The Sting of Death...

...and finding solace in Nature and paint.

We need some pines to assuage the darkness
When it blankets the mind,
We need a silvery stream that banks as smoothly
as a plane's wing, and a worn bed of
Needles to pad the rumble that fills the mind,
And a blur or two of a wild thing
That sees and is not seen,
We need these things
Between appointments, after work,
And if we keep them, then someone someday,
Lying down after a walk
And supper, with the fire hole wet down,
The whole night sky set at a particular
Time, without numbers or hours, will cause
A little sound of thanks---a zipper or a snap---
To close round the moment and the thought,
Of whatever good we did.

  

       'Around Us' by Marvin Bell


In loving memory of my brother,
Joseph Jaworski III, who died November 11, 2011

Memorial Donations can be made to the
National Brain Injury Association

New Prints, New Shows

SUSAN JAWORSKI-STRANC'S new prints are being exhibited at the following venues:

'Print Fair North', November 12 & 13, 10A-5P at Zea Mays Printmaking Studio , 221 Pine Street, Studio #320, Florence, MA

'Trees', November 4 - December 23 at Byran Memorial Gallery, Jeffersonville, Vermont www.byrangallery,org

'PLENTY', 2011 Invitational Group Show, November 17-January 28, at 13Forest Gallery, 167A Mass Ave, Arlington, MA www.13forest.com

'Annual Juried Members Show', November 19- December 30 at Whistler House Museum, Lowell, MA www.whistlerhouse.org

Jeffrey's Neck Road

For Thursday's painting date, I traveled along Jeffrey's Neck Road (JNR) in Ipswich. The morning was sunny with temps in the high forties when I reached the appointed spot; a small beachy cove on the left hand side just before JNR splits into Northbridge and Little Neck Road. I donned my hunter's orange knitted cap... not as a fashion statement but as a pre-cautionary alert. So no one would think me a dear deer standing there... it's hunting season.

There was a smokiness quality to the light that morning. Most likely the light frost and the warming sunshine had an impact on the morning atmosphere. On the beach, I found the changing of the tides to my satisfaction. For the tide was waning and would return to the same height around 4PM giving me the opportunity to re-visit the same high tide and beach exposure of my first painting of the morning.

I painted on tinted gessoed printing paper (Rives BFK) approximately 8X10 inches. I find this type of prepared surface to be very receptive to quick painterly sketches. I have a selection of warm and cool grounds to paint on. Gessoed watercolor paper works well too.

I was joined by my painter friend, Marjet Lesk, www.bridgegallerynewburyport.com/gallery/lesk

We both enjoyed painting the cluster of homes built on the bluff over-looking this part of Great Marsh called Great Neck. The beach we painted on is just one small area of the 25,000 acre Great Marsh here on the North Shore. For more inofmation regarding the area see www.associationofgreatneck.org/HistoryGreatNeck.pdf

So quiet was this part of the beach at this particular time of year. Gone were the frenzy of beach goers, tourists, cars, motorboats! There's the old saying, "So quiet you could hear a pin drop"... well on this day it was so quiet you could hear the sounds of hard, crusty shelled oysters hitting the low tide, exposed beach rocks...Click!Clack! Pop! Oysters dropped by high flying sea gulls that then swooped down and pecked out the sweet flesh exposed.

Oddly I observed, there were only oyster shells strewned about. No clam shells were to be found. Do these two mullusks not live and flourish in the same area?

Another sound had permeated the beach area. It echoed the same repetitious, staccato sound I was making as I stippled small rock textures onto my canvas with my brush; the sound of a nearby woodpecker. Tap, tap, tap, we both worked in unison.

Bon Painting!

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