Colorful Vibrations

Yellow, 25 x 20 oil painting by Boston Artist Melody Phaneuf
~

It is said that everything in the universe was created by vibration. Quivering movement is the force that animates life. The artist’s use of color in painting can cause visual vibration and create an activating force.

A solitary color is present in the oil painting Yellow, yet the variations in value and chroma stimulate one another to cause an infinite array of subordinate hues. Pale violet, reds, and green punctuate the background as our eyes attempt to stay focused on the deep gold of the local color. Echoes of the brilliant yellow flowers and fruit dance across the surface causing a delightful interplay between background and subject matter. Our eyes appreciate this pulsation; they translate it into the breathing rhythm of life.

We live in an ocean of vibration. Artists endeavor to perceive subtleties in the visual world and trace effects to their cause. For many artists, the calling is to make the invisible realm visible.

~

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 notecards. Online shopping at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Yellow, 25 x 20 oil painting by Boston Artist Melody Phaneuf

Yellow is available in fine art prints and hand made notecards.

Looking for affordable art?
See our complete selection of Hostess Gifts~
Online shopping at http://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

Hues of Autumn

Hues of Autumn, 18 x 25 oil painting by Boston Artist Melody Phaneuf
~

As the days shorten and the temperature cools, we long for brightness and warmth. In the still life painting called Hues of Autumn, warm and active colors invite us to linger in a gyrating composition, expressive of the season's lively spirit.

Hues of Autumn cultivates positive emotions by its buoyant design. The verticality of the picture combined with high major key and wide chromatic range engage our attention, its contrasts seeding our exuberance. There is an animation in the earthen jug, a sense of impending movement. Textural patterning in the fabric begins an upward motion that is bolstered by the placement of oak leaves leading us to pomegranates and through the handles of the vessel. The impact of our visual experience rhymes with the variety provided by Nature's most stimulating season.

Hues of Autumn, 18 x 25 oil painting by Boston Artist Melody Phaneuf

Hues of Autumn, is available in fine art prints and handmade note cards.

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

~

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 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

~

Portrait of Domenic, Angelic Child

Couldn’t you just pinch his little pink cheeks? Domenic, angelic child, is beloved by his aunt who commissioned his portrait to mark this moment in time. I can only imagine his mother’s surprise when she opened her Christmas gift.

In child portraiture, the spirit of innocence is roused by roundness of features. Soft edges flow as forms blend imperceptibly. Domenic’s faint smile and limpid eyes reminded me of the expression in the Mona Lisa, at one moment smiling, the next, pensive, and almost saddened, the vision of an old soul.

There is a riddle concealed in the folds of Dom’s Red Sox shirt. His clever and insightful aunt devised homage to his late great-grandfather Ed with the letters of the shirt. The contemporary insignia is a bit of genius, sure to inspire family stories for years to come.

I am delighted to discuss your portrait ideas. Portraits of children are cherished gifts for parents and grandparents. Now is the perfect time to commission your portrait for Mother’s Day.


Melody Phaneuf creates portraits of children at Fenway Studios Cooperative, a community of Boston artists whose historic north light building was modeled on the 19th century Parisian Ateliers. Studio visits are welcomed.

Melody's paintings have been exhibited at Galerie Herouet in Paris, The National Arts Club in New York City, and were included in a traveling exposition in Japan. Her work is regularly displayed at the Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street, Boston, MA.

Portrait of Domenic, by Melody Phaneuf 16 x 20, Pastel, Private Collection

Useful Links~

Clothing for Portraits~ Ideas from Famous Paintings

Mary Cassatt~ Archive of Portraits

The National Portrait Gallery

Yes We Can~Con Spirito

With the election behind us there appears a new sense of hope. Our president elect, Barack Obama, brings with him an inspiration that is contagious. There is no doubt that we will have to do our part but there is a unity of purpose that I believe will transcend our difficulties.

A similar sentiment of unity is expressed in Con Spirito, a tribute to the mysterious force that animates us and calls us to create order from chaos, beauty from the mundane. Inspiration, symbolized by the illuminated candle, is the cause of both the arrangement of notes in the music and placement of objects in the visual design. Instruments radiate out from the light, reflecting it. Patterning of light and dark “spots” and chosen angles create a rhythm and give a sense of animation to the whole. There was an intention here, a unity of purpose, which answered the myriad of decisions for this painting.

So, I’m with you, Mr. Obama. If we can organize a design, create music from the noise that surrounds us, we should be able to develop a society based on the good of the whole rather than a collection of its parts. And with Spirit, yes, we can.

Con Spirito by Melody Phaneuf
Oil Painting, 34 x 36

Con Spirito is on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury St, Boston during the month of November.

Open Edition Prints, Tiles and Note Cards make wonderful gifts and are available at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Spirit Of The Season

How do you capture the spirit of a season? The color contrast in Season of Light shows the warmness of the orange sunlight against cool, crisp atmosphere of a manganese sky. Naked trees stretch and yawn, ready for a long nap. Jagged cast shadows lead us into the scene, where rooftops continue the angular movement and create an upbeat rhythm, much like the Autumn of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

Season of Light is a typical New England coastal scene, with its stonewalls and white houses, ideal backdrop for all that is autumn. Soon, the red chimneys will swirl smoke and stand out vibrantly against the white New England snows.


Season of Light by Melody Phaneuf
Oil Painting, 30 x 25

Open Edition Prints, Tiles, and Note Cards make great gifts.
Visit MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Still Life With Oranges

Orange, green, violet. A secondary triad has more subtlety ....more


Still Life With Oranges, by Melody Phaneuf
30 x 25 oil painting

Open Edition prints are available at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop.