Wednesday, June 29, 2011

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.

4 comments:

Dear Fireflies said...

Wow, I'm feeling full after reading this post, Heidi! Nothing comes together better than art, traveling and food! Hehehe...

By the way, I love watching the progress of the new painting, even the underpainting looks great! :)

Heidi Alamanda said...

I'm happy to know that my posting can make you feel full..hehe. I wish I could do this often as well but without sacrificing my painting time.

It's still a long way to go with this painting. Different challenge:) thank youuu

SaraLynnArt said...

Oh, wow! Your new piece is gorgeous. The amount of detail in there is incredible!

Heidi Alamanda said...

hehe thanks Sara. We'll see how this one will turn out:)