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.

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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
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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

Artistic Mechanics~ The ´Ebauche

Artists often do small studies before committing to a large canvas. There are different purposes for studies~ to select color, to work out the details of drawing, or to see the composition. The term ébauche refers to a study in which the artist looks at how the abstraction operates on a 2 dimensional surface.

I love the word, borrowed from the watchmaker, to describe the interior mechanism of timepieces. The parallel of understanding the visual forces or “what makes it tick,” is the essence of the ébauche .

This type of study has very little attention to fine detail or exact drawing. Rather, it is focused on shape, value, and linear integrity; to how the parts relate to one another. To use the watchmaker’s analogy, if one gear that is supposed to turn another doesn’t align, it must be moved to perform the function. So too with artistic mechanics; either the chosen subject is physically moved to the desired alignment, or if this is not possible, the viewpoint may be changed or artistic liberty taken.


Once the artist is satisfied with the arrangement, care is taken to ensure that the size of the final painting is in proportion to the ébauche. As the painting develops, detail is emphasized or subordinated with an eye toward maintaining mechanics of whole. In this way, the artist preserves her primary vision for the painting.

´Ebauches by Melody Phaneuf~

Study for Calling, 14 x 16, oil on canvas
Study for Stage Fort Park, 10 x 8, oil on canvas
Study for Partly Sunny, Gentle Breeze, 6 x 4 oil on board

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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

Visit to Delft~ A Tale of Tiles

A trip to The Netherlands would feel incomplete absent a visit to Delft. The Royal Delft pottery continues to manufacture the blue and white tiles that, along with Vermeer, gave 17th Century Delft broad recognition. Though blue and white tiles were manufactured throughout the country, they came to be known as “Delft Tiles.”

Practical uses of tile are many throughout The Netherlands. Wall coverings and trivet purposes are customary but it was surprising to see tiles used as floor baseboard trim. It makes perfect sense when one considers how scarce forest trees are in this small country, much of it reclaimed from the sea. For the same reason, signage and street numbers are made from tile, rather than carved from wood.

Much of the decoration of tile is based on flower and vase motifs. The Dutch love their tulips and tulip vases became the rage. Simplified floral geometries are some of the most satisfying designs in Delft tile. Pastorals and Chinese motifs also remain as popular today as they were in the 17th Century.

Home again, I savor The Netherlands adventure. It is validating to think that images chosen for Melody The Artist tiles~ florals and landscape scenery, correspond to the ideas popularized by 17th Century Dutch artisans. And I am happy to know a culture that prizes aesthetics alongside practicality.

Mums and Blue Willow, Tile Coasters, after the oil painting
by Melody Phaneuf
Also available as Backsplash Mural

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~

• Delft Tile Designs
• Royal Delft Manufacturing
• Visiting Delft

Painting on Location~ The Netherlands

The quest to discover new environs is a terrific source of artistic inspiration. Putting everything on hold for a few weeks for the purpose of hunting and gathering new glimpses of the world refreshes the artist’s eye.

There is much to see in the Netherlands~ from the intricate architecture to the enormous sky that hovers over the seemingly endless flat land below sea level. Windmills and canals are evidence of the determination and ingenuity of the Dutch in creating terra firma for an expanding population and verdant farmlands.

In the coming weeks there is much to do to in the studio to make these studies into larger gallery paintings. It is joyful work and a delight to revisit this journey; each little study is a visual diary of a magical experience.


Study of Amsterdam, 8 x 10 oil painting by Melody Phaneuf
Study of Windmills, 8 x 10 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