"Light Baggage"

 

 

9 x 12"

oil on panel

sold

Irises are blooming everywhere here in Atlanta, inspiring me to paint Vincent van Gogh's Irises being admired by a visitor in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

The Red Piano Art Gallery sold it before I could even add it to my website, so a larger view will follow soon.

~ Happy Friday. Go get your vaccination shots.

"Two By Two"

 

 

8 x 10"

oil on panel

sold

In 1890, in a letter to his sister, Vincent van Gogh described his joy of painting multiple versions sunflowers.  He wrote the paintings were “almost a cry of anguish while symbolizing gratitude in the rustic sunflower.”  It brought him comfort and familiarity and raised his spirits, he continued to write.

A couple stands between van Gogh's Sunflowers and Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers exhibited together in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Three's Company"

 

 

6 x 8"

oil on panel

sold

This study was a test for me - wanting to take on a larger painting with David Hockney's Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy.  As simplistic as Hockney's composition is, it's the reproduction that just ain't as easy as I thought.  But I've always been intrigued with his painting.

The two were Hockney's friends in London - Ossie Clark, a dress designer and Celia Birtwell, a fabric designer.  Hockney portrayed couples in several very large paintings.  The difference here is notably the two are looking at the viewer, other paintings have at least one looking off to the side.  He painted them in their flat in Notting Hill Gate, in their bedroom where the light was favorable to Hockney.  The tough part, the artist said, was the couple was against the light which darkens the figures indoors.  He did many studies and experiments to get the composition, the lighting and the couple's expressions right - going against the standard portrait of a couple where the woman is seated and the man stands next to her.

 

Percy was one of the Clarks' cats who symbolizes a libertine and somebody who disregards rules and does what he pleases. Sounds right.  The vase of lilies to the left of Celia are a symbol of the Annunciation and feminine purity.

 

Hockney was best man at the Clarks' wedding.  The space between them in his painting is said to be prophetic - the marriage didn't last.

 

"All the Fashion"

 

 

6 x 8"

oil on panel

sold

The artist Jacques (James) Tissot had an eye for beauty and fashion, the son of parents in the fashion and designer hats business.  At a young age, he'd paint clothing in fine detail, a style surely influenced by what surrounded him.  He also knew at a very young age he wanted to pursue a career in art.

Allow me to tell you about the woman in Tissot's painting Mavourneen (Portrait of Kathleen Newton) - raised in England and Agra, India - her father rose from an Irish army officer to chief accountant for the East India Company, and worth mentioning, a strict Catholic.  When she was 16, her father arranged for her to marry a surgeon in the Indian Civil Service - she embarks on a trip to her wedding on a ship, where the Captain became obsessed with her and gets his way once they arrived.  She married the surgeon, hadn't consummated the marriage yet - felt guilty - went to a Catholic priest for advice - he told her to fess up to her new husband - he was enraged - filed for divorce - ship Captain said he'd pay for her trip back to England but if, and only if, she was to be his mistress.  She gets pregnant, refused to marry the Captain and ran off to live with her sister.

That's where James Tissot comes in.  They meet, he falls madly in love with her - she gives birth to another child said to be his - they live together in domestic bliss for a few years until she contracted tuberculosis.  Tissot suffered through her illness, she couldn't bear it all and overdosed on laudanum and died.  Tissot was so distraught, he laid next to her coffin for four days.  A true Greek tragedy.