Memories of Farnesina.

I have a fascination for Rome ( not very original, right). We visited Villa Farnesina twice , spend as much time as we could inside despite the heat of the roman summer and tried to take pictures despite the interdiction. Being a decorative painter I think all these frescoes are "my" heritage and I have a right to take pictures for my professional use and my growth as an art person.
A few years after a client called me for two panels in his home ...he wanted two female figures illustrating Summer and Autumn . I guess these were the periods of the year he preferred.
I worked in the studio and drove to his home , in Provence.

This was the end of February , the wind had been blowing hard for a few days , the sky was as transparent as crystal and the light as strong as it can get in those places, in the middle of the winter.

I had picked up two figures by Raphael, from the Villa Farnesina's gallery ceilings.
The house is one of these large estates where they had vineyards and olive groves. It was in state of total decay and got bought by some Provence lovers coming from german switzerland.
The interior is vast  and it still has the severe and rustic "grandeur" of these family homes.

We had brought the canvases rolled  up and mounted them on stretcher bars on site. We did in the backyard, under the sun, it took the whole afternoon.

I love all seasons but  I had a preference for the Autumn painting...

When we left the night had come but we had bright memories of this afternoon in Provence.

Objects in the sun.

It is really interesting to notice that most large classical compositions painted between the XVIth and XIXth century include a certain number of objects that either make perfect sense in the overall design or are simply used as ornamental elements in some lower corner in the foreground of the painting.

As a muralist, the painting of objects is a field you must try and improve in.

SoI sometimes paint objects and still lifes too.

Here are a few examples of such subjects.

"Classical" still lifes first.

"Black Bowl". Acrylic on board. 45x65cm.

"72%".Acrylic on board. 45x65cm.

This next one is quite different. I had done a whole series of these for some of my exhibitions at Maison & Objet in Paris. The design is different in the sense that there is no perspective at all and that the point is to create a more ornamental or decorative effect as opposed to the realism of the first two paintings.

"Cider Apple".Casein on canvas. 30x45cm.

But in fact I do do not think I am very much of a still life painter.

When I paint objects I need them to be related to a specific place.

This ,for example, was painted in the house where my wife was born.

"Small House".Acrylic on board. 65x45 cm.

And I also like when the objects are related to or located in some sort of landscape...

"A chair in Tuscany". Casein on canvas. 60x92cm.

...or even better for me,... when they are in the sun.

"Old Horses" Acrylic on board. 45x55cm.

"Tin PItcher1" Acrylic on board. 45x55cm.

"Tin pitcherII".Acrylic on board. 45x55cm.

Four Seasons on Silver.

Here are pictures of another series of ornaments on (white) gold leaf.

This is a set of panels I have painted recently for a french designer based in New Rochelle : Jean Carrau

He is now designing gorgeous interiors in the New York and Connecticut areas but  is originally a very talented decorative painter. His work features in Jean-Loup Daraux's book " En passant par la Demeure."

I have been working for him for a few years and for this particular job, he showed his clients a picture of a painting I exhibited on Maison & Objet a couple of years ago. It was an exact copy of one of the ornate panels of the Boudoir de Marie Antoinette in Fontainebleau.

As they needed four of them they had the idea of asking me to illsutrate the four seasons.

I reserached neo-classical female figures that would work and did a sample so that Jean's clients could have a precise idea of what I was proposing in terms of color, patina...

As I often do, I did the paintings in my studio, shipped them over to Jean who took care of the installation and of the finishing touches.

The background is white gold layed on linen canvas ( my friend Malek Moussouni has done the gilding). I painted directly on the gold leaf this time. It is better to topcaot the goldleaf before painting  but as the canvas had to be rolled up for shipping it was impossible to protect them with shellac ( it is britle and would flake off if rolled up) . 

It makes the painting a little more risky ( impossible to correct a mistake) and  delicate ( the surface is very slippery ) but it is an excellent exercise that will enhance your brushwork!

Thank you Elle Deco.

Elle Deco's head redactor stopped on my booth at Maison et Objet in September last year. She told me she was astonished their magazine never wrote anything on my work (flattering!!)...the thing is that french decoration magazines journalists are not so easy to contact and I am happy I was on her way.
They mention my book in their April issue. The "article" is short but so positive that do not even dare translate(!).

Cote Sud in Aix-en-Provence

I exhibited twice in Aix-en-Provence at the Cote Sud exhibition , a few years ago.
Here is my booth, very nicely decorated and aranged by two art agents I was working with at the time.

I love these pictures, taken by my friend Yves Inchierman who made the photos for my book, "Demeures peintes".

Room with a view ...continued

Here are a few more pictures of this pair of murals I painted in Lausanne a few years ago.
(link to first post)

This is another old picture showing the building (lower right) where this appartment is .

It overlooks the lake of Geneva and the view is indeed extremely charming.

This mural is in fact the first of the two. I did it in 2006, the second one a year later.

This composition was actually picked up by my client on my website.

I had done a similar garden scene for one of my best clients in Paris, the owner of Hotel St Jacques.

I have painted numerous murals in this place ( the first one in 1995, the most recent one this year in February!) and I will probably write about it someday.

Here is the mural . This triptych is a mix of a view of the garden of the Chateau of Chantilly with a John S. Sargent's figure in the foreground.

This charming Hotel ideally located between the Pantheon and Notre Dame features in Stanley Donen's "Charade" with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.

Final cut

Yesterday as we were visiting an exhibition in Paris ( Nature et Ideal in the Grand Palais) we saw a painting by Poussin that had been cut in two pieces and put back together. There are numerous stories of paintings cut, sliced, almost turned into puzzles.
Last year I did a copy of a section of  the famous"Les Noces de Canaa" by Veronese , exhibited in the Louvre.
The designer I did this for picked up the subject, we discussed together about the section we would pick up, the size and she also asked me to change the women faces a little bit.
I made the one at the top slighly more juvenile and I borrowed another portrait from Veronese to replace the one at the bottom of the composition.
Here is what I had done.

Casein on canvas ( approx. 175x120cm)

I shipped it over to London and a few weeks later the designer called me and said that she really loved the painting but...

it was too big for the wall where she had decided to hang it up.

She asked me to divide it into three smaller paintings ...saving the two ladies and the servant.

I tried to pick up the better proportions for these new artworks, ordered the stretcher bars , sliced up the big one and made three paintings with one ...

Here they are in my studio in the morning light ...

and here is each of them

It was not the first time I had worked from this extraordinary painting of the venetian master.

This is another copy of a section that is slightly higher in the original composition. On this one I had changed the male figure at the top.

Casein on canvas ( coarse linen, approx 95x180cm)

This one is a detail of the lower part , fascinating...water into wine...

Casein on gessoed canvas ( rabbit skin glue, 70x70cm)