Under the Village Life (Arbanassi) 2005

I painted this series of works on paper during the winter of 2005/2006 when I lived in the historic village of Arbanassi in central Bulgaria.

I had just gotten married, packed up my Boston studio and returned to live in the same village I had lived in, when on the Fulbright Grant in 1996/98. I lived in a rustic "house of character" with a lovely garden brimming with flowers, fruit trees, grapevine trellises and a grand old walnut tree. Typical of this village, the yard was enclosed by stone walls capped with russet ceramic shingles.

The first winter was a particularly harsh one. My living space was tiny and heated by a wooden stove. I squeezed the garden table inside to double as my work surface and the dinner table.

These paintings on paper were made during that first winter, on that garden table, peering through a half shuttered window into an arena of comings and goings, passages of snowfalls and snow-melts, fleeting strains of balkan music and snatches of conversations collecting and dispersing and, of course, the whispers of ghosts and memories.

"Hunted Nr.3"	"Woman with Wild Pig"	"Wood Spirit Lady"	"Winged Knave"
"Shepherd with Shield"	"Interior with Pig"	"Dancing Rusalka"	"Family Gathering"
"Shepherd Angel"	"Woman with Pig"	"Stara Baba"	"Hunted Nr.2"
"Mother with Children"	"Storytelling"	"Ghosts"	"Think Room"

Images above: 9" x 7.5" (inches)

Images below: 7.5" x 9" (inches)

Click on images to view in a larger format.

"Under the Village Life"	"Garden Visitor"	"Village Couple"	"Lamentation"
"Hunted Nr.4"	"Under the Walnut Tree"	"Village Couple and Wine Bearer"	"Snowy Garden"