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

The Green Tree - circa 1973

Yet another little barn done in oil. This too seems older to me than the previous similar painting. Perhaps this is even 1972. It is defiantly in the era of the Covered Bridge. Unfortunately there was no date or signature on this one either. The Green Tree stands out and there is something oddly interesting about the painting's evenly balanced compositions. The dried corn or wheat on the right really destroy the sense of scale. That shape makes the tree and the house so much smaller then I believe mom intended it. 

The Green Tree

The Green Tree detail: Mom always seemed to have fun with these little flourishes and accents. 

The Green Tree detail :  odd little red barn

The Green Tree detail :  The Green Tree ( I titled it ) I really like this tree.  It is just so impressionistic and loose and well, green. 

The Covered Bridge - circa 1973

Mom loved her idealized New England settings. Barns, old 18th century houses, fishing boats and harbors and of course covered bridges. This early oil painting of a Covered Bridge was more then likely from a photograph. It was another painting that hung on the walls of our house. Making its way from the living room to the dining room to the back room. The painting,  unfortunately, is undated and not signed but it looks naive enough to be done during the same period of the New England Fishing Boat of the previous post. Perhaps it even predates The Boat and the posts prior. The perspective and the technique feel less sure then The Little Red Barn and even The Old Mill. 

The Covered Bridge 

The Covered Bridge detail: The painting seems kind of undone but obviously it wasn't since Mom hung it up in the house. I feel it has an Americana folksy quality to it.  

The Covered Bridge detail :  These trees leaves are the most interesting part of the painting. I feel like she loosened up here and had fun with the color. 

The Covered Bridge detail: Closer on the tree and this nice white accent. Again feels undone since she either forgot or never got to adding a reflection for the white dead tree.