Cat Days, pastel, Bohoy

Cat days.

Pastel, 5x7, $125. 

BNN Portrait Exhibit, Boston, Bohoy

My self portrait will be in the juried:

"Portraits and the Stories Behind Them"  

at the Boston Neighborhood Network, 

BNN Neighborhood Art Gallery

June and July, 2017

Exhibit curated by Janice Williams, Art Studio 99. 

See the paintings:https://youtu.be/h26dcyU0pHg

See all the portraits and the stories behind them at:

http://www.artstudio99.com/currentcuratedexhibit.html

Outakes from my interview with BNN TV.

Island House, Exhibit, Bohoy

My Painting "Island House" is currently in the juried Art Fest 2017 exhibit at the Walter J. Manninen Center for the Arts, Endicott College in Beverly, MA

Island house.

Somewhere.

White from the sun.

Blue from the sea.

A stark serenity.

Pastel, 16 x 20, 2008

Framed, $500

June roses, mixer, Bohoy

My dear friend, the consummate baker, wanted her workhorse mixer to look less like a horse and more like art sitting on her counter. I painted trailing red roses on the little pony and now it's a "show horse."

Commission [sold]

Flower for Mom

The best kind of flower.
Not bought.
Just picked.
For Mom.

10x8, pastel SOLD

May Pole

Maypole.
Dance to May.
The Flowers, & the trees.
The birds & the bees.

Pastel, 5x7, $55.

May Day herb garden

May 1.
May Day.
My day to make May Wine.
Hopefully woodruff and mint are peeking up in the herb garden.
They'll go into the bottle with fruits and flowers to
steep and flavor the wine.
Earth gifts in a glass.
Here's to May.

Pastel, 10 x 8, $100.

April bouquet, Bohoy pastel

T.S. Eliot said, "April is the cruelest month." 
 Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

This April has been cruel. 
Snowstorms, rainstorms and chills. 
With hope– tulips, daffodils, magnolias & more will endeavor to pop for our Passover and Easter. 

Pastel, 8x10, SOLD

Library ladies, Beverly Farms Library, Bohoy

Our Beverly Farms Library turned 100 this year. To celebrate, a group of Farms artists pooled together and individually painted scenes of the wonderful institution. My painting was based on my memory of myself as a young girl [older than the one pictured] discovering the library and all the books that I could check out for free! I went from shelf to shelf finding one story to the next that piqued my interest. Marie Antoinette, Anna Pavlova...
My exuberance overshadowed the fact that you could only check out 3 books– let alone read all of the books that I had accumulated. 
The library still evokes that same excitement when I discover a book of interest among the stacks.  

[Pictured here: the library checkout desk and smiling Librarian Kate.]

Pastel, 10x8, SOLD, Massachusetts

Baking a cake.

“The sun was slanting thru the crisp white curtains of the compact kitchen– a scent of wild rose from the blossoming bush outside the window was perfuming the air as the breeze blew in– but the scent of cake baking in the oven was the star. My mother was singing “la de da...” as she whipped up a 7 Minute Frosting to ice the impending cake as we all hovered and waited in anticipation to lick the beaters. The cake batter had already been licked clean earlier by we overzealous kids fighting over who would do it first. 
I  can’t recall if the cake was for a birthday, dessert, or just ‘needed’ to be made, but all of the ingredients were there: the sun, the smells, the love, the passion, the family, the adoration, and anticipation. 

Later~
The cake is done, the frosting white, fluffy, and peaked. Who can wait?  No one– when the aroma seduces your senses: your eyes, your nose, your tastebuds. My mother takes the knife and carefully slices a piece for each of us, sneaking a lick of the wayward crumbs and frosting as she goes. The sun is now in a different place, the oven is cooling, our childish patience has waned, and we are finally ready for a bite of this beautifully baked piece of magic. 

That particular piece of Mom’s magic, chemistry, and passion, is now lovingly baked in our own sunlit compact kitchen.”
           ~ Johanna Bohoy

From an article written & illustrated for the Massachusetts Specialty Food Newsletter. 

Pastel, 5x7, $75.