Retro Cat and Red Apples - A Still Life Painting

Retro Cat and Red Apples

6x8 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

 

This little ceramic cat was an article that graced my grandmother's home for many years.  As a child I was fascinated by it as well as other items that she had placed around in various arrangements or on certain table tops with family pictures.  She had 9 children of whom my mother was number 6.  My grandfather had been a farmer all his life except when he served in WWI so they didn't have a lot of monetary things.  Their home was full of love; however my grandmother of 4'11" was a disciplinarian!  I'm sure she had to get her bluff in some way because of her size if not because of the need for organization in a large home and family situation.  Plus, on this side of my life I understand why one would not want 15+ grandkids jumping on her beds.  All this to say, I was not allowed to play with her knick-knacks, but I had a great imagination.  I imagined stories around this little ceramic figure....some of them quite whimsical.  It became one of my possessions when I found it in my mothers garage many years later.  This little painting makes me smile.  I smiled all the time I painted it.  The figurine is in other paintings I've done.  I still get a charge of memory out of arranging it in compositions great and small.  It is listed in my Etsy store.

Lilac Painting

Lilac Painting

11x14 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

When I paint lilacs I am always reminded of my grandmother, her last country home and her flowers and garden.  I am reminded of learning how to snap beans, shell black-eyed peas, and cousins.  Yes...cousins.  My mother and father both were from families of nine children, so I had lots of cousins.  Just the scent of lilacs remind me of my grandmother's driveway.  Her lilac bushes were huge (at least to a kid) and they grew up on the bank from the ditch along her driveway.  I was born in the oldest set of grandchildren and I remember literally digging a horseshoe tunnel along with my cousins into the bank next to the lilac bushes, covering it with old lumber and dirt. After we sufficiently covered the claustrophobic tunnel came the "DARE".  We each had to take turns and crawl through the horseshoe tunnel on our bellies........it was sort of like an acceptance code of being in the "in crowd"!  The "in crowd" of older cousins!  The crazy thing is that it took us forever to dig the tunnel for the short "thrill" it gave each of us.  It seemed to take a lot longer and not near as much fun filling the dirt back into the hole.  Lilacs, an old fashioned flower, have so much more meaning for me than the beautiful scent, the fabulous lilac color and my passion for painting them with canvas and paint.  This painting is listed in my Etsy store.  Click here.

Lilacs in Antique Cream Pitcher

Lilacs in Antique Cream Pitcher

by

Cheri Wollenberg

Lilacs are some of my favorite flowers.  They always remind me of my grandmother.  She had huge bushes that were so fragrant and sweet smelling.  They lined the drive going up to her home.  It's funny how scents can bring visual images to mind.  I can see her when I smell the lilacs.  I can see her stooped over picking blackberries and then making blackberry cobbler.  She made wonderful jams and buttermilk busquits.  She was 4'11" but we grandchildren we had a great respect for her.  She was loving but firm.   Her fragrance and beauty was as sweet smelling as the lilacs to me.