A Bright Bouquet with Two Sparrows

March 31, 2016 Natalie Wargin

There's a small but very special shop one town over. It's the perfect place to find a gift or to get a wildly colorful bouquet and I was lucky enough to receive some of their fancy flowers for my birthday. Scarlet poppies, purple-indigo delphinium, lime-light hydrangeas. I thought I'd paint them even though the arrangement was a bit more colorful than my usual palette. Here they are. Somehow a couple of sparrows got into the picture. If you know me at all you know that I can't just leave things alone. Birds and animals tug at my sleeve every time I pull out my paints. I happen to have a soft spot for sparrows. Small and unassuming, quietly colored, they are hearty and tough. I had some space so in they went.

This is a 9 x 12 inch watercolor and gouache painting. It's available here in my shop:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/286217601/watercolor-painting-original-bouquet?ref=shop_home_active_2
You can find prints of this painting here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/274048834/art-print-watercolor-painting-original?ref=listing-shop-header-1

A Riotous Painting + Free SHIPPING

March 10, 2016 Natalie Wargin

Spring is coming, that's for sure. I look out my window or ride down a road and flocks of birds are gathering and singing like it's some big happy family reunion. Dozens of starlings flying in an abstract formation that thins and swells and curves. Dozens of robins in my yard, hopping and pecking at the grass and filling the yet to bud flame bushes. Driving down 209 recently I looked over to the fields where Gill's Farm has been growing exceptional corn for decades and I saw hundreds of geese. Hundreds. I have never seen so many birds all in one place. Maybe they were resting or maybe there was something tasty that geese just love left over from last season. All I know is that it was an impressive sight.

I've painted a version of what I saw and I admit that I took some license. The geese I saw were still and if there were other animals I didn't see them. I've moved the creek. The Esopus is actually a couple hundred yards away. I haven't seen any turtles yet this year. And these geese are flying which would probably be a wise decision if there were foxes around.

This is a watercolor and gouache painting, slightly horizontal, 13" x 12".
You can find the painting and prints of the image in my shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/270709027/original-watercolor-painting-100-geese?ref=shop_home_active_1
https://www.etsy.com/listing/271423948/art-print-original-watercolor-painting?ref=listing-shop-header-0

And get free shipping, today through Sunday March 13, with this code:
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A Room With A View + Free Shipping

January 29, 2016 Natalie Wargin

I have to face it. This winter here in the Hudson Valley is a dud. I know, I know, there's still more winter to come but I can recognize a pattern when I see one. This one says "No Snow." And I love snow.

Recently I was out with Maggie in the gray afternoon thinking a pretty bouquet might lift my funk when I realized that I didn't have to go over to Green Cottage for flowers. I could pick an interesting assortment of drying things; leaves of red and brown, gray-brown Queen Anne's Lace, and some of those other things, all appropriately decomposing like my mood. But I felt my mood improving. You can see in the photo of the things I chose that they made a pleasing arrangement. I took them home, took that photo, and was about to place the weeds in a vase when I noticed all the little dust and seeds falling. I began to sneeze wildly. The bouquet ended up back in the woods but I had an image and an idea for a watercolor.

The drying bouquet is hanging, as you can see, tied with a ribbon. I added the falling dust and seeds just for fun. There are goats in my vicinity but not right next door. The view out the window of goats in the snow is wishful.

The original watercolor is 11" x 14" and available in my Etsy shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/265830673/watercolor-painting-original-a-room-with?ref=shop_home_active_1
Prints of the image are available here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/265937368/art-print-original-watercolor-a-room?ref=listing-shop-header-1

And shipping is free on any order with this code, good through January 31.
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New Painting -- My Neighbors

January 12, 2016 Natalie Wargin

I have these neighbors up the road who have a story that you can read just by looking at their property. The star of the story as I tell it is Chester, the 16 year old rescued Belgian Draft Horse. Chester is big and blonde and gentle. A handsome chap. Belgians are related to Clydesdales so that might give you an idea of Chester's size. He loves to lay in the mud or stand out in the rain or snow. I suppose if you had such an enormous body you might like to cool down when you get the opportunity. Chester has his own barn and a corral that are pretty much right on the road and he attracts attention. Hence the sign: "Please Don't Feed The Horse. Ask." I should say right now that I haven't manufactured anything that you see in the painting. I loved that brilliant sign the second I saw it. I took a picture and I'm glad I did because it's weathered and you can't really read it anymore.

The deer hanging from the tree is common during hunting season. I think the man who lives here is a pretty good hunter because every year there's a deer. One year there was a bear. And one year there was a coyote. Apparently the coyotes were eating the chickens. Although I've placed the tree in the background the actual "hanging tree" is on the road. Scared the daylights out of me the first morning I ran past and saw a dead deer hanging next to me.

The woman who lives here actually has three pigs. Pot bellied pigs that live in the house. I have met them and they are sweet and bristley. Here she is walking the largest.

The painting is an acrylic on birch board, 16" x 12", my largest to date.
This is also the first time I've added a person.
And I've given Chester a pink halo just to show how special I think he is.

The piece is available in my shop:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/263160806/original-painting-my-neighbors-with?ref=shop_home_active_1

Autumn Orchard

November 11, 2015 Natalie Wargin

There's a pretty apple orchard on River Road in Red Hook. It belongs to Migliorelli Farm. The trees are small and the many many branches reach dramatically straight up to the sky. Both of these things surprised me. Apparently it's important to keep fruit bearing trees small and tidy to get the best crop. I'm still not sure why the branches grow straight up though, instead of gracefully curving and bending like other trees. Anyway, I decided this fall to paint the orchard at harvest time. The trees were loaded with red apples, the leaves were so green; lots of color. I nearly always work from photos that I take and River Road is narrow and curved with no shoulder so where to put my car and how to get over the stone wall that separates the orchard from the road? I knew if I could get onto the orchard that I'd technically be trespassing. But the farm stand is way at the other corner and the lovely gray house is a bit farther still. And I wanted some pictures.

There's a driveway with fancy iron gates that leads to a handsome property right across the road from where I wanted to access the orchard. I have never seen anyone coming or going from this driveway so I decided to risk parking there for the shortest time possible. Flashers on, I left Maggie in the car, crossed the road, and scooted across the relatively low stone wall. I walked quickly through the high, wet grass to the trees, took pictures from different angles, all the while keeping an eye on my car and my dog in the forbidden driveway. When I got back to the car my pants were wet to the knee. I will confess. I picked one apple. It was delicious. Crisp, and tangy; a MacIntosh.

Why the pheasants? I didn't see them at the orchard but rather up the road at Bard College on another day entirely. But they fit here, as do the mourning doves in the tree tops.

This is a 10 x 10 inch (25 x 25cm) acrylic painting on board. It is listed in my Etsy shop.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/254514646/acrylic-painting-original-autumn-orchard?ref=shop_home_active_1

New Painting -- A view from the Cottekill Trail

September 22, 2015 Natalie Wargin

I see a lot of deer these days. It must be the time of year. I'll be running on the trail and they'll walk out of the woods and stand in my path, looking at me as I get closer and closer to them. It's a delight to see them though I worry that I can get so close before they leap away. I know that animals are far from stupid. Most, I suspect, are much more intelligent than we egotistical humans will allow. But I don't want the wild animals around here to ever trust people. Hunting season is around the corner.

I pass this spot on the Cottekill trail. The trail is bordered by woods and all sorts of small plants. That funny lattice structure is a puzzlement. There are houses beyond and the mountains of course. This is a cool morning with smoke from wood stoves in the air. You can also spot bunnies, a squirrel, and one deer a-leaping.

This is a 12 x 16" acrylic painting on birch board. It's titled "Over."
https://www.etsy.com/listing/248611494/original-acrylic-painting-a-view-from?ref=shop_home_active_1

Porcupines at the Mohonk Preserve

August 26, 2015 Natalie Wargin

I went for a hike at the Mohonk Preserve with my friends Raedel and Mary Grace. The Mohonk Preserve is in the Shawangunk Mountains or Gunks, as they are affectionately called around here. The Gunks are part of the long ridge of the Appalachian Mountains, known early on for logging and mining but now known mainly for recreation, most notably for rock climbing and hiking. As with many areas like this the trails vary in difficulty. We were on an a fairly easy trail, a good walk and conversation being our intent. It was a perfect morning for it. As we neared the end of our hike we rounded a bend and Mary Grace, who was in the lead, almost stepped on a porcupine.

I had never seen a porcupine outside of a zoo and it was all I could do to get out my phone and start snapping pictures. Although the porcupine was clearly moving away from me it wasn't running and I was able to get some decent shots. I doubt it was worried about me because once it got to an overgrown area it stopped to grab and eat a bunch of leaves. I thought it was very beautiful. I did wonder about those quills though. Do they shoot them in self-defense? Later I looked it up and found that porcupines do not shoot their quills but will charge and impale a predator with multiple barbs.

Here is my portrayal of the porcupine we saw, munching in the foreground and then calmly retreating. It really was an attractive animal with many many quills that almost looked soft. Almost. I've added the orange day lilies that line the roads here in the summer.

The painting is available in my shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/243853269/original-watercolor-porcupines-at-the?ref=shop_home_active_1

And prints of the image are available here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/243854559/art-print-original-watercolor-porcupines?ref=shop_home_active_2

Here's a back-to-school special: 20% off any purchase, good until September 3rd:
FALL20

Dogwood and Deer

July 28, 2015 Natalie Wargin

This spring was a good one for the dogwoods here in the Hudson Valley. While other things, my honeysuckle for example, failed after the terrible winter the dogwoods were as full of blooms as I've ever seen them. Branches heavy with perfect pinkish white flowers that stopped me in my tracks more than once. I thought I'd make a canopy of them. The deer and rabbits beneath are actually a study for a larger acrylic painting that I'm planning. They do seem at home here though, silent in the cool dark wood. I've finally gotten some cattails into the mix, there in the foreground. And a few spiderwebs higher, in the tree tops.

This is an original watercolor and gouache painting of three deer and a few rabbits under a blooming dogwood. The painting is 7 x 10 inches (18 x 25 cm).
You can find the painting here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/240400084/original-watercolor-painting-dogwood?ref=shop_home_active_1

And prints of the image here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/241120525/art-print-deer-and-dogwood?ref=shop_home_active_2

Wild Turkey on Leggett Trail

July 9, 2015 Natalie Wargin

This is an original acrylic painting of a lone wild tom turkey. I have placed him in the surroundings where I see him -- woodland with wild roses, chipmunks and a small stream. The painting is on a 9 x 12" (23 x 30cm) birch panel. I haven't done an acrylic painting since high school. This was fun and I will be doing more.

There's a section of the trail here that Maggie & I like to walk. We access it from Leggett Road. For the past couple of years we have been most fortunate to spot, from time to time, a large lone wild turkey. We saw him again recently. He was close to the edge of the trail and I guess we startled him. He made a fuss and moved off. I think that he lives in the wild woodland that borders the particular section of the trail where we are likely to see him. He seems robust and healthy but I wonder why he's always alone. I try to stop myself from anthropomorphizing but I'm afraid he's lonely or maybe being ostracized. I told my sister, an area native, about this Tom and she said that she thinks turkeys sometimes spend time alone. It's true that I don't see him very often so maybe he's usually with a flock. Fabia and I decided that he was in a Garbo phase. Not tremendously clever, I know, but it made us laugh anyway.

As I mentioned above I haven't worked with acrylics for a while and to me this looks so different from my watercolors. Often I don't know what to think when I look at a painting I've finished and that was very true of this turkey. There's something about this piece that reminds me of portraits that itinerant painters would do during colonial times. Of course this is a turkey and not a well-to-do dry goods proprietor but still. There's just something about it...

You can find this painting in my shop.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/239253709/original-painting-wild-tom-turkey-on?ref=shop_home_active_1

And you can use this code for free shipping on any order. It's active through July 18.
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