October 2018

Green Canigou, oil, 9x12"

Green Canigou is the painting I started working on just before the short television segment.  The foreground was the most difficult part of this painting.

Rosie, graphite, 8x10"

Rosie was a commission I was going to do just in graphite, but I could not bring myself not to include some color into it.

Blue Sky Canigou, oil, 9x12"

Mosaic Canigou, oil, 9x12"

Blue Sky Canigou and Mosaic Canigou were started in the SAAC Gallery at Stone Oak, where they looked tiny because of all the big canvases and the size of the room. They are color studies. I so liked the colors and glass or mineral quality of the first impasto brushstrokes of Mosaic Canigou,  that I decided to treat the rest of the mountain as grout. 

The following paintings date from my time as a student of Edwards Povey. I did not show them much. I am needing more room in my studio and so they are for sale. 

Portrait was done from a photograph taken by Edward of a dear friend who died of cancer. I thought she was beautiful and enjoyed working from a photo of such high quality. At the same time, I felt for her and her family because of her untimely passing. 

Portrait, oil, 11x14"

Inspired by Mary was interesting. We first analyzed several paintings by Mary Cassatt including a mother in bed with her baby and a tea party. Then we were introduced to a scene set up in the studio consisting of a bed with a mannequin "asleep" under the covers, a doll, a black hat and coat, old photos on the wall, a coffee pot on the nightstand, clothes on the bed and a tea set. There were a lot of us around the bed painting the scene, only a few got to paint the head of the mannequin and the doll. From my angle they were unfortunately invisible, but I enjoyed painting the rest especially the tea set and the warm and cold light on the drapery on the headboard and the red blanket on the bed. 

  

Inspired by Mary, oil on canvas board, 12x16"

The Green Line, la Ligne Verte, is a copy of Matisse's painting, done from a photograph. We had just seen a Matisse exhibit, where I had been studying his fauve works.

Copy of Matisse's La Ligne Verte, oil, 12x16"

 

July 1st 2018

Canigou 1, oil on panel, 9x12", detail

Canigou 2, oil on panel, 9x12"

After a great trip, I am glad to be back with my husband and Gabriel. Misha and Kylie came to visit this weekend which was a treat!
I started a series of palette knife paintings from memory of Mount Canigou, the mountain, for us when we lived in the South of France.

Canigou 3, oil on canvas board, 10x14"

 My first attempts were to put as much information on the canvas as possible. I was filming the process, as the paintings 2 and 3 were pre-sold with their video. With Canigou 3, the computer ran out of charge and there was no way to continue filming, even after I plugged it in. My schedule was busy, I had just an hour or two to work, in order for the painting to be dry in time for my departure. I got frustrated and decided to sit back and see what this painting still needed. The more I looked, the more I became convinced that Canigou 3 was finished.

Canigou 6, oil on panel, 9x12", in progress

 Canigou 6 is a result of too much linseed oil and gamsol on the panel at the start. I had the intention of painting an image that captured just the essence, "a poem instead of a novel" as Jim McDonald calls it. I will just keep trying...

Walking in the forests around Nijmegen

 It was so relaxing to walk for hours in the forests we used to walk in with our parents, when we were little, my brother and I. My real brother was at work, but I had my "adopted brother and sister" and/or their dog with me.

Madame de Pompadour, by  M. Quentin de La Tour, pastel, detail

In the Louvre I saw an impressive pastel exhibit, it helped me realize that there are way more historic pastel portraits than I had any idea of. This beautiful, huge portrait, which I had always assumed was in oil, is one of them.