Art Exhibition

     There will be a show of my work in the Gallery of the All Souls building,
in Kansas City, Mo., beginning on October Eighteenth and lasting until
November Nineteenth of this year.  The location is 4501 Walnut (across the
street from the Kemper Museum of Modern Art), with ample parking on the
south side of the building.
     It will be open six days a week, Sunday through Friday every week.
I would like to invite any of my blog viewers, from near or far, to stop by
and have a look, if they have the opportunity.

     Gene McNerney

Pomona, After The Rain

                                                      An original acrylic painting, on canvas panel
                                                      24" X 18". unframed
                                                      $1,800.00, - (plus $30.00, pack and ship)

                                                          (Click on image to enlarge)

     The subject of this painting is taken from another of the fountains in a well known
shopping district In Kansas City.  The sculptor of the life-size bronze was Donatello
Gabbrielli, and the figure he created represents Pomona, the Roman goddess and
protector of vineyards and orchards.  She is depicted as if having just been busily
sampling some of the produce of a bountiful harvest, because her hands are filled to
overflowing with grapes and other fruit.  She stands (or seemingly floats upon the
surface) of an elevated, stone bowl of flowing water, which is cascading over the
bowl's edge in a shimmering curtain, and falling into a wider pool below.
     The fountain was purchased in Italy, and installed in a Plaza courtyard in 1969,
far from Pomona's natural habitat of sunny Italian vineyards.  For nearly a half
century she has been presiding over a realm of conspicuous consumerism, rather
than overseeing the verdant fields of Tuscany.
   
   

No Fish Today

                                                   An original acrylic painting, on stretched canvas
                                                   18 X 24", unframed
                                                   $1,800.00, - ( plus $45.00, pack and ship )

                                                         ( Click on image to enlarge )

     This painting, of a courtyard fountain scene, is one from a series of fountain paintings
I have done, which feature the fountains of a well-known shopping district in Kansas City.
I have shown other paintings from this series in previous postings, such as Neptune 
Rising, A Sunrise Visitor, and Do The Mermaids Bring The Storms?, and I may show
more of them in future postings.
     Although the fountain itself features four little faun figures, which sit at the four corners
of a rectangular pool, I focused my composition on one end of the pool and two of the
figures.   The four fauns were purchased in Brindisi, Italy, in 1928, and there is some
evidence that they may have had a previous life as ornamental features of a Italian villa's
lighting fixtures. And, their years since their installation as a fountain have not been
uneventful.  The story is, that someone once managed to steal three of the fauns, but
the thief was unable to pry away the last one. It was that remaining faun which was used
to make a mold to cast the three, new replacements for the missing trio.
     Fauns, the mythological half-human, half-goat creatures, have been frequent subjects
for artists, writers and composers, from the time of the ancient Greeks right up through
the nineteenth century.  They were originally believed to be the manifestations of forest
and animal spirits, which could help or hinder humans, at their own whim.  The Romans
believed fauns inspired fear in men traveling in lonely, remote or wild places.  But fauns
were also believed to be capable of guiding humans in need, as in the case of the ancient,
well-known fable of The Faun and the Traveler ( later called, The Satyr and the 
Peasant).   That fable was a popular subject for European artists for centuries.
     In the case of this painting, it is the cat I added to the scene, rather than a traveling
human, which appears to find the fauns companionable.  The title of the painting suggests
that the cat may be stopping by regularly, to check on whether the pool has been stocked
with goldfish, but he never has any luck.  No doubt there are a great many cats living in
the large, high-rise apartments surrounding the district, but it is unlikely that any of them
get to leave their buildings.  A cat which could visit that fountain regularly, would truly
need to have nine lives, in order to survive the run through all the heavy traffic.