Lose One's Marbles

 

Acrylic on mounted gessoed aluminum panel

11 x 14", painting #279, 2020

I've done several still life paintings using vintage mason jars with marbles. My last one goes back about a decade now. It's always interesting to revisit past subject matter to see how one's fare as my craft continues to evolve. In recent years, I've been using a lot more opacity while painting with transparent glazing on top. I am pleased with the outcome.

For this study, I purchased a 12 x 18 in. white glossy ceramic floor tile from Home Depot which I laid on the windowsill to serve as the base. Its glossiness provided a mirror like effect that I was hoping for. 

The lampwork hand crafted marble on the glass lid was done by an American artisan. I acquired it from the artist a few years ago. This one even has a gold dust ribbon swirl. 

Currently exhibited in a group show entitled "Apart Together, a Weary World Rejoices" at the Forest Fog Gallery, Nov. 20- Dec. 31, 2020

To acquire this painting please contact:

Fog Forest Gallery

14 Bridge Street, Sackville,

New Brunswick, Canada, E4L 3N5

Phone (506) 536-9000

e-mail: janet@fogforstgallery.ca

-SOLD

Lindbergh Again Flies the Air Mail (reposted from Feb. 2017)

14 x 11", Acrylic on gessoed mounted birch panel

Painting #242, 2016-17

Commemorating the 90th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh's historic solo transatlantic flight aboard the Spirit of St Louis from New York City to Paris, May 20-21, 1927.

                With "The Spirit of St Louis" at the National Air and Space Museum, 

Washington, DC. Easter 2012.  

Prior to his exploit, Lindbergh was a pilot during the early years of the US Air Mail. He provided service for the newly designated route between St. Louis, Mo and Chicago, Ill. with intermediate stops in Springfield and Peoria. Ill.

Following the transatlantic flight, Lindbergh went on a three city celebration tour in the United States with stops in Washington, DC, New York City and St. Louis where many honors were bestowed upon him. In Washington, DC, on June 11, 1927, the Postmaster General presented Lindbergh with a commemorative airmail stamp. It was also the first time a stamp had been issued to honor a person still living.

The top letter in my composition- postmarked St Louis, on June 18, 1927, also bears a special ink stamp in celebration of his crowning achievement on the same day the city would honor him.

After his exploit, Lindbergh never return to his regular job as a U.S. Air Mail pilot. However he used the immense fame to help promote the U.S. Airmail Services. Lindbergh would return to his former route of St. Louis to Chicago in a CAM-2 plane for two-day promotional tour (northbound on February 20; southbound on February 21). On those two flights he carried tens of thousands of self-addressed stamped envelopes sent in from all over America and the world. These were back stamped, and then returned to their senders as a souvenir and collector item. Items carried on flights piloted by Lindbergh are still actively collected under the general designation of "Lindberghiana." The bottom letter postmarked with a lucky horseshoe -''Lindbergh Again Flies the Airmail'' was one among those thousands he carried that I was so fortunate to acquire for this painting.

I've attached a Lindbergh Stamp in mint condition and both letters to the back of the painting, as a special token for the prospect acquisitor.

In 2012, I did a similar painting for a group exhibition entitled "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" held at the Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento, Ca. Click- HERE for Lindbergh bio notes and further documentation of both paintings.  

In 2017,  a full-circle moment occurred when this painting was exhibited at the OA Gallery in St. Louis, Mo, the city where Lindbergh lived while he orchestrated his dream. Without the eight St Louis men who financed the project which included the making of the custom design monoplane, none of it would have been possible. "The Spirit of St. Louis" was named in honor of those eight supporting patrons.

To acquire this painting, please contact: 

Galerie de Bellefeuille

1367 avenue Greene, 

Montreal, Quebec H3Z 2A8 

Tel: 514.933.4406

e-mail- art@debellefeuille.com

website

-SOLD 

Farm Animals on Animal Farm, a cautionary tale (an homage to George Orwell)

 

Acrylic on gessoed aluminium panel (mounted), 18 x 14"

Painting #278, 2020

This painting was started back in February at the beginning of the pandemic. It may seem whimsical on the surface, but it is an allegorical piece infused with political overtones.

I purchased and read "Animal Farm" and "1984" by George Orwell shortly after CNN started using the term of living in an Orwellian time. This came about when then US President advisor, Kellyanne Conway used the term "alternative facts" while coming to the defense of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer when he stated that Mr. Trump had attracted the "largest audience" ever to witness an inauguration. Right away, Conway's "alternative facts" was compared to "doublethink", a term coined to the act of simultaneously accepting two contradictory beliefs as correct. People also drew comparisons to "newspeak", one of the several wordplay Orwell invented for 1984, meaning to limit freedom of thought. By 1950, Orwell's newly coined words would soon find their way in the Oxford English Dictionary beginning with Newspeak, Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime and unperson. In 1945, he was also the first to use the term cold war.

It was later reported by the New York Times that US sales of 1984 had increased by 9500%. Penguin Books quickly reprinted 75,000 copies and the book surged to #1 on the Amazon's Bestsellers List less than a week after the inauguration.

Even more recently when Bob Woodward was invited on CNN to talk about his most recent book "Rage" and his recordings of conversations with Donald Trump, he mentioned the word Orwellian, which is attached to a dystopian totalitarian state.

George Orwell (1903-1950) was born Eric Arthur Blair. He was a novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. His penname was taken from the River Orwell in Suffolk, England. He was born in India to British parents. His parents separated soon after he was born. In 1904, his mother would return to England where he and his sister were both raised. In 1922, instead of going to university, he chose to serve with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, where his maternal grandmother lived. His service there fed his lifelong opposition to Imperialism.

Politically, he favored democratic socialism. He went to Spain in 1936 to fight in the Spanish War. There he joined republican forces backed by the United States and the Soviet Union. However, after he was wounded by a snipper, the Soviet forces accused him of betraying the anti-fascist cause and he had to flee the country.

George Orwell Square, Barcelona, Spain - dedicated in 1996.

Orwell lived in Barcelona between 1936 and 1937 , where he became a member of the POUM , coming to fight on the front with the Republican side. He later wrote of these experiences in Homage to Catalonia (1938), which especially portrays scenes on La Rambla and its surroundings.

Left photo of myself taken by my son Jean-Luc - July, 2019.

He spent part of WWII working as a correspondent for the BBC which further fed his distaste for totalitarianism regimes. His experiences in Spain and during WWII created the political leanings that helped shape his most famous novels, Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).

George Orwell

Source Wikimedia Commons

Animal Farm is a fable that reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Orwell was a critic of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism. The Soviet Union had become a brutal dictatorship built upon a cult of personality and enforced by a reign of terror. Orwell tells a story about humans via animals. In the process he reveals the sins of the revolutionaries are not limited to people involved in the revolution, but when those in charge, guided by high ideals, then goes on to betray them all. Anytime a revolution goes wrong, people often bring up "Animal Farm" and declare it to be ahead of its time.

George Orwell died on January 21, 1950 from complications of tuberculosis acquired three years previously.

The painting is infused with symbolism pertaining to the animals themselves and the role they play in Animal Farm. It is also a reflection of the current political climate in the US. With the Covid-19 pandemic currently underway, all of these animals have all been linked to previous flus, pandemics and other diseases transmissible to humans.

props used-

• Animal figures - Farm World by Schleich

• Background wallpaper-"Golden Lily" by William Morris (1834-1896)

• base- Record album cover with plastic wrap of ''Power, Corruption & Lies" by New Order (1983) / album artwork - "Basket of Roses" by Henri Fantin-Latour, (1836-1904) collection of the National Gallery, London.

L- auto-portrait of Henri-Fantin Latour, photo taken during visit of the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, Ireland (July, 2019) / R- Record album - Power, Corruption & Lies by New Order

• Artwork featured on George Orwell books by Shepard Fairey. Ironically, Fairey became widely known during the 2008 U.S. presidential election for his Barack Obama "Hope" poster.

SHEPARD FAIREY

OBEY 3-Face collage, signed offset lithography

24 x 18" (set of 3 prints) - open edition

-personal collection

To acquire this painting, please contact: 

Galerie de Bellefeuille

1367 avenue Greene, 

Montreal, Quebec H3Z 2A8 

Tel: 514.933.4406

e-mail- art@debellefeuille.com

website 

-SOLD

Marilyn Blowing Kisses

16 x 12", acrylic on mounted gessoed aluminium panel

painting #277, 2020

This is my fourth painting, part of the on-going series that connects a play with words in the title, a retro black and white photograph, a date (calendar) and a large Hershey's Kisses. The previous three all featured couples kissing. With this one, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and paint a portrait of a single figure that would somehow convey a loving sentiment to the looker while still keeping with the theme. 

I found this photograph of Marilyn Monroe on the web. It probably dates back to the mid 1950's when she wore this signature hairdo. Unfortunately, I do not know who the photographer is. I liked the contrast between the white dress and the black background. There was very little detail between her right hand and the dress. I could not make out her thumb and her pinky looked crooked. My wife Suzanne actually posed for me with a white glove. It is her hand. The whole portrait was done using only titanium white and Paynes Grey. 

To acquire this painting, please contact: 

Galerie de Bellefeuille

1367 avenue Greene, 

Montreal, Quebec H3Z 2A8 

Tel: 514.933.4406

e-mail- art@debellefeuille.com

website 

-SOLD