 Elkins Park, Pennsylvania is my home and my muse right now. Here is a view at twilight with the party lights of White Pines in the foreground.
This painting is a small study as I prepare for a series of larger paintings for my residency project. It'll be for sale this Sunday at the Cheltenham Art Center from 11am - 4 pm. Feel free to come by and say hello!
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 High School Park Meadow What I find most fascinating about the meadow on the top of the hill in High School Park is the fact that under less than 2 feet of soil there is a buried high school. Erected in 1904 and used as the Cheltenham School District High School until 1959 (Go Panthers!), it went up in flames in 1995 and what was left was imploded in order to create the park.
The meadow is mowed each year. This juvenile red maple somehow escaped trimming several years ago to show its spectacular autumn foliage last week before our deep freeze. It's shallow root system isn't bothered by its underground neighbor. What I think is Indiangrass in the foreground captures the light like a brilliant autumn flower that I feel like I'm discovering for the first time this year. This may be my last outdoor painting for the season since I moved my operations back into my studio last week. But who knows? A 70 degree day may come our way some time in the next few months!  High School Park As I was enchantedly drawn out my door to witness this kaleidoscope of color, High School Park (located just one mile from my house) provided me with a lovely semi-private outdoor studio this week. The birds kept me company while I painted this and one other painting.
The ochre area in the foreground is part of the newly installed rain garden which has opened up the back area of the park. Not only will this work ecologically enhance the site, it also has opened up some space to create a great view of the autumn trees. It is extremely impressive what the group of Friends of High School Park have done in the past few decades to take an abandoned high school building site and turn the space into a reclaimed ecological treasure. Again, I'm feeling lucky to live in Cheltenham Township.  Curtis Hall, Wyncote, Pa. Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis, the publishing magnate who created the Saturday Evening Post and the Ladies Home Journal among others, once entertained in this ballroom. It's a lovely space, ornate and bright with all of its windows. The grounds are vast and filled with wonderful trees.
As I explore the sites of Cheltenham this one in particular has personal significance to me. In high school, I would walk to Curtis Arboretum to get out into nature. And, following that affection for the place, when I got married, we chose Curtis Hall for our wedding reception. On a most perfect July day we had this place to ourselves. It was amazing. |
