"Centreville Carousel Horse"

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel - 7" x 10"

I spent some time in Toronto this summer and came across a wonderful old carousel on Centreville Island. Built in Germantown, Pennsylvania by the G.A. Dentzel Steam & Horsepower Co in the early 1900's, this hand carved wooden carousel is one of about 30 left in existence today. It contains 52 animals 3 abreast, 36 of which are jumpers. There are also 2 chariots. The accompanying band organ is a Wurlitzer. I thought I'd have a little fun with this one. I felt the menagerie around him was a bit distracting so I isolated him from the ostriches, bunnies, pigs and other whimsical creatures dancing in the picture plane. I still wanted a sense of color and motion so I kicked up the vibrancy and kept the paint loose (for me). Does it work? The jury is out.

"Paris Carousel"

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel 8 1/4" x 10 7/8"

I've been picking at this painting for a couple of days, not quite sure of how I wanted to play this. The subject is so colorful that I had intended to splash on the paint loose and free but my realist roots kept the piece in check. I think I'll sleep on it and see if I need to throw on some more highlights in the morning.

"Paris Carousel - Blue Manes"

Oil on museum quality, archival ampersand gessobord™ panel - 6” x 8”

This painting is the first in a series of four  6" x 8" paintings gleaned from a carousel in Paris.  The fun twisted chrome poles are a challenge to paint and add a bit of sparkle.  All of the horses in this series have different colored manes and different attitudes, which should be fun to group together as a team.  My daily painting site is embarking on a month long theme - "Tribute to a Beautiful Earth; celebrating and conserving our planet with dailypainters.com" You may have to wait until September to grab the brass ring. 

"Antique French Hobby Horse"

Oil on museum quality, archival ampersand gessobord™ panel - 8” x 8”

While in Paris this past January, I went to Les Puces de Saint-Ouen which is also known as the Clignancourt Flea Market.  What a treasure trove of imagery.  From the look of it, this hobby horse was enjoyed by countless French boys and girls.  Well, perhaps maybe just the girls, given the floral pattern of the saddle, but then those were simpler times and powdered wigs and makeup was de rigueur and there was no clear line between what was masculine and what was feminine.  Barbies for girls and GI Joe for boys would come much later.

I chose to reach back into my distant past and use a technique that I used during my "mime" period.  When I was contemplating a career in art, I thought of becoming a fashion illustrator.  I loved the wonderful flowing lines of the sketches in my mother's Vogue and Harper's Bazaar magazines by René Gruau and Cecil Beaton.  I had no thought of actually designing the couture but I did want to draw it.  All that exposure to the fashion photography of the time seeped into my brain.  Placing figures pictorially on a grey seamless became my modus operandi.  Richard Avedon and Irving Penn had this wonderful shade of grey that soon found its way into my work.  A blend of equal parts alizarin crimson, yellow ochre and Prussian blue mixed with white lead was the perfect grey.  Oh sure, any combination of complementary colors will produce a neutral grey, but by using this triumvirate, you could pull it in all directions.  Want a greener grey? -- add more ochre; a cooler grey, more Prussian and so on.  The extraneous elements in the reference added nothing to this painting so I edited them out completely and, taking a page from my own book, I simplified the composition to its bare bones.  I think it works.  Click on the word "mime" and it will take you to the old theatre paintings that I did in the 70's.  A mime is a terrible thing to waste.     

"Photo Finish"

Oil on museum quality, archival 1/8" ampersand gessobord panel- 8" x 8"

I may add some text to this entry later today.  I just finished this and am going to rack out for a while.  It feels good to be back in the game.

"Carrousel de Montmartre"

Oil on panel - 5" x 7"

If the French are so mean and unfriendly, why is it that they have so many carousels all over the place? The landscape is littered with them. That seems to be somewhat of an incongruity. Perhaps they are really a fun loving people after all. Well and why not? After all, it was the French that invented the carousel in the 17th century to celebrate the equestrian festival of Louis XIV. I was fascinated with the artistry of the carvings and their bold colors. This one was in Montmartre.