Painting Workshops No comments yet

Boston Painting Workshop, August 9-13, 2010

By Melody on August 2nd, 2010

Oil Painting by Melody Phaneuf, Con Spirito

Con Spirito by Melody Phaneuf, Boston, 34 x 36 oil painting

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My five day painting workshop immerses students in a traditional approach to still life painting in oil under ideal north light studio conditions.

I will be leading students to see and transform relationships of shape, rhythm, color, light and atmosphere into a refined still life painting.

Workshop will take place August 9-13, from 10:00-1:00 at Fenway Studios, 30 Ipswich
St, Boston. Cost of workshop is $375. Space is limited. A list of supplies will be provided.

Contact me at 617 236 4322 or click to email

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Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life, landscape, and portrait paintings. Her paintings are regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf ‘s paintings have been exhibited at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo, features Phaneuf’s original oil paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and beverage coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards.

Make Your Life a Work of Art~
Online shopping at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

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Paintings In Progress 1 comment

In The Studio, Painting In Progress

By Melody on July 28th, 2010

Still life painting by Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf

Allegory of Strength, close up of painting in progress by Melody Phaneuf

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Antidote to pessimism, Allegory of Strength is an artistic response to war, economic woes, and yet another oil spill. I am always buoyed by the hopeful smile of the Jester. Here, he happily pulls himself up, despite the pressing of time and relentless negative forces.

Still Life Painting and setup by Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf at Fenway Studios Allegory of Strength is a work in progress, 85% complete. It is now a delicate balance of attention to detail and mindfulness to the whole. At this stage, the tendency is to look into things intensely. It is important to stand back and see everything in proper relationship.

In a way, the still life painting process itself is an allegory for seeking harmony in life. The artist puts together objects that suit the expression but sometimes finds shapes, colors, or textures are discordant. The challenge is to find the bridge that unites and makes the relationship strong. There is always some way to resolve opposing forces.

I hope that Allegory of Strength brings a respite of optimism to viewers as it has to me. My days painting the smiling Jester have caused me to smile back.

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Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life, landscape, and portrait paintings. Her paintings are regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf ‘s paintings have been exhibited at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo, features Phaneuf’s original oil paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and beverage coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards.

Make Your Life a Work of Art~
Online shopping at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Download our free 2010 Calendar
Commission a painting
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~

Coastal Landscape Paintings No comments yet

Inspired by Foghorns~ Triton’s Call

By Melody on July 21st, 2010

Coastal Oil Painting by Melody Phaneuf

Triton's Call by Melody Phaneuf, 20 x 16 oil painting

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“Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.”
~Ludwig van Beethoven

This morning I awoke to foghorns. It’s one of the things I love about living on the harbor in Gloucester. Though it doesn’t bode well for pleasant weather today, the tone sets the mood for a  quiet, pensive day.

I have always been sensitive to the power of sound. I remember reading in a series of childhood books called Myths, Legends, and Mysteries, that great temples were constructed using sound to move colossal stones. I think about the enormous Tibetan long horns used to blast away demons, and the church bells of Rouen Cathedral~ how one can feel the sound deep, just below the navel.

Stage Fort Park is an enchanting setting on the harbor, across from where the fog horns blow. Steep granite cliffs meet the inlet of the sea, creating an artistic dream world. In a quiet corner Triton orchestrates the ocean’s rhythm by blowing his conch shell. Today his tones are soothing and the sea is calm but the rugged shoreline is evidence that in another mood, the sound from Triton’s horn can be terrifying.

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Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative Gloucester landscape paintings. Phaneuf works on location and at historic Fenway Studios, Boston, MA, painting still life and portraiture. Phaneuf has exhibited at Galerie Herouet in Paris, The National Arts Club in New York City, and with Art du Monde, a traveling exposition in Japan. Phaneuf’s paintings are regularly displayed at North Shore Arts, Gloucester, MA and The Guild of Boston Artists, Boston, MA.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo showcases the artist’s original paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and coasters, fine art prints and note cards. Online ordering at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Triton’s Call, oil painting by Melody Phaneuf, 20 x 16

Triton’s Call is available in Open Edition Prints and handmade Notecards

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Still Life Paintings No comments yet

A Yellow Kitchen~ Eggs and Shells

By Melody on July 14th, 2010

Still Life oil painting by Boston Artist Melody Phaneuf

Eggs and Shells, oil painting by Melody Phaneuf

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A kitchen, in my view, requires the energy of yellow. With blue as its companion, yellow vibrates and expresses radiant joy, buoyed against its near complementary hue. Monet must have thought so too. His kitchen at Giverny combines yellow walls with blue willow plates and Japanese prints in which blue dominates.

Eggs and Shells combines the energy of yellow and blue with a low major key. The effect is dramatic, and more dignified than a higher key using the same color scheme. The lower key also allows the richness of intense color without the assault that too much bright color manifests.

Eggs and Shells was an inspiration that came while baking chocolate chip cookies. I liked the way the eggshells broke and the seemingly random combination of those shells with the collected seashells that I had placed in the kitchen. The slant of light that danced across the tops of surfaces begged to be painted. The dark backdrop was purposely added to lower the key and frame the objects.

A perfect morning painting, Eggs and Shells wakes up the senses and massages the eyes with broken color. The painting is in private collection but is available in matted print and note cards.

Eggs and Shells, oil painting by Melody Phaneuf, private collection
Eggs and Shells, 11 x 14 Matted Print
Eggs and Shells, Boxed Note Cards

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Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life, landscape, and portrait paintings. Her paintings are regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf ‘s paintings have been exhibited at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo, features Phaneuf’s original oil paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and beverage coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards.

Make Your Life a Work of Art~
Online shopping at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Download our free 2010 Calendar
Commission a painting
Facebook
Twitter

~

Coastal Landscape Paintings No comments yet

Impressions of Dawn~ Peaceful Harbor

By Melody on July 7th, 2010

Coastal Oil Painting, Peaceful Harbor by Melody Phaneuf

Peaceful Harbor, 16 x 20 oil painting by Melody Phaneuf

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Only that day dawns to which we are awake ~Henry David Thoreau

In the early morning you would never ponder the bustling activity and sound of a working harbor. There is nothing here distracting from the abstract pattern of sky, land and sea.

It is cool this early in the day and the light flows from a silvery filter. Hints of orange foretell that it will be hot later in the day. Breezy blues are already submitting to violet undertones. The shield of gossamer clouds will ultimately submit to the sun, but at this moment the light shimmers like pearls.

Peaceful Harbor was inspired by this serene coastal moment. The painting expresses a still quiet, but quickening pulse. The endless sky evokes a sense of expansion while the reflection of the sea acknowledges the light. Peaceful Harbor is to me a sublime symbol of cultivating awareness, a quiet contemplation of beauty and our relationship to Nature.

Peaceful Harbor, 16 x 20 oil painting by Melody Phaneuf

Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life, landscape, and portrait paintings. Her paintings are regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf ‘s paintings have been exhibited at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo, features Phaneuf’s original oil paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and beverage coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards.

Make Your Life a Work of Art~
Online shopping at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Download our free 2010 Calendar
Commission a painting
Facebook
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Art Events No comments yet

Gallery Night

By Melody on July 1st, 2010

Melody Phaneuf, featured Boston artist at Liberty Hotel

Art and Wine at Boston's Liberty Hotel

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What fun it was to exhibit at Boston’s Liberty Hotel! If I were standing in the same spot 50 years ago, it would have meant I was doing hard labor at the Charles St jail. I must admit, I do enjoy the contrast.

Enjoying exhibit of oil paintings by Melody PhaneufCoastal landscape scenes and crisp, chilled wines were well received on a most humid evening. It was a delight to welcome cherished friends and meet new art lovers during their travels to Boston. I hope that purchased paintings will evoke happy memories of a beautiful visit for years to come.

If you couldn’t make it to Gallery Night, you may enjoy a sampling of new coastal paintings featured on Melody the Artist’s free downloadable calendars for July and August.

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Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life, landscape, and portrait paintings. Her paintings are regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf ‘s paintings have been exhibited at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo, features Phaneuf’s original oil paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and beverage coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards.

Make Your Life a Work of Art~
Online shopping at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Download our free 2010 Calendar
Commission a painting
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Coastal Landscape Paintings 1 comment

Coastal Visions

By Melody on June 23rd, 2010

Coastal painting by Melody Phaneuf

Mouth of The Annisquam, oil painting by Melody Phaneuf

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It’s been more than twenty years since I came to Gloucester to paint for the summer. I kept finding one more spot that begged to be painted before I left. I finally surrendered to the natural beauty and called it home.

It is always changing here. Unlike the quiet soul of hilly pastures that I was used to, coast land possesses a breathing animation. The continuous squash and stretch of waterways mirroring the sky create an endless variety of abstract shapes, an ever-changing repertoire that is the lure of coastal landscape painting.

Mouth of The Annisquam chronicles a Cape Ann morning at mid tide. The withdrawing river accents angular banks, the jagged rhythm suggests a gleeful escape into the distance. Boats and houses punctuate a violet-green backdrop of hills that contrast with yellow-greens and pinks in the foreground. The myriad contrasts are contained by the dominant horizontals, subduing the picture to quiet pulsation.

This painting makes me smile. There is something charming about this view of the river, and its shape that morning struck me as amusing. Mouth of The Annisquam is one of the many coastal paintings soon to be on exhibit at Boston’s Liberty Hotel. Hope to see you there.

Mouth of The Annisquam, 8 x 10 oil painting
Gallery Night~ June 29th, 6:00-8:30
Art & Wine Tasting at The Liberty Hotel
215 Charles St Boston (formerly The Charles St jail)

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Artist, Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life, landscape, and portrait paintings. Her paintings are regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf ‘s paintings have been exhibited at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo, features Phaneuf’s original oil paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and beverage coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards.

Make Your Life a Work of Art~
Online shopping at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Download our free 2010 Calendar
Commission a painting
Facebook
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~

Artists of The Boston School 1 comment

Boston Artist, Robert Cormier, 1932-2010

By Melody on June 14th, 2010

Portrait painting by Boston artist, Robert Cormier

Portrait of an Old Man by Robert Cormier

When the student is ready, the Teacher will appear ~Buddha

It is with bittersweet fondness and appreciation that I remember my mentor, Robert Cormier. He was a brilliant portrait artist, an inspiring teacher, a great storyteller. Bob was eccentric and quirky, but masterful in his communication of aesthetic ideas. He had intention in his work and the most delicate touch with a brush or pastel.

I met Bob as an instructor at Vesper George School of Art, where he taught until its close in 1982. He had begun teaching portrait classes at The Copley Society in the evenings, which I attended. I became entranced with his artistry and with the medium of pastel. As Bob’s following grew, classes moved to Fenway Studios. And then the opportunity came to work with him full time. It required daily commitment and a studio in the building. Four of us moved without hesitation to share a small studio in the Fenway Studios building.

We practiced the sight-size method of cast drawing then progressed to still life painting. There were also Sunday plein-air  forays and figure drawing sessions in the evenings. We exercised methods from the French Academy, gradually sharpening our technical skills amid anecdotes of Annigoni, Madame Simi and Florence Foster Jenkins. It was this embellishment that I loved about Bob. He delighted and intrigued me with tales of a lost tradition of painting and a life lived on the cusp of a vanishing era.

Robert Cormier showed me a way to see and inspired me to search, to continue building on what had been already accomplished in traditional painting. He shaped me by who he was, a generous spirit and a true artist. By mimicking his habits of mind I attempted to absorb his philosophy and his uncanny ability to analyze the visual world and choose its most expressive aspects.

Bob Cormier was my role model, my mentor. I hear my voice say his words when I teach. I sense his spirit as I gaze out my windows at Fenway Studios. I note his empty chair at The Guild of Boston Artists. I will always remember Robert Cormier with gratitude; I owe him much.

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Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life, landscape, and portrait paintings. Her paintings are regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf ‘s paintings have been exhibited at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo, features Phaneuf’s original oil paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and beverage coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards.

Make Your Life a Work of Art~
Online shopping at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Download our free 2010 Calendar
Commission a painting
Facebook
Twitter