Monday, December 31, 2012

Bosc, Bartlett and D'Anjou: A Sweet Trio




                                        An original acrylic painting, on heavy-weight illustration board
                                        6x8", unframed
                                        $200.00, - (plus $8.00, pack and ship)

     Mid to late December is the traditional season of gift giving in our culture, the time
when everyone puzzles about what kind of gifts to buy for friends and family members.
Children and youngsters always have plenty of suggestions as to what they want,
of course, but deciding what to give the older people on the list, can be more of a
problem.  Two thousand years ago, the Magi were, no doubt, worthy of their
reputations as generous and wise men, but we need a different kind of wisdom these
days.  Frankincense and myrrh are not a part of most people's daily requirements, and
after we pass into our later years, even gold loses its luster and takes on more of a
trinket status.
     So, what do you give the solitary old souls whose lives long ago passed through
the ages of everything from toys and games, to school supplies, to sports equipment,
to fancy dress-clothes, to work tools and kitchen appliances, and have now reached
the age where they are looking back and wondering what it was all about?
 
     Since it is a good bet that they already have more, warm sweaters and socks
than they will ever use, the answer to the question often comes in the form of festive
baskets or boxes of fresh fruit.  After all, everyone has to eat, and some juicy,
delicious fruit does make the process more enjoyable.

     And as for the recipients of such sweet abundance, what do you do if you
suddenly have more fresh fruit on hand than you can quickly consume?  Well,
for the artists among them, the answer often comes with the decision to paint it.
Fruit does make a steady, reliable subject for paintings; it always holds still, it
doesn't require rest breaks, and it never charges a modeling fee.  And as a
bonus, fruit is expressive of life itself, with the wide variety of skin textures and
colors as it ripens, and then eventually as it starts to fade, losing its glow and
beginning to shrivel.

     So, I will probably be doing more still-life paintings with fruit soon.  And in
the meantime, I have more examples that I can post in the blog, such as this one,
in which the central, bartlett pear has reached the very peak of ripe perfection.

                                                        (click on image to enlarge)


     This little acrylic painting is a fairly traditional still life, with the somber lighting and
colors that the old Dutch masters favored.  The composition is also a simple, traditional,
triangular or pyramidal construction, with the stems of the fruit providing little, structural
elements, for a circular eye movement around the painting.


     Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.

   
   

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Behold The Glorious Dawn




                                                  An original oil painting, on canvas panel
                                                  16x20", unframed
                                                


    This is another selection from the folk-art style, series of decorative works which
I referred to in the previous three postings.  As with the others, it is a purely imaginary
Christmas fantasy, aimed at creating a festive and celebratory feel for the ancient
region where the people have celebrated the event for two thousand years, as they
annually mark an important turning point in the cycle of life.

                                                          (click on image to enlarge)

 

The Great Day Is Near




                                                         An original oil painting, on canvas panel
                                                         24x20", unframed
                                                         $1,800.00, - (plus $20.00, pack and ship)


     This is another of the folk-art fantasies which I referred to in the previous two postings,
and which seem appropriate to the currant holiday season.  As with all the paintings in this
series, it relies on decorative pattern, color and texture, to tell its age-old story, rather
than realistic perspective and accurate rendition of any specific Middle Eastern or
Mediterranean village.
                                                           (click on image to enlarge)                                        

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Glad Tidings Of Great Joy




                                                         An original oil painting on canvas panel
                                                         18x24", unframed
                                                        

     This is another of those folk-art Christmas fantasies which I referred to in the previous
post called Silent Night.  This painting also relies heavily on flattened decorative pattern,
shapes and texture, but still I find that there is something fairly authentic about the spare,
silhouetted, Greek Orthodox priest, ringing out the good news of the breaking dawn.

                                                         ( click on image to enlarge )

Silent Night



                                                        An original oil painting on canvas panel
                                                        24x20", unframed
                                                       


     A decade or two ago I did a series of folk art/ fantasies to be used for a collection
of Christmas cards.  They were all based on Eastern Mediterranean themes, and were
intended to capture a feel for those traditional, old cultures, so resistant to change,
where three, powerful, monolithic religions were born.  The paintings are deliberately
primitive in design, disregarding perspective in favor of flattened, decorative patterns
and shapes, like the innocent charm of early, Christian mosaics, brightly illuminated
manuscripts, and religious icons.
     A half dozen or so of those paintings are still around, so I thought this might be an
opportune time to post a few of them in the blog, if anyone would like to see them.


                                                       ( click on image to enlarge )


     I would also like to take a moment to wish happy holidays, and a joyous Christmas
to all the visitors who stop by to view this blog. Thank you for looking, and let me
know if there are some specific kinds of things which you would like to see more often.