The Protector - WIP - Last part

The Protector

My new mascarone is basically finished...some fine tuning left to do. Do I like it? Hum...he is somewhat colorful and busy with the play of dark shadows on his face...his eyes are somewhat eerie... I think that he reminds me of a lion:-)

The more I look at him, the more I like him...It's hard to forget his eyes...I wonder what he has seen over these last four hundred years:-)


He will be framed under glass with a white mat to a final size of 20" X 24".He is painted on 300lb CP Fabriano that I was trying for the first time. I love that paper - it allows very easy lifting and takes a lot of abuse.

I am calling him The Protector ( my daughter's idea)  in part because of the latin word appearing on the right hand side of the arch "custodiat" - probably for something like "May the Lord ( the master of the house etc) protect ....He will be part of my "Memories of Venice" series.

Well, I had lots of fun painting this and I am sure that I have learned something at the same time. That is what is really important.

Your opinion?
Have a great Sunday evening.

New WIP and update

Here is the painting I am currently working on. It is another Venetian mascarone ( sculpted head found over arched doorways of Venetian palazzos). In fact, it is from a picture of the same mascarone as my last one, but from a different perspective and the pictures were taken a year apart:-)
I am just starting to work on the head itself and I am realizing that it is going to be very difficult and I am not sure that my color choice was a good one :- ( I  was hoping to get this painting finished successfully by the end of this coming week in order to enter it in an upcoming show at the Foyer Gallery called "Memories". I am keeping my fingers crossed.

My Silent Venetian, my favorite of all my paintings, has just sold...it would be nice if this WIP turned out to take its place as a companion piece for the Gate Keeper, my other mascarone....A lot of "if"s :-)

This is on a watercolor paper that I had not tried before: Fabriano  Artistico 300lb CP. So far, I really like it! And it is a lot more affordable than the Arches. The painting will be approx. 16" X 20" and will be framed under glass and matted to 20" X 24", the same size as my other two mascarones.

 I will be showing my "Where is my Gondola?" at the Foyer show...if it comes back in time from the framers. I may also bring one my Venetian doorway paintings to have a trio of "Venetian Memories".

I have not been posting much in the past ten days: my daughter moved back from Manhattan and spent a week with us before settling down in her new apartment in downtown Montreal. It was great having her visit and we even spent time in Montreal with her and our son who is at McGill's University...It was so nice being all together! But...little painting was done during this time:-(

I now have a bad old, but I want to push myself to get this painting out of its ugly stage...hopefully, it will turn out ok. Let me know what you think of it so far even though it's hard to tell at this point what it will eventually look like.

Enjoy your Sunday!

The Silent Venetian - A Mascarone

I have had the pleasure of a  visit by my son for the past 10 days and during this time had very little time for painting.  Now, it's back to work!
I consider my latest mascarone painting finished, at least for the time being. I really enjoyed working on it, but I feel the need to move on:-)

I have already cropped the picture a bit at the top. In matting and framing (20" X 24" frame, matted to 14" X 18", I may crop a bit more. The colors are not quite right on my monitor...there is more golden sand color in the face, I would say.

This should make a great companion piece to my "Gate Keeper", another mascarone. The title " The Silent Venetian" is still only tentative - it does not quite convey the nobility of this face.

What do you think?

Red Bubble has just featured this painting ( Satruday, 23 July). Thank you, Red Bubble!

A great surprise: Feature on Red Bubble's Home Page



I woke up to a very nice and surprising email this morning: Red Bubble letting me know that one of my Venice paintings, Roof Top View, had been selected as a Home Page feature by the Red Bubble curators. The odds of this happening are 3 in a thousand according to Red Bubble!.

Thank you Red Bubble!