Midnight. A New Painting.

July 18, 2024 Natalie Wargin

This painting was a challenge. It was a commission, a continuation of a story I began in an earlier piece about the tomato plant that fairly took over my front yard. Maybe you remember it with the lovely girl in her front garden picking a basket full of ripe tomatoes. The assignment here was to place our tomato girl in her garden again but this time at night. I don’t have a lot of experience painting night scenes. This is where I landed.

It’s a mild full moon night, the lady of the house sits on the bench in her side yard holding her squirming cat. There’s no doubt about her green thumb. The wild tomato plant in the front yard was no fluke. In fact you can see it at the edges of the scene trying to find a place here too. The air is perfumed with roses, peonies, dogwoods, tulips, trout lilies, daffodils, and those little seedy things. There’s scarcely room for anything else, the gardening style here being one of wild abandon. The little stream adds soft background music while birds and animals rest. The house is welcoming, warm light from the open window.

This is only the third commission I’ve taken. The first one was a success all around, the second was a nightmare which made me hesitant to take this “Midnight” assignment. But the patron was happy to review a sketch and then let me run with it. I was grateful for that and we are both pleased with the result.

“Midnight”
24 x 18 inches
Acrylic on claybord

Prints of this image are available in my Etsy shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1732756934/midnight-garden-art-print-of-original?click_key=88a21fe8b96e6e20b8bd45200102a90f8b7ee42c%3A1732756934&click_sum=70cc18d9&ref=shop_home_active_1

Thanks, as always, for taking a look!

Two Turkeys Crossing The Road, New Work

October 26, 2023 Natalie Wargin

This usually happens. Tilly and I are out for our three o’clock walk, we turn down Coxing Road and there they are, a line of turkeys crossing east to west. These days there are twenty one in this flock. We stop at a respectful distance to admire and let them pass and fortunately they move slowly, with only a slight flutter here and there, so Tilly is not inspired to chase them. I hang on to the leash just in case. On this particular day I focus on a pair who are caught in a shower of falling blossoms while they pass a garden in bloom. Hollyhocks and blue flowers. A few little houses too. Do I know the people who live in the house with the inviting red chairs? Up in the air are a pair of brilliant cardinals.

“3 O’Clock”
12 x 16 inches
Acrylic on claybord panel
$800.00

This painting is available in my Etsy shop. Find the listing here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1578746348/original-acrylic-painting-of-two-wild?click_key=3e47223ca9dfeab484037b287d1874557f55f59a%3A1578746348&click_sum=bb1d62a3&ref=shop_home_active_1&sts=1

Prints of this image are available here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1579252004/art-print-original-watercolor-two-wild?click_key=89067dafdb51eacc5ce805875e2c0153cafc1e93%3A1579252004&click_sum=fcfec72e&ref=shop_home_active_1&sts=1

I’m running a little sale for the next three days: 20% off any purchase from my Etsy shop.
Thank you for taking a look! I always appreciate it.

Porcupines At Mohonk - New Work

February 24, 2022 Natalie Wargin

This is a retelling of a story from a few years ago when I went for a hike at the Mohonk Preserve with my friends Mary Grace and Raedel. If you’re unfamiliar with the Mohonk Mountain House and the Preserve it’s worth checking out. The hotel alone is fairly mind blowing. I digress. It was a perfect spring morning — flowers blooming, bees buzzing, birds and little frogs too, the roof tops of the hotel visible in the distance. We chose an easy trail, a good walk and conversation being our intent. We were talking and laughing and we rounded a bend and Mary Grace almost stepped on a porcupine.

I’d never seen a porcupine outside of a zoo and it was all I could do to get my phone out of my pocket and start taking photos. I got several decent shots. The porcupine didn’t seem especially concerned about me nor did she seem at all put out about almost being stepped on. You see her here, ambling along the path, and once she reached an overgrown spot she stopped to grab and eat a bunch of leaves. She was gorgeous. I did wonder about those quills. Do they shoot them in self defense? Later I looked it up and learned that they do not. Instead they charge and impale a predator with multiple barbs.

I mentioned that this is a retelling. A while back I did a small watercolor based on this story. Here is a larger representation in acrylics, with more details of the porcupine and the day. This is the ninth piece for my show at the Woodstock Museum in May.

“Porcupines At Mohonk”
Acrylic on Clayboard
24 x 18 inches

I’m having a sale in my Etsy shop running from today through the 28th.
20% off on any print, any size.
Prints of this image are available in my shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1182549973/art-print-of-original-acrylic-painting?click_key=e5175985330b1f06b173ee16d2f1970725b24287%3A1182549973&click_sum=bfa80afd&ref=shop_home_active_1&sts=1

Thank you for following my work and reading my tales.

Hello! The shop’s open with new work!

March 19, 2020 Natalie Wargin

Hello again! Little did I realize when I was working on this bright piece that a splash of bold color might be just what we all need. Especially this spring. I hope you’re all taking care and keeping well.

You may remember that last year I put in a peony hedge. Surprisingly it was kind of a success. I cut some blooms, red ones and white ones, and took some photos to work from. Here I've featured only the red and deep pink flowers in a bouquet, and I will admit that in this painting I got a little carried away with red. I thought for a minute that I'd use up all of my red paint. I really worried a little. In the upper corner I opened a window for some relief and there was a pink house with an impatient woman in the window watching a very happy black dog. The woman might be me. I don’t recognize the dog.

“The Pink House”
12 x 16 inches, watercolor on Fabriano Hot Press.

Here’s a second piece finished just a week or so ago. The little yellow building is a Quaker chapel in the woods next to a trail. The trail, you can see it on the right, starts with a rocky section that's not difficult to negotiate unless it's rainy. Then be careful please.

The yellow chapel is sometimes used for weddings and is beautifully simple inside with benches arranged on the square, an open area in the center of them. Here are all of the woodland creatures I've grown accustomed to along with spring flowers -- day lilies, daffodils, fragrant mountain laurel.

I've added several foxes, mostly red, one gray. The grays are unusual here and after eleven years I've only seen one. Foxes are true survivors and should we finally destroy this planet of ours cockroaches and foxes will live on. Foxes are supremely adaptable. Social in a skulk or solitary they can live practically anywhere and they can eat practically anything.

“Fox Chapel”
18 x 24 inches, acrylic on board.

My Etsy shop is open again. I’ve added some new prints and some new originals and from March 19 through March 26 all prints and original work is 20% off.

You can find my shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/NatalieWargin

The “Red Peony” painting is here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/770512022/original-watercolor-painting-of-red?ref=shop_home_active_4

And the “Fox Chapel” painting is here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/785439255/original-acrylic-painting-woodland?ref=shop_home_active_7

Thank you for following along!