Painting In Progress~ Allegory of Strength

Allegory of Strength, closeup of painting in progress
by Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf
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Antidote to pessimism, Allegory of Strength is an artistic response to war, economic woes, and yet another oil spill. I am always buoyed by the hopeful smile of the Jester. Here, he happily pulls himself up, despite the pressing of time and relentless negative forces. Continue reading~

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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

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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

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Related~

• The Nature of Myths
• Myths of Transformation
• The Marriage of Persephone

Fortune’s Wheel, In Memory of September 11

It is August of 1997 and I am returning from an exhibition of my paintings in Paris. It is the fulfillment of a dream and I am heady, making great plans the way one does when still young and unscathed. I couldn’t have painted this at that particular moment because I was brimming with joy.

I call it Fortune’s Wheel. It is about sudden and violent change, the kind of event where one is irrevocably transformed. It is a self-portrait in symbols; a cathartic detachment from what immediately becomes the past. The jester hangs upside down by one foot, echoing the Hanged man of the Tarot. Like breadcrumbs leading out of the woods, three cards, the Tower, Devil, and Three of Swords leave a trail of clues. An ominous black veil obscures the exhibition poster yoking the jester to the wheel where once fresh roses ascend. Flameless candle, well-worn and treasured map of France, postcard, and coins are strewn. The hourglass sand is running out, the duality of light bewilders, disorder rules.

Fast forward to 2001. It is a crisp and beautifully sunny morning in September, emblem of early autumn in New England. I am working with a handful of students studying anatomy, looking out the window, thinking we really should be out landscape painting. It is shortly before 9:00. The first plane is flying into the towers.

We are changed। We were still young and unscathed. We were heady, brimming with joy, and could not have imagined in advance of that particular moment, this altered world.

Fortune’s Wheel by Melody Phaneuf, 40 x 48 Oil Painting
http://melodytheartist.com