So long, my friends!

Since my energy is limited and since all things end at a time or another, I've decided to abandon (at least for the moment) this blog. Even if there were some favorable comments and some very faithful friends (Thanks a bunch!) there aren't usually more than 12-15 visitors per day. One cannot call this a blatant success...
It is not a totally loss since I made some friends and I had some good times. and I've also practiced my English... I will not delete the blog - so it will be still available for browsing and comment (and from time to time I'll check it and answer if any comments are made...) I will now say "So long, my friends!" and I'll hope you'll still visit me at:Van Gogh and I
As a farewell gift: this Quebec landscape I've painted sometime in September 2005...

Welsh corgi commission

This is a painting I was commissioned to do by some young friends of mine... I've combined a Québec landscape and the Welsh corgi image (he was the star of the thing; a present for the anniversary of the father who owned the dog...) I've used a lot of "fire orange" and it seems that the father liked the present. Sometimes, I feel like Real Lessard, le québecois who was, along Van Meegeren and David Stein, a grand faussaire... He had a billionaire who quite regularly came to him and tell him his dreams, his visions... And Lessard, who was also a great artist not only a faussaire (it takes a lot of talent to be a faussaire, you know...) put the billionaire's vision on big canvases... and that one paid him 100000 $ or 200000 $... I could do the same, given the right conditions. But ou sont les milliardaires d'antan?

Travis & Jackie

It's not often but it happens... We have the chance to draw couples. This time it was Travis & Jackie. To draw a couple - in the same or almost the same - amount of time as a single nude is not easy. II did my best. The technique is the same: acrylic ink on Arches watercolor paper. What should I say more?

Very Alive Nude!

Since the "Dead fish" post seem to revulse the readers - my hit counter dropped almost dead! - I must do some-
thing... So here it is, Gabrielle again, very alive and kicking (even if she SEEMS - only seems! - angry with you, turning his beautiful back to you...) It's a not yet finished painting but a complete drawing - and I'm confuse about the frontier - of 38 cm x 28 cm. You can even buy it...

Dead Fish

No mystery that these days everything I write and do (like, for instance, choosing a reproduction for this post)has some dark touch... Even this 2004 fish looks more dead than normal on that plate... But, what can I do? I am who I am and I do what I do... A very intelligent and perceptive Romanian writer (usually that means that nobody but some Romanians have heard of him...)said once: "Do not EVER say something good about yourself because nobody will believe you. And do NOT ever say something bad about yourself because everybody will believe you..." (Garabet Ibraileanu) So, it's not very clever to say that I'm depressed, maybe bipolar? True, almost everybody's depressed these days - c'est "à la mode" - and even bipolarity isn't that rare... So, enjoy my dead fish - if you can - and do not be too harsh with me... Depression is for everybody and one day you'll try it too, maybe...

To sell cucumbers to the gardener...

The title is the approximative translation of a Romanian saying. When you put yourself in the ridicule (or, sometimes, favorable,prestigious) position to talk philosophy to Plato or religion to the Pope... The favorable, prestigious position being when Plato asks for your advice concerning the Ideas or the Pope asks you how he should formulate his next encyclical... Well, let me tell a (short) story... a full-time artist, who doesn't have "independent means" has to participate at all kind of exhibitions, symposiums etc. to try to sell his/her stuff... In 1993 (I think, it could also be 1994) I was taking part in an Art Symposium at Bromont (a small turistical town, renowned especially for its Chocolate Festival). All kind of artists were there - from the color photograph reproducers to the gestualist abstract ones... The Honorary President of the event (it was in August and was sleeping in my car, the 2 nights of the 3 days)was Michel des Marais, a very nice painter, specialized in Quebec landscapes with sheep (no sheep, no Michel des Marais original...) He's an artist who do very well for himself (especially since his wife seem to be the financial manager). A Mercedes SUV proved the thing without any possibility of doubt...

And, folks, Michel des Marais, nick-named The "Prince of the Sheep" bought the my above reproduced Portrait of a Sheep! I wasn't expensive, of course, me not being the Prince of anything (and owning, at the time, a 12 years old small Mazda 323) but still: to have The Prince of the Sheep buying from you a Sheep Portrait... not bad, not bad... So that's about it. One of my happy moments... Someday, when I'll be the Prince of something, maybe I can go arround in a new Roadtrack motorhome, doing the art symposiums in the vast Quebec or even in the even more vaste Canada. When I'll arrive in the US (Taos, New Mexico), I'll consider myself the Prince of Everything...

Raw Nude

What a nude of mine looks like before I work it over? I already showed you one or two... Here is another one, of a model called Marie Lise, not a perfect one, physically (some small spine defect and getting fatter) but nice and with sad eyes and a nose that French call "un nez retrousé" (snub-nosed?)... In all, a pleasant enough model to draw - and then to paint...

Right now, I'm experimenting with mixing acrylics, watercolors and oil pastels (I made a hole in my budget and bought a few Rembrandt and Holbein oil pastels) but the results aren't yet that conclusive (they usually aren't at the beginning... You can see one sample at my other site "Danu's Small World" This combination, acrylic colors and inks, watercolors and oil pastels (or dry pastels - but with then it's a bore to fix...) is a very promising one and I think Degas would have loved it. I often fantasize what some great artists like Manet, Renoir, Monet, Cézanne or Van Gogh would have done with today art materials... acrylics especially...

Bloody allegory...

A sample of what I did in "hostile" conditions... I mean, when the model (upon whom I have no control, being just one of the many sketchers...) took "ballet" postures... No comments...Of course, it's an acylic ink + watercolor on Strathomore 300 g.

I take comissions... I sell paintings...

Not that I want to very much... But, after all, I am a professional visual artist. Capable to do a lot in drawing (story board for cinema included...), painting (portrait, landscapes, nudes, weird stuff. you name it...) or photography and digital art (inclusively combinations of drawing&painting and digital manipulated images...) In a word, I can do a lot of things. I got talent, experience, imagination and plenty of other hidden talents. The problem is that almost nobody seem to care. Or to need my multiple talents... Do I sound to you dissapointed? Well, I kind of AM... there are a lot of other artists, good artists out there... but there are also A LOT much worst than myself earning wads of money... I wouldn't give a damn, in fact, if artist materials would be for free and if I wouldn't feel a bit under estimated, and not used at my true value... Anyhow, this painting was a comission. I just wanted to show you I'm able to do it, just like I did it with the portraits. La bohème continue anyway and, eventually, a new Ambroise Vollard will sign a contract with me the way the real Vollard signed with Gauguin, at the end... And I'll draw and paint all day without giving a rat's ass about whatever... Just pouring my dark soul onto paper and canvas...

Casandra's story

She was a little girl of 12. But when you look at her you wouldn't give her more than 7-8 years old. She was slim (not to say skinny). She had big, blue eyes (beautiful eyes!)and 2 big, too big, front teeth. In fact, she looked just like a skinny, very hungry, nervous she-rabbit. Put some big, grossly rim glasses on her nose and you have almost her portrait true to life... Final touches: a runny nose, a stressed, anguished mother-hen look (she had at least two visible smaller brothers, all ultra-extra agitated and hyper active, all with runny noses and beautiful blue ayes...) And, cherry on the cake, somebody inspired gave her the bad-fated name of Casandra... Finally, she spoke the parisian outskirts dialect - because she, and her brother and her father and mother (those last ones weren't visible for the moment; probably buying - and drinking - beer, somewhere in the Jacques Cartier parc in Sherbrooke, Québec) were Francais de France. She was the in-charge-"mother" and when me and my friend Clement propose her to make her portrait she wasn't sure, at the beginning. She looked for her little brothers and only when we proposed to do their portraits too (which made them less agitated, having on them a ritalin-like effect...) she accepted. To tell you I felt a warm compassion for her would be an understatment... Drawing her portrait - twice, in order to conserve one portrait: the one you are looking at...) we knew a bit more about her life... At twelve, she was remplacing the mother - I'm afraid in more ways than one! - of a large family of poor Frnçais de France immigrated to Québec. I don't think she had a lot of gifts - personal gifts - coming her way, lately (or ever) so she was very glad when she had the watercolor and the pastel portraits we did of her. Especially that I did my best (for once!) to embelish her a bit. Let aside the runny nose, ameliorate a bit her big front teeth and gave all the color to her truly beautiful eyes. That day I was pretty satisfyied with myself. A good deed is a good deed. At the Last Judgement, I hope, the Lord will take it into consideration to balance my numerous sins...

Irises 2

I don't paint a lot of flowers. Not that I don't like them... It's just that I find people (and nude ladies) much more interesting... But this Irises were different: first of all, they surprised me. I know Van Gogh painted some (probably one of the most famous painting of the National Gallery in Ottawa...) and that's really a major challenge and then, I stumbled over some Irises in the parc of the private Institution were I teach "artistical expression". In fact, some pupil of mine, told me about... I took some pictures (and I was surprised that they were living practically in the mud or even in the water)... I've painted a series of 3-4 painting with those photos as an inspiration. I've already let you see one (with a grasshopper in it) and this is another one.... It,s an acrylic painting with a few watercolor touches.

Another type of portrait...

A portrait without model to pose... An imaginary portrait... An evasionist portrait... A portrait called "Mustachioed Dracula", in which the author poured out his anger, his anguish, his fear...You can see that painting has a cathartic function, a letting go function, finally, an evasionistic function... It's a 9" x 12" watercolor and acrylic inks on Fabriano 300 g paper. Collection of the artist.

Jackie has the blues...

This is, of course, Jackie, and she had the blues (I don't know if she still has it...) Posing for 10 minutes could be pretty tiring and if you are posing nude, in a provincial town like Sherbrooke, it means you really need the money... I'm just guessing... I've tried to "catch" some of this sadness and, surprisingly, I used more warm colors and not really the blue... It's a watercolor & acrylic ink painting, 9" x 12", on Strathmore 300 g paper.

Miss T

Since I'm showing you more than my usual, nice, beautiful, pretty stuff here it is this somewhat weird portrait of a young lady from Romania, the daughter of a friend... She was a very silent creature, gracile, with a long, gracious neck and green-blue eyes... Somewhat weird and not without some (maybe dark) secret... Modiglianesque and dostoïevskian character...It's just a 8" x 11", as usual, an acrylic ink and watercolor on Arches 300 g paper.

Modiglianesque...

Heck of a title, eh? (the "eh!" is my trying to be very Canadian, eh?) The story is this: when I lived in Magog (a little and very nice town, on the lake Memphremagog, about 30 km from Sherbrooke) I use to go to a small coffee shop downtown... order a coffee and sketch everything in sight, for hours... One day, I've sketched this beautiful young lady, with a very long and gracious neck, which, of course, reminded me of style="font-style:italic;">Modigliani's portrait... The portrait you see is what I've painted (acrylic inks and watercolors) using that sketch... Look at the back and you'll see something, maybe, interesting...

Digital variants...

It's funny what you can do nowdays, with the digital photography, scanning and such...Since 1998-99 I began to digitally archivate my paintings and drawings... They become, more and more, just pixels on a cd or DVD... A lot of advantages with that: you can have almost instantly the image of your stuff, you can even ameliorate it (usually I don't do more than amelioration of the contrast or a small re-blance of the colors...) And, of course, you can keep and use an imense number of images (yours or others, to use them as visual stimulii... Or you can keep track - in a very detailed manner - of your work, you can transform what will finally be your paintings in a multitude of "variants", of work steps... Sometimes, a sketch can be better than the "finished" work... sometimes (even quite often) what you do "a la prima" is the best thing you do... Here is an advanced "variant" of a painting I sold a few years ago, at the Bromont Art Symposium... It's just a digital variant...

A recent nude of Gabrille

This is one of the nudes of Gabrielle (one of the best models I've had...) that I've sent in Romania, to my European agent. Still in sale, I suppose... It's a 9" x 12" acrylics and watercolor on Strathmore 300 g paper. Don't ask me what does mean the Japanese characters... I don't know. But they seemed to be fit there...

No comment nude

9" x 12", acrylic ink & watercolor on 300 g Strathmore paper; in a North Hatley Gallery right now; CAD 250 + s/h.

Love Dream Catcher

The name is weird, bizarre, eh? the work is also bizarre... Not my usual portraits or nudes... But this is also me... I started this big acrylic painting (36" x 24") in 2005. I've painted and repainted several times and this is the final version (if a suden mood will not dictate other wise...)
What does it mean? Well, it's up to you... But my idea, initially, started from those twig and fethers etc. things that native americans call dream catcher or nightmare catcher... It evolved in a smaller version and then in this one...

Improved landscape

Since I'm a perfectionist (I think) I did some small improvements to a landscape I published here at the begining of my blog...