Polaroids, an homage to Andy Warhol

14 x 11", acrylic on mounted gessoed aluminium panel

painting #304, 2025

Call it happenstance. As I was about to start this painting, Radio-Canada Television (French CBC) aired the PBS documentary, Mr. Polaroid during an episode of Découverte on October 26. While focusing mainly of Edwin Land's long process of inventing the Polaroid camera and how quickly it evolved thereafter, it also surveys several of his many inventions and his involvement with the US government. 

 

Two years ago, I landed on this book while browsing in the small book aisle at Homesense. ANDY WARHOL Polaroids 1958-1987 was published by Taschen in 2020 with model, singer-songwriter, actress Grace Jones on its cover. 

 

The original Polaroid OneStep camera was introduced in 1977. It became an instant best seller and a global phenomenon. I once owned a One Step during the mid eighties, which was probably influenced by Nick Rhodes, the keyboard player of Duran Duran who was becoming a photographer in his own right and often hung out at the Factory with Andy Warhol (he appears on page 374).

A week after acquiring this book, I found a listing for a One Step Polaroid camera on eBay. I knew instantly that I was going to use it as a prop for a painting. In the meanwhile they were displayed together in an open shelf console television table in the den next to my studio. 

The One Step Polaroid Land Camera uses SX-70 film. That code was often used as reference for the iconic square format of the picture with a distinctive white border that is wider on the bottom if you wished to write on them. Polaroid images are known for their soft-hued, slightly out-of-focus, and dreamy visual style. The colors may not be perfectly true to life, and lighting can be unpredictable, contributing to an authentic, "imperfectly perfect" charm that digital photography often imitates with filters.

Andy Warhol died on February 22, 1987 at the age of 58 following complications after gall bladder surgery. I would actually complete my first original painting that same month. I've always felt a strong attraction to his body of work. While furniture shopping at IKEA shortly after my wife and I married in 1986, we stumble upon the last remaining Warhol exhibition poster of Ingrid Bergman (with hat) printed by Galerie Borjesön in Malmö Sweden. Since it was the last poster and the one in the display case, I asked if I could buy it. After consulting the floor manager, it was discounted for $2. These are still available and often sell upwards of a grand. 

The Andy Warhol self-portrait image used for my painting is from a serigraph on canvas he created in 1964. Like many of his serigraph prints, he used that same image and produced a whole series in various colors. Christies recently sold one at auction for 3,300,000 USD. On August 10, 2002, the US Postal Service (USPS) issued a 37 cents stamp honoring Andy Warhol using the same 1964 imagery. This is quite possibly the least amount of money you can spend to acquire a Warhol. I've affixed one of these stamps on the back of my painting. 

As for Andy Warhol's Polaroids, they are also highly sought after. These were often used as reference photographs for his silkscreen prints of celebrities and other subject matter.  Artsy has a page dedicated to these original photographs, selling upwards of 20,000 USD each. 

This painting is part of a group exhibition entitled 

ENCHANTED - Nov. 14 - Dec. 31, 2025

Fog Forest Gallery

14 Bridge Street, Sackville,

New Brunswick, Canada, E4L 3N5

Phone (506) 536-9000

e-mail: janet@fogforstgallery.ca

-SOLD

The Crown

            12 x 12 inches, acrylic on gessoed mounted aluminium panel               

 painting #296, 2024 - black floater frame

 

The year 2022 marked a milestone and a memoriam for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She ascended the throne on February 6, 1952 at the age of 25 following the death of her father King George VI. On February 6, 2022, she would celebrate her platinum jubilee, marking 70 years as the longest reigning monarch of England and Head of the Commonwealth. She died later that same year on September 8, 2022 at the age of 96. 

As one of the most famous person in the world, Queen Elizabeth II was known for her unwavering sense of duty, responsibility, steadfastness and grace. She always put the needs of her country and her people first. Although she faced occasional republican sentiment and media criticism, most often directed towards members of her family and during certain tragic events; the support for the monarchy in the United Kingdom remained consistently high throughout her lifetime, as did her popularity. 

During her reign, she visited and toured my province of New Brunswick a total of five times. Click HERE for a highlight of her visits. I got to see here briefly in a passing car while visiting Moncton on September 24, 1984.

I've been to England three times. Although I've never visited the inside of Buckingham Palace, my wife Suzanne and I have visited Kensington Palace while Princess Diana was still alive and with our son Jean-Luc, we visited Windsor Castle, where the Queen and Prince Philip spent many of their weekends. 

 

  Buckingham Palace, London, May 6, 2010

Windsor Castle, May 3, 2010

One person who has made the monarchy relevant to the masses is none other than screen and playwriter Peter Morgan. He's responsible for writing extensively about Queen Elizabeth II creating no less than three major productions. First, as the screenwriter for the 2006 film, The Queen starring Helen Mirren in the title role. The movie received rave reviews and earned Mirren many accolades including an Academy Award for best actress.

In 2013, Morgan wrote the play, The Audience with Mirren reprising the role of Queen Elizabeth II. The play revolves around weekly meetings between the Queen and her prime ministers. I had a chance to attend a production of that play as it was broadcast live to cinema on June 13, 2013. The broadcast broke the record for most people viewing a live production with nearly 80,000 people watching in the UK and 30,000 people in North America. I remember waiting two hours in the movie theatre on Trinity Drive before the broadcast started as there were technical issues in London that cause a major delay. Still, Helen Mirren gave a tour de force performance. The conversations with the prime ministers are not held in chronological order so with a magical quick changes of costume and wigs, she could be switching from Winston Churchill to John Cameron within a few minutes.

Lastly, Peter Morgan is also the principal script writer for all six seasons of the Crown on Netflix. I watched a few episodes of season 1 when it first came out in 2016. But it was only when I started this painting late last fall that I watched all six seasons. The Crown has been praised by critics for its acting, directing, writing, cinematography, and production value. However, its historical inaccuracies have been criticized, particularly in the latter seasons. Netflix has noted that it's "fictional dramatisation" that was "inspired by real events". Nonetheless, I have to say that I absolutely love it and found all six seasons riveting. 

The concept for this painting arose upon seeing two companion books written by Robert Lacey about the Netflix series. Lacey also served as historical consultant for The Crown. It immediately ignited the possibility of incorporating them in a still life painting with a Crown mason jar. Last fall, during the process of doing a few photo studies for the painting, I realized that they lacked color and impact. A quick visit to my local Chapters bookstore remedied that problem as I was lucky enough to find a small coffee table book entitled, The Platinum Queen published in 2022 by Allen & Unwin. This book is a photo essay that chronicles more than 75 speeches given by the Queen during her reign. 

In 2012, during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee (60th anniversary), the Royal Collection would acquire four of Andy Warhol's famous serigraph portraits of Queen Elizabeth II that were exhibited later that fall at Windsor Castle. Click HERE to view the acquired artwork.

During her Platinum Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth II would get the royal treatment by gracing the cover of the May 2022 issue of Vanity Fair Magazine, with three variations of Warhol's portraits. 

On November 24, 2022, two months after her passing, a serigraph prints entitled, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, from Reigning Queen, Royal Edition was sold at auction by Heffel Fine Art Auction House in Toronto for $1,141,250 CDN, double the pre-auction estimated price. Click HERE to view.

For this painting, I not only wanted to pay homage to the Queen but to Andy Warhol as well.  Incorporating a Pop Art portrait in the background would create a myriad of colors inside the canning jar. In order to establish a more cohesive palette, I took the artistic liberty of modify several colours. After painting her face a pale shade of blue, I then proceeded to paint several thin glazes of a peach hue to tone down the blue in order to avoid references to the Blue Man Group. I procrastinated for the longest time in painting the Queen's face that appears on the book. That photograph is attributed to Getty Images. Because of the perspective of the book which physically alters her features, her profile in pencil almost looked like Mr. Burns of the Simpsons. All joking aside, I was able to pull it off. In the original photo, the pearl necklace she is wearing has three strands. I opted for two so it would have more presence. 

I did a quick online search and found that the original photograph Warhol used to create his serigraph prints was taken by Peter Grugeon (1918-1980) at Windsor Castle in April 1975. It was later released in 1977 to celebrate the Silver Jubilee. Reproduction of this particular image was used extensively, appearing on commemorative merchandise as well as banknotes across the Commonwealth. In Canada, it was printed on a 25¢ stamp, which I collected at the time when I was 15 years old. On the original photograph, the dress she's wearing is in a pale shade of pink with pearl embellishment, while on the Canadian stamp it appears more to be in a mauvish tone which was the color I settle on for my painting.

Canadian Stamp SC 704 - 1977

photo by Peter Grugeon

She is wearing a collection of Royal Jewels: the Vladimir tiara, Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee necklace, Queen Alexandra's wedding earrings and the Family Orders of King George V and King George VI on the Garter sash. The tiara has a fascinating history since it was smuggled out of Russia by a British antiques dealer after the assassination of the Tsar Nicholas II and members of the Romanov family. It was later bought by Elizabeth II's grandmother Queen Mary. It originally belonged to the Grand Duchess Vladimir (1854-1920), the wife of the Tsar's uncle, Grand Duke Alexandrovich of Russia. She was the last Romanov to escape Revolutionary Russia and the first to die while in exile in France. 

Both sporting killer moustaches,

Emperor (Tsar) Nicholas II of Russia with

his doppelganger first cousin , 

George V (grand-father of Queen Elizabeth II)

photo- Wikipedia

Vladimir Tiara

The Crown mason jar in my painting is dated 1947 on the bottom. It was actually made in Canada, but for the narrative I substituted it's origin to England. The jar is only one third fill with water. I often insert a marble in the composition as a form of symbolism when my intention is to play a mind-game with the looker. More recently, in the early 21st century, increasing dissatisfaction with several members the house of Windsor and the Royal Family, especially after the death of Queen Elizabeth II has led to public support for the monarchy reaching historical lows. 

With a reign spanning seven decade, Queen Elizabeth II was the only sovereign that most of us have known during our lifetime. She was as much of an institution as anyone in modern history. I leave you with one of her speeches that is written on the back cover of the book featured in the painting. 

''For more than seventy years, I have been lucky to meet and to know many of the world's great leaders. And I have perhaps come to understand a little about what made them special.

It has sometimes been observed that what leaders do for their people today is government and politics. But what they do for the people of tomorrow - that is statesmanship.

I, for one, hope that this conference will be one of those rare occasions where everyone will have the chance to rise above the politics of the moment, and achieve true statesmanship''. 

-Her Majesty, the Queen. Address to the COP26, urging world leaders to find solution to the climate challenges facing our planet. Nov. 1, 2021.

This painting is currently on view at the Fog Forest Gallery in a group exhibition entitled, "Summer Views" - July 11 to August 30, 2024. (will be removed from exhibition if sold). Check website for gallery hours. 

Fog Forest Gallery

14 Bridge Street, Sackville,

New Brunswick, Canada, E4L 3N5

Phone (506) 536-9000

https://fogforestgallery.ca/

e-mail: janet@fogforstgallery.ca

-SOLD

Brillo³, an homage to Warhol

 Acrylic on mounted gessoed aluminium panel, 14 x 11"

Painting #294, 2023

Some of the first consumer inspired products that made it's way into Andy Warhol's artwork during the very early 1960's included the Campbell's Soup Cans, Heinz Tomato Ketchup and the iconic Coca-Cola bottles. During the winter/spring of 1964, he started producing more sculptural pieces. Life size replica boxes of Brillo soap pads followed by Campbell's Tomato Juice, Del Monte Peach Halves, Heinz Ketchup, Kellogg's Corn Flakes and Mott's Apple Juice. Warhol hired carpenters who constructed plywood boxes in the exact same size of the depicted products. The Factory (his art studio) assistants Gerard Malanga and Billy Linich then hand-painted each box, before Warhol and Malanga silkscreened the graphic logos onto them. 

Self at the Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum

Bratislava, Slovakia - May 5, 2023.

Lisbon, Portugal - March 6, 2024

These were first shown in his second exhibition at the Stable Gallery in NYC during the spring of 1964. Eleanor Ward, the art dealer of that gallery at the time remembered that the Brillo Boxes were "very difficult to sell. We had visions of people walking down Madison Avenue with these boxes under their arms". The various boxes were priced between $200 - $400 depending on the size.  It also cause controversy with critics stating, "How can this be art?"

Preview of the HBO documentary

Brillo 3¢ off by Lisanne Skyler

What Andy Warhol and Eleanor Ward had envisioned would take 50 years to materialize. In 2013, artist Charles Lutz (b.1982) was asked by the curator of the Armory Show in New York City to create an art installation. The Art Fair was held from March 7-11. The installation using Brillo cardboard boxes was entitled Babel, based on Pieter Bruegel's famous painting, The Tower of Babel  (c.1563). The boxes were referred to as Stockholm Type since they were an exact replica of the Brillo Boxes that Andy Warhol had shipped from Brooklyn to Stockholm for his show at Moderna Museet in 1968. According to Lutz, the idea was to "disseminate the Brillo Box to the masses". "Each day a new Babel tower was erected out of the Brillo Boxes and visitors were encouraged to take one, fulfilling Warhol's idea of everyone in New York City carrying around a Brillo Box".

Pittsburgh, PA, March 29, 2013.

The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA held an exhibition entitled "Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years" from Feb. 3 - April 28, 2013. The same "Babel" (Brillo Stockholm Type) by Charles Lutz was set-up in the main lobby of the museum. That year, joined by my wife and son, we just happen to spend the long Easter weekend in Pittsburgh. We did a whole lot of walking and sightseeing during this jammed-packed mini-vacation. We were lucky enough to watch Sidney Crosbie play hockey when the Winnipeg Jets were in town to play against the Penguins. We also got to see Green Day rock the Consol Energy Center and attend a performance of the hilarious touring Broadway Musical, The Book of Mormon. We took the funicular, visited the Frick Mansion, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the spectacular Cathedral of Learning. I visited the Andy Warhol Museum on March 29. Upon entering I was told that photography was only allowed on the first floor. Before leaving, I asked the security guard if it was OK to take a picture of the Charles Lutz's Brillo Boxes, to which he replied, "Yes, and you can take one with you when you leave". I had to ask him to repeat cause I couldn't believe my good fortune! I had to cut the tape and carefully detach the side where it was glued to fold smaller in order to bring in with me on the plane ride back home to Canada. It's been keeping me company in my painting studio ever since. 

Self Portrait, 1967 - ANDY WARHOL

Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen on canvas

Tate Modern, London - visited May 26, 2018

The background for my painting is from a page of the 2017 Andy Warhol calendar printed by Galison. For the exception of the red and yellow version on the top right, I took the liberty to change a few of the colours.  Warhol created a very large series in a multitude of colours of this self portrait in 1966-1967, all based on the same photography. 

The wooden blocks under the IKEA glass cloche dome are made by a company named Mudpuppy. They come in a box of 8, of which only one is yellow. In reality, Andy Warhol's yellow Brillo Box (3¢ off) are rarer and fetch higher prices at auction. Once hard to sell, they would later found themselves in many of the most prestigious art museum around the globe. The yellow base is actually The Andy Warhol Diaries with the book jacket cover removed. 

In response to the art critics, Andy Warhol once said, "ART IS WHAT YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH".

This painting is currently on view at the Fog Forest Gallery.

: 

Fog Forest Gallery

14 Bridge Street, Sackville,

New Brunswick, Canada, E4L 3N5

-SOLD

Hibiscus in a Campbell's Soup Can, an homage to Andy Warhol

16 x 12", acrylic on mounted gessoed aluminium panel

painting #274, 2019

I first became aware of Andy Warhol's ''Flowers'' serigraph prints during the late 1980's when one of the many variations was featured predominately on the set of the CBS sitcom, Murphy Brown, starring Candice Bergan. 

After acquiring this Andy Warhol art book from the Taschen's Basic Art Series 2.0, I became curious about the backstory behind the image. Warhol would draw inspiration from a photograph of hibiscus flowers by Patricia Caulfield that appeared in a 1964 issue of Modern Photography. He was later sued in 1966 for the first time by the photographer for copyright infringement. Warhol was a very prolific artist. With the help of a few workers inside of "The Factory" (his studio), in one day, he could produce as many as 80 of these flowers silkscreens, printed in various sizes.  

L- photography of hibiscus by Patricia Caulfield

R- serigraph print of "Flowers" by Andy Warhol

For at least the past decade or so, we've been buying a hibiscus plant every spring for the veranda in front of our house. For the most part, the blooms only last one day or two, but it has several blooming cycles during the summer. This spring while stepping into our local Home Depot, they had a variety of dwarf hibiscus that is more of a potted flower than a potted plant. By the time I got back home, the concept for this painting came to me. I then acquired a Campbell's soup can on eBay from a US listing since here in Canada, the label was modernized more than a decade ago. I had initially intended to just do black background. Once it was done, the idea of using a modified version of Marilyn Monroe from Warhol's reversal series was introduced. I repeated the image as if it was wallpaper like Warhol did with Cows in 1966. 

This past July, after my wife Suzanne gave me the green light, I headed for Europe for three weeks to do some backpacking with our son Jean-Luc. This was his graduation gift for completing a bachelor's degree in business administration at the Université de Moncton. At the very beginning of the trip, we spent three days in Barcelona, Spain. As luck would have it, we were fortunate enough to view a serigraph print exhibition of Andy Warhol. The whole collection was owned by one individual, and was comprised mostly of many variations of Marilyn Monroe, Campbell's Soup Cans, Flowers and Mao Tse Tung. Click HERE for link. 

Painting to be shown this weekend at Art Toronto with Galerie de Bellefeuille (Booth A12)

Opening Night Gala: Thursday, October 24, 2019: 6:30 PM – 10:00 PM
Fair Hours: Friday, October 25, 2019: 12AM – 8:00PM
Saturday, October 26, 2019: 11:00AM – 8:00PM
Sunday, October 27, 2019: 11:00AM – 6:00PM

Location
Metro Toronto Convention Centre, North Building
255 Front Street West, Toronto

-SOLD

Styling an Icon

Acrylic on gessoed mounted birch panel, 11 x 14"

painting #256, 2017

This painting was sparked by a previous painting done five years ago, "Famous for more than 15 minutes". (Click HERE to view). It was an homage to Marilyn Monroe, Andy Warhol, Coco Chanel but it is the last luminary, William Travilla that prompted me to re-examine this subject matter for a new still life painting.  

 William Travilla (1920-1990) was an American costume designer for theatre, film, and television. He is perhaps best known for dressing Marilyn Monroe in eight of her films including the pink dress in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (click HERE) and the pleated ivory cocktail dress Monroe wore in the 1955 film, The Seven Year Itch while standing on a New York City Subway ventilation grate. Photographs of the scene as her dress rises around her have become synonymous with Monroe herself. The iconic dress, which was later purchased by actress Debbie Reynolds, was sold for $4,600,000 (USD) during a 2011 auction. The eight films Travilla designed Marilyn's outfits are: Monkey Business (1952), Don't Bother to Knock (1952), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), River of No Return (1954), The Seven Year Itch (1955), and Bus Stop (1956). Travilla would receive four Academy Award nominations during his career, winning the Oscar for the 1951 film, Adventures of Don Juan starring Errol Flynn. Travilla was nominated for Emmy awards seven times for his work in television, winning twice.

Monroe once wrote to Travilla, "Billy Dear, please dress me forever. I love you, Marilyn."

Madonna would use Marilyn's song-dance sequence of "Diamonds are a girl's best friend'' as inspiration for her 1985 music video, "Material Girl". The set decoration was reconstructed complete with staircase, chandeliers and a number of tuxedo clad chorus boys. She wore a replica of the pink dress with long gloves designed by Travilla from the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Click HERE to view. 

Chanel no. 5 enjoyed publicity when Ed Feingersh photographed Marilyn with a bottle of the perfume. In the 1950's the glamour of Chanel No. 5 was reignited by Monroe, whose unsolicited endorsement of the fragrance provided invaluable publicity.“What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course,” the Daily Mail quoted Monroe as saying in the ad.

Standing with the exhibition banner 

"Marilyn, Celebrating an American Icon" at the Jepson Center in Savannah, Ga

held from April to Jul, 2014.

The book featured in this painting was written by Andrew Hansford with Karen Homer. It was published by Goodman Books in 2011, in the UK. The Andy Warhol box in the same pinkish hue has her dress contains 20 note cards. 

The year 2017 marks 55 years since the passing of Monroe, 30 years since the passing of Warhol and 95 years since Coco Chanel brought the world's most famous perfume to market! 

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 

On view at ART TORONTO with Galerie de Bellefeuille - October 28-30, 2017.

-SOLD

Shooter Marble in Shooter Glass

7 x 5", acrylic on gessoed hardboard

painting #255, 2017

A play on words inspired the imagery for this study. During the spring of 2014, we visited Coca-Cola World, a museum of everything Coke in Atlanta, which is also where their headquarter is located. I picked up a few items in the gift shop on our way out, this shooter glass was one of them. The glass study rests on blank card with Andy Warhol's "Three Coke Bottles", 1962 on the cover. 

Coca-Cola is by far the most popular soft drink in the world, sold in 200 countries, with 1,8 billion servings consumed daily.

Part of my two-person show with Yvon Gallant entitled ''HARVEST'' at the Fog Forest Gallery from October 12 - November 8, 2017.

Fog Forest Gallery
14 Bridge Street
Sackville, NB, Canada
(506) 536-9000
websire- http:/fogforestgallery.ca

-SOLD

Vine Tomato on Warhol Campbell Soup Can / Green Tomato on Warhol Campbell Soup Can

Each- 8 x 5", acrylic on gessoed hardboard

paintings # 252 & 251, 2017

Five years ago in 2012, the Campbell Soup Company would issue a limited edition of four Andy Warhol inspired labels for their Tomato Soup to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Warhol's first important solo exhibition that comprised of the 32 varieties Campbell Soup was offering at the time. The show was held at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in 1962. The collection would eventually be acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in NYC in 1996 by bequest/gift/purchase.

 MOMA, visit Nov. 2010

The Warhol edition of 1,2 million cans of Campbell's condensed tomato soup were sold at Target Store in the USA for 75 cents each. A former co-worker was vacationing in Maine at the time and was able to get me a full set of 4. It was the third time that Campbell Soup would honour the Pop Art icon with these signature cans; the first being in 2003 for the Eagles Grocery Stores chain (Pittsburgh) and at Barney's during the Holiday season of 2006. 

The Campbell Soup Company did approve of Warhol Soup Can Art since it provided them with some unsolicited free publicity as this letter can attest. In 1993, the company would buy a Warhol painting of one of his tomato soup cans to hang in the boardroom of there headquarters. 

During the promotion and sale of these special edition cans, the Campbell's Facebook page was offering 15 minutes of fame to their followers. I was the 100th to enjoy my Art of Soup moment!

Part of my two-person show with Yvon Gallant entitled ''HARVEST'' at the Fog Forest Gallery from October 12 - November 8, 2017.

Opening reception - Thursday October 12, 6:30- 8:00 pm

Fog Forest Gallery

14 Bridge Street

Sackville, NB, Canada

(506) 536-9000

Website- http://fogforestgallery.ca

-SOLD / -SOLD