Daylily

Nightlily

Nightlily

This is a painting of a ruffled pink daylily from our yard on Front St., Souderton. It is painted in black and white on a 24″ x 24″ gallery wrapped canvas. The edges are painted charcoal gray. The title, date and signature are on the edge, giving the flower a stark, uncluttered look.

Price: $200 plus postage.

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Tribal Dance

Tribal Dance

The foliage is made to look like metal work, much like the Mayans and Incans did. I twisted parts of the petals, then blew a digital breeze across them with such force that at places individual pixels came loose. The frame is made from four heavy pieces of poplar, that are actually joined in the traditional fashion in angled corners. I shaped them to evoke interlocking peace pipes and carefully used dark walnut stain in a gradient to separate the pipes visually.

The overall message of the piece is about how digital technology even with all of its networking and social media still seems to leave us alone and separated. We need to engage in more natural, primitive social contact in order to maintain emotional and psychological health and happiness: The Tribal Dance.

Image is museum quality printed on canvas which is stretched on a 25″ x 25″ custom frame. The overall dimensions of the piece are 31-1/2″ x 31-1/2″ x 2″.

Price: $500 plus shipping

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Miss Jessie Warhol

Miss Jessie Warhol

This started out as a pair of Miss Jessie daylily blossoms blooming next to our driveway. I photographed them, then tweaked the photo in Photoshop. Then I mirrored the image and inverted the colours. After that, I arranged them checkerboard fashion and added two green borders. This was then museum quality printed on canvas. which I stretched over a handcrafted frame. I made a sleek, modern frame of poplar and coated it with multiple layers of black lacquer, then varnish. This is my favourite daylily! If you look closely, you can even see a tiny insect on one of the petals.

It is named for Andy Warhol, as it is an homage to his Marilyn Monroe serigraphs and Campbell Soup Cans. I never appreciated them from seeing them in books and magazines. I saw them in person at a museum on the University of Minnesota campus around 1990. they were breathtaking, in person! This is why my website is named what it is! Art IS always better in person. Buy some. Take it home.

Overall dimensions are 26″ x 26″ x 2″.

Price: $350 reduced to $150 plus postage

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Life is too short to be in a hurry.

A word of explanation so you are not put off unnecessarily. I am sure you have heard of atheistic Jews. Well, I am an atheist follower of Jesus. So any talk of Jesus is not to proselytize. It just helps tell the story.

"Life is too short to be in a hurry."

Jesus said, “And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”

The point is that there is always enough to go around for everyone if we’d only learn to share. The object lesson is taken from daylilies which are native to Asia, including Palestine. Daylilies are glorious. I have about 90 varieties in our tiny yard. This is a painting of a stem of daylily buds that are yet to open. The largest will open the next day. So “consider the lilies” and get out in a garden. Dig in the dirt. Spend time in a park. Connect with the cycles of nature. It will lower your blood pressure and calm your psyche’.

I painted this on April 30, 2016. I was facing open heart surgery in June. I was thinking that just seeing the first bud of Spring one more time will be pleasing. I don’t hurry in grocery lines. I talk to the check out people and the other people in line. Life is for living every part of it, even when you aren’t in full bloom. 

I have been saying “Life is too short to be in a hurry” to cashiers and bank tellers who have apologized to me for having long transactions or difficult customers ahead of me for some time now. Before I painted this, I googled the saying. I found it attributed to Oscar Wilde and an obscure poet. I had never read it by either of them, though. I think it just makes sense and treat it as an aphorism of those who have lived long enough to slow down; like all those white heads driving 45 on the freeway!

Now, in the COVID-19 quarantine, it has even more poignancy, as people are antsy to get out and about; to get back to work, etc. But opening too early may kill a lot of people, as the experience in Hong Kong suggests. This brings new meaning to the phrase: “Life is too short to be in a hurry!”

The painting is acrylic on 12″x12″ canvas, painted on the sides as well, so no expensive framing is required.

Price: $75 plus postage

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Dot Daylily

Dot Daylily

This daylily was painted entirely using a pencil instead of brushes to apply the paint. The large dots were done using the fresh eraser end repeatedly dipped and dotted. The medium-sized dots were accomplished by sharpening the writing end halfway, so the lead was not quite exposed. The small, bright yellow dots, for the stamen, were made by sharpening the pencil to a point, then rubbing it down to a blunt point. For the effect, it helped that the yellow paint was thicker, as well. I even titled, dated and signed it in dots, but that is in fine tipped artist marker.

Painting is 20″ x 16″ acrylic on stretched canvas.

Price: $150 plus postage

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Stoplight

Stoplight Daylily

This is a stylized painting of a Stoplight Daylily. It is obvious how this variety earned this name. It is red, yellow and green just like the traffic lights.

The painting is acrylic on 12″ x 12″ stretched canvas.

Price: $65 plus postage

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Purple Suspenders

Purple Suspenders daylily

This is a stylized painting of a Purple Suspenders Daylily from our yard last Summer. There is a huge ladybug on a leaf in the upper right. This variety blooms late in the season with 7″ to 8″ blooms.

The painting is acrylic on 6″ x 6″ stretched canvas.

Price: $30 plus postage

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Peace Valley Sentinel

Peace Valley Sentinel daylily

This daylily stands guard at the front of our yard and again at the edge of our patio with its vibrant, hot pink petals and luminous, deep yellow throat. On a sunny day, they almost seem electric. Roland Teich of Teich & McColgan Daylilies & Hostas bred this variety, so it is Hilltown / Peace Valley born, Roland & Robin’s place is just a half block off of Perkasie’s Callowhill, too.

The painting is acrylic on 12″ x 12″ stretched canvas.

Price: $100 plus postage.

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Yin & Yang

yin
“Yin”
"Yang"
“Yang”

I decided to just have some fun with the paint last Wednesday and paint a lighter subject, so I painted two daylilies. I used a limited number of colors. “Yin” is based on a Peace Valley Sentinel Daylily, with a Kelly Green and Green Apple split background. On the “Yang” the colors are reversed. I think they make a fun, colorful set. They are each 12″x12″ and are just fine informal, unframed for a sun room or at a beach house, any place you want to spread a little cheer!

Starving artist price: $50 for the pair, plus shipping.

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Daylily by Numberless

Daylily by Numberless

Daylily blossoms only last for one day, then wilt and die, hence the name. This blossom bloomed over three years ago along the driveway, two residences ago. I photographed it, then processed it in Photoshop to reduce the number of shades of color used in the photo to about 40. I further reduced this number down to 22 shades of paint. Of them, only the yellow, white and two of the shades of green were ready out of a can or tube. The remaining 18 I custom blended. I painted it in the style of the paint by number paintings we did when we were kids, only there were no numbers and there were no pre-printed lines, and it is on a 36″ x 24″ stretched canvas instead of a 14″ X 11″ cardboard. At this size, it makes quite an impact, as it pays homage to a fading pastime.

The painting is acrylic on 36″ x 24″ stretched canvas.

Price: $250 plus postage.

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“Here’s Looking at You!”

"Here's Looking At You!"

This is my first photo of a daylily from 2014. The bloom was looking straight at me, dead center in the photo. I superimposed an iris, that is a human iris, onto the bloom. The bloom was the exact shade of yellow my mom used in our living room when she redecorated it. It was the first time she was ever able to redo a whole room at once. The iris is the shade of green she used. I made the background the unique shade of aqua she used. That color became very popular in Golden Valley, MN. The florists my mom used would dye flowers that color for our parties. People would see them at our house or at the florists’ shop while awaiting delivery and request it for themselves. It became known as “B.J.  Blue”. My mom’s name was B.J., short for Betty Jane.

Then I asked John Haggerty to help me by making the shape of a camera bezel for the frame on his Shop-Bot. I painted it black and inserted the museum quality print on canvas in the back.

~14-3/4″ diameter x 3-5/8″deep

Price: $350 plus shipping.

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Stoplight at Midnight

Stoplight Daylily at Midnight

At our house on Front Street in Souderton, I planted a Stoplight Daylily at the end of the driveway by the sidewalk. It is aptly named because of its brilliant red and yellow blossoms and bright green leaves. I am known for not noticing stoplights. At one point, when I was in my 30s, I started to count the red lights I noticed just after I blew through them. I stopped counting at 70, after a few weeks. When I drove my Scion xB for The King’s Jubilee, and we were giving rides home to people, it was customary for my regular passengers to quickly claim the back seat. This included 6’5″ Tony. At any rate, stoplights at midnight are a bit easier to see. Everyone was relieved when I safely arrived home to the one at the end of my drive.

It is subtle, but the background is not true black. It has a hint of blue in it. Also, in person, the stamen appear more orange than they appear in the photo. It is a very dramatic piece.

The painting is acrylic on 24″ x 18″ stretched canvas.

Price: $120 plus postage.

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Bee’s Eye View

beeseyeview

Another photograph in my Lily Gilding series, this one has been filtered with a yellow “neon glow” then dabbed with touches of orange at the centers of the blooms to signify scent. Bees are especially attracted to the bright colors of the blossoms and filter out the greens. It is said, in fact, that perhaps they only see yellow. They are mostly guided by scent. Hummingbirds are especially attracted to yellows and reds. So this photo is all about the birds and the bees.

skep
Skep

I made the frame out of native PA poplar and ribbed it reminiscent of the traditional bee skeps, then coated it with nine coats of black lacquer. It is museum quality printed on canvas.

The canvas is 24″x24″. The overall dimensions of the frame are 29-3/8″x29-3/8″x2″

$400 plus shipping

SOLD

Widow’s Bonnet

Widow's Bonnet

This is from a photo of daylilies by our driveway taken in 2007. The “bonnet” is the spent blossom from the previous day. I filtered it to wash most of it to black. The name for this piece is “Widow’s Bonnet”. This is why she is wearing black. It is also why she is surrounded by about a 4″ ring of hammered copper. This represents the “Widow’s Mite” in the Gospel story. Daylilies are the lilies of the field that Jesus was talking about, which we are “to consider, for they do not labor, neither so they spin, but Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Yet they are gone in a day, to be replaced with another equally beautiful bloom the next! The mite was the smallest copper coin with a hole in the middle; it was worth so little. That was all the widow had, yet she gave it to the poor at the Temple collection box. Jesus pointed out that she had given more than all the rich who had gone before and after, because she had given all she had.

So this piece reminds us of these two lessons. There is more than enough to go around every day, if only we share it. Give everything if necessary to make that happen.

This is a photograph that has been altered and museum quality printed on canvas. The frame is hand-hammered copper flashing tacked over a black painted, plywood base. It is 18-3/4″ diameter.

Price: $300 reduced to $100 plus shipping

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Phoenix

phoenix
“Phoenix”

This is from my Lily Gilding series. I don’t paint daylilies. I paint with them. This is a photograph of a Backdraft Daylily, from a couple of summers back, right next to our front step. I modified it using several filters and adjustments, then cropped it just right. I call it Phoenix as it shows the persistence of new life and hope, even in the midst of entropy and crumbling bricks.

The border and frame paint are taken directly from the colors in the photo. Each time you look at it, be emboldened to hope and to work for positive change that we may rise from the ashes of our brokenness to see in each and every man, woman and child, a sister or a brother, worthy of dignity, respect, and care.

This is museum quality printed on canvas. I custom-made the frame from native PA poplar. The canvas is 24″x24″. The overall dimensions with the frame are 27″x27″x2-3/4″. The price is $450 plus shipping. (I have been told the frame is worth that alone.)

Sold.

I can make another. I have committed to making no more than 10 total. Each are signed and numbered.