A Gift for an Artist

Today, our Steinway piano leaves the house, sold to the highest bidder by Dot. I woke early this morning, ready with a title for this essay and a mind filled with words too scrambled to do justice to the scope of my emotional feelings. Dorothea Lippart was the music teacher at Ranney when I began teaching. Dot is a talented and lovely person, a beloved mentor to every young student who ever had the honor of working with her, and a very generous friend.

Just over six years ago, Dot retired from Ranney life and was planning to move from her beautiful, antique filled home in Rumson, NJ. Two grand pianos sat together in her tight first floor living room, a house of a true musician. The pianos were eventually going to be gifted to her two sons one day. Meanwhile, she was not going to her new home with both pianos, and asked if anyone would be willing to hold one of them until her son, James, was ready to take it. We went with Sam to her house to see the piano. How thrilling for Sam to play on a real Steinway, a beautiful grand lady meant to fill the concert halls of the world with music. It was an ordeal to bring the Steinway home. Piano movers removed her base and wheeled the body of the piano up the steps on its side. We delegated all the furniture in our living room to the garage to make room for her visit. Only a couch and a chair remained, comfortable seats for an audience to enjoy her sound. We sat around the Steinway for the last 6 years, simply kvelling at Sam's gift of a piano and his gift of musical talent.

Sam's post on FB the day the piano came was a proud and excited blurb. He learned to be a musician on a Howard, a used upright piano too old to be tuned properly. That day, he began playing on the concert grand Steinway. Quite a change in status and quite an honor for our young, talented musician. Sam composed the score for an original musical on the Steinway and wrote a CD filled with original songs on the Steinway. He made us smile with his music, filled our home with magic, and entertained scores of friends and family on the Steinway. He was gifted with the best keys and the best sound for many years. Today, movers are coming for the Steinway, taking it to Virginia to be restored and sold. Dot's son, James, did not want the piano after all.

Completed painting for Sam
20" x 26" acrylic on canvas

I painted a canvas for each of my family members over the years. They all own an original B Levine and a very precious piece of my heart. For Sam, the painting that hangs in his room is a realistic composition of his fingers on the keys of the Steinway. I must have taken over 50 photos of his fingers on the keys, all with a good view of the Steinway logo above his hands. I remember asking him which photo he liked best, as I know little about music and which keys he was pressing to give him which sound. A true collaborative effort, an image of Sam was selected by Sam, then painted by me. I have done many paintings in my life and not all of them have dogs in them. This is one of my favorites. The piano moves into a new home today, but my painting of Sam's fingers on the keys remains as an homage to a grand lady who filled our living room with beautiful music. I am thrilled that he has my gift of a painting to always remember his gift of music from Dot.

Sam will own another piano one day, whenever he is ready to choose one for himself. Right now he proudly plays on a grand electric keyboard, various guitars, ukeleles, drums and assorted other instruments. He graces the halls of his school and the courtyard of his camp with his talent. He amazes audiences and totally captivates his proud parents no matter what keys or strings tickle his fingers. Can someone find him a microphone, please?

Maggie the Eighth

Painting of Maggie signed, framed and delivered to the Bubers this week

One month as a retired art teacher. Thirty days. I have to be thankful that each day has been filled with things to occupy my mind and has kept me physically moving. Zach and Michele are officially engaged and a date is set for their wedding. I bravely faced retirement with a rush of emotions and busy work. I cleared out the overstuffed basement to make room for more stuff, hosted barbecues to welcome in the summer with friends, completed two paintings, sold one for cash, went to a few art exhibits for inspiration, enjoyed a few beach days with Norman, and helped Joyce build shelves. Phew! All of this has made the transition from working a full job to not working a full job easier. And, it does not feel like I am not working a full job. I am just as exhausted come nightfall.

Maggie saying "hello"

I completed Maggie, my eighth dog portrait. I am ready to design a website to sell my work. People love their pets. I can do this. After one dog portrait, I could say I am a painter. After eight dog portraits, I can say I paint dogs. Right?

I felt so grateful to be able to work in my own art studio this month, perfecting the details of her collar and dog tags with the tiniest brush imaginable. Maggie's eyes shined brightly on the canvas and her fur seemed soft and real. She was coming alive for me and I was living my dream.

Maggie is now signed and framed, and lives in her new home with the Bubers, along with the real Maggie Goldstein.

Here are my eight completed dog portraits, all painted with love and hopefully displayed with just as much affection in the many homes they live in. My Murray, you are next.

Commissions are open! Contact me...
Blevine129@gmail.com






Pictured:
Maggie the cockapoo
Dave the beagle
Zoe the poodle/shih tzu mix
Harley the havanese mix
Princess the poodle
Hannah the shih tzu
Babs the shih tzu (with Norman the husband)
and Tattoo (some kind of white fluffy dog?)

Let Them Draw Cake

Sketch of cake by artist Wayne Thiebaud

I just enjoyed a great day of inspiration for any artist. My trip to the city was a lonely one, but it was a trip I was happy to do for myself. If an exhibit looks promising, the weather fair, and no other pressing needs were keeping me home, why wouldn't I make the $6.80 senior fare bus trip into Manhattan? I tried reaching out to a few friends to meet me at the Morgan Library and ended up on my own, having just as much fun talking to strangers in each of the galleries of the Museum.

I love discovering art on the streets of Manhattan.
This oversized needle was a surprising find on a corner of the garment district.

Thomas Gainsborough

My brisk walk to the Morgan Library on Madison Avenue was filled with thoughts of a few exhibits I was excited to see. Street art along the way made the day all the more special. At the museum I started my self guided tour with the sketches of Thomas Gainsborough. His sketches resemble the style of his paint strokes. I discovered the same startling comparison years ago in an exhibit of Vincent van Gogh's drawings. Vincent's small repetitive marks of pen and ink in his drawings were a perfect match to the small directional strokes of his paintings. I remember thinking this was obviously how Vincent visualized the world and expressed his observations. It was just as startling to remark on the same fluidity of work with Thomas Gainsborough.

Do my drawings look like my paintings? I'll have to think about that.

The next room I visited at the Morgan featured the drawings of Wayne Thiebaud, an artist famous for painting cake. I meant to teach this artist to my art classes and never got around to introducing him to the kids. How much fun would it have been for them to paint a picture of cake? Without planning a lesson on the artist, I never did the research or learned much about him. Turns out he was a draftsman and a cartoonist before he ever painted cake, and this exhibit clearly was not about his paintings. The display began with his early cartoons, and his wit brought a smile to my face.

He was also asked by Wimbledon to attend their tennis matches and visually record the tennis players. Here I thought Norman would not appreciate being dragged through another museum, yet we would have both enjoyed this particular exhibit for our own separate reasons.

I was most taken by Thiebaud's quick sketches of people as they could have been drawn by the hand of my dad. It must have been the drawing style of mid 20th century art, and they were both wonderful artists of that era. I felt a close bond with Daddy, even if he was not with me at the museum.

Thiebaud's obsession with food came from a fascination he had in the 1950's with displays of food in shop windows. The geometric patterns and colorful renditions of his rows of cake, candy and hamburgers eventually brought him fame.

Seeing the quick pencil and ink sketches of Gainsborough and Thiebaud was almost like having a glimpse into the personal lives of these artists. Just like handwriting can reflect the personality of the writer, so can the drawings of an artist.

A final exhibit, "The Magic of Handwriting," connected all the rooms of the museum in a well curated theme. Upstairs in the Morgan was a room filled with the handwriting samples of many people in history, world leaders, artists, scientists, and celebrities. A glorious and oh, so fascinating room to wander through. I examined each torn slip of paper that someone before me had written on as the most precious of all finds in any museum. Sigmund Freud wrote a letter to his 94 year old mom, giving her six dollars on her birthday. That was very typical of the small notes I took a long time to read and enjoy. I witnessed the signature of the Grand Duchess Anastasia along with her imperial family days before their death, I looked at the shaky hand of an older Winston Churchill, the bold script of Andy Warhol, and the feminine scrawl of Marilyn Monroe. Hands down, the most beautiful writing in the room belonged to Benjamin Franklin. Those were the days. Kids are no longer taught script in school.

I was ready to record all these treasures with the camera on my phone, but what got my notice with the most glee was a letter written and signed by Vincent van Gogh. Shana Lindsey at Ranney once questioned my use of the lower case "v" for van and wanted it changed to a capital letter before report card comments were sent out. I was pretty sure my usage was correct, but I could never be positive that I was not following some other incorrect information on the internet. And as Vincent usually signed his work with just his first name, it was hard to prove my case. But here was a letter signed in full. Sure enough, it was written as Monsieur V. van Gogh! It was a joyful feeling to be validated by the artist himself. Best exhibit ever. I was inspired by the hands of many brilliant people and I was even given credit as an art teacher who knew her stuff. Not a bad day.

A Day with Georgia in the Bronx

A gift from my thoughtful husband this year was a pair of tickets to see Georgia O'Keeffe at the NY Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. We spent a magical time together in one of the best weather days of the summer. And I got much needed inspiration for my own life as an artist.

We began with a stop on Arthur Avenue for an Italian dinner. That made me nervous since we are talking about traditional Italians here, kind of like Sonny's of Hopewell Junction. Gluten Free or other crazy American nonsense served here? Not likely. But a lovely dinner for me was possible, and it was discovered at Gerbasi, a lucky choice for us on the traditional avenue. We dined in an outdoor patio with Godfather music filling the cool night air and it felt like we were transported not to the Bronx, but to Italy. My dinner was amazing, my date with Norman, lovely, and the waiter absolutely happy to put together a V/GF meal of my choice. Smart man. A happy customer means a returning customer bringing more friends to try out his Italian delights.

The O'Keeffe exhibition in the Gardens was just as perfect. It was a small collection of her flowers and landscapes to fill my soul with art, especially after warming up during the day painting at my own easel.

The Gardens surprised me at first since we did not see a single flower. We walked along a path looking at pretty green lawns, cool origami street lamps, rocky formations, and well groomed trees. This part of the Garden looked more like a public park than a place to pay to enter. After walking around the exhibit in the library, we stopped to listen to Hawaiian music and I even joined in a hula dance lesson on a great lawn. Imagine me dancing? Not in my wildest dreams, but I did swirl my hips!

The Hawaiian theme continued in a conservatory with brilliant flowers typical of a tropical island. They really did a great job of transporting everyone into the world that inspired Georgia. And it will inspire me to face my easel again with renewed spirit and gusto. Andrea might just question the Hawaiian flowers I am inclined to add to her sweet Maggie's portrait!