Month: October 2016

A painting from another day

original oil painting by Angie Brooksby
| Angie Brooksby Arcangioli
original oil painting by Angie Brooksby
Taxi Nite, 120x80cm, oil on canvas ©Angie Brooksby

Counting your blessings is good but sometimes it’s a good idea to look at your accomplishments.

This painting is one of my all time favorites. I first showed it in 2012 at the Grand Marché d’art Contemporain at the Bastille. It went to a gallery in Honfleur and sold quickly.

I painted 66 large format oils of NYC. One I took to BHV, the chic department store on rue de Rivoli. Searching for the framing department I walked around with it under my arm. Some lady asked me, “C’est où qu’on trouve les affiches comment-ça?” Where can you find posters like that?

“I don’t know? I painted this.”

“Ah, bon?”

At the time I was painting in a fabulous atelier in Ivry-sur-Seine at La Fabrique des artistes. No heating, no hot water. Industrial, totally bohemian. I had a boiler  to make tea and a microwave that I never hooked up. The boiler was good because that way I could wash my paint brushes without freezing my hands.

My paintings in Sedona, Arizona

original oil painting of Sedona Arizona by Angie Brooksby
| Angie Brooksby Arcangioli
original oil painting of Sedona Arizona by Angie Brooksby
Pink Light – 36×36 cm – oil on canvas ©2016 Angie Brooksby

I forgot to announce that my paintings went up on September 30th in Carré d’Artistes Sedona gallery. When they invited me to paint for the Sedona gallery I hesitated. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to. I’d been painting cityscapes of Paris for the last nine years. Several conincidences made me decide, yes.

The word Arizona kept popping up in unexpected places. For instance I was jogging through Luxembourg Gardens and saw a poster of the Grand Canyon. It was publicity for an exhibition at the Palais de l’Eau in Paris. I went to the exhibition and walked all the way back, along the Seine. That day I took excellent photos for the next series of Paris paintings I am planning.

Other things happened but Arizona was on my mind. When I was a child we went often to Arizona, driving through the Painted Desert. Everytime I saw a cactus, I had to touch it. My mother spent hours plucking needles out of my soft skin.

It’s funny how life brings you full circle.

One of my mannequins is for sale at Carre d’Artistes Sedona gallery, here is a photo from Instagram.

The first forty paintings I did seem to be flying out the door.

I wish I was in Sedona this week to see the plein air painters. There are some excellent artists at work. Check out the website for the festival: Sedona Plein Air Festival.

Painting onsite is so much fun. I painted Tuscany for 20 years before moving to Paris.

If you want to see what I’m painting, check my instagram feed up on the top right.

 

New Parisian Paintings and some numbers

| Angie Brooksby Arcangioli
Soleil Septembre private collection, USA
Pont Neuf private collection, USA
Sunset on the Seine 36x36cm, oil on canvas private collection, USA
Papy, Mamie et Moi private collection, USA

This has been a good year. Here are some numbers.

  • From January to July I painted 168 paintings and sold 153.
  • I painted 4 mannequins. One sold.
  • Since August 15th I’ve painted another 102 small paintings. In November I’ll know how many of those have sold.

In August I began painting for Carré d’artistes Sedona gallery. At first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to paint desert landscapes. It didn’t seem to fit with the last nine years of urban landscapes. But painting the South West has been liberating, I am thrilled.

My technique has changed. Producing a massive amount of work, painting new scenes and the two months that I did not paint (from June to August when I painted the mannequins) are what boosted my technique.

If you haven’t seen my 15 second video tutorials yet, check out my instagram feed. See the links up on the right.