One eye Sarah

Well, not really one eyed...But it was a windy day out there, near the Lac des Nations, at Sherbrooke, where I was exercising my trade of public amuser (I'm not sure the term is correct; but how many things am I not uncertain (or is it incertain?) these days? You know already, I think, that I like the redhead (to paint, folks, exclusively to paint...), the auburn (now that's a nice word!)... This isn't a very very recent portrait but since I'm not interested anymore in being an (almost) daily painter, it doesn't count too much...

The almost Minotaur

Most things are nowadays, for me, a kind of...or almost...something. This is "almost" a Minotaur - looks like something like that, anyway - since, technically, a Minotaur is half torro and half human... This one seems more like a torro... I can tell you one thing: it must have some devilish in it because a very nice woman (the wife of a friend where I exposed some paintings) just wouldn't have it in the house... and I did get it out, being a well-mannered (when I remember to be) person. The technique used to make it is very special and I didn't exploit it to the full extent. So I won't give any details, Internet being what it is, full of good things but also full of idea-thieves and con-artists...

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...

A Feast for the Eye

That's what Eugène Délacroix said: "A painting should be a feast for the eye." There are a lot of painters who agree with that. Some are great names, like Renoir and Matisse, to mention just two. Some are just quasi-anonymous artists, like myself. But I believe it firmly. Why else should you paint if not to create a joy for yourself and for the eventual onlookers? (Of course, things are more complicated than that... as things have the bad habit to be, but essentially that's it: paintings are - should be - a feast for the eye...) I can understand the experiment and experimentations of the conceptualist and abstract artists but, let's be honest: what joy do you get from looking a black square on a white square?
This nude I post here is an small experiment in overlayered textures, a decoration experiment, if you want. Acrylics, of course.As always, I hope you'll like it. It's intended to be a feast for the eye...

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...