Seeing Light

From Con Spirito, Painting in Oil by Melody Phaneuf

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It was my mother who taught me to notice the light. As a child in my high chair, I would watch how she would stop and stare at a sun beam penetrating our kitchen window, her eyes narrowed and focused on something, to me, intangible. Since I couldn’t yet speak, I didn’t ask what she was looking at but I mimicked her in the hopes I could know what so mesmerized her.

Later I studied how light bathes forms and spills color, how it moves fluidly revealing textures in its wake. Light, to me, is the animating force in visual composition. It is the key to evoking emotional response.

I am often asked how to paint glass or copper or some other object. It is not the materials that I paint but the light that acts upon them. This subtle shift in observation provides a unifying force in painting, and simplifies a complex visual world.

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Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life, landscape, and portrait paintings. Her 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's paintings have been exhibited 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, features Phaneuf’s original oil paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and beverage coasters, fine art prints, and handmade notecards.


Make Your Life a Work of Art~
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A Morning in Amsterdam

Amsterdam, Toward Westkerk, 20 x 16 oil painting by Melody Phaneuf

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A morning in Amsterdam is a much quieter experience than it is in Boston. In Amsterdam, bicycles far outnumber cars, changing the sound of the morning commute. The metallic jingle of a handlebar bell is a welcomed change to the eviscerating assault of car horns and trucks thundering by. I love a culture that eases, rather than hurls itself into the day.

Amsterdam, Toward Westkerk is a glimpse of a typical Amsterdam morning in early summer. People emerge, some on foot, some on bicycles, making their way to their destinations. It is a gentle morning, sunny at the moment, but the weather can change in an instant. Amsterdam cyclers are adept at juggling umbrellas, groceries, and perhaps a small dog while continuing on their journeys.

The Westkerk neighborhood’s ancient shop windows are carved and frame elaborate displays of goods, beautifully arranged. Early in the morning, a passerby might catch a glimpse of an artist at work through a tiny opening, far behind a fenestrated entry. Such windows reveal the depth of the buildings, belying the diminutive, taxable frontage.

There are many treasures to discover on a peaceful morning promenade through Amsterdam.

Amsterdam, Toward Westkerk is a 20 x 16 oil painting by Melody Phaneuf

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Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life, landscape, and portrait paintings. Her 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 ‘s paintings have been exhibited 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, features Phaneuf’s original oil paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and coasters, fine art prints, and handmade notecards.


Make Your Life a Work of Art~
Online shopping at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop


Follow MelodyTheArtist on twitter
Be a facebook fan of MelodyTheArtist.com
Visit Melody Phaneuf at Fenway Studios, Boston
Commission a painting by Melody Phaneuf
Download our free 2010 Calendar

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Dreams and Mandalas

Page from The Red Book of Carl Jung

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A recent pilgrimage to view The Red Book of Carl Jung left me inspired and rejuvenated. For many years I kept dream journals but somehow got away from the practice. I've resumed the tradition since my excellent journey to the Rubin Museum. The Red Book is under glass, very large, beautifully illuminated and calligraphed by Jung. The images echo mythology and Byzantine saints. The Red Book may be a revelation in understanding the birth of consciousness.

Jung recognized that a visual image could help a viewer integrate aspects of the personality; that a circle in particular could energize one toward wholeness. Several pages of The Red Book revealed Jung’s ruminations on Mandala design. His dreams and visions seemed oddly familiar to me, like the rereading of a favorite tale.

The exhibit of Mandalas at the museum superbly dovetailed with Jung’s exploration of dreams, symbols, and the connection to the soul. The power of shape and color has always intrigued me. I often recollect a transporting experience that I had while standing in rays of blue light cast from a rose window at Chartres cathedral.

There is something satisfying about viewing inner visions, whether our own or someone else’s. The familiarity of these images makes one realize that we are ever so much more alike than different. There is a common meeting place, if we dig deep enough~

Emanations, Drawing from a Dream Journal of Melody Phaneuf

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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.

Make Your Life a Work of Art~
Online shopping at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop


Follow MelodyTheArtist on twitter
Be a facebook fan of MelodyTheArtist.com/shop
Visit Melody Phaneuf at Fenway Studios, Boston
Commission a painting by Melody Phaneuf
Download our Free 2010 Calendar

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The Fullness of Time

The Fullness of Time, 20 x 25 oil painting by Melody Phaneuf, Boston, MA

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As a new year begins, I find myself thinking about time. Without it there would be no vehicle for movement. We become unbound from the eternal to experience motion and all that movement offers. From movement we receive our thoughts and feelings. “Emotion” is derived from the Greek, meaning “from movement.”

The Fullness of Time suggests the interplay of time and motion consequent to fulfillment. The Jester is becoming unbound to enter a temporal world. He is equipped with palette and brushes, with which he will try to visually communicate ideas from the Creative realm. The feather is perhaps a souvenir from the journey.

The painting’s composition, dominated by the wheel, causes the eye to travel along a circular path until it intersects with the oval palette shape below. This results in a lemniscate route toward hourglass, brushes, and back to palette in a continuous loop. The movement is easy on the eye and emotionally satisfying. It is the symbolic path of infinity and eternal fulfillment. The high key and preponderance of cool color establishes an ethereal quality.

The Fullness of Time is a visual story of one soul’s journey toward manifestation.

The Fullness of Time, 20 x 25 oil painting by Melody Phaneuf

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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. Make Your Life a Work of Art~
Online shopping at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop


Follow MelodyTheArtist on twitter
Be a facebook fan of MelodyTheArtist.com/shop
Visit Melody Phaneuf at Fenway Studios, Boston
Commission a painting by Melody Phaneuf