In the fall of 2022 I participated in studio painting sessions at Woodmere Museum of Art. The class was called Exploring Abstraction and was led by Val Rossman. If any of this information sounds familiar it is because I have done previous sessions in the studio with this group. And that’s because I like being there!
In a recent post in this series I showed you a painting of my house and I told you that I did another one, simultaneously, on the same subject. I guess I was fulfilling both the idea of “multiples” and “landscape” that Val had mentioned as themes, in one fell swoop.
I worked on them side by side, painting first on the one and then the other. They are not twins; more like cousins, I guess. Here they are together:
My house is a mid-century modern split level with a lot of trees and bushes in front. The driveway comes right to the garage on the right side of the house, and there is a big picture window to the left. Another feature of the house is a large chimney in the middle of the roof.
In the first picture, I’ve parked my little car in the driveway and my living room is on view through the window. In the second one, I’ve depicted me bringing in a letter from the mailbox, and I’ve shown the details of the stepping stones in the yard. In both pictures I have included a large three-trunk birch tree on the left front.
I like the way these turned out. I love my house and I feel my area is a great place to live.
Here are the two paintings each on its own. Each is 20″ x 16″ on canvas.
At Home
Here You Find Me At Home
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
I am particularly drawn to thr view of the living room and the stepping stones
Thank you. It’s just like my house except of course the sofa does not look out the window like this. Those stepping stones, I always think of how enormously heavy they were to set them in place. I will never do a project like that again. I am sure I could not even lift one now, I could barely do it 15 years ago.
Delicious colors in your compositions!
Thank you!
Both paintings are terrific! I like the way some of the strong compositional elements are stable – like the trio of trees and the roof shape – while you have taken the “pick and mix” route of emphasizing different elements of your home. These are really wonderful paintings and I am curious whether you think it is because you feel such a warm and strong connection to the subject that has made them so successful.
Thank you. Yes, I firmly believe that these paintings are better than average exactly because of how I feel about the subject. I think my best paintings always come from the emotional connection to what I am painting. This is why I never like my purely abstract ones that much. And why I am spending my art time only on subjects that are meaningful to me (with a few exceptions, but nothing like it was when I was making art for sale and I based my subjects on what other people would like).