Marie Lou, the redhead

This is a portrait I did last summer in the main parc of Sherbrooke, Jacques Cartier parc. I confess I like readheads - they are an interesting challenge for a painter. Auburn hair could be quite difficult to paint... Toulouse-Lautrec has a few portraits and nudes with "The Englishwoman from Dover" (the legend says he was totally in love with that one...) Myself, I didn't have the time to fall in love - and neither did I have the inclination (being shamefully monogame - almost 26 years of marriage with the same woman...) but I liked her. Technically, no different than most of my stuff... I should maybe change the materials...?

The nude as caricature

If caricature means "exaggerated" then yes, one can make a nude AND a caricature in the same painting... I kind of exaggerated a bit, in color, composition and drawing of the background figure... Wasn't something intentional, I do "caricatures" almost without knowing it... It's in my artist blood... As usual, a 9" x 12" watercolor and acrylic ink, on Strathmore 300 g paper. If interested, you know were to find me...

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.

An experiment...

Do we need, as artists, to experiment? I think we do. Even if it doesn't sell too well, even if it doesn't sell at all... I really don't think selling should be our aim in life...

This is a Romanian landscape. The original photo represents a view from Ocna Sibiului, a very old (ancient Roman like...) small village/town near Sibiu... It has some 8-9 salt lakes, one or too so salty you'll be pumped out like a quark and you have to be VERY CAREFUL and to moove VEEERY slowly in it, otherwise you'll risk to drown, face down, like a coackroach on his back which cannot turn... (Technical details: 8" x 11" acrylics and watercolors on 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.

Waiting for Dan Quixote...

...some windmills, painted in the same magical forest near Sibiu, Transylvania. That forest really is a very interesting place, where all kind of picturesque characters wander around... Danger and erotica where to be found there... Especially if you are young and full of hormons, such a forrest could be filled with satyrs and fawns and especially with Dulcineas waiting to be liberated... I'm no longer young but I still can remember... 9" x 12" watercolor and acrylic ink on Fabriano 300 g.

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...