Indiana Summer

Indiana Summer
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 11" x 14"

"My father... removed from Kentucky to... Indiana, in my eighth year... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up... Of course when I came of age, I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher... but that was all."

-Abraham Lincoln 

Now we only have one bear in Indiana.  He has been spotted up near Lake Michigan.  I have gotten lost a couple of times in Indiana.... on roads just like this one.  Indiana has a quiet beauty.

The Fragrance of Apples

The Fragrance of Apples
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Acrylic on Canvas 11" x 14"

"And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart:

Your seeds shall live in my body,

And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart,

And your fragrance shall be my breath,

And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons.”

― Kahlil Gibran

Dunes Creek

Dunes Creek at the Indiana Dunes State Park
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 11" x 14"

A few minutes before I did this painting a muskrat swam up the center of the creek, nibbled on some grass then kept on swimming.  It was a delightfully rich place!  I am so glad this marshland is being preserved.

"We are still each others only hope.  If love is the way we have of communicating personally in the deepest way, then what art can do is to extend this communication, magnify it, and carry it to vastly greater numbers of people. Therefore art is valid for the warmth and love it carries within it, even if it be the lightest entertainment, or the bitterest satire, or the most shattering tragedy."

-James Baldwin

Foxglove Flowers

Foxglove Flowers
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 16" x 20"

Trehill Well

Above the ivies' branchlets gray
In glistening clusters shone;
While round the base the grass-blades bright
And spiry foxglove sprung.

Oh tell me not of bitter thoughts,
Of melancholy dreams,
By that fair fount whose sunny wall
Basks in the western beams.

-Charles Kingsley

Evening in Berlin

Evening in Berlin
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 11" x 14"

The evening sings in a voice of amber, the dawn is surely coming.

-Al Stewart