Artistic Inspiration~ Harvest Suite

Harvest Suite, 30 x 25 oil painting by Boston Artist Melody Phaneuf
~

Wood tones and earthenware evoke a sense of rustic comfort in Harvest Suite. The diminished intensity of color in the painting is quiet, holding our attention for its subtlety rather than its vibrancy. Soft, diffused lighting caresses the objects, nurturing a comforting ambiance.

The carved shelf reminded me of a favorite inn in Brittany, which inspired the theme. Once a hunting lodge, the inn’s mahogany dining room was chiseled with oak leaves and motifs that echo the enchanted forest nearby. I wanted to express my feelings and recollections awakened by the shelf’s pattern. Hand-hewn pottery in butterscotch and mauve, fruits of the earth and simplicity of design suggest a delicious earthy coziness. A tendril of ribbon contributes slow, meandering movement, interweaving the design.

Harvest Suite may not reveal its Breton roots to the viewer but the painting’s agreeable color, texture, and simplicity nourishes the visual appetite.

~

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 ordering at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Harvest Suite, 30 x 25 oil painting by Boston Artist Melody Phaneuf

Harvest Suite is available in fine art prints and handmade notecards.

See our complete selection of Autumn Décor and 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

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

~

Time of Seasonal Light

Season of Light, 30 x 25 oil painting by Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf
~

Afterglow. An appealing balance of warm and cool, light and shadow, and the variety of threadbare trees dancing in the sun make this time of the year a visual delight. All things seem to smile in the contentment of temporal balance.

In Gloucester, it is a magical time, quiet except for Nature’s presence. I feel engaged with the landscape during these intervals; we are in dialog about our existence here while recollecting eternity. This world is about movement and the thrill of change, the vibrations of sound and light.

What joy it is to paint landscape here, by the slow and steady rhythm of the sea. I watch the final stretch of the trees, along with an audience of charmed white houses. We are bonded in our experience, part of the continuity illuminated by the seasonal glow. I am called to chronicle this moment for others and to remember its brief existence in time.

Season of Light, 30 x 25 landscape painting of Gloucester by Melody Phaneuf

~

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.

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

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

Artful Living

The Bridge, Good Harbor oil painting by Melody Phaneuf
is based on angular movement and contrasts round with pointed shapes
~

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.

~

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

~

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
Be a facebook fan of MelodyTheArtist.com/shop
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
~

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

~

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
Fan MelodyTheArtist.com/shop on facebook
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

~