Tag Archives: Lorimer Park

Tiles from December, 2016 – Group 7

Nature. Just nature.

: Sunflowers from my garden, Wyncote, PA. Approx. 6″ x 6″

: A view from the Pennypack Trail, Bryn Athyn, PA. Approx 6″ x 6″

Tiles from December, 2016 – Group 1

I’ve got a lot of tiles to show you from this time period. So get ready!

I’ve been making tiles using photos as references. It’s my current idea and so far, so good. I’ll give you the real-world location inspiration for each tile in the captions.

This particular group features workers and machines. The tiles are all 4″ x 4″.

: Workman and ladder. 4″ x 4″. On the roof of a bank branch, Jenkintown, PA.

: Bucket truck and workman. Near the railroad crossing on Highland Avenue, Jenkintown, PA. 4″ x 4″

: Person on a tractor. Tractor in the barn at Lorimer Park, Huntingdon Valley, PA. 4″ x 4″

Looks Like Today

About a month ago I was waiting in the car in the parking lot at Lorimer Park while my husband finished up his run. My plan to practice sketching and a few free moments collided and sparked the idea of drawing to fill this little bit of time. So I pulled out my 6″ x 6″ sketchbook and got to work.

The scene is the corner of the parking lot – there is a fence and then the woods layer themselves behind it. At the park, I drew in pen, and I added the colors (Tombow and Prismacolor brush tip pen markers) at home.

Things still look pretty similar at the park – the trees are a jumble of yellows and greens and the undergrowth has disappeared, revealing the vertical lines of tree trunks crossed by skinny branches. I love the disorderly look the landscape has at this time of year and I hoped to capture that in this drawing.

I haven’t been using color in these sketches in my sketchbook, but I like the way this one looks. Hmmm… I feel some new ideas coming on, pen and ink and markers…

Clay Tiles 6″ x 6″ – Animals and So On

: Cat asleep on the carpet – inspired by all the cats I’ve ever lived with…

: Lady walking her dog – taken from a picture of a fellow park-goer.

: Grasshopper – from a photo I took in Fort Washington, PA, some time ago.

: Two birds, from a photo from Santa Cruz, CA.

: Person and cat, modeled very loosely (very) on a picture of my son holding one of our cats. Really, neither the cat nor the person in the tile look like their inspirations, just for the record…

Paintings Roundup from November 2015 Part 4

And to round things out, a couple more little acrylic paintings, 10″ x 8″, on board.

: “Lady in a Lemon Dress”

: “Animals in the Field”

Small Landscape Project – Second Twenty-One

Today is January 21, and we are one-third of the way through winter. I have marked on the calendar the four 21’s that occur during the Small Landscape Giveaway – two so far, since I started with December 21. I want to take a little bit of time to reflect on the project, and to thank everyone for their interest, appreciation, support, participation, and just over all good wishes for the project.

Let me back up a little bit and say that this activity is the result of what I did last winter – the Sunshine Project, that I chronicled on one of my other blogs, Sometimes You Get So Confused. Last year, I was very much in the middle of recovering from a couple of just awful years. I was terrified of winter and what associations the past couple of winters had had for me. I needed something to do that would help me just put one foot in front of the other. The Sunshine Project did that. Though it involved artwork in the form of the little sunshine disks, mostly it was about getting out into the world again.

This winter is different. I am healed from my illnesses and surgeries. I was not left unmarked by the experiences – I have been left with some real deficits. I have also learned how easily and quickly life can turn and bite you, seemingly without any malice, but with real effects all the same. Imagine a creature with big teeth, saying, It’s nothing personal, but – it’s your turn…

But I also owe that creature a debt of gratitude. I am a changed person, and for the better. It sounds Pollyannaish to say so, to thank the teeth that bit me for the scars they left, but – somehow I’ve taken a turn here that has set me on a better path. I’m not going to try to understand it any more than that. I’m just going to keep on as I have been re-directed and leave figuring things out to someone else.

So the Small Landscape Giveaway is a lot of fun for me, because I am so happy that I am able to be doing art, and communicating about it, and participating in life again. Every time I pick up a paintbrush or get out my scissors and papers or my clay tiles or even the stick ladies – I feel lucky. Thanks, everybody, for letting me send out my art to you and to know it’s being appreciated. It really means a lot to me.

OK, let’s keep going. Spring is coming! And I’ll tell you a sure sign of it – at the park where I exercise in warmer weather, the closing time at sunset has been put back to 5:30 PM from 5:00 PM. The earth continues to move around the sun and we’re going right along with it.

Photos of Spring and So On

Here are some photos I’ve taken and done some amending to – all from the rail trail at Lorimer Park/Pennypack Trail in Huntingdon Valley/Abington, PA.

Usually these photos had something wrong with them – out of focus, or that kind of thing. But, in each case I felt a pull to work with the image because there was a balance or a rhythm or something that seemed right – just needed adjustment. So that’s what these are all about.

: Spring.

: Fisherman at the Pennypack creek.

: The parking lot at Lorimer Park, glamorized a bit.

: Combination of elements – taken from old train towers and other railroad structures along the Pennypack rail trail, and you may recognize the fences from the parking lot picture…

: Railroad structure…

: Part of a railroad structure…

Portrait of a Beauty

This morning I parked my car in the lot at the end of the Pennypack Trail off Huntingdon Pike in Huntingdon Valley. My plan was to go for a run on the trail. I got sidetracked by this building next to the lot. I have often admired it but today it really seemed to be calling out to me – the light was soft on it and all the personality of this old factory structure shone out.

Before I started my run I took a lot of pictures, just walking back and forth along the one side of the building. I don’t know what it is being used for at the moment – I have the feeling it’s a giant jumble of industrial objects inside.

I’m not a photographer and I just meant to take some photos to use for references for paintings, maybe. But things got away from me – there is so much beauty just in the arrangement of the utilitarian elements of the building, and in the way it has weathered and aged. I had to take the time to look.

I didn’t do anything to the photos – they are just as I took them.

I’m not going to say anything else. I’ll just post the pictures in the order I took them. See what you think.

Sunshine Photos Part Two

Some more photos from my recent Sunshine Project.

The first three pictures are just as the object appears – I did nothing to the photos. I love the abstract patterns and colors.

: Sycamore bark, close up.

: Rust and paint stains in a metal abandoned train control box .

: Graffiti and rust on the exterior of an abandoned metal train control box.

And this photo has had a little bit done to it. It looks like a comet to me, streaking through space, but it really came from a local park and was lying on the ground.

The end of a sawn-off section from a fallen tree.

Cat Lady

Or, two cats and their lady.

They are all painted on broken brick pieces; you’ve seen ladies and cats like these before, I think. I have a whole collection on my porch right now. Maybe later I’ll take them to the park and set them out but for now, I really like seeing that crowd there to greet me when I come home. These three will fit right in.