It looks like I’m not adding anything to the canvas.
It’s going to the Carré d’Artistes gallery in Beruit.
It’s not nearly done.
Time Lapse NYC painting
paintings
More Amsterdam Paintings
AF4-9-18 Boat Hideout
AF4-10-18 Pink Cruise
If you follow me on Instagram you’ve seen some of these in the works. Chicken helped me paint some of them.
He loves to land on my paintbrushes when I’m painting. Then he likes to drop onto my palette where all the oil paints are mixed. It’s more like dive bombing.
One day he swiped his tail in cadmium orange. I had to catch him, no easy feat. And clean him with marseilles soap. I was worried he’d die of cadmium poisoning because a large gob was on his tongue from trying to clean his tail. Luckily he didn’t seemed bothered. He is a pest. But so much fun.
Want to see these paintings in person? They are coming soon Carré d’Artistes® gallery in Amsterdam.
Amsterdam Paintings
AF3-1-18 Twilight Twinkle
AF4-8-18 On the Canal
Soon my paintings will be at the Carré d’Artistes® gallery in Amsterdam. These are a sneak peek of the first forty.
It’s a fun challenge to paint a new subject, a new city.
City reflections were my inspiration when I painted the Arno river many years ago, that seems like a different life, when I lived in Florence. Cats have nine lives, I wonder how many lives artists have. Every new subject feels like a new chapter.
I never imagined that I might paint Amsterdam, or exhibit there. It’s a blessing to work with such great people who believe in me and showcase my work in their galleries.
How do you get to show in all theses places? Paint, paint, paint. Be jealous of your time and creative space. Carve your own path through life.
Postcard From Paris n 43
Cave La Bourgogne– 10x15cm ink, watercolor, and collage on Bristol paper.
Dated and noted.
Will post anywhere in the world with the message of your choice.
An envelope and standard postal shipping is included in the price.
Colors on screen may vary from the material.
All postcards are 25 Euro.
>>contact me << to purchase.
Postcard from Paris n 41
n 41 La Parisienne – 10x15cm, watercolor, collage, ink on Arches paper – 25 euro
This lady was waiting for her child to finish a class.
These postcards are like journal entries of my life in Paris. They are one of a kind, mixed media on Bristol paper, or archival watercolor paper.
All are dated and noted: Where I sketched it, which café or arrondissiment, which metro line.
I’ll send them anywhere in the world with the message of your choice. An envelope and standard postal shipping is included in the price.
All are 25 Euro. Payment by papal
>>contact me << to purchase.
A painting from another day
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.
New Parisian Paintings and some numbers
Soleil Septembre 36×36 cm – oil on canvas ©2016 Brooksby
Pont Neuf 36×36 cm ©2016 Brooksby
Sunset on the Seine 36x36cm, oil on canvas ©2016
Papy, Mamie et Moi 36×36 cm ©2016 Brooksby
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.
Sedona Desert
The first of the Sedona paintings.
I remember crossing the desert when the roads were dirt. Red dust rose in our station wagon’s wake. We kids played in the back of the station wagon. No seat belts. Every time we stopped I touched a cactus. They looked soft. I never learned.
Three Graces and the Canons of Beauty
Three naked graces arrived yesterday. I’d awaited anxiously for their delivery.
Before I can paint them, I have to sand down the surface because mannequins are coated with some industrial super-paint. Nothing sticks to it. This makes sense if you consider how abused they are during their lives. Shipped around, dressed, undressed, scratched and scraped. The super paint, whatever it is, makes them easy to clean, but a bitch to paint. Nothing sticks to it. Not even spray paint.
I never realized how ugly mannequins are. This is what we women are supposed to look like. This is today’s canon of beauty. Mannequins. They have monstrously long legs, toddler-sized torsos, male adolescent shoulders, and feet fit for a fairytail princess. Not the feet in the photo, those are mine.
Canons of beauty change through the ages and contemporary beauty canons differ from place to place.
The first time I understood what beauty canon meant, I was in Piazza Signoria admiring Giambologna and Ammanannti’s fountain of Neptune. Of course I’d never really looked at the nymphs. It was Neptune’s privates I admired. Those and his perfectly sculpted six pack abs. (I stole that line from a contemporary romance novel.)
My ex-husband, who stood next to me, said, “Guarda il collo di quello, è mostruoso.” Look at that one’s neck, it’s monstrous. He was looking at the nymphs. And probably watching me, while I stared at the rock hard privates.
We joked about the nymph coming to life. Rising from the marble basin and walking through the piazza. If she was human she would have been Frankenstein’s latest creation, the young Japanese tourists, who were photographing Neptune’s junk, would have run screaming, sure that Godzilla had returned.
Canons of beauty are not only monstrous mannequins. They touch everything and they evolve. What was beautiful yesterday is monstrous today.
Ever been to a dog show? Dogs have character. Man bred and selected them to work. Poodles were hunting dogs. They were shaved in certain places so they could move easily through the brush. Their coats were left long in specific places to keep them warm. In the advent of the dog show, dog breeds were selected for beauty and their looks were distorted.
Now I have some serious sanding to do so I can grace those three monsters.
