Helen's Sunflowers

Helen's Sunflowers, oil on canvas, 20"x28", $495.

Here is the finished sunflower painting that I've been working on the last few days. I titled it Helen's Sunflowers because I was with my brother-in-law's Mother, Helen, when I found the flowers. We stopped at Treadway's Gardens south of town and the field of sunflowers was adjacent to the fruit stand. I bought the last five in the vase and the cashier headed for the field to cut more. I'm a sucker for two subjects when it comes to painting and that is pears and sunflowers. I could paint either of them everyday and not get tired of them. The painting is hanging in the window of Art in Motion at Town & Country next to BW3's restaurant.

Today I am headed downtown to the Cannery. Our monthly "First Friday" open house is coming up this Friday, August 3, from 5-10pm. I want to rearrange things and add a few new pieces. I will be out of town on Friday so leave me a note in my book if you stop by.

P.S. If you want to leave a comment on my blog all you need to do is place your cursor on top of the word comment at the bottom of the blog and click. It should open a window that allows you to post a comment.

The Sunflower Painting

Here is a photo of the results of the first layer of painting for the sunflowers. I have the canvas completely covered with a first layer of paint. I like the composition...where everything is placed. It has dried overnight so that today I can go back into it and add a second layer of paint which will clarify and define all of the edges. I will try to finish the flowers and leaves because they will be starting to die off by tomorrow. I can leave the background for last as it won't change on me like the living things will.

Sunflowers

I always like to have four to five paintings in the works, all at different stages of development. That way you never get stuck. If you run into a problem with one painting you just put it aside and work on another. I believe that putting paintings aside gives you a chance to mull things over and come back with fresh eyes and ways to solve problems. I had to make a trip to Cincinnati today. On the way home I stopped at Treadway Gardens and bought some sunflowers that were just cut from the field. They were the ones with the bright yellow centers. I stuck them in a great metal pitcher that I found last week and got a new painting underway. I will work on it tomorrow first thing because the leaves on sunflowers only last a few days before they start to schrivel up.

I attended the artists meeting tonight at the Cannery Art & Design Center. The gallery space there has just undergone some remodeling which is now complete. It's a great place to view art. The space is now filled with about 35 artists. Our next open house "First Friday" event is coming up on Friday, August 3 from 5-10pm.

A New Painting

Yesterday I started a big canvas using a photo that I took in Portofino, Italy. I always begin a painting by drawing with a filbert paint brush using a lot of turp and french ultramarine blue or raw sienna. I outline and place everything this way. It is very easy to erase it if it is not in the right place. I got about half way finished with the drawing and plan to finish it today. This is the hard part... getting everything in the right place...you can't move on until it looks right...it's harder to change later so you better work with it now while it's easier to fix...then the fun begins when you get to add color.

Plein air painting at Lake Loramie

These were all painted up north, near Sidney, Ohio at a beautiful state park, Lake Loramie. It is a good exercise to set up and paint outside. The detail that you see when you are looking at the real thing is different than painting from a photograph. It trains your eye to see the important characteristics of a place. It also helps you learn to paint quickly.

What I'm working on today: I have 2 students coming for portfolio sessions. I help them compile a portfolio for college admission. Then I am headed over to the studio space at Town & Country to paint.

All set up and no canvas!

You've heard the expression, "All dressed up and no place to go!", well how about "All set up and no canvas to paint on!. I headed over to the Art in Motion space at Town & Country Shopping Center to paint. I was careful to seatbelt the sunflowers in the front seat so that they didn't get smashed in transport, I grabbed a spot light and a background cloth as well as all my usual painting supplies, set everything up, looked around for the canvas and realized that I had failed to retrieve one from the pile at home. See... we artists have problems just like everyone else.

"Art in Motion" is a temporary space that is being used to create art. It is a place where artists and the public can interact and share ideas about making art. We are in the process of publishing a calendar of events that will include art demonstrations, workshops, performance art, music, book club gatherings, art club gatherings. If you want the calendar sent to you by email please drop me a line with your address. If you or anyone you know is interested in making art in this space let me know that also and I will put you in touch with "the man".

"Art in Motion" is located in the Town & Country Shopping at the corner of Far Hills and Stroop Rd. in Kettering, Ohio. It is in the center on the mall, just east of the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant. Stop by and visit.

New Painting of Peaches!

"Peaches caught in a blue patterend room", oil on canvas, 10"x8", $75.

I decided to do another small fruit study to get back into the painting mode after being on the road for three weeks. At first I was not going to paint the busy pattern of the napkin that these peaches were resting on but then I thought why not give it a try. You can always change an oil painting if you don't like it. You just grab your palette knife and start scraping it out. My challenge was to paint the pattern on the back wall flat, as it was in the napkin, but to give that sense of foreshortening to the surface that the peaches are resting on so the pattern becomes distorted. Otherwise, it would look like the peaches are floating in the air. I think I did acheive this. These are the little things that I like working on when I do a small study. I can finish a painting in a couple of hours and then take what I learned to my larger and more complex paintings.

What I'm working on today; I printed out some of my travel photos and plan to begin some oil studies. I will be working 14"x11" and the ones that I really like I will paint larger ones of. I'm setting up on my driveway because the weather is so gorgeous. Stop by and watch me paint if you have a minute.

I started to stretch some 54"x 42" canvases yesterday over at the Town & Country space and hope to convince my daughter to help me finish them today. You really need two people to stretch canvas that big. One to pull and one to staple.

If you are interested in purchasing this painting please contact me at 937-672-6717 or lpuncer@woh.rr.com

I'm joining Town & Country Fine Art Gallery!

Several of the artists that share gallery space with me downtown at the Cannery Art & Design Center have asked me to join them south of town at the Town & Country Fine Art Gallery. My work will be hanging there as of Monday, July 16. I will have an official opening sometime soon after I've had a few weeks to produce some work from my recent trip.

Today I am spending the afternoon painting with a friend and great artist, Mike Elsass. He has acquired the use of an empty storefront in Town & Country Shopping Center next to the BW3 restaurant for the next several months. We will be there painting this afternoon from 2-6pm. Stop by if you want to see what we are working on today. Mike is planning to use the space for art encounters with other artists and the general public. He is calling the space "Art in Motion". It will be used for everything from art demonstrations and lectures to slide shows of my world travels. If you know anyone who would like to make use of the space let me know and I will put you in contact with the right person. A calendar of events is being compiled and will be published soon. Let me know if you are interested in the calendar and I will make sure you recieve an email.

I am also publishing Day 4 of my Mediterranean Trip. Scroll back on the blog if you are interested.

I'm home!

This is the last photo that I took from the hotel in Barcelona.
It was a wonderful trip, but I'm always glad to arrive home. I've not readjusted to the time yet which is why I'm blogging at 5am. I will be adding all the missed days to my blogspot and adding photos also. So please go back and take a look.
Favorite big city- Rome. Italy
Favorite small city- Ibiza, Spain
Most picturesque spot- Portofino, Italy
Favorite food- dulce de leche gelato, fresh mozzarella
Favorite drink- sangria
Favorite activity off the ship- Sistine Chapel, visitng the local markets, sitting at an outdoor cafe, people watching
Favorite activity on the ship- dinner; meeting people from other countries; visiting the bridge of the ship; enjoying a glass of wine with my sister, Hubert and Sandy. Sandy and I closed a deal for a commissioned painting for his office in Connecticut!
Favorite view- eating breakfast in my cabin on the ship every morning looking out onto the Mediterranean Sea. Exquisite!
Favorite new experience- getting off the boat onto the tender to go into Portofino. The waves were very high and the tender was really bumping around. Better that a ride at King's Island.

Sorry, Sorry, Sorry

Sorry everyone that I asked you to check my blogspot and then haven't been able to post. The internet on the ship is sporadic. Everytime we leave port it shuts down and they have to climb up and adjust the satellite dish when we arrive at the next port. It also is very slow and I'm having trouble uploading photos. I'll do the best I can while I'm away. I will update all my posts when I get home and include the photos that go with them. Thanks for your interest in my artwork. Loretta...in Ibiza, Spain.. yes, do go look at a map...it's an island south of Barcelona. Bye

Day 7 Mahon, Minorca, Spain

We pulled into port early this morning. Mahon is a city on the beautiful little island of Minorca off the coast of Spain. It looked different than other ports we’ve been to so far. It has a very long natural harbor, one of only a few natural harbors in the world. The port is lined with homes built into the hillside, many have their boats anchored just outside their homes. You walk up a long staircase to get to the town center.

We took a morning tour that took us to Monte Toro to visit a 16th century church and monastery. It was beautiful. It overlooked the whole island.

Next we stopped at a prehistoric sight, Torralba D’en Salord, to look at stone structures that are 3000 years old. They look like the stone constructions at Stonehenge.




Our final stop was at the cliffs of Cala’n Porter. We visited a bar/nightclub called Cova D’en Xoroi, an unusual outdoor nightclub that is in the caves on the cliffs, a most unexpected venue. To get to it you walk down a long staircase that wraps around the side of the cliff. There are a couple of terraces that you cross and as you round the bend you see the opening of the cave. There are a lot of tables and several bars and more terraces. It was surprisingly large. I don’t think you’d want to have too much to drink at this place or else you might end up at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. Interesting restrooms, when you look up you are looking at the sky.

We had lunch at a local restaurant in town. I had to try the salad that was made with the local Mahon cheese. Our tour guide had pointed out green signs along the road as we were traveling. They are posted outside farms that make the local cheese. It indicates that you can buy cheese there. It was a delicious salad of sliced tomatoes topped with capers grown locally and fresh shredded homemade cheese. The other local specialty is fish stew. I ordered it knowing that I was taking a chance on what would arrive at my table. The broth was a delicious vegetable base and it had pieces of cod, a few calamari rings, shrimp and mussels. Very good!

We were invited to join the captain on the bridge to watch the ship pull out of port. The concierge escorted us up to the bridge. It was quite a thrill. There were two passengers who had not returned to the ship. The captain gave a long blow of the whistle to try and let them know we were leaving. We waited a few minutes, he said, “we have to go” and just as they were beginning to pull in the gangplank they showed up. Then a friend of his joined us to see the boat leave port and just as the tugboat was leaving us he climbed down a rope ladder a few feet and hopped onto the tugboat. (I later found out that this was not a friend of the captain but the local port authority. They board the ship at every port and watch it leave. As soon as it is clear they hop on a small boat and return to shore.) I didn’t know you could do that. The captain took us into his office and we shared some wine and talked so long that we missed dinner. Good thing they have room service all the time or we would have to go to bed hungry. Like we couldn’t afford to skip a meal.

Tomorrow we dock in Ibiza, Spain another one of the Balearic Islands.

Day 4, Monte Carlo/Monaco

Welcome to the Cote dAzur! Monaco is an independent principality that has been governed by the Grimaldi family for the last 700 years. It has 50,000 citizens and over 2 million visitors a year. It is smaller that New York’s Central Park and contains some of the most expensive real estate in the world. A favorite spot of the jet set it is known for its nightlife, posh hotels and beautiful beaches.

Once off the ship we walked up to the Prince’s Palace high above the sea. It is close to the Jacques Cousteau Oceanographic Museum. We took the trolley tour through town that showed us all the historic sights including the hairpin turn of the Grand Prix. Pretty amazing that race cars speed through this little town at speeds of over 100 miles per hour. There are statues throughout the city that mark different places along the car race route.


The church where Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier were married is not far from the palace. That was our next stop. I remember when I was a kid that my Mom and Dad had a book about her in their collection. It seemed like a fairy tale story and I used to love looking at the pictures of the Prince and Princess in that book. Both of their graves are also located in the church along with all the former Grimaldi monarchs.

The architecture of the palace is not that impressive compared to the other buildings in the city. The tour of the palace takes you through some of the more formal rooms including the throne room. They are still used by the family for special occasions. Pretty cool to be in the some of the same rooms as the royals.

If you like fancy boutique shopping this is the place for you. All the designer names are here and you can spend all your money very quickly. Shopping is such an exhausting activity that we needed a café con leche. Did you know that cappacino is really only served as an after dinner drink meaning after 8pm. During the day you drink café con leche…coffee with cream…more cream than coffee...mmm, good. We sat at the famous Café de Paris outside the Grand Casino, Monaco’s biggest attraction and enjoyed the sun, the sights and our cafe con leche!

Day 3, Portofino, Italy

Wow, the sea is rough today! We walked down to level 3 on the ship to disembark onto a tender. There was a bit of a cue and people were getting anxious as we only had a few hours at the port. They were having trouble getting everyone on the tender, which holds about 50 people. The waves were so rough that it was taking a long time to board each person safely. By the time they had about 40 people on board the first 20 were beginning to get seasick and asked to come back on the ship. They were white as ghosts when they walked through the crowd and up the stairs. Rose and I decided to go have lunch on the ship and hope that the sea would cooperate and calm down in the mean time. A couple hours later we were on the tender and being dropped in the most beautiful little port that I’ve ever seen, truly a painter’s dream.

Because we have so little time in each port and there is so much to see I am not taking the time to do the little watercolors that I usually do when I travel. Instead I’m spending my time exploring and photographing and will rely on my photos to create paintings when I return home. With all the places I’ve been so far this year I have enough resource material to last the rest of my life and I plan to live a long time!

Portofino is called the Pearl of the Mediterranean. It is small and intimate, declared a national monument by nearby Genoa in 1935. When I think of a quaint, small, unchanged village along the coast of the Mediterranean, Portofino is it.

It has a circular port that has a small opening to the sea, which is why the ship could not dock there. The harbor has small yachts and tiny rowboats. The sidewalk that wraps the harbor is lined with cafes and boutiques. There is a main street that climbs up a hill where hotels and more restaurants are located.


We wandered the streets and shops for a while and then walked up to see the Church of Saint George and Brown Castle. As you walk you pass some local homes tucked into the hillside with those picturesque red tile roofs and all painted shades of peach, yellow, green and pink.


As we walked down the steep curving steps back to port we suddenly realized how parched we were and decided to spend our last hour in port at a café overlooking the Gulf of Rapallo with a glass of wine and a couple appetizers. We ordered two glasses of white wine, a plate of prosciutto with melon and a plate of fresh mozzarella and tomatoes and they brought a basket of bread too. It was so delicious. We had been warned that things were expensive here and when the bill came it was true, 80 euros about $125. US, outrageous, but how often are you in Portofino, Italy… the place where all the movie stars vacation. Next time I’m packing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Day 2 Rome in a Day

I got ahead of myself in yesterday’s blog entry. We spent another day in Rome before we boarded the ship. It’s tough being on vacation… I’m already loosing track of days.

Today we took a cab to the Vatican Museum. The entrance is surrounded by high stonewalls like a fort. As the cab approached we were shocked to see hundreds of people cued up for entry. Many of the sights have private tour guides that for an additional fee will get you into the museum faster as a group than as an individual. We had a very good British guide. You can’t believe the crush of people entering the Vatican Museum. The lobby is a mass of confusion of people moving every which way. There are long lines everywhere. We began our tour in a beautiful courtyard with the dome of the basilica of St. Peter’s in the background. It is a landmark that you can see from many parts of the city. Our guide, using photographs of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, explained many of the details of Michelangelo’s paintings before we arrived at the chapel. You walk through two beautiful long corridors on the way to the Sistine Chapel, one with gorgeous tapestries and the other with 16th century painted maps of the Papal States. These two galleries and the Chapel are the only air-conditioned parts of the museum which on a 94 degree day in Rome is something to think about.

The Sistine Chapel is overwhelming as I expected it would be. To enter the room and think that one man painted this in 4 years is quite amazing. There are 391 figures to look at, only one looks at you, the famous damned soul hugging himself as he awaits his doom. The room is large but you stand shoulder to should with people unless you are lucky enough to grab a seat along the wall. You are not allowed to photograph and the Italian guards yell at you if you do. Our guide told us that there is an extensive ventilation system to draw out all the moisture that occurs from peoples’ breathing. Moisture will rapidly deteriorate the paintings. The number of people visiting this room every day is staggering.

Our next stop was St. Peter’s Basilica. Michelangelo’s beautiful statue of the Pieta is one of first things you come across in a small chapel at the back of the church. The front of the chapel is covered in glass. The man who attacked the statue back in the 70’s spent two years in prison. The arm that he broke off and the faces that he chipped have been restored. Michelangelo made this masterpiece when he was only 23 years old. It is the only work that he signed. Supposedly he overheard people disputing who made it and he then decided he needed to add his signature.




The Piazza San Pietro outside the basilica is exactly as I envisioned. The 140 statues of the saints topping the colonnades surrounding the square are beautiful. We walked down the main boulevard that leads to St. Peter’s and found an outdoor café. Lunch of a thin-crusted tomato and cheese pizza was delicious.

After lunch we made stops at the Pantheon and the Coliseum. We headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and drive about 45 minutes to the port in Civitavecchia.

Tomorrow, Portofino…arrivederchia!

Day One in Rome

Hello from Rome!

Rome is everything I expected it to be… hot, crowded, dusty, expansive and I love it! The architecture is beautiful and around every turn is an old Roman building of some sort. Our room was not ready when we arrived at Hotel Eden so we were escorted up to the hotel bar on the sixth floor for a drink and a lovely view of the city. It was a great way to begin out trip. Hotel Eden still follows some of the bygone customs like doormen in tuxedos wearing white gloves and bowler hats. My sister, Rosemary and I enjoyed a glass of iced tea accompanied by a tray of snacks that included huge green olives that were delicious.

Our first stop today took us on a walk through the northern part of Rome ending at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. It is possibly the oldest of over 80 churches in Rome dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It was built in the 5th century. The first thing that you notice inside the ancient basilica is the beautiful coffered ceiling, Legend says that it is gilded with the first gold shipped back from the New World .

Our next stop was Trevi Fountain. There are so many fountains throughout the city. They are around every corner. Many of them are small and you see people filling water bottles and dampening hankerchiefs to try and beat the heat. So, to see another fountain didn’t seem particularly important on our list of things to do, until we rounded the corner and saw the mass of people surrounding the largest, most elaborate fountain I’ve every seen. I’m not sure if I was more overwhelmed by the number of people or the fountain. The fountain is massive, about as tall as a four story building. It is covered with many columns and figures, the central one representing Neptune or Oceanus. If you’re a film fan you can see Anita Ekberg visiting the fountain at night in Fellini’s classic, La Dolce Vita. Rose and I both had to follow the tradition of throwing a coin into the fountain ensuring our return to Rome some day. We both would also have liked to jump in the fountain to cool off.

Our last stop for the day was the Spanish Steps or Piazza di Spagna. It is a gathering place for many visitors and Romans alike and has been for several centuries.. It is one of the most famous places to visit in Rome consisting of a double staircase that is very beautiful. There was a group of teenagers from South Carolina, about 100 people, who were spread across the steps getting a photo taken. Rosie and I needed to cool off so we popped into a café for a cappacino and iced granita. Rose says that the coffee is great here. It’s strong like she likes it but not bitter.

We had a 45 minute ride by car to the port in Civitavecchia. It was a beautiful ride and arriving a couple hours after the allowed boarding time is not all bad. We were the only two people boarding the ship and it was very quick.

Our room is lovely, on the 5th floor with a small veranda. We took a walk around the ship to get the lay of the land and then headed to dinner. You have a choice on this cruise to be seated alone or to join others. We chose to join a table of six and had a great dinner with two other couples both from England. They all were veteran cruisers. There seem to be quite a few veteran cruisers here. Eric and Val were from outside London. Sheila and Chris lived in London. Chris made the conversation very interesting at dinner. He is a coroner. In the U.K. attorneys and doctors are appointed as coroners. Chris was an attorney and had some interesting stories about his appointment.

We dropped into bed and the sway of the ship had both Rose and I asleep in minutes.

Until tomorrow arrivaderici!

Another Painting Trip! Italy and Spain

Sorry I've not been blogging the last few days. I'm getting ready for another painting trip. This time I'm headed to the Mediterranean. I'm flying to Rome this evening, spending a day and a half in Rome and then headed to Barcelona via a cruise ship that will stop at various ports along the way. If you want to know where I'm stopping you'll just have to read my blog.

Smith Gardens, Oakwood, Ohio

Early Morning at Smith Gardens, 9"x7", $55.

I was up and out early today painting before it gets too hot. Whenever I want to stay close to home and paint I head for Smith Gardens in Oakwood. It is a lovely peaceful sanctuary. The gardeners and I keep each other company.

Painting in Kettlersville, Ohio

Wildflower Gardens, 9"x7", ink & watercolor, $55.












Marna & John's Garden, 9"x7", ink & watercolor, $55.

Today I had to drop off some paintings up north of Dayton in a charming little town called Kettlersville. It reminded me very much of the place in Indiana where I go so often to paint, Kewanna. My artist friend, Mike Elsass, has a studio in Kettlersville and invited me to show my work at his place this weekend and also come up and paint. I am involved in a "paint in" at Lake Loramie State Park on Friday. If you need something to do during the day and like to make art, pack up your supplies and come join us.

Both of these watercolor sketches were created at the beautiful gardens and home of John & Marna Gutman. I hope to return to this place again and do many more paintings.

St. Simon's Island Lighthouse, Georgia

Ink & watercolor, 7x10", $55.
This painting was done last summer while on a trip to Georgia. St. Simon's is a beautiful picturesque island between Savannah and Jacksonville.

What I'm working on today: It's finally finished...the car painting. Today I will put a protective finish on it and wait for the framer to call and tell me he has the frame ready to go.

Indiana Sunflowers

Indiana Sunflowers, 20x24", custom framed, $600.

If you're looking for something to do this weekend Saturday or Sunday, June 16 & 17, head up I-75 near Sydney, Ohio to Kettlersville. I'm part of an art show called "The Color of Energy" at the Easy Avenue Gallery. Stop by Saturday 10am-2pm or Sunday 2-8p.m. If you come Saturday afternoon and want to hang around for the artists party at 5pm look for me and I'll give you directions. There will be a blues band, beautiful gardens and lots of art talk and artists. Call me on my cell phone if you need information or directions 937-672-6717.