Oil on linen / 40 x 30 in / Available from the Artist
After several compositions which were highly ornamental, I wanted to set this one with lots of quiet space. While I’m still deeply engaged with the tail feathers, their role is more supporting in this piece. I was remembering Richard Diebenkorn as I placed interest at the edges. When I hung the brass harness ornament at lower right, I knew the title. It felt like hanging a medal.
Oil on Linen / 30x30 in / at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art in 2024
One of my perpetual puzzles is how to compose a frontal still life which is not staid. The explosion of tail feathers, my current love, begins the effort. The samovar, so much like a pecking chicken with it’s extended spout, continues the theme. Can you find the Caryatid?
Oil on Linen / 20 x 24 inches / Available from the artist
Many of you know that rabbits are my avatars in the little worlds I create in my still life tableaux. I stole this one from my sister, the architect Heidi Hefferlin, and I imagine I’ll have to return it someday. I found the tiny wheels so optimisitc. The saturated nature of the lux textiles was comforting to me.
Pastel on toned paper / 19 x 22 / Available from the artist
Every year I paint daffodils I picked in my mother’s yard, where I grew up. It’s a ritual I enjoy deeply. This year they are accompanied by an exquisite cloth I bought in Morocco, of French silk damask with hand embroidery.
Oil on Linen / 30 x 30 in / Private Collection, 2024
The textures in this tableau are refined in the extreme, and so I was surprised when the painting wanted to be executed in rough, choppy, intuitive brushwork. There is some canvas peeking through. My Social Realism training reared it’s head. This was my last painting of 2023, and I enjoyed it tremendously. It’s me planting my flag, or in this case my black bouquet, on optimism for 2024. Enough war. Enough tragedy. Enough.
Oil on Linen / 24 x 19.5 in / Available at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
Two feathered “hats” from 2023…. retrices given by a friend with chickens, and a feathered hat postcard bought at the historic Vermeer exhibition in Amsterdam. I was most drawn to the monstrous shape of the feather’s shadow. So much linear delight for an artist.
Oil on Linen / 34x38 in / Cutter & Cutter Fine Art in 2024
As a young reader I loved stories about alchemical efforts. This tableau is my assembly of semi-magical objects from which I hoped to create a result more magical than the sum of the parts. It all began when a friend gave me a bouquet of tail feathers.
Pastel on Paper / 25x19 in / Going to Cutter & Cutter Fine Art in 2024
My mind enjoys alternating between compositions which have many moving parts, seemingly in chaos, while other times having a monolithic subject (an icon) hold center stage. Imagine this samovar a portrait of a woman in a magnificent hat, such as Valentin Serov’s “Olga Orlova” at the Russian Museum.
Oil on Linen / 19 x 13 in / Available at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
My original title for this little altar was “Altar, II,” but every time I looked at the lighbulb I saw a duck’s head. The tucked feathers felt like wings at rest, or crossed legs at rest. The painting seemed to be want the second title.
Oil on Linen / 30x24 in / at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art in 2024
My son, artist Timur Akhriev, often composes using powerful color fields, but I had not often done so. When my sister gave me this sheet of royal blue cotton, my opportunity sprung to life. The current historic Vermeer show is often on my mind. I think of this still life as a portrait of the samovar, in the spirit of Hans Holbein’s “Sir Thomas More” at the Frick Museum.
Oil on Linen/ 39x39 in / Available at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
A month in Venice during lock-down enriched my spirit with the decadent textures of the watery city. Across from our apartment was the fine damask producer, Bevilaqua (tablecloth from them). We also discovered fabrics by the house of Fortuny, a Spaniard who moved himself to Venice and began a textile empire. The rabbit, ready to float onto the canals in her silver boat, loved all the decadence.
Oil on Linen / 35x54 in / Available from the artist
In past years I’ve begun to collect beaten copper from Europe. The reflective properties and the colors, from peach to purple, enchant me. Sitting here in the window, they reminded me of checking the window (or even waiting in the window) for a glimpse of the beloved’s return.