Black, White and Mixed Metals

Isabel Knew a Spell

The Red King in his Labyrinth

Two new small paintings on canvas board. I love the matte black of blackboard paint
as a ground!  I also love red oil stick, as it has a density and archaic sort of feel that encourages boldness.
The metallic lines are made with contour paste or relief markers used for glass painting.
These come in tubes with narrow nozzle tips making them irresistible as drawing implements!
etsy link
etsy link

Chamber Lullaby, March 16th

New small 8 x 10" on canvas board. 

Prepared with blackboard black for a dark flat matte ground.

Then gold relief liner/contour paste (for glass painting) improv. lines, 

and finally knife-painted oils.

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March 11th 2011: New Spring abstract (with details)

"Madeleine de Demandolx"

oil on canvas board, 

18 x 14 in

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Mornings with Malakoff and l'Ondée, New paintings, early March

Mornings with Malakoff

oil on canvas board, 16 x 12 inches

etsy link

One of my all time favourite old roses is Tour de Malakoff.

I love the name too, and the particular flora-drama described of petals of a rich

reddish purple fading to pale papery lilac!  These recent works are full of the

sense of anticipation about Spring. 
Come on, Spring!!

l'Ondee

oil on canvas board, 20 x 16


I've been reading up on classic older perfumes, and I love finding out about

their histories, meanings and evocative descriptions.  Although I should say I have no sense memory of the perfume itself, 
at least as far as I know,  the poetry of the description is very inspiring.   "Apres l'Ondee" (Jacques Guerlain, 1906)
("after the heavy rainshower" doesn't evoke the same poetic mood as the original French, does it? ) inspired the titling of this new  painting.  I wanted to keep a sense of fragility and ambiguity, as in Nerval,  a dreamlike feeling that draws you in rather than defining itself too clearly.  
In this aspect, this transitional state between landscape and portrait,  the painting owes a debt to and is a conscious tribute to the great contemporary Russian painter
Andrey Aranyshev.