Lilacs & Peaches~ Springtime Clarity

Lilacs in dooryards
Holding quiet conversations with an early moon;
Among your heart-shaped leaves
Orange orioles hop like music-box birds and sing. ~Amy Lowell

Orange, Green, Violet~ I love the vibrating energy of a secondary triad color scheme. The soft contrast is easy on the eye but still full of the interest contrast yields. Green and violet contain the qualities of both warm and cool and can be nudged in either direction.

Lilacs And Peaches is an arrangement of Nature’s offerings in triadic unity. Here, the colors are neutralized, slowing the vibration. The feeling of cool, springtime serenity is enhanced by allowing the warmth of color to rest in the violet tones, and subordinating the heat of the orange. Compare the feeling in Hues of Autumn, where the same color scheme allows the orange to dominate radiant warmth.

Because secondary colors are mixtures of primaries, these schemes seem to align with the expression of transitional seasons. Combined with value key and chromatic intensity, an infinite subtlety of expression is possible. Cool and cleansing, Lilacs And Peaches echoes the clarity that springtime ushers in.


Melody Phaneuf is a Boston Artist, composing and painting pictures at Fenway Studios. Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life and landscape paintings and has achieved significant acclaim for portraiture. She has exhibited at Galerie Herouet in Paris, The National Arts Club in New York City, and with Art du Monde, a traveling exposition in Japan. Phaneuf’s paintings are regularly displayed at the Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street, Boston, MA.

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 note cards. Online ordering at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Lilacs And Peaches, oil painting by Melody Phaneuf, 20 x 16
Interested in purchasing Lilacs And Peaches? Contact Melody

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


Related~

• Lilacs, poem by Amy Lowell
• Color Vibrations
• Color Therapy

Partly Sunny, Gentle Breeze

Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester nurtures countless moods. In Partly Sunny, Gentle Breeze, the slow dreaminess of halcyon days is summoned. The escaping tide returns to the horizon, leaving her echoes in the sand. A delicate pink glow emanates, causing pleasant pulsations in the quiet color.

I’m reminded of a tale wherein a kingfisher calms the seas while nests of floating eggs are cradled until hatched. As this reverie continues, I recall a dream, in which ebbing tide relinquishes countless kernels of corn. Both musings leave me with impressions of abundance and a certainty of rebirth.

When I am in need of inner peace, painting in nature restores my spirit. The rhythm of the sea is especially soothing. Partly Sunny, Gentle Breeze inspires harmonious memories despite living amongst too many wireless phones and deafening mufflers.

Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative Gloucester landscape paintings. Phaneuf works on location and at historic Fenway Studios, Boston, MA, painting still life and portraiture. Phaneuf has exhibited at Galerie Herouet in Paris, The National Arts Club in New York City, and with Art du Monde, a traveling exposition in Japan. Phaneuf’s paintings are regularly displayed at North Shore Arts, Gloucester, MA and The Guild of Boston Artists, Boston, MA.

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 note cards. Online ordering at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Partly Sunny, Gentle Breeze, oil painting by Melody Phaneuf, 16 x 12
To purchase this painting, contact Melody

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


Related~

• The Nature of Spirit
• Listen to Ocean Suite by Steven Halpern
• Kingfisher & The Sea

Seeing Music~ Rhythms and Glass

“Those that danced were thought crazy by those who didn’t hear the music.” ~Gypsy Proverb

It is said that the world we see mirrors who we are, and perhaps who we are is influenced by how we are named. I have always perceived the music of things, how they connect and move in harmony or counter melody; how light and shadow punctuates and binds objects in musical cadence. One of my favorite composers is Gustav Mahler because his music evokes such clear pictures in my mind. That Mahler in German translates to painter convicts me in my belief.

As a child I taught myself to draw by sound. I would look at something and compose a melodic line to record the boundaries of objects; higher or lower notes would mean taller or shorter, and the time that the music took would mark the relative space between things. There were many variations, which grew more elaborate as I attempted to record the visual world. This was the way I could recall the complexity as I turned my focus to draw on the paper.

Eventually, the two became one. It is impossible to discern where sight stops and sound begins. It is a wonderful benefit in matters related to art but there are nuisances. Visual clutter evokes the same agitation, as static between radio stations at too high a decibel level.

In Rhythms and Glass, all static is forsaken. A lyrical quality dominates in the painting, through the rhyme of ribbon and scrollwork of the shelf. Choice of curvilinear over straight encourages cyclical movement, soft, sibilant sounds, and prolongs the sense of time. The cool, analogous palette and smooth, polished surfaces are supportive of the fluid movement in the painting. I hear the rhythmic swoosh and crackle of waves breaking on a distant shore, don’t you?

~

Melody Phaneuf is a Boston Artist, painting and listening to visions at Fenway Studios. Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life and landscape paintings and has achieved significant acclaim for portraiture. She has exhibited at Galerie Herouet in Paris, The National Arts Club in New York City, and with Art du Monde, a traveling exposition in Japan. Phaneuf’s paintings are regularly displayed at the Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street, Boston, MA.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

showcases the artist’s original paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards. Online ordering atRhythms and Glass, 25 x 17 oil painting by Melody Phaneuf, is in private collection, but is available as giclée on canvas or archival paper, and handmade note cards.

Related Links~

• The Influence of Sound on Images
• We Can See Sound
• Color, Sound and Genetics
• The Gustav Mahler Society
  

follow Melody on twitter
become a facebook fan
visit Melody’s studio

Spring Meadow~ Picturing Possibilities

"Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” ~Rumi

"Seek the fresh air of the forest and of the fields, and there in the midst of them shall you find the angel of air.” ~Jesus

What is it about fields and meadows that resonate with purity and new life? For me, it is the memory of childhood spent in pastureland, of walks with my mother in spring to visit newborn lambs. It was a beloved annual journey, fragrant with apple blossoms and clover; alive with bird song and rushing brooks, a land of enchanted possibility framed within stonewalls. The wild beauty of fields displays a sacred unity~ where rocks, trees and vines work out individual needs and grow together in harmony.

In the painting, Spring Meadow, softness pervades, as if seen through the eyes of a child. The interplay of simplified shape and movement, of pinks, lavender and mint green gently cradle us through the picture. The meadow’s elements are in communication with one another, pulsing with new awakening. Spring Meadow is a picture of joyful flourishing.

Pictures, whether in visual, written, or aural form, are important to our consciousness. It is by our imaging capacity that we establish our outlook on the world, which patterns our behavior and experience. An overload of stressful pictures ultimately causes conflict; they must be balanced with an antidote.

Spring Meadow invites us to picture a land of renewed possibilities, where the soul of primal earth awaits the angel of the air. I will meet you there.


Melody Phaneuf is a Boston Artist, working at Fenway Studios. Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life and landscape paintings and has achieved significant acclaim for portraiture. She has exhibited at Galerie Herouet in Paris, The National Arts Club in New York City, and with Art du Monde, a traveling exposition in Japan. Phaneuf’s paintings are regularly displayed at the Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street, Boston, MA.

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

Spring Meadow, Oil Painting by Melody Phaneuf, private collection


Related Links~

• Mystical Poetry of Rumi
• Sacred Sites
• Creative Visualization

follow Melody on twitter
become a facebook fan

Delighting In Still Life Painting~ Through The Artist’s Eye

The French have an idiom for expressing exuberance, “j’ai la pêche!” a delicious analogy between their energy and the juice of a ripe peach. Minimalists that Americans are, we parallel with “woo-hoo!” a bit less romantic. I admire the poetry with which the French culture is imbued and consider it a possible source of French joie de vivre. Their expression was in my mind as I composed the not-so-still life painting, J’ai La Pêche.

I begin still life arrangements with an intention. Sometimes it is to tell a story; sometimes it’s to bring awareness to the beauty of light bathing forms or revealing color. In J’ai La Pêche, the intention was to express the buoyant spirit of delight. We are not only minimalists in speech, but in our actions; feelings such as delight need validation. Absent from our language, they may soon disappear from our consciousness.

Pictures are visual language. What we see is absorbed by our mind and processed, not always consciously. We would not have evolved as a species if we didn’t read the danger signals. But we are capable of subtler discernment.

Becoming absorbed in visual delight refines our appreciation, ultimately leading us to view the world through grateful eyes. Living in appreciation is much more peaceful than roiling in anger or despair. It’s better for your health, better for the world. This is the importance of practicing delight.

What is the cause for the visual experience of delight in Jai La Pêche? Much of it has to do with the attraction of color, variety of texture, and the subject matter, but the essential force is in the gliding movement of our eyes.

It begins in the charming soup tureen, which lures with its arabesque pattern. Our eyes pick up the highlight and begin to follow the line of this little whirling dervish, swooping us into the picture plane from left to right in a graceful arc, which is intercepted by the vertical bottle on the left. The magnetic diagonal draws us to the compote jar and the single peach on the right. Here, we linger, like a rest in music, becoming satiated with the radiant color and nuance of reflected light until the draw of the dark, concave soup ladle emerges. We sense the echo of the ladle’s size and shape in the arabesque pattern and follow it with gentle figure eight movements, reaching the peaches on the left. From here, there are multiple pathways, routes back through the painting, all suggested by relationships of edges and geometry. I love for the viewer to continue discovering new aspects of my paintings.

Our eye movement is varied and pleasant, dominated by graceful, gliding movements~ en glissant, as the French say. I invite you to explore J’ai La Pêche. I hope it makes you smile.

Melody Phaneuf is a Boston Artist, working at Fenway Studios. Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life and landscape paintings and has achieved significant acclaim for portraiture. She has exhibited at Galerie Herouet in Paris, The National Arts Club in New York City, and with Art du Monde, a traveling exposition in Japan. Phaneuf’s paintings are regularly displayed at the Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street, Boston, MA.

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

J’ai La Pêche, is a 26 x16 Oil Painting by Melody Phaneuf. Fine art prints and handmade note cards of this still life painting are available at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Would you like to see the original still life painting in person?
Come visit my studio

Related Links~

• Reading Paintings
• The Psychology of Art Appreciation
• Appreciation Brings Out The Best In Everyone

follow Melody on twitter
become a facebook fan

Reflections~ Artful Prescription For Anxiety

Anxiously awaiting her appointment with a specialist after a questionable X-ray, my friend became absorbed in a landscape painting in the doctor’s office. After a few moments contemplating the painting she felt her tensions dissolve.

Using imagery to focus the mind and center emotions is hardly a new idea. Eastern cultures developed intricate mandalas as meditative tools; arabesques adorning the walls of mosques were intended to induce ecstasy in the viewer by virtue of hypnotic eye movement. Here, image is the handmaiden of intention.

Composing paintings with intention demands from the artist a selective eye when painting outdoors in Nature. All aspects~ shapes, colors, direction, and lighting must align with subject matter to express the intention. In Reflections, I sought to prompt a calm and meditative state in the viewer. A glimpse of docked boats reflected in gently lapping water seemed a perfect visual metaphor.

Gloucester harbor is here shown in a quiet, diffused light. Contrasts of color and value are subdued; edges softened, giving objects a dreamy, ethereal quality. The oblong shape of the canvas and horizontality of the pier and boats contribute to the quiet in Reflections. Eye movement is gentle and slow, paced by the handling of the brush strokes. Reflections is a statement of tranquility.

Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative landscape, still life, 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 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 note cards. Online ordering at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Reflections, oil painting by Melody Phaneuf, 28 x 20

Follow Melody on twitter
Become a facebook fan
Visit Melody's studio

Related~

• Effects of Art on Emotion
• Using Mandalas to Focus the Mind
• Emotional Effects of Color

Painting Gloucester Harbor~ Morningtide

The many faces of Gloucester provide endless variety for the landscape artist to paint. Here, on the harbor, the wild beauty of the sea is tamed and harnessed. Rugged boats and machinery, equipment for the fishing trade, replace majestic waves and limber shoreline. The harbor in Gloucester is the hub of the fishing industry, which, though diminished, remains steadfast.

The landscape painting, Morningtide, reflects a characteristic glimpse of Gloucester’s working harbor. Old and sturdy houses are firmly planted in the hill, their watchful windows positioned for returning seamen with several days catch. Stout boats, the powerful Sumo wrestlers of titanic hauls of fish, rest here reflecting the light. It’s breezy, the water is choppy, it is barely spring.

The Cool crisp, and somewhat harsh morning light imparts contrast, patterning the shapes with a pulsating beat. Continuous oppositions of triangle/rectangle, dark/light, warm/cool, interrupt pathways of yellow, red, and blue-gray. The resulting syncopation in the design evokes the feeling of this neighborhood surrounding Gloucester’s well-worn harbor. It is here that tourists and artists flock, to savor a taste of life in this mythic fishing community.

A tourist detail~ the two-toned building to the left of the blue triangular blue one, houses the now famous Crow’s Nest, featured in The Perfect Storm, book by Sebastian Junger. The Crow's Nest open this morning, continuing the saga worthy of a novel.

Morningtide represents the ruggedness of generations indentured to the sea, one thread in the rich fabric of all that is Gloucester.

Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative Gloucester landscape paintings. Phaneuf works on location and at historic Fenway Studios, Boston, MA, painting still life and portraiture. Phaneuf has exhibited at Galerie Herouet in Paris, The National Arts Club in New York City, and with Art du Monde, a traveling exposition in Japan. Phaneuf’s paintings are regularly displayed at North Shore Arts, Gloucester, MA and The Guild of Boston Artists, Boston, MA.

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

Morningtide, oil painting by Melody Phaneuf, 30 x 25
To purchase Morningtide, contact Melody

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

Related~

• Historic Gloucester
• The Perfect Storm and The Andrea Gale
• 150 Years of Cape Ann Artistry