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.