm loving the soft, muted values...

16 x 20, oil on canvas

"Each day has its own individuality of color."

Charles Hawthorne

pale by comparison

And then there are those hydrangea colors that prefer to whisper their beauty 

in a faded, "shabby chic" sort of way; proving gorgeous color can be soft and understated...

9 x 12, oil on canvas

"Colors speak all languages"

Joseph Addison

golden rule

10 x 12, oil on canvas

In honor of the 150 anniversary of Gustav Klimt's birthday, I threw a little gold into this one.

"Art is a line around your thoughts."

Gustav Klimt