""Medici Fountain at Luxembourg Garden" (oil on linen; 10" x 8") sold

 

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The Medici Fountain (la fontaine Médicis) is a monumental fountain in the Luxembourg Garden in the 6th arrondissement in Paris. It was built in about 1630 by Marie de' Medici, the widow of King Henry IV of France and regent of King Louis VIII of France. It was moved to its present location and extensively rebuilt in 1864-66.

I visited the famous fountain in late summer on an overcast day in 2019. In the painting I tried to capture the magical serenity of the place with the pointillist style. Do you think I succeeded?

"Alexander III Bridge at Dusk" (oil on stretched canvas; 12" x 16") sold

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Paris at dusk is the most romantic place in the world, especially, by the Pont Alexandre III along the Seine. It is the most extravagant bridge in the city, with its exuberant Art Nouveau lamps, cherubs, nymphs and winged horses at either end. I can see vaguely the Invalides in the distance.

Someone found my old painting of the same subject on the internet and asked me for a print. I said I could do better! I painted a larger, better version for the client, who proposed to his girlfriend on the famous bridge last year. They are now married and the painting is going to be the Christmas gift for the happily surprised wife. I love my job!

"Paris Notre Dame Nocturne" (oil on stretched canvas; 12" x 16") sold

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Paris at dusk is the most romantic place in the world, as the city turns into the city of light. Take a walk along the Seine River. The famed river looks like a moat guarding the equally famed Notre Dame in the Ile de la Cite. Ah, Paris!

"Paris Bridge of Love" (oil on stretched canvas; 11" x 14") sold

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June 1, 2015 was the day the love died. That day an estimated one million padlocks, dubbed “ love locks,” were removed from Paris’ famed Pont des Arts bridge—connecting the Louvre and the Institut de France across the Seine. Love locks may be gone, but the romance of Paris lives forever!

"Eiffel Tower Spring" (oil on stretched canvas; 12" x 9") sold

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It is springtime in Paris. The Eiffel Tower surrounded with cherry blossoms, I dare say, is the ultimate in romance!

The Collage of My October Paintings

The Collage of My October 2014 Paintings

Last month, I slackened a bit due to the ongoing eye trouble, painting only 15 paintings. What can I say?  I am only human.  Which is your favorite painting?

"Art Date with Monet's Water Lilies" (oil on stretched canvas; 9" x 12") sold

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Paris is a city of museums.  During my short visit while back, I have checked out several and wished I could have stayed longer to visit more museums.  The Musee de l'Orangerie is an art gallery of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings located in the west corner of the Tuileries Gardens in Paris.  The museum is most famous for being the permanent home for eight Water Lilies murals (Les Nympheas) by Claude Monet, which wrap around a white oval room.  A perfect setting for a romantic art date!

By the way, "Art Date" is an infinity painting.  It keeps going!

From the left

From the right

"Paris Notre Dame Nocturne" (oil on linen; 9" x 12") sold

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Paris at dusk is the most romantic place in the world.  Take a walk along the Seine River.  The famed river looks like a moat guarding the equally famed Notre Dame in the Ile de la Cite. The cathedral is the birth place of the Gothic architecture, which I adore.  Unfortunately, the style is so ornate, almost phantasmagorical.  But, from the side, in dim light, and much of the enormous structure hidden, I can handle it!

"Eiffel Tower Night" (oil on linen; 12" x 12") sold

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The Eiffel Tower, the iconic image of the most beautiful city in the world, becomes a dreamlike, sparkling jewel every evening.  Ah, the magic of Paris!

"Winged Victory of Samothrace" (watercolor on paper; 20" x 14")

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The famous ancient Hellenistic Greek statue at the Louvre Museum in Paris was the inspiration for the painting.  The 2nd-century BC marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory) was created to honor a sea battle.  Since 1884, it has been prominently displayed at the Louvre and is one of the most celebrated sculptures in the world.  Although headless, it conveys a sense of action and triumph.  I cannot imagine it with a beautiful woman's head, just as I cannot think of "Venus of Milo" with arms.  The power of imagination!

I visited the museum back in 1997 during a two-week trip to France with my husband. I was awed by the beauty of a chunk of an ancient marble.  I wanted to paint it and paint it well.  It was particularly challenging project.  The reference photo with a flat, interior lighting didn't give me much value variation.

I crumpled a thin piece (90 lb weight) of watercolor paper, which crackled (damaged) the surface.  A sacrilegious act, but I was going for an unfussy way to suggest the marble texture. The background interior of the museum was pained with minimum details, whereas I carefully punched up the statue as much as I could with the same limited palette.  It is a subtle, blue painting, which is curiously alive.  You can almost feel the breeze caused by the fluttering wings of the goddess, which is about to take off!

The painting was juried into the Art League show in Alexandria, VA in 2006.

"At the Louvre" (watercolor, 14" x 20") sold

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I love France.  I love her art, food, language, and way of life.  Many years ago, my husband and I spent two happy weeks in France; on the last day of our trip, we went to the Louvre Museum in Paris as a way of saying "au revoir" to this fabulous country.  It was the middle of March--the college spring break time in America.  We should have guessed.  The museum was mobbed; the long line outside was nothing compared to the crowd in the packed room where "Mona Lisa"--the most famous painting in the world--was housed.  Our eyes were blinded by the hundreds of camera flashes going off simultaneously.

Dazed, we wandered around the huge museum, until we happened upon this artist, busily copying Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres's "La Grande Odalisque."  I am not a big fan of the genre of odalisques, which seems to have titillated generations of male painters and their patrons.  However, the concept and design of the reference photo had always intrigued me and, several years later, I got around to painting "At the Louvre."

You could say that I used a minimalist approach in this painting, with just a bare minimum information to get across the message.  I even had the audacity to leave the shape of the odalisque in the copyist's version totally untouched as pure white paper.  By the way, this is a good way of learning to paint--copying Old Masters' works at museums.  The painting was juried into the Art league show in Alexandria, VA in 2005, and received an award in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Watercolor Exhibition by the Baltimore Watercolor Society in 2006.