New England Snow - Feb 1976

I remember this oil on canvas painting from around the house, not sure which room, maybe the kitchen or the hallway, still one of my favorites.  On the back it is titled "New England Snow" and nicely dated Feb 1976, so it predates the Concord Mill painting by a few months and may have been the one she did immediately before, possibly inspired by a snowy winter that year.  I liked the minimal use of color in this, really only red, with a little bit of green in the background, and yellow of the dead grass poking through the snow, a nice touch.  Even the sky is a light grey, no blues, as I remember those cold winter days growing up in New Jersey.  I like the different levels, the shed with the stone bottom, then the barn, and then up to the grain silo.  It provided an up/down feel as well as the front/back depth of the fence and the road that wraps around the barn.

New England Snow - Feb 1976

Dated and Titled

 

Tree Detail - Mom loved her trees.  I like she put a few dead leaves on them.

Detail

Detail - Well worn area in front of the door.

Detail - Not sure the perspective of the road quite makes it around the barn, but the details are nice with the grasses, shadows and wheel ruts all intermixed.

Signature is only "Capobianco" similar to other paintings during this time period. Same color as the barn it nicely stands out against the snow.

Great Smoky Mountains Tree - An Unfinished Masterpiece??

I don't ever remember this watercolor painting as a kid, only finding it as we were cleaning out our childhood home after Dad passed away.  I fell in love with it immediately.   It is neither dated, nor signed, nor named, but is one of few paintings that had with it the original photo from the magazine she was copying.  This was the most popular painting I put up in Mom's Facebook memorial.  The painting itself is hauntingly beautiful.  Only a few colors, the shades of greens, black and greys. She captured the misty morning gloom perfectly.  After comparing it to the original, I do believe it was unfinished though.  The top branches of the tree do not have the smaller branches coming off of them like the lower branches.   The two posts to either side of the tree do not have the fencing connecting them.  And, she didn't sign it.  Maybe a reflection of herself - an unfinished masterpiece....

Great Smoky Mountains Tree

Detail - Fence Post

Detail - Branches

Original Photo

Concord Mill 1976

I think this oil on canvas painting from June of 1976 was in our living room for many years. It was always one of my favorites.  I enjoyed the serenity of it.  I could almost imaging the water flowing and turning the wheel.  I really liked the contrast of the colors as well; from the different shades of green, to yellows, and browns and blues.

Concord Mill - June 1976

Dated and Titled

Tree Detail - notice the shading for the branches below the upper ones providing some depth.

Detail

Wheel and Fall detail. The most striking part of the painting, where you eye first goes.

Signature is only "Capobianco" similar to her 1974 "Country Morning"

 

The Sunflower

This painting hung in our house. It is a pretty good size maybe 36" x 24" and I seem to remember mom winning awards with it. Again it is just about the flower. I feel this predates the Poppies since the feel of this is much more rigid and not as loose as she got with the Poppies and even the Apples.

the sunflower

detail

Sig. of B. Capobianco makes me think this is an earlier oil

detail

(unfortunately the color is off )

detail

(unfortunately the color is off )

Poppies

Flowers. Mom would paint a lot of flowers. She'd take pictures of flowers and set up still-lifes of flowers. So let's conclude mom's oil period with two flower paintings. Both are interesting because they are both against white. The first is this odd little experimental gem. Poppies. She once more applied her heavy oil technique on this kind of lucite board. There is a nice looseness to the painting. A playful quality. Some flowers are more successful than others. It appears she was more learning here to paint in a loose way. Perhaps it was an assignment from her art class. In the end she did sign it. So she did find it a finished piece.

poppies 

detail

detail

detail

signature  of just Capobianco. So possibly an earlier oil in which she is learning or she just defaulted to signing it in her previous way. 

The Apple Tree

This unfinished oil painting, of what most definitely is the apple tree in the back yard of our house, could possibly be one of the last oils mom painted. It follows or proceeds the Apples, since she is still playing around with a more heavy impressionistic technique in applying the oils. The painting also feels abandoned as if mom's interest in watercolor was creeping into her art or she became fed up with oil.

That apple tree was huge. Much bigger than an apple tree should be. It was fun to climb but a pain in that my brother and I had to pick up the apples, which unfortunately tasted awful. It dominated the back yard and was a happy place for many a squirrel. We would count the nests in the upper parts of the tree as it always seemed to be a condominium for the local squirrel population.

The Apple Tree

detail

detail 

Folk Art Strawberry

This is also probably from the early to mid-70's although not as old as the similar folk art Harvest Basket she painted earlier. Mom loved going to craft fairs and antique shops. She loved Americana and the colonial era. We had a lot of pewter in the house and old glass jars. So it isn't a surprise that she would play around with folk art. Painted on wood, in acrylic. This painting hung around the house a lot.

folk art Strawberry

detail

detail

signature on back. 

Using only Barbara Capobianco makes believe this is from the early 70's before she added 'Sisko'

Apples circa mid 70's

 I think because my mom was in the kitchen all the time she tended to paint what was near at hand. So she would work on still-lifes of fruit and flowers through the years both in oil and then starting in 1977 watercolor. Below is another fruit in oil, I guess you can say from her later oil painting period. Her later oils she got looser, with heavy handling of oil. painting with palette knife and such. She was always experimenting. These apples are unfortunately not signed and not dated.

apples 

detail

April 24, 2020

On April 24, Barbara Mary Sisko Capobianco, artist, nurse, mom and grandmother, died. A victim of both Alzheimer's and ultimately Covid-19. She was 78. Mom, was a great and wonderful person. A nurse, she would go out of her way to help people. People she didn’t even know that well. She certainly would have been on the frontline today during the pandemic, even at 78.  Everyone who knew her considered her one of those rare people around us -  An angel on Earth. She was also an artist as this blog attests to who dreamed of retiring and dedicating herself to painting. Sadly it was all robbed from her by Alzheimer’s. And now at least she is free of that.  She is a fixed star that I and my siblings guide our lives by and we’ve all missed her for some time now. To honor her, I could post so many different paintings that mom did, many of them quiet and beautiful, much like her. I've settled on this one that hangs in my office, above the door. I pass beneath it as I come an go. A watercolor, her media of choice from 1977 onward,  it speaks to me as an image of freedom, soaring into that gigantic sky. However, that tiny house, it seems so alone but resilient, lost and forgotten but sweet and kind, a refuge, safe, a symbol of home. All elements I would apply to my Mom. There was a day in the late 70's, maybe 80, that this image spoke to her enough that she would paint it. And now she speaks to me through it.  - love you mom. Jimmy.

the painting 

( click on to view larger )

detail 

detail 

 love how she handled the grass in this one

detail 

when mom got loose you could can tell she was enjoying painting.

detail 

Her signature is her full Barbara Sisko Capobianco

Currier and Ives Master copy 1974

Another painting I remember moving about the house. A 1974 barn, this one inspired by or a master copy of a Currier and Ives painting.  It is a unique piece for my mom in it has a person in it and a lovely cow. It is a very pleasing, serene piece with nice accents and interest to it. 

Copy of Currier and Ives "Country Morning" 1974 oil on canvas

I did a search for "Country Morning" and this is the painting that popped up. Not sure if there is another painting mom copied or if she was inspired by this one and interpreted her own. Her painting is definitely not a "Copy of" this one. But none the less I always felt the Currier & Ives influence on the painting. 

Detail 

Rare sighting of a person in one of mom's paintings ( and a horse )

great cow and even some cool chickens 

details of tree branches

Chris noticed the tree : " I like this tree by the red building.  Is it really windy out, or just the weight of the snow on it, that is making it bend so much?"  Jim :  "I know it is a weird detail. Not sure what the heck is going on there. ( one of the many many questions I would love to ask mom about as I delve deeper into these paintings.)"

wonderfully dated and titled