tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82591906277425890842024-02-19T07:42:44.973-08:00Polly Turner Fine ArtPaintings, drawings and the likePolly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-51714930189185435752012-05-30T18:52:00.001-07:002012-05-30T19:05:58.780-07:00Hours By the River
I've been up Sugar Hollow by the Moorman's
River to paint river rocks several days this week, by the rushing water. My father kept me
company, reading nearby. The painting is a challenge. Not only does
the light change as the hours pass, but so does the water level. The photographs below show how the view (and along with it, the painting) evolved — not my intent. Who knows what Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-29220068094111821272012-05-22T19:21:00.001-07:002012-05-22T19:23:12.199-07:00Creative Arts Retreat
These are a couple of paintings I did during a creative arts retreat in April. It was an opportunity to practice meditation, open more to the creative process, and dismantle my relatively automatic way of observing and composing. I really feel like my more recent paintings have gained some more depth as a result. The top painting is a small oil of a tiny wildflower plant on the banks of thePolly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-16577822051204900092012-05-21T13:57:00.004-07:002012-05-21T13:57:55.846-07:00Garden Vista
Meg and I went up to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello again about a week ago to paint. I did this from the upper deck of the gift shop, overlooking the 1,000-foot-long terrace of the vegetable garden, and just finished touching it up in my studio. About 200 years ago the garden was at its peak for Jefferson's time, and last week seemed like the peak for our time, a patchwork of color. Jefferson Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-14335122052946338812012-05-14T14:31:00.004-07:002012-05-30T11:00:08.031-07:00Mulberry Row
I painted this a few days back on Mulberry Row, the main plantation street of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, and just finished touching it up today. One of a series of beautiful spring days on the little mountain. I packed up the paints around closing time, when the estate was nearly empty ... nobody but me, my dad, and the shuttle bus driver. So peaceful, a sense of home. I went up again soonPolly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-86110802861777807342012-05-06T16:08:00.001-07:002012-05-06T17:29:08.178-07:00May Roses
Chiles Orchard in Crozet, Virginia, has brisk sales at this time of year, and particularly on a Sunday when (as today) hundreds of people come to pick their own strawberries. Today there was a band playing music on the deck, and they invited Meg, Eileen and me to demonstrate plein air painting. These are some charming roses I painted just off the front porch of the shop.
Oil on stretched Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-4154966119960153412012-04-19T11:38:00.000-07:002012-05-06T17:30:20.579-07:00Spring Garden, Monticello
Another morning up on Monticello today, painting the tulips in the back garden. Several gardeners came to chat and snap a picture for Facebook. This place is charmed ...
Oil on canvas panel, 6" x 8". Bid nowPolly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-72991939523162005142012-04-16T15:48:00.002-07:002012-04-25T08:22:53.217-07:00Tulips at Monticello
I did this little oil painting today up in the back garden of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello on a breezy, warm April day. I love it when all the tulips come into bloom at once. Last fall I chatted with gardeners planting the bulbs, and they explained that fresh bulbs are replanted each fall. In the early spring I saw the leaves were sprouting early, and the gardeners had clipped the leaf tips,Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-4990861881142905812012-02-20T19:35:00.001-08:002012-02-20T21:01:13.365-08:00Meg's Stream
When I first arrived at this spot by the stream at the entrance to Meg's house, the sun was reflecting brightly off the surface of the water behind the tree. I imagined a dark study with blinding white reflections, but it's the nature of nature to change as the sun moves across the sky. So the composition emerged as a pattern of crisscrossing limbs and shadows. An upcoming endeavor, Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-21210281881075286442012-02-14T13:42:00.000-08:002012-02-14T13:46:06.550-08:00Autumn Pond
This is another painting from last November, one of the last mild days of the year. Meg and Barbara were farther down the way, painting a much wider view — see Meg's painting here — and my eye caught on a tangle of vegetation highlighted by the warm sun, the water's surface beyond. Just finished touching up the painting today. Oil on stretched canvas, 16" x 20"
$360 framed, plus $20 shipping
Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-13067579446660047032012-02-13T09:43:00.000-08:002012-02-13T10:12:01.344-08:00Crozet View
This is my first post in some weeks, as I've been taking advantage of the cold weather to research a book project. It takes a bit of finesse juggling writing and painting at the same time, but that's my immediate project. This painting was actually done last November in a field across the way from Meg's house (alongside Meg and Eileen); touch-ups were completed today. A few other nearly completePolly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-74582237539662976912011-11-25T17:00:00.000-08:002011-11-25T17:16:20.319-08:00Autumn View
When I looked at this bank of soft weeds with a pond and mountains beyond, I saw a chaos of visual information. There was something special and alive about that tall, central weed, so I let go of expectations about composition, jumped in, and trusted intuition. (Barbara and Meg were painting nearby, Barbara up the gravel path, Meg amid the apple trees — see below.) Oil on stretched canvas, 20" Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-85486478879628903572011-11-20T09:43:00.000-08:002011-11-20T10:27:13.018-08:00Moorman's River View
I finally spent some time today doing the last touch-ups to this oil painting, the fruits of several days spent by the Moorman's River in Sugar Hollow outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. My last day of studying this bit of greenery by the river, August 23, I was applying a few final brush strokes and enjoying the light dancing off the wind-blown ripples when the rocks started vibrating Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-47691782977108189352011-11-19T12:58:00.000-08:002011-11-19T13:11:57.513-08:00By the Moorman's
It has been very therapeutic for me, doing paintings that involved flowing water. After some 16 years of earning my living as a freelance writer, the sunlight feels amazing, and there's nothing I love more than driving home after a workday with spots of oil paint on my clothes — shades of my childhood, when dried oil paint on the private-school uniform was a badge of honor (at least for me and Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-72900208128689965722011-11-17T12:00:00.000-08:002011-11-17T13:18:20.545-08:00Into the Forest
The filtered sunlight was beautiful in this spot by a path along the Meadowcreek Parkway, a long-awaited roadway into downtown Charlottesville that is not yet open to traffic — only to pedestrians, and to plein-air painters like my friend Eileen and I, who went there a few weeks ago to study the autumn views. The trail winds along secluded woods and over pedestrian bridges. I finished this Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-37958171034825075242011-11-11T20:12:00.000-08:002011-12-01T14:29:34.200-08:00Pond at Miller School
This is a second painting done during an En Plein Air event at Miller School of Albemarle, Virginia — now on display at the school through Dec. 16. Oil on stretched canvas, 16" x 20". SOLD
Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-14431795684923353452011-10-21T19:41:00.000-07:002011-11-15T10:05:17.311-08:00Lotus Pond
Miller School of Albemarle, Virginia, had an En Plein Air event last weekend. I was attracted to the jumble of fading lotus plants and cattails in the pond below the main school building there, in part because of their complexity; I felt like immersing myself in the fray. This is one painting of two I completed that will be showing at the school from Oct. 24 through Dec. 16. (Opening reception Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-60727209151756820262011-10-20T10:38:00.000-07:002011-11-15T09:31:43.996-08:00Plank Road
Meg had a commission out in Batesville, and invited Barbara, Eileen and me to join her on the property. A pleasant Monday afternoon, sitting in a sunny field painting, children running around asking good questions. ("How do you do that?") Gouache on watercolor paper, 9" x 12".
SOLD - placed in the collection of Molly Shadel, Virginia
Time to get a few more painting photos up here ... this has Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-38331602561807702112011-09-01T13:23:00.000-07:002011-11-21T04:45:24.086-08:00Hidden Pond
Earlier this week Eileen and I went and painted by this beautiful pond, hidden between buildings at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. I suspect few people know the pond, with its two fountains, ample water lilies, and picnic table, even exists. Oil on stretched canvas, 16 x 20. SOLDPolly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-28589669923840877482011-08-24T14:28:00.000-07:002011-11-15T09:41:25.285-08:00Riverview 2
This was done in part on a beautiful, sparkling day by the Moorman's River, out painting with Eileen in Sugar Hollow west of Charlottesville, Va. I was working on it about an hour before the famous East Coast earthquake (the oil I worked on during the quake will be posted as soon as it's finished). We were perhaps 50 miles from the epicenter and less than half a mile downriver from the 77-foot Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-52052108845698793412011-08-19T08:24:00.000-07:002011-08-21T07:17:48.627-07:00Vineyard Road
Done on a September morning in 2010 at Seven Oaks Farm in Greenwood, Va. Not visible: fellow painters Meg, Karen, and Eileen, on the other side of the fence to my right, painting a gorgeous view of Mirador Farm in the distance. This painting will be in a group show, "Five Women Who Paint Together," Sept. 2-30, 2011, at the Gallery @ 5th & Water, Charlottesville, Va.
Learn more about Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-75633748530105165832011-08-08T09:50:00.000-07:002011-11-15T09:45:05.578-08:00Koi Pond 2
Meg West and I painted together the other day up at the koi pond at Serenity Ridge, different angles of the same subject. We started early but the oppressive heat soon set in. I returned the next day, and again later. Oil on canvas, 20" x 16"
$360 framed, $20 shipping
Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-12404484912996191832011-08-04T19:12:00.000-07:002011-08-21T07:16:41.488-07:00Guinea-Bean Arbor, Monticello
Climbing flowers of guinea beans, painted with late-afternoon sun in my eyes at Thomas Jefferson’s mountaintop garden at Monticello. One of several paintings now hanging at Java Dragon Coffee Shop in Charlottesville, Va. — the opening is tomorrow (Friday 8/4)! Oil on canvas, 14” x 11”, framed.Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-59211389204337767862011-08-01T20:00:00.000-07:002011-08-21T07:20:39.108-07:00White Hall Vista
This was another painting outing with Meg and Eileen, on a cool spring day before all this hot weather set in. I was skeptical when Meg suggested we could paint from our cars to stay warm, but found it surprisingly comfortable. We were parked in the lot of the White Hall Community Center, looking out past fence and field to the house and mountains beyond. This is another one for the "Side by Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-75113323867604485912011-07-30T12:01:00.000-07:002011-08-21T07:21:41.378-07:00View From Carter Mountain
A few weeks ago Meg West invited me to join her up at Carter Mountain Orchard for a painting outing. I set up on the back deck of the shop, and this painting was the result. If you're ever in Charlottesville, it's worth a visit to this orchard, one of my favorite views (and energetic centers) of a beautiful part of the world. In fact, it turns out that Carter Mountain Orchard's second annual Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8259190627742589084.post-79833699198147964332011-07-28T09:45:00.000-07:002011-08-21T07:23:30.339-07:00Show at Java Dragon
I just finished hanging a show of my latest artwork at Java Dragon Coffee Shop in Charlottesville, Virginia. It will be up through the month of August. A couple of customers just came in and oohed and ahhed, which makes me happy! The opening is planned for Friday, August 5, 5:00-8:00 p.m..Polly Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699867822344191551noreply@blogger.com2