Nancy Boudreau

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2010-03-07T09:34:00.001-05:00

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Godfrey Pond Ice Melt

2010-03-06T08:54:00.004-05:00

It's early in March and on the many, many local ponds of northwest Connecticut, ice is melting. On Godfrey Pond in the Nature Conservancy's Devils Den and Lucius Ordway Preserves, blue sky is reflected once again in dark waters exposed by retreating ice.
- Nancy Boudreau

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This painting is about 5" x 7" acrylic on gessoed mat board, protected in a cream-colored mat. As with all these little studies, the text above is handwritten on the back of the painting, which is also signed and dated. For comments and queries, please feel free to contact me directly at: nb@nboudreau.com

Tough Guy

2010-03-03T07:54:00.005-05:00

With drooping limbs and one bud, this old grandpa saguaro stands like a body builder giving a thumbs-up gesture. A wet winter with freezing temperatures could have killed it, but instead gave it a pose of strength and affirmation.
- Nancy Boudreau

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Cave Creek

2010-02-28T08:45:00.004-05:00

I am planning on going back to Cave Creek in March to watch spring make it's debut. This painting is of the creek in February, after heavy rains and the accompanying flood. The water level is back to normal, flanking banks slick with mud, clogged with shredded and pulverized debris.
- Nancy Boudreau

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Strong Coffee

2010-02-26T07:31:00.004-05:00

What better way to start a cold, wet, winter morning than with a cup of strong coffee?
- Nancy Boudreau

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Manana Island

2010-02-24T07:43:00.005-05:00

Nope, not gonna look out the window and see the snow falling, no way. This one's for me! Remembering one of the most beautiful sights in my life: driving north on Kalanianaole Highway on Oahu and seeing Manana and Kaohikaipu Islands from Makapu'U Beach for the first time..
- Nancy Boudreau

From a photo taken during my first visit to Hawaii, in February 2008, this painting is about 5" x 7" acrylic on gessoed mat board, protected in a cream-colored mat. As with all these little studies, the text above is handwritten on the back of the painting, which is also signed and dated. For comments and queries, please feel free to contact me directly at: nb@nboudreau.com

Cains Cross

2010-02-22T04:55:00.007-05:00

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I have been walking through the woods lately, searching for color in a landscape of white snow, blue shadows, gray vertical tree trunks, under a ceiling of neutral gray or celestial blue, depending on the weather.

On this day, in a cold valley, I found the color I was looking for in the eddy of a stream. Late afternoon bronze and brass on the water's surface, caught my eye, and eerily, the mysterious shadows of a cross, floating below the substantial weight of fallen crossed trunks, snow laden. The symbol of the cross, wherever it is appears, is profound, weighted with feeling.

It just so happens that the trail that runs along this stream, is commemorated to George C. Cain, a fire fighter who gave his life on September 11th, 2001 in the demise of the World Trade Center. I suppose it is the hand of Mother Nature who laid these trees down, creating her own tribute to a good man.

- Nancy Boudreau

Below I include a picture of the art studio, where the painting was created, working from a photo taken during a recent hike in Walter G Merritt Park, aka Michael Ciaiola Conservation Area, in Patterson, New York.

Saguaro Blooms

2010-02-20T09:30:00.004-05:00

Crowned by flowers, the saguaro carries it's blooms high enough that only those with wings, ladder or telephoto lens can get a close up view. Beginning as Shrek-like knobs, these protuberances erupt into lush white flowers, an amazing adornment and lovely lure for birds and bats.
- Nancy Boudreau

Below, I include a photo of the art studio, where the painting was created, working from photos taken during a trip last May to Phoenix, Arizona.

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Prickly Pear Flowers

2010-02-18T07:27:00.006-05:00

In April the prickly pear cactus blooms. The rains this year should bring generous displays of yellow and orange flowers and later, the pears. . .
- Nancy Boudreau

Here I include a photo of the art studio, where the painting was created, working from photos taken during a recent trip to Phoenix, Arizona.

Mother Nature's Jewelry Case

2010-02-16T07:11:00.006-05:00

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The snow is falling this morning. Large flakes catch light from the studio, falling softly in the blackness outside my window. I'm compelled to record yesterday's walk down the fire trail at Pine Hill in Pootatuck Forest, New Fairfield, Connecticut. Reflections in a trail-side stream, as it pools in steps downward. Skirts of ice, thick enough to support a dog's weight, line the edges of the stream. The same ice would collapse under a hiker's boot, sending him home with wet legs. This stream, this is a necklace of brightly undulating liquid color, strung down the hillside, nestled in cotton-white, makes me think that I am walking through Mother Nature's jewelry case.
- Nancy Boudreau

Saguaro Spines

2010-02-12T10:59:00.004-05:00

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Is there anything in the desert, other than the sun, that commands as much respect as the saguaro? "Mighty" is the word that comes to mind, considering the stature, the weight, the armament, the capcity for survival. This is a painting of the spines and folds of a sagaruo's accordian pleated surface. Frequent rains have filled many cactus this year, expanding their folds. The weight of a saguaro increases greatly with such water storage.
- Nancy Boudreau

Jewel of the Creek

2010-02-09T06:41:00.006-05:00

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Nestled under the shadows of Cottonwood trees in the subdued pallet of Tonto National Forest's lanscape is the Jewel of the Creek. She gleams there, sapphire, a celestial blue wedged between mundane earthtones, a bit of heaven in which to dabble one's dusty toes.
- Nancy Boudreau

Clouds Over Spur Cross

2010-02-07T13:04:00.007-05:00

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Clouds over Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area cast deep blue-violet shadows accentuating the contours of distant heights. The saguaro studded hills are what qualify this wilderness to be called a forest, the Tonto National Forest. Standing here on the trails of the Desert Foothills Land Trust in Cave Creek, it's easy to appreciate the beauty of this corner of the Sonoran Desert.
- Nancy Boudreau

Cave Creek Clouds

2010-02-05T05:25:00.011-05:00

Clouds over Cave Creek, Arizona in winter, a week after heavy rains had caused the creek to rise as much as twelve feet above normal. Trees, cactus, grass and rocks were torn up and washed downstream, leaving rafts of shredded debris to be caught up in the sturdy branches of cottonwood trees ten feet off the ground - tinder for future fire. This scene is along the trails of Jewel of the Creek, part of the Desert Foothills Land Trust, just south of Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area. - Nancy Boudreau

San Elijo Sunset

2010-01-27T19:00:00.004-05:00

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A gentle sun set between rainstorms at San Elijo State Beach Campground. This and the last picture were from my time at San Elijo, the only camper in a tent during the worst rainstorms of the past forty years. Though the campgrounds remained open, most of the sites were flooded, everyone taking refuge in their RVs.
- Nancy Boudreau

San Elijo Storm Surf

2010-01-25T11:49:00.005-05:00

Rainstorms along the California coastline produced heavy surf and much erosion of the bluffs. Here at San Elijo State Beach, the skies cleared between storms, providing campers with a reward for waiting out the deluge. Just north of San Diego, in a rather urban environment, the beach and lagoon at San Elijo are a refreshing taste of wild southern California.
- Nancy Boudreau

Peaks Above Apache Trail

2010-01-24T11:21:00.006-05:00

Backlit peaks towering above the Apache Trail, just south of where it crosses Fish Creek in the Superstition Mountains, all part of the larger Tonto National Forest.
- Nancy Boudreau

Fish Creek

2010-01-18T15:10:00.006-05:00

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In the Superstition Mountains of Arizona, Fish Creek, east of Apache Junction, a jem in the wilderness.
- Nancy Boudreau

Devils Den Snow Melt

2010-01-14T07:23:00.005-05:00

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A quick thaw at the end of December left early vernal pools throughout the wooded hills of Devils Den Nature Conservancy in Weston Connecticut. The rolling mounds of dull russett were interrupted in the lowlands by glints of celestial blue and gleams of the yellow and gold of rehydrated fallen leaves, ghosted over with white of melting ice.
- Nancy Boudreau

The Orchids

2010-01-09T08:22:00.008-05:00

The desktop garden continues to capture my attention. These yellow phalaenopsis of unknown heritage have shown amazing stamina, having thrived outdoors despite slugs, bugs, intermittent rain and browsing wildlife. Now indoors, the plump blooms somehow defy dessication. They've been putting on a show for weeks now. Their crowning moment comes each morning when they're backlit by the rising sun. Here, I paint them abstractly, feeling their spirit in color and strokes.
- Nancy Boudreau

Not Pretty

2010-01-07T06:38:00.007-05:00

Adding dimension with polymer clay, no goal in mind but to integrate a couple of forms I'd made earlier. I was creating this while listening to Art:21, the Time episode which is particularly meaningful to me. Martin Puryear, working in a medium that is personally significant, giving special acknowledgement to collaboration. Paul Pfeiffer using current digital technology and the fascination of public spectacle to make art. Even tedium and repetition's relationship to building a work of art are mentioned and the obsessive devotion to producing something, is touched on in the interview with Vija Celmins. All these are aspects that have consumed the hours of every working day of my life for the past few years.
- Nancy Boudreau

This painting is about 5" x 7" acrylic and polymer clay on gessoed mat board, protected in a cream-colored mat. As with all these little studies, the text above is handwritten on the back of the painting, which is also signed and dated. For comments and queries, please feel free to contact me directly at: nb@nboudreau.com

Cloud Sandwich

2010-01-05T08:03:00.005-05:00

Having fun listening to back episodes of Art:21, a documetary series of interviews with contemporary artists, which you can watch online by going to thirteen.org and going into their Video pull-down menu. Thought provoking to say the least, totally entertaining.

This painting is an abstract created with the landscape in mind, placing color in positions that it typically appears in nature. The angle of horizon proving the whimsy of the work.
- Nancy Boudreau

2010 In

2010-01-03T11:22:00.005-05:00

A new pallet full of unrealistic colors and hope. I wish for all of us to learn to laugh again, like foolish children, heads tossed back, all cares abandoned, a spring of limitless joy bubbling forth. The return of Fun. Paint is scratched away in this picture because I am saying that we have scars, but even with our scars, we can laugh.
- Nancy Boudreau

2009 Out

2010-01-03T11:04:00.004-05:00

Good bye 2009. The scratched out color on this painting represents the hurts and loss of the year. Yet, it was colorful in a muddied way. - Nancy Boudreau

Over the Edge

2009-12-19T14:50:00.013-05:00

Flowing left to right, in a reading motion, bits of color like words, letters, punctuation. An abstraction of light read by our eyes as cold water moving under a clear sky. Caps of ice are formed as it sensuously rolls over and around, embracing obstacles in its path before mindlessly rushing on.

Here are brushtrokes and color emulating the language of visual abstraction spoken by Mother Nature. My painting is like an infant babbling, trying to speak the language of its parents. I create with two-pronged intent steming from a single desire: to establish a life-line to that from which I was born and to produce a tangible product for which others will trade support.

I don't want to be pretentious - I want to be the real thing. - Nancy Boudreau