MORNING IN HYDE PARK, 6x12, Oil on Stretched Canvas

Oh, to be in England
Now that April's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England - now!!

Robert Browning

Painted from a photo reference taken on a recent trip to Hyde Park.

Purchase here
150.

LAUGHING THE SALTY WATER FROM THEIR MOUTHS SOLD

SOLD

Louder than gulls the little children scream 
Whom fathers haul into the jovial foam; 
But others fearlessly rush in, breast high, 
Laughing the salty water from their mouthes-- 
Heroes of the nursery. 


Robert Graves

A Call from Mother, 5x7, Original Oil, SOLD

Mother, Mother Ocean, I have heard your call
Wanted to sail upon your waters
Since I was three feet tall.

A Pirate Looks at Forty
Jimmy Buffett

Somehow, I never got around to posting this little seascape.  Hope you like it.

Purchase here
SOLD

PRINCESS DIANA'S GARDEN, 8X10, Original Oil, Canvas on Board, SOLD

Goodbye England's rose
May you ever grow in our hearts
You were the grace that placed itself
Where lives were torn apart
You called out to our country
And you whispered to those in pain
Now you belong to heaven
And the stars spell out your name


Elton John

No, this is not a rose, but a poppy photographed in Kensington Palace gardens, former home of Princess Diana.


Purchase here.
$149

LONG SHADOWS II, OIL, 6X6, CANVAS BOARD

A tiny silhouetted sapling, 

whipping in the winter wind,

makes a mile-long shadow,

across the creek, over the clearing

and far into the woods in the shadow of 

faraway mountains,

slate blue flares pink

then fades.

Ruth Hill

Purchase here

$70

Seascape at Saintes-Maries, after VanGogh, SOLD

A few days ago was the third anniversary of this blog.  I repeated a post last Friday...and posted the first painting ever shown on this blog.  Now, I don't want to run this into the ground, but I decided today to post the second painting.  So, I did...and this is it!  Painted after Vincent, I had lots of fun trying to re-create his brushwork in this work.

That's it, I won't repeat any more posts....now.

RED SKIRT, 16X20, OIL, SOLD

Today is a special day at Carol Schiff Studio...3 years ago today, I did my first blog post.  At the time, I was not even sure I knew what a blog was all about, but I decided to give it a try.  The painting above is the painting I posted that day.

I thought you might enjoy seeing this painting too.  It is a little 4x4 showing a similar scene.

Today is the perfect day to thank all of you that read my blog, if today is the first time you have been here, or if possibly, you have been checking in occasionally over the last three years, THANK YOU!  I appreciate each and every comment and everyone who comes to look silently.  Without you, this blog would not exist.

PS  I do like the comments more than the silent viewers.  Just kidding. o:)

WELCOME TO PARADISE, 8X6", OIL, SOLD

If you like the tropics, this is the place to be......

An interesting old house in Key West.  Surely, Ernest  Hemingway or maybe Jimmy Buffett lived there at one time or another.  Or maybe not.

Purchase here.

LE BOL DE POIRES, 14X18, OIL

This is not a new painting, but one that I have never posted.  I was touring museums in Washington DC when I decided to take a coffee break and found this beautiful bowl of pears on the counter.

I have entered this in the Daily Paintworks auction at a reduced price.  The 14x18 stretched canvas has the sides painted black so that it may be hung with or without a frame.

My friend Carmen Beecher makes the best biscuits in the world.  She works from her grandmother's recipe.  Carmen and her grandmother don't measure...they do it by touch, but she worked up this recipe for the rest of us.

CARMEN'S GRANDMOTHER'S BUTTERMILK  BISCUITS

2 Cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup Crisco ( more if you want them flakier)
1 cup battermilk

Grease cookie sheet, set oven to 425
In large bowl, cut the Crisco into the flour until crumbly.  Pour in the buttermilk, stir with a fork.  Flour your hands and pick up a golf-ball sized piece of dough.  Roll into a ball in your hands, flatten and place on cookie sheet. with the biscuits not touching

Bake for 15 minutes.  Makes 12.

If you have any left over, split them in half, spread with butter, and slip under the broiler until toasty brown.
Bring on the jam and enjoy!!

These are excellent for strawberry shortcake, just add a little sugar to the recipe.

DISTORTIONS, 6X6, OIL

When distant and unfamiliar and complex things are communicated to great masses of people, the truth suffers a considerable and often a radical distortion.  The complex is made over into the simple, the hypothetical into the dogmatic, and the relative into an absolute Walter Lippmann Purchase here $60

LIKE A CANDLE IN THE WIND, 8X6", OIL

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never knowing who to cling to
When the rain set in
And I would have liked to have known you
But I was just a kid
Your candle burned out long before
Your legend ever did


Elton John

I have always loved this song.  It was even more meaningful to me when he changed the lyrics for Princess Diana's funeral.


Purchase here
$80