Stowe Church in Fall

This is a painting of the village of Stowe, Vermont in fall foliage.  I lived very close to Emily's Bridge (a covered bridge) in the Hollow for 8 years as a child.  This view of the village church is well known to visitors returning from a trip to Mt. Mansfield from the Stowe side back into town.

While I saw the white steepled church nearly every day, we attended the Blessed Sacrament Church.    Andre Girard, a French artist whose wife spent several years in a concentration camp, painted the entire church: walls, ceiling, glass, and exterior.  His paintings depicted many scenes from the New Testament (including some rather intense and modern stations of the cross) and the work of "Brother" Dutton, who was born on the site, converted to Catholicism at 40 and worked with lepers in Molokai for 44 years.

Stowe has always conjured up a magical feel of mischief in the mountains from those days long ago.  Enjoy!

Stowe Church in Fall
2014 Catherine K. Moore

Halloween painting 2014

I found the inspiration for this painting on a trip to Shelburne Museum this summer.  There is a fairly large antique doctor's office housed with an apothecary and antique dentist's offices.  In one of these rooms I came upon this skull with the anatomical features written on it.  Having taken a year long anatomy and physiology course I was drawn to the 'study aid' but pretty dismayed at it being a real skull with what could be called 'graffiti' on it.  This skull became the inspiration for the painting and I did make an effort to accurately depict both the skull and the labeling.  Unfortunately some of the words were not legible and others I had to search online to determine from the few letters I could read, what the feature's label actually was.  The top of the skull was removed, probably by a fine saw blade, and that is what gives the odd appearance on top.  The effort was to produce something close to photo-realism due to the accuracy required to show the lettering on the skull.  Since this is not the most frightening Halloween painting, just pretend it's ghost is haunting the museum ;)

 

The Physician's Skull
12"x16" oil on linen on board
ckm 2014