Encore: Cecilia Bartoli, Agitata da due venti, Vivaldi

What can you say, Cecilia Bartoli is a master, the true meaning of the word.
I love this hall, The Teatro Olimpico ("Olympic Theatre") is a theatre in Vicenza, Italy.
It was designed by the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio as his last work.
The reaction of the crowd is fantastic.

I love the mural behind the musicians.
The background of the stage painted to
give the illusion of a city in ancient Greece.
Thanks to anonymous for the information.
The seats look a tad uncomfortable,
I guess it's a bring your own cushion type of hall.

Excellent music, she is a true artist.

Cecilia Bartoli -Anch'il mar par che sommerga (Vivaldi)

Cecilia Bartoli's singing on this is amazing.
I have never put a video up before. I thought this being the holiday season some music would appropriate. It's a quick-time movie so if you don't have this plug in the video wont play.

Her control of the phrasing in this Vivaldi piece is outstanding.
When she moves through those arpeggios it is one of those moments
in music when you just have smile, it feels so good to hear her do this.
I love how she looks like she is in total ecstasy when she sings.
This is high art, this kind of perfection and flawless technique
that is also married with soul and passion, high art.

Bella, Bravissimo!

The Ship of Fools

The Ship of Fools
Oil on Linen, 52" x 62"
1996
Some old work...
This painting was done 12 years ago.
I had fun doing this, I worked out of my
head a lot during this time period.



Samson and Delilah
Oil on Linen
40" x 50"
1995
I did this painting based on the story of Samson and Delilah.
I thought of Delilah as the classic femme fatale from the film noir era.
Samson is taking the fall, he fell for the lady in red and she betrayed him.
The view point is from Samson just before they take his eyes out.
If you think this is violent, check out Rembrandt's version, that is one amazing painting with a lot of gore.

The Zealots

The Zealots
Charcoal and razor on Reeves BFK, 2001.
30" x 50"

This is another drawing from my past life.
As I said it's kind of edgy.
I had fun doing this.
At an open studio a few years ago
I had some of this work hanging up.
This woman started to look at it and
started to yell at me...

The power of art...

Resurrection 1

Resurrection 1
2001, Charcoal on paper
30" x 40"

Tomato and Peppers

Tomato and Peppers
Oil on Panel, 2008
10" x 12"

This is almost done, a few touches here and there are to be done.
I sacrificed one of the tomato's from our garden.
I wish I had thought of taking a photo of the tomato as it started to rot.
It was very interesting and took on some fascinating shapes.

Turnips

Turnips
Oil on board, 2008
8" x 10"

eggplant 3

Oil on board, 2008
5" x 7"

Turkish Eggplants

Turkish Eggplants
Oil on linen, 2008
6" x 10"

I grew these interesting eggplants in my garden this summer.
The color of these vegetables was amazing, and they tasted pretty good as well.

Egg shells

Egg Shells
Oil on panel, 2008
5" x 8"

Grapes

Grapes
Oil on wood, 2008
7.5" x 7.25"

Route 15 West, VT

Route 15 West, VT
Early Morning
Oil on Panel
10" x 12"

I did this painting on Sunday morning at about 7 AM, I did not get to finish it.
It was off of route 15 towards Jeffersonville, Vermont.
It was a gray overcast morning and about hour into painting it started to rain.
I kept on working for a bit as it was a light rain, but it started to pick up.
Just as I finished putting my gear away it started to pour.
Lucky me as it turned out to be a pretty big storm.

Cambridge,VT

I re-worked this a little, I changed the hills in the distance and the trail.
Cambridge,VT
Early Morning
Oil on Panel,2008
10" x 12"




Cambridge,VT
Early Morning
Oil on Panel,2008
10" x 12"

Painted this on Friday morning with Karen and Jack Winslow.
They took me to this spot near their house in Cambridge, VT.
It was a good morning for painting.
Karen and Jack are fine painters who deserve a wider audience.
Jack does these large landscapes that are just amazing.
He goes back to spots over and over again. Something I want to start doing.
They also are two of the nicest people you can hope to meet.
Check out Karen's blog:
brushwork.blogspot.com

I am still working on this, I will post an updated photo.
What I did was to float a gray/violet haze over the background to pull it back.
This was mixture of violet and gray at about value 6 and I worked with this moving up and down according to how I wanted the effect to look.

Tree studies

Tree studies
Oil on panel, 2008
10" x 12"

I did this study in about a hour and a half.
The sun was going down so I ran out of light.

Early Morning, Fall/Vermont

Fall in Vermont
Oil on Linen
14" x 20"

I worked on this some more, I was not happy with the area in the middle of the painting as it was pulling to much towards yellow and was creating this problem and pulling forward instead of back into the hills.
It was also in the middle of the painting and seemed to make this yellow hole in the middle of the composition. What was I thinking! Sometimes one has to be ruthless.

I feel this is more unified as a composition. I could keep working on the painting but feel good about it for now.



Fall in Vermont (older version)
Oil on Linen
14" x 20"

I did this from a outdoor study.
It went through a lot changes as the original study had
fog an low clouds in it.

Sometimes one just has to invent, compose as they say.

Pond at Twilight

Pond at Twilight
Oil on canvas
8" x 10"

I did this sketch near my house I spent about 2 hours on the painting.
It's a nice small area of wilderness in the middle of
suburbia.

Yellow Tomato and Garlic

Tomato and Garlic
Oil on wood
6" x 7"

Yellow Tomato

Yellow Tomato, from the garden
Oil on wood
4.5" x 6"

Mushrooms

Mushrooms
Oil on Panel
8" x 10"

Clementine slices

"Clementine Slices"
Oil on panel, 6" X 8"

Studio 7

"Studio 7", oil on wood, 10" X 14"
NFS

I did this painting many, many years ago at
the Art Students League in New York.

It is a painting of Studio 7 in the ASL which was a great studio to paint in.
This is where I learned how to draw and paint in Frank Mason's class, it was full of history and the smell of that room was amazing, so many years of paint and turps.

Frank Vincent DuMond, Frank Mason and David Leffel all held their classes in this great space, Frank is still teaching in this very studio at age 86.

I loved that full sized plaster cast of Donatello's David that Frank rescued from the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. They were throwing out all these amazing plaster cast! It was the first thing that greeted you when you entered the class, it had seen a lot of abuse over the years, but it was great to paint and draw.
Also in this painting are the cast of Donatello's Dante, and Michelangelo's Day.

Michelangelo's Day

Michelangelo's Day
Oil on wood, 6.5" X 7.5"
NFS

This is a small oil on wood study that I did during my years studying with Frank Mason at the Art Students League in New York.

The painting cracked, I am not sure why this happened but it started doing this a few months after I painted this and it's been stable ever since.

We had a lot of great plaster cast to draw from and paint.
Frank did not teach site sizing, we drew and painted to get the action, proportions, perspective and light effect.

I think if I remember correctly there was something in the order of 10 to 15 casts, the largest was Mercury seen in the interior.

Small Oranges

Small Oranges
Oil on panel, 2007
7" x 5"

Red Tomato

Red Tomato from the garden.
Oil on panel, 2007.
5" x 7"

Landscape sketch

Landscape sketch, Vermont late afternoon, 2007
Oil on linen.
4" x 5"

Vermont storm

Vermont Storm
Oil on Wood.

I reworked this painting recently, the older version is lower down on the site.