vezinart at Bluecanvas: The Artist Network

vezinart at Bluecanvas: The Artist Network

Just Right Jeans

I was curious about Bluecanvas Magazine which is a major sponsor of a TV series on Bravo called "Next Great Artist."   The second season of this art competition just finished before Christmas.  One of the grand prizes was a cover feature on Bluecanvas.  I haven't seen the paper magazine around so I viewed their information online.

In order to fully explore the Bluecanvas website, I joined their "artist network."   It seems really interesting in that you can post your own work in a personal gallery page, award "stars" to other works that you like, and also even be a virtual "collector" which allows you to select other people's works as part of your virtual collection.

Along the way, I spotted a contest which challenged painters to create a painting that captured the theme of "classic."   I decided to immortalize my husband's Levi's in this "larger than life" 24X20 in painting and submitted the following required text explanation - limit 50 words.


Description:
"We need more pants, not tents!"

And with that, the California Gold Rush era produced the apparel item with universal appeal, classic blue jeans. Worldwide, people rich and poor, young and old, likely have jeans that are broken in - just right - like this old pair.

Christmas Still Life Complete

A sprig of holly is now included in the still life I shared a few days ago.  The little bit of green leaves and red berries add some color to the lower part of the painting, balancing the red of Santa's hat.   The low angle of the light fully illuminates the bottom leaf and catches just the tips of the top leaves.   I can see in this photo that the fully illuminated leaf needs a cast shadow.   So I'll add that with a deep value, sign it then hang it in the living room for the rest of the Christmas season.    In Mid-January it will be dry enough to pack away with the rest of the trimmings.   If, next Thanksgiving it needs nothing radical, I'll frame it and declare it a family heirloom. 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Still Life

We always decorate for Christmas on Thanksgiving weekend.   In one of the boxes was a still life that I did in December of last year.      Now the fact that this painting got packed into the decorations last year means that I thought it didn't need any more work.     It was a red poinsetta to the left and a white tea pot in front on the right.   I stared at it in amazement.   The muddy pink/red petals were too uniform, lacking shadows and variety.   The green leaves and green ornaments competed with each other and were too light.   Rather than the spout and the handle of the teapot being aligned at 180 degrees, the spout looked like it came out awkwardly at about 157 degrees.

I grabbed it, marched to my studio and leaned it on the ledge over my palette.   Once a canvas makes its way to this spot, it is about to become a subsurface for a new painting.   Within a day the awful Christmas still life became a red, gold and green swirl of color.  It actually makes a very attractive abstract.   I wish I had taken a picture of it prior to putting the swirls on it so I could remember what it was that so disliked. Why didn't my eyes see the flaws last year when I first painted it?    You really do become blind to the distortion somehow.     So now I had a nice colorful ground for a new painting, but no longer had a Christmas still life.    Which brings me to the painting I did today.

Three of my favorite Christmas decorations are included.  They include a ceramic Santa moon wall hanging, a weathered looking French horn and a jingle bell instrument.   I like rustic looking items over glittery ones, and I chose to use a piece of black foamcore for the background.   My husband is a composition expert and he actually arranged the items for me.  Getting the Santa moon to be suspended against the background took some ingenuity.  (Fishing line, tape, spotlight, knot tying and a jar candle to be exact.)  

Placing the spotlight at a low angle produced some nice background shadows, especially of Santa's profile.  I like how there are three tangent circles in the Santa, the bells, and the horn.   There is too much wet paint right now to finish the bells, but I will be using my silver cup experience to improve those - hopefully.     I am also thinking about adding a sprig of holly that sort of sits on the back of the horn.    Comments?

Like last year's still life painting, this one will get packed away with the decorations.   It will be interesting to see what my impartial, fresh artist eye thinks of it next year.   Will it too become a ghost for a painting future?

Gate of Heaven Church

By 1890, Gate of Heaven Parish in South Boston, Massachusetts was well established. Even though the City Point area was growing more slowly than the westerly parish of the peninsula, by 1890 the congregation at Gate of Heaven numbered about 10,000 with about 600 girls registered in the academy and parochial school. The existing church was insufficient for the needs of so large a parish. In order to get ample room for a new church, it was necessary for the parish to buy several lots adjoining the church's land holdings at that time.  A hill that stood on this land was removed, and the grounds were graded. The cornerstone of today's church was laid in the fall of 1896 by His Grace, Archbishop Williams, with about one hundred clergymen assisting at the ceremony.

The designs furnished by P.W. Ford, the Boston Architect provided a building worthy of a cathedral. During construction, it was necessary to build St. Eulalia’s Chapel (today's St. Brigid Church), which was opened for services on May 6th, 1900 for the people of the City Point,  The following month the new lower Gate of Heaven church was finished, and the first services were held there June 17th, 1900.

With the lower church occupied, the work of completing the upper church was begun. The stained glass windows were designed by N.H.J. Weslake, Esq. of London, whose work, “The History of Design in Painted Glass” is recognized as an authority on the subject. The work of completing the church progressed steadily, and the upper church was ready for services and dedicated by His Eminence, Cardinal O’Connell, on May 12th, 1912.

The church was constructed in the Gothic style of architecture, of buff Roman brick, with brownstone trimmings. It has a frontage on East Fourth Street of 106 feet and depth of 184 feet. The interior itself is magnificent in its arrangement of fittings – the woodwork of oak, alters of sandstone and marble, the blue and gold tinted walls, the beautiful organ and magnificent stations, made it one of the most elaborate houses of worship in or about Boston. The Gate of Heaven Church is recognized by leading authorities as one of the most beautiful churches in the Archdiocese of Boston.

There really is no better way to become familiar with all the beauty and intricacies of such a majestic example of architecture than to paint it. Seeing my childhood church as an adult - an adult with an artist's eye - resulted in a strong desire to capture how striking it is.   As an adult, typically upon returning to those familiar places frequented as a child, the reaction is, "I remember it being so much bigger!"   Gate of Heaven Church is one of the few places that seems just as enormous and impressive today as it did all those years ago.   I remember feeling so small as my eight year old eyes looked up to see the chandelier lights that made my mother's diamond ring sparkle as in no other place.  

This week, the Gate of Heaven convent which stands on the same block, not 10 feet away from the church, is being torn down.   The Gate of Heaven rectory has already been torn down.  Being 30 miles removed, I'm not sure what the whole plan is for these properties, but it startled me into creating this painting, one I've been thinking about starting for a while.  This is not complete so comments are welcome.  Also, look for a religious symbol somewhere on the canvas...