Starting a New Painting and Other Stories from Philippe Jacquet's Exhibition

I'm currently working on a new painting - I put a sneak peek photo of it last week via my twitter. Right now, I'm still no where close to finish the underpainting. I haven't abandoned the other painting I was working on before. Most of the time a painting just goes through a phase where it just doesn't look and feel right in my eyes. I would put the painting in a position where I can directly see it, so that eventually I will reconnect with it.  Here's the underpainting stage of the newer painting:

There were some unwritten stories from our New York's visit last Saturday. I had a really wonderful time from not only visiting Arcadia's closing reception, but also from visiting other places.

The first place that we stopped in after finding a parking garage was Axelle Fine Arts. I'm really glad that I made it there. The gallery exhibited works by Philippe Charles Jacquet, a French artist. A little bit background of the artist, Jacquet was born in 1957 in Paris.  He worked as an architect for twenty years before decided to dedicate his time solely to painting.  His paintings are beautifully rendered and composed. The choice of colors, and some simple details, like creating lighter-colored shapes to give the illusion of water reflection or tiny intriguing shadow inside the houses, makes his imaginary world full of life.  The merging of elements from reality, such as the houses and human presence, and his imagination, creates a environment that looks quite real.  Each of his paintings are like windows to a mysterious dream-like landscapes, imaginary worlds that feels serene and wishful. One thing that I particularly admire from his artwork, aside from his great technical skill and imagination to create beautiful paintings, is how I can sense that Jacquet creates each of them because he is doing it for himself, to fulfill his own artistic need. I recently talked about how lucky I was to fully have my artistic freedom in creating my artwork . It really is something precious that I feel if once I lost it, then everything would be soulless and meaningless. Well, I could completely sense how Jacquet embraces his artistic freedom in each of his paintings.

Timothy Smith, the gallery director, was really kind during our short visit to the gallery.  I learned more about the background of the artist and that really helped me to relate more with his works.

(Photos courtesy of Axelle Fine Arts, used with permission.)

Philippe Charles Jacquet
L'ecluse

Philippe Charles Jacquet
L'ermite

Philippe Charles Jacquet
Le dernier verre

Philippe Charles Jacquet
Le gardien

Philippe Charles Jacquet
Reve de voyage

Philippe Charles Jacquet
Un monde mitoyen

I would say that photos can't fully capture the beauty of his artwork. One of the reasons is his layers application on his painting. Sometimes the dominant color tends to show more in a photo. Besides, it's always a different experience when you view a painting in person.  For me, Philippe Charles Jacquet's artwork is absolutely beautiful and memorable.  The Jacquet exhibit ended today, but I am looking forward to visiting Axelle again in the future:

Axelle Fine Arts 
472 W. Broadway
New York, NY 10012
212.226.2262

newyork@axelle.com

hours
Open Daily
11:00am – 7:00pm


After our nice visit at Axelle, DH took me to get some treats. DH had planned out to take me to CeciCela again to get my birthday cake. In my head and imaginary world, I could see myself trying everything until I get so full and can't walk further, but in reality I settled for one Croque Monseur, a Almond chocolate croissant, a macaron, and a serving of black forest as my birthday cake. Their black forest was layered of goodness. Everything was delicious, and we had a nice time there.

Coincidentally, we sat under two interesting signs on their wall. One was rue de paradis and the other one was rue des artistes:)

(photos © Alamanda Art. All rights reserved.)

DH also took some pretty shots of New York
(photos by David F. Luecke, © Alamanda Art. All rights reserved.)

Okay, now it's time for Heidi to get back to painting again.

New Faces of Realism at Arcadia Fine Arts

Hello beautiful readers,

I hope you're doing well and staying hydrated during these sunny days. DH took me to NYC last weekend for my birthday cake:) He took to get some tasty treats. After having some treats and strolling around the neighborhood for a bit, we went to Arcadia Fine Arts to check out their current show "New Faces of Realism."  The opening itself was held last Thursday, and we couldn't make it. Fortunately, Michael Sincavage from the gallery had kindly let me know that they were going to throw a closing reception for American Artist Magazine's Weekend With The Masters on Saturday.

The group show featured paintings, drawings, and mixed-media collages from Kerry Brooks, Danny Galieote, Peter Greaves, Kris Lewis, Ann Marshall, Cesar Santander, Jordan Sokol, Ian Marion, Jeffrey Ripple and Josh Suda. One thing that I really like from this group show is how strong each artist's individual style next to each other. Sometimes when I view a group show I can have difficulty to recognize the participating artists' different styles. All of the participating artists of "New Faces of Realism" showed extraordinary works that night. Kerry Brooks' small drawings were so detailed and delicate. I said small because the biggest size was 7" by 9" while the smallest was 3" by 4." They weren't just beautifully rendered drawing with fine attention to details, but also filled with so much emotion. One piece entitled "Ashes to Ashes" actually made me a bit melancholy. It might be hard understand what I just said if you just view the online photos. You need to experience it by actually seeing them in person.

I wasn't left feeling melancholy after seeing that drawing for long, because there were these fun paintings by Cesar Santander. Cesar Santander is a hyperrealistic painter of still life objects. This group show featured three paintings of realistic tin toys. My favorite was a painting entitled Mercury Robot. Kerry Brooks wasn't the only who presented highly detailed works in small size. Another artist, Peter Greaves, had some mini oil paintings and a drawing. The gallery actually provided a magnifying glass for the viewer to see the details. They were simply incredible. That was another thing that you just have to experience it in person:)

All the artists contributed amazing pieces for the show as you can see on  Arcadia's website .

The New Faces of Realism runs until July 3rd

Arcadia Fine Arts  

51 Greene Street, New York, NY 10013

telephone:   212.965.1387           
email:   arcadiafa@aol.com  
Gallery Hours: Monday through Friday, 10am to 6pm
                         Saturday and Sunday 11am to 6pm

Some photos from last Saturday's closing reception:
(all photos by David F. Luecke, © Alamanda Art. Original works © their respective creators. All rights reserved.)

 Ann Marshall
Torn Wallpaper

Cesar Santander
The Pursuit

 Kerry Brooks
Ashes to Ashes

Kerry Brooks
Trespass

 Danny Galieote
Team Work

 Cesar Santander
Mercury Robot

Michael Sincavage

Peter Greaves' Mini Painting

Cesar Santander
Exploration Group Alpha

Ian Marion
Justinian's Flight

There was this huge beautiful Jeremy Lipking's painting on the back of the gallery. I saw it on the gallery's website before but didn't know that they would hang it during the current show. It was a treat to be able to see the brushstrokes on his painting up close:)

Jeremy Lipking
Enchanting Depths

New Painting "Painting My Own World"

Another painting that I just recently finished:

Painting My Own World
oil on linen. 16" by 20". 2011

( higher resolution version on my website )

I feel really blessed and lucky to have an artistic freedom to create my own world through my artwork. There are always challenges that sometimes slow down my creative time, but I know that I'll always have that freedom. I can look at my paintings knowing I created them for myself. I just can't imagine how miserable I would feel if I had to compromise my artistic freedom with the main purpose of pleasing other people's eyes, or I had to be trapped in that kind of situation.

I'm currently starting another new painting. I'm going to start the first underpainting tomorrow. This one will be quite challenging (in the fun way) to execute. I'll post more about it soon. While developing sketch and drawing for my new painting, I also got a chance to have fun with a quick painting or study...hmmm It's mostly for own pleasure time, so let's just call it for fun. I have this painting panel and used paper around. I bought several small panels a while ago that I thought would be great for quick painting. I took under two hours to finish that small sketch. I couldn't remember the exact time since I also prepared DH's dinner in the middle of it:)

Quick paintings for fun

New Painting "Knitting My Dreams" and Random Bits from Our Short Trip

Hello beautiful readers, I'm writing this while hugging my beloved a/c lovingly:) Hehe it's a complete exaggeration of my Summer survival mode.

DH and I went to Kentucky to visit his parents. I don't have laptop anymore nor own a smartphone, so I had no internet access for almost a week.

First, here is another painting I just finished recently:

Knitting My Dreams
oil on linen. 18" by 24". 2011

 ( higher resolution version on my website )

Back to our Kentucky's trip: my parents-in-law host this BBQ for all participating artists at Arts on the Green every year at their place. Arts on the Green is an art festival held in historic downtown LaGrange, KY every year. Those artists are too busy to mingle during the festival, so BBQ is really a great place for them to just chill and socialize with other artists. There were so many vendors selling their amazing creations at this festival. I bought two beautiful one-of-a-kind ceramic mugs for us. After checking out all booths, we headed back to my in-laws' place to help out. I helped my sis-in-law setting the table and preparing the food. She had it all organized earlier, so I only helped a bit in the kitchen. It was fun and I was actually happier staying in the kitchen because it was so brutally hot outside.


We just returned home a couple of days ago. It was so good to be back home. I just couldn't sleep well at a different place:( It was also comforting knowing that I can make my art again this week. I have an unfinished painting and a transferred drawing that need my attention.

Some photos from our short visit:
(all photos by David F. Luecke, © Alamanda Art. Original works © their respective creators. All rights reserved.)

 Pretty garden at my in-laws' place

Mom and sis-in-law

This lady sells lots of unique jewelry.

Mr. Photographer

 Honey Wings! My mom-in-law took me to this place once and I've been craving this ever since. DH took me back there and healed my craving:) Crunchy honey wings goodness.

Downtown LaGrange