“What is Home?” at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire

Again, I’m excited to be included in an exhibit at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire. This exhibit is titled “What is Home?”. They always do an excellent job of selecting interesting, quality and diverse artwork exploring their theme. You’ll see work in a variety of mediums and styles all exploring the idea of home often from very different perspectives.

Two of my “Hollis Land Project” paintings are included. These paintings explore issues of home, family, land, neighborhood and include both family history and local stories. The paintings are a bit like treasure maps. Larger blocks of color and line indicate houses, boundaries, roads and water and landscape features. Smaller marks indicate favorite trees, patches of flowers, and even a few cows. Both paintings have little bits of family and neighborhood history and stories written into the paintings. Many of these are still clearly visible in the painting “Our Street”, whereas most of the writing is almost totally hidden in the painting “Home on Pine Hill Road #1″.

If you were doing a similar painting of your home, what would your marks indicate? Maybe there is a low spot that is loud with the sound of peepers in the spring or the tree you climbed as a child or the shrub near a window where robins nested every year. Maybe there was a small garden, a chicken coop or a dog house? What are your memories that are tied to a specific place, a specific piece of land, a specific building, a specific tree or pond?

Ethel Hills - "Our Street" - Watercolor - 22" x 30"

E. Hills - Home on Pine Hills Rd. #1 - Watercolor - 22" x 30"

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