The Gaze 12" x 14"

The Gaze - detail 

  

My Newest Painting: Very Different
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"The Gaze" is a 12" x 16" varnished watercolour ( no glass required, regular frame) with some powdered gold pigment. It is in my series of Venetian sculptures, but I used a very different style to give it a modern twist. It is inspired by a carving by the Venetian sculptor Tullio Lombardo ( 1460-1532) and was painted on an1/8" Ampersand panel from Texas. Eventually, I will make a cradle for it and frame it with a floating frame ( no glass), but for the moment I want to offer it as is for a lower shipping cost. I am interested in your reaction to this new style....

Autumn Magic framed!

Autumn Magic framed!

My latest watercolor, Autumn Magic, is now beautifully, and professionally, framed in a nice black wood frame that measures 27" x 33". You can see it here just propped on my fireplace and then on the floor. I will bring it probably within two or three days to the Kevin Dodds Gallery & Studio at 1101 Bank St.in Ottawa.. 613 -286-8512
I certainly like it in my house right now:-)

Autumn Magic - Large original watercolor

"Autumn Magic" - 19" x 25" Watercolour on 300 lb Fabriano Artistico

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This is a large original watercolor on heavy 300 lb Fabriano watercolor paper. I loved creating depth and layers in the forest floor and painting the contrast of colorful leaves against bark and stone.Autumn is my favorite season and nowhere is it more beautiful than in the woods. Enjoy the calm and beauty of the forest.

This painting is unframed and unmatted andt it will be shipped flat since it is on heavy watercolor paper. It has been painted with professional quality watercolor paints.

Please note that colors usually vary from monitor to monitor.

Autumn's Gold

Autumn's Gold

 

SOLD

This original mixed media painting is painted on an ampersand panel affixed to a 1.5 deep cradled birch surface. This means that it has deep sides and is ready to hang or to display standing on its own on a shelf or on a table.
It is painted with watercolor and gold leaf and was sealed before a resin-like finish was applied to the surface to give an almost glass-like finish which is very reflective and enhances the depth and color of this beautiful painting.The finish adds greatly to the painting; it has just enough texture and irregularities to confirm that it was hand applied.
It is wired at the back, the sides have been painted black. It is ready to hang and enjoy by you or as gift by a special person.

Below are more photos of this artwork. 

Forest Floor Tapestry - A Watercolor painting

Forest Floor Tapestry -Watercolour - SOLD


I have finally finished my 20" x 20" watercolour of millions and millions of leaves:-)
I will put it aside for a day or so before looking at it again to see what needs to be modified.
It is on 300 lb Fabriano Soft Press Paper.


I really enjoyed the hours and hours I spent playing on this piece.

"Colorful Zebra"

Colourful Zebra: My latest painting
16" x  20" plus frame
Watercolour (varnished) and gold leaf

SOLD

I painted a miniature zebra less than 2 months ago and it now happily resides in Wisconsin. I loved it so much that I wanted to paint a much larger one. I had great fun painting this colorful 16" x 20"guy against a gold leaf background. You have to see it when the sun shines on the gold leaf...

This painting is now on display at the  Kevin Dodds Gallery and Studio at 1101 Bank St. (near Sunnyside) in Ottawa, Ontario.On my facebook, I show a photo of this painting, framed,  in the gallery window...no sun, unfortunately at that moment:-)

The painting is on Ampersand Aquabord panel, a very unique surface I have been using quite a bit lately and now love...after almost giving up on it until I found ways to make it work for me. I am now planning a companion piece for this zebra...more to come soon.

If interested in this painting, please contact me

Hope you are having a wonderful October.

Watercolor Commission Almost Completed

Scottie, the Green Man

I have almost finished this large commission which will be framed at  approx. 25" h x 41" w. You may remember a small study I did of this over a year ago of the central portion. This represents a beautiful stone carving in front of the RJW Stone Mason company in Ottawa. I have completed commissions of two other carvings on the facade of their headquarters ( Pierre, the Green Man, and Angus, the Green Man).
I took over a year to finish this commission and ran into problems because of this...the masking would not come off, glue from tape was transferred to the paper etc...Fortunately, I managed to fix most of the problems The painting has a few small resulting flaws, but I hope the client will still be happy with it.
One of these days, I will redo this painting and do it within just a few weeks and not procrastinate the way I did....as I often do for commissions.

What about you? Do you rush to finish commissions, or like me, do you procrastinate?

Neptune's Sea Horses - Finished...for now

"Neptune's Sea Horses, Florence" is finished for now. It measures 15" X 31" and I will take it to the framer's this weekend. It's from my own reference photo taken last fall in Florence, Italy, and it represents, at least partially, three of the four marble horses of Neptune's fountain started in the 16th century.The horses seem to be jumping out of the water and pulling Neptune's throne.

I now have to go back to my large commission of a Green Man and hopefully some smaller pieces for three upcoming shows in March, April and May respectively.

I hope that you like this painting. Take care.

WIP -Neptune's Sea Horses, Florence

I have temporarily put my large commission aside to work on another large piece. My "Neptune's Sea Horses" above is about 75% finished and it measures 15" X 31" on Artistico SP paper. It represents three of the 4 marble horses of Neptune's Fountain in Florence. I took several photos of it last fall and was just itching to paint it. Hum...not a very easy task:-) But, a fun task nevertheless. I have simplified the background on the left-hand side and have to decide how much detailing I will use at the top and between the two horses on the right. I still have the head of the horse on the right to finish.
My reference photos were taken on rather cloudy days, but I wanted a sunny and colorful effect. I hope that you won't think that I overdid this.

Tell me what you think.

I hope that you are all doing well and will have an early spring.

Parliament Building Carving I - completed

I have just completed the  Parliament Building Carving I. It's only 7.5" x 7.5' approx. on Fabriano Artistico SP. I went for  a sun-drenched look contrasting with shadows in the recessed areas where I created  a lot of textures.
I will have to live with it for a few days before I can decide if i like it enough to continue with my intended series of such carvings.

Playing and Experimenting

During the last few days, I have played and have experimented.

Midnight Stroll On Broadway -SOLD

My first new piece is an abstract called " Midnight Stroll on Broadway" where I tried to suggest the lights, the colors and the movement of the ever-present Manhattan crowd . It  is in watercolor, but with the paper wrapped around the edges of a canvas. I still have to varnish it, but so far, I liked working on this surface. I used lots and lots of water to test the surface, and there is only one small spot (the dark blue figure) that seems to have warped ever slightly - I may be able to flatten it out with weights, but it is really not noticeable. I will see how my framer can frame this. The next time, I will use a gallery-depth canvas and will thus have the option of leaving it unframed. It is only 8" X 10". I am looking forward to trying this on a larger canvas.

Because of  the heat wave that has been hitting Ottawa, I have been dreaming of snow:-)Consequently,  I created another "Polar Bear" mixed media painting on a wood panel. Unfortunately, it was very hard to photograph because of the metallic reflections. I used all kinds of acrylic gels and medium: pumice stone texture, gold mica flakes, molding pastes. I also used layers of metallic foil for the bear and embossed it; the sun has metallic paints, the little stream has cheese cloth for additional texture.
"Land of the Midnight Sun" is 10" X 10" X 1"

Land of the Midnight Sun-SO:LD

                                                                                        

Do let me know what you think of these experimental pieces.

I hope that you are also  finding some time to "play"

Coconut Palms now completed

In this heat wave, I am tired of working on the Coconut Palms. They keep reminding me of the heat:-) So, I will call them done for the moment. What do you think?

SOLD

I may enter it at the next Foyer Gallery show called "Mid-Summer Visions". It starts on July 8th.
I am wishing all Canadians a great Canada Day Weekend!

New WIP: Coconut Palms

Already Sunday evening! The weeks go by so quickly.
This week I started a new watercolor painting in the spirit of the summer and the heat wave that we are having in Ottawa, Canada: coconut palms from the Bahamas.
I am having fun with the colors of this painting - I certainly don't want everything to be yellow or green, so I am dropping a riot of colors here and there. This is not a commission, so I feel very carefree about it:-)
The large coconut at the front is still in its initial stages.  I am showing only part of the painting at this point - I may decide to crop it from my original sketch of 15"X 19".  I thank Li Newton for the beautiful reference picture.

I could not resist from making more earrings this week. I love working on them. Here is the fruit of this week's labor:

The first pair below is called " Carribean" and is probably inspired by my working on the coconut palm painting:-)

Next, another large pair, with more subdued colors, but with nice textures, called "Desert Glow":

The next earrings are small and delicate and are called " Summer Sky":

The last pair for this week ( yes, I worked on these earrings for hours and hours) called "South Seas" has a very unique texture! I added layers of medium between layers of paint, found a way to make some of the paint bubble a bit. I wish I could do the same on a large canvas...Food for thought:-) \The first image is closer to the aqua color of the earrings

 But this second picture of "South Seas" may provide a better idea of the texture under the glossy surface.

 I will be showing my jewelry also on Fine Art America...Do check the jewelry there...there is something for every taste and every purse:-)

As always, I really look forward to hearing from you and I wish you all a great week!

"Pierre, the Green Man" - Finish line in sight at last!

I have almost completed my watercolor "Pierre, the Green Man", the second in a series of three Ottawa stone carvings. The first one was "Angus, the Green Man" and the third will be " Scottie, the Green Man".
It is on Fabriano SP watercolor paper and it will be framed to 25" X 25" . The photo was taken inside and the colors are off: in real life, they are softer and lighter than on this photo. I will try to get a truer picture once it is all completed.

This painting has taken me several weeks of working off and on...It was often difficult from my photos to see all the details. The colors are all my own, since the carving is in grey stone. I really wanted to have a play of warm and cool, light and shadows. I almost ruined it last night when I put dark blue shadows all across the eye on the left side of the painting...I should never paint at night!!! But thank to the painting gods for non-staining watercolor paints: I removed most of the blue and I think that  the eye will be ok.

I am very pleased that this painting is almost finished and I am looking forward to painting something quick and easy for the next little while.

Tell me what you think.
 

Fantasy of Reality: a group show starting on Wednesday Feb. 15th

Here is the invitation poster for the upcoming show at the Foyer Gallery. You can see a picture of my latest watercolor, "Angus, the Green Man" in the middle of the top row.

The show runs from Feb. 14th until 4 March 2012 and is called " The Fantasy of Reality". It should be fantastic:-)

Meanwhile, I was thrilled to find out that my mixed media " Lake Fantasia" has received two features on the Red Bubble site: 

Have a great weekend!

Whimsical carving WIP- Completed for now

I am calling this painting finished for now. I really agonized over the eye on the left...as you will see in the second image below:-) I wanted some shadow, but not too much.

I have not chosen a title yet; I intend to write to the stone masonry company that created this carving to see if they have a name for it.

As mentioned above, the eye on the left really caused me a lot of grief. I was not sure of the shadows to put it, even the color to use. As you can see below, I made several sketches of that eye to try out various color combinations.

The finished painting is about 17" X 17". I will bring it to my framer's tomorrow or Friday to see if he has time to frame it within a week; if not, I will probably crop it to 16" X 16" and put it on a gallery wood panel and varnish it. I want to put it in an upcoming show at the Foyer Gallery called " The Fantasy of Reality".
Let me know what you think.
I hope that the first month of 2012 has been a kind one for you.

WIP-Whimsical carving part 2

Life has certainly been getting in the way of my painting:-)
 This painting  - of a very whimsical, joker-like carved head that I photographed a few miles only from my house- should have been finished last week. But as you can see, I still have lots and lots of work left on this...although the right hand side will have some unpainted areas.   I have been putting in a few shapes every day and it looks like a puzzle at the moment. Hopefully, it will all come together eventually.

This is on Fabriano Artistico SP 140lb. It is very white...with hindsight, a less bright paper may have been preferable.
I still have not decided if I will varnish this painting and adhere it to a 16" X 16" birch panel ; this would mean cropping off at least an inch horizontally and vertically.  This option would be less expensive than having the painting matted and framed...It will be easier to decide I suppose once the painting is finished and can be assessed.

What do you think?

Upcoming Show, Red Bubble Feature, etc.

I currently have several paintings in the Xmas Show at Foyer Gallery. My next show will be at the same gallery starting the first week of January and it will be entitled "The Art of the Matter".  Here is the poster for this show:

You will recognize my watercolor "Into the Lion's Den" at the bottom right. I have just received this painting back from the framer and it looks very good under glass with a white mat and a black metal frame.
This painting has just been featured on the Red Bubble site in the group The Best of Red Bubble:

I have not been posting new works in the past few weeks; I have been experimenting with acrylics, collage, pouring and abstracts and have nothing worth posting so far:-) Today, I am starting a 20" X 24" acrylic abstract for my daughter. It is a commission from her, but if it turns out ok and I can get it all down this week, it will become a Xmas present....There is a lot of wishful thinking here since I am a realist painter by temperament and experience and have never been very happy with the results I have achieved with acrylics...Wish me luck:-)

In case I don't have a new post before Dec. 25th, I want to offer all my best wishes for the Holiday Season to all my blogging friends.

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!