I was born and raised in Lakeville, Connecticut and have always loved to draw. Often my pictures were whimsical cartoons to go with the stories I was writing.
I have always loved action and humor, often featuring animals. Later I added moving water, waves on rocks, rushing brooks, and the Housatonic river meandering through the pastures and woodland.
Art was always associated with play in my mind; I had no formal training until my thirties. I often "break the rules" of formal art, because I never learned what they were. Sometimes the result is good fun.
Colored Pencil
"Peke" a Boo! Colored Pencil 20 x 13, 2004
Irish Tweed - Colored Pencil -17 x 20, 1997
Kidding Around - Colored Pencil 16 x 16, 2010
Fairy at the Fountain - Colored Pencil - 16 x 16; 2015
Watercolor
This picture is an early combination of watercolor and colored pencil. I used colored pencil to do a rubbing to make the mat look like tweed fabric. The center picture is a formal watercolor using all the tricks I knew at the time. It is signed MG Bodel, my maiden name, and is dated 1995. It hung in my office for years, reminding me of Nova Scotia.
I began studying how to make pictures and the rules of drawing and composition in the 1990s at the Art League School in Alexandria, Virgina. The Torpedo Factory housed studios and working galleries for many artists and offered excellent classes. I took classes for three years in drawing, colored pencil and watercolor painting and learned a lot of things that I hadn't known before.
My water color teacher once asked me (perhaps in despair), "Why did you choose watercolor?" I told her it was because I love the pictures; I didn't realize it was such a difficult style of painting, and would be mostly backwards to what I learned about painting later on. I was in awe of the process and enchanted by the movement of color on paper, and trying to catch a moment in time.
Watercolors: Autumn Flowers, Frozen Stream and Summer Lake - 2008
Goshen Fair - 2009
Summer Field - Watercolor 9x12 2010
View of the Hills - Watercolor 9x12 - 2010
I love water color because it is so difficult.
Water color is fast. You must always have the finished piece in mind, while at the same time moving like lightning to keep or edit the little surprises that are always occurring when working with washes of water.
You have to know what each element, water, color and paper, can bring to a picture - how to tease your effect out in the moment.
April Falls - Watercolor , 16 x 20 - 2008
Snow Squall, Watercolor, 16 x 20 - 2008
Two Tootsies! - Watercolor , 9 x 12 - 2022
Gladiolas in Tiffany Vase - Watercolor and collage, 9x12 - 2015
Autumn Leaves, Watercolor 19 x 15 - 2025
Acrylic
I began working in acrylic in 2002 following my move back to Connecticut to help my aging mother. I took a few classes given by a local artist (Peter Lefferts), and learned the basics of the medium. This still life is my first formal acrylic picture, "My Favorite Things."
Nova Scotia Shore - Acrylic; 16x20, - 2006
Acrylic doesn't get the respect it deserves. It dries very quickly, so you have to mix in small amounts, or get your effects by layering, using thin washes, or scraping down through the top layer to the layer below to get a textured effect. You can also "scrumble" two or more colors to get a soft background color, but again, you have to be quick about it.
Rocks on the Beach, White Point Beach, Nova Scotia - Photograph and Acrylic painting, 14 x 18, 2004.
Backyard View, Lakeville Connecticut - Acrylic; 14x18, 2012
Acrylics are great because there are no fumes, and no need to set aside a special place for paintings to dry. They dry as you go along. This makes them easy to transport, which is helpful in Plein Air painting.
Inlet of Newfoundland - Acrylic; 11x14, 2021
Tess and Pete at Frieda's Beach, Chester - Acrylic; 12x16, 2021
Lupines in Chester, Nova Scotia - Acrylic; 11x14 2021
Rose and Tess at the Rope Loft, Chester - Acrylic; 12x16 2022
Nova Scotia Beach - Acrylic 12 x 14, 2021
But the final great thing about acrylics is that if you find you want to chance something you can paint over in white, and then just re-do the section you want to change. I love this quality because it frees me up in the moment of painting; I know that if something is not quite right I can fix it later. It's very liberating!
Reflections of Autumn - Acrylic; 12 x 16, 2023
Peonies on the Fence - Acrylic; 8 x 10, 2021
The Golden Hour, Tuckahoe Lake - Acrylic; 12 x 16 , 2023