Artful Living

The Bridge, Good Harbor oil painting by Melody Phaneuf
is based on angular movement and contrasts round with pointed shapes
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What does it mean to live an artful life? For me, it is being surrounded with color, shape, and textures that are pleasing. I love pattern, colored glass, and certain combinations of objects that vary enough to create an interesting moment but have a certain unity between them. I love looking at the ocean from a violet living room framed by a light warm grey. And how a few spots of pomegranate red can activate an otherwise cool and passive room.

The way in which one arranges things can create harmonic or contrasting rhythms. Eye movement creates an evocative response. It contributes to how we feel in a space. How we feel can be affected by seasonal changes of temperature and light. I often move a painting or print when I need a change of color or to want to develop a new rhythm. It’s much easier than repainting the room every time and it gives me infinite variety.

The movement within a painting, tapestry or a rug pattern can help unify or create chaos in a room. If you are bored, add more angular movement; if you are agitated, slow, full curves will sooth. Similarities calm, while Contrasts excite. And forming a gentle gradation between contrasts will bridge the gap.

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The Bridge, Good Harbor by Melody Phaneuf, 28 x 20 oil painting

The Bridge, Good Harbor is available in fine art prints, marble tile coasters, and handmade note cards

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Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life, landscape, and portrait paintings. Phaneuf’s paintings are regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf has exhibited her paintings at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo showcases Phaneuf’s original paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards. Online ordering at MelodyTheArtist,com/shop

Follow MelodyTheArtist on twitter
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Visit Melody Phaneuf at Fenway Studios, Boston
Commission a painting by Melody Phaneuf

Portrait of Contradiction~ Soldier Boy

Soldier Boy

Pastel Portrait by Melody Phaneuf
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Artists typically use the human form to express emotions, ideas, and states of mind. In portraiture facial expression, costume, and setting can communicate more about the person than the likeness.

Soldier Boy is a study in contradiction. The soldier's penetrating gaze is sometimes stern, sometimes gentle. There is a proud austerity to the pose; the sitter appears rigid, yet somehow vulnerable. Somber tones in the background blend into the uniform giving a narrow variation of color, helping to support the feeling of restraint.

There is a slant of light that illuminates the dark and falls across the head. It adds a touch of brilliance to the blue uniform and leads us back to the eyes, perhaps more penetrating than our first encounter.

Who was Soldier Boy before the uniform? The swirling pattern in the background suggests a sense of motion that belies the static pose. Perhaps it is headiness at his ideals of freedom. Or possibly it is the last glimpse of an identity, soon to be lost forever.

Soldier Boy by Melody Phaneuf, 16 x 20 Pastel Painting

Contact Melody to commission a portrait

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Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative landscape, still life, and portrait paintings. Phaneuf's paintings are regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf has exhibited her paintings at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo showcases the artist's original paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards.

Looking for affordable art?
See our complete selection of Hostess Gifts~
Online ordering at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Follow MelodyTheArtist on twitter
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Visit Melody Phaneuf at Fenway Studios, Boston

Related~

• Expression in Portraiture
• Setting and Symbolism in Portraiture
• Portrait of Domenic

Transitions~ End of Day, Gloucester

End of Day, Gloucester by Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf

Transition. September light bridges clear, blue summer with autumn’s orange glow. It is a tranquil time in Gloucester; the tides seem at rest. But all is poised for movement; equilibrium nears the tipping point.

Moments in balance seem to arrest time and penetrate memory. My spirit soars, rejoining golden light, recalling Eternity. Below the houses are silent, watchful, rooted. I witness the ocean’s depth and desire becomes my passage home. It is here that I dwell, capturing beauty in paint, and go forth with time.

End of Day, Gloucester by Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf is a 20 x 16 oil painting in private collection~

See End of Day, Gloucester fine art décor featured at Melody The Artist Home


Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative landscape, still life, and portrait paintings. Phaneuf’s paintings are regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf has exhibited her paintings at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.


Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo showcases the artist’s original paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards. Online ordering at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop


Follow MelodyTheArtist on twitter
Fan MelodyTheArtist.com/shop on facebook
Visit Boston Art Studio of Melody Phaneuf
Book a painting commission by Melody Phaneuf

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Boston Artists Celebrate Excellence

The Guild of Boston Artists is celebrating 95 years of traditional artistry in an exhibit showcasing contemporary member work together with select paintings of illustriousness early members. The exhibit opens September 10, 2009 and continues through September 27.

Farewell, Persephone is my contribution to the anniversary exhibition and pays homage to the mythical Goddess of the Underworld. Mythology, allegory, and symbolism are evident in many of my paintings. I am inspired by the transformational effects that stories can have. In these paintings I think of myself as a storyteller in a visual rather than oral tradition.

My paintings are rooted in the emotional impact of an idea, which is my inspiration to create. Composition is always first~ the choices of value key, movement, and color arrangement that evoke the mood I'm trying to convey. The objects chosen for these allegorical still lifes do bear weight but the primary focus is on the abstraction, how the components work together to trigger an emotional response to the painting.

Farewell, Persephone is featured in the September 2009 issue of American Art Collector, page 161. An earlier post tells the story of the myth of Persephone in the Underworld. To see Farewell, Persephone, visit The Guild of Boston Artists, located at 162 Newbury St, Boston, MA 02216. Hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10:30 to 5:30.

Farewell, Persephone, 42 x 48 oil painting by Melody Phaneuf

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Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative landscape, still life, and portrait paintings. Her work is regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf has exhibited her paintings at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo showcases the artist’s original paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards. Online ordering at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Follow Melody on twitter
Become a facebook fan
Visit Melody’s studio
Commission a painting by Melody

Related~

• The Nature of Myths
• Myths of Transformation
• The Marriage of Persephone

Travels in Amsterdam~ Alternative Spaces

The canals of Amsterdam are lined with houseboats. There is something appealing about floating in the midst of a busy waterway, in the heart of city life. The boats are as individual as their occupants, painted brightly and decorated with hanging plants and birdhouses.

Houseboat interiors are surprisingly spacious and not at all dark or dreary. Though the ceilings are low, many houseboats are flooded with light through skylights. Each little nook is cozy and there is a sense of well being from living simply.



If I were living here, I’d enjoy my city boat pied de terre, but would prefer to call a windmill in the countryside home. Here, the space is vertical, soaring. I love the movement of the mechanism, the thought of giant gears in the attic. The spaces here are cozy as well, with beds in cupboards, snug from the warmth of a woodstove, and shielded from the encircling wind.

I am charmed by the idea living in Nature, separated by only a thatched wall. I love looking out at sheep grazing and the lush green grass, veined with water moved by the mill, of the creaking rhythm of moving gears and the endless, endless sky.

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Melody Phaneuf is a Boston Artist, well known for her evocative landscape, still life, and portrait paintings. Her work is regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf has exhibited her paintings at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo showcases the artist’s original paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards. Online ordering at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Follow Melody on twitter
Become a facebook fan
Visit Melody’s studio
Commission a painting by Melody

Related~

• Houseboat Rentals
• Windmills of The Netherlands
• Simple Living