Macaron Framboise n 123

Macaron Framboise

N°123-

15x15 cm  (aprox 6"x 6'" inches)

oil on gessoboard, made in Italy

I couldn't resist this raspberry macaron.  It's stuck to the gold foil covered board with a dab of pastry cream, the same cream that holds fast the gooseberries crowning the thing.  It never occurred to me that Parisian Pastry chefs might be jealous of their creations until I casually snapped a photo of the pastries lined up behind the glass at my corner boulangerie-patisserie.  I got cussed out for that one and was so embarrassed I didn't go back for weeks.  When I did go back I brought a painting to show the owner.  She made a snide remark but relaxed.  She is a tough cookie.

Jack in New York

Whew! it is boiling in Paris.  We came home from the South of France yesterday and almost roasted in the gare de Lyon when we exited the train.

My show at galerie Terre des Arts is rocking, therefore I'll be posting lesser little works but perhaps more detailed. The large paintings are priority for upcoming shows.  The painting above took thirty hours to finish and it's not that large only 80x120 cm, this is one of the favorites in the show.

Tarte au citron on a plate n 122

Tarte au citron on a plate

N°122-

15x15 cm  (aprox 6"x 6'" inches)

oil on gessoboard, made in Italy

This poor tarte seemed so tired by the time I painted it.   When I picked it up to put it back on the paper doily it broke.  Then I picked up everything I needed to leave the atelier which was way to much to carry at once but we are supposed to be multitasking, right? 

 I had a black sketchbook under my lap top under a large water color palette under a plastic plate that carried several tubes of watercolor paint and three brushes that kept rolling around.  My ginormous sac was over my shoulder and in the other hand the plate with the broken tarte au citron and my keys.  Of course a paintbrush rolled off the plate, then with a jerk of my free hand to grab the brush, that is the one holding the plate and the keys, the tarte slipped to the floor.

Needless to say I didn't eat it.  Surely it was awful.

Tarte au citron n 121

Tarte au Citron

N°121-

15x15 cm  (aprox 6"x 6'" inches)

oil on gessoboard, made in Italy 

I had to carry this on my bike after my telephone fell in the gutter.  It was shaken so looked like this.

Just a note, of course I don't paint one of these little paintings a day, I paint several and schedule my blog posts to have them on your plate at 7am.  That way I can get some large paintings done too.

Haribo Rotella 120

Haribo Rotella - black liquorice 

N°120-

15x15 cm  (aprox 6"x 6'" inches)

oil on gessoboard, made in Italy 

Many of you might have noticed that I like to paint packaged things.  Haribo seems to be a big favorite here in Paris; there are Haribo stands on street corners and in every little corner store.  

I thought I'd get more painting done today, I still have a few hours but less than what I planned because on the way back from my gallery my telephone fell out of my jeans pocket, bounced on the street and centered the hole in the gutter.  It was terribly hilarious except that I just spent the last two hours at the telephone store to recuperate my number and buy a smacking new telephone.  These things happen to me, I still am painting in the dark, the lights have not been fixed... Enough blabla back to the easel

Petit éclair au chocolat n 119

Petit Four éclair au chocolat 

N°119-

10x10 cm  (aprox 4"x 4'" inches)

oil on gessoboard, made in Italy

The éclair au chocolat is the probably the all time favorite of traditional French pastries.  I was astounded to see that they sold them on the beach in the middle of the summer near Toulon.  I think I'd rather eat one in mid winter rather than while thinking of my bikini line.

petit four fraise

Petit Four au Fraise  .

N°118-

10x10 cm  (aprox 4"x4" inches)

oil on gessoboard made in Italy

Petit fours sucrés are tiny pastries that go down in one bite.  This says in the background petit four au fraise.  It is extra small.

Sardines

Sardines en boite  .

N°117-

15x20 cm  (aprox 5"x7" inches)

oil on gessoboard, made in Italy

I love to paint packaging, it is funny to think that a box of sardines could be named after a Roman emperor.  I wonder who thought of this name, was it a corporate decision?

Baba on a plate is on auction

clic here to bid

Baba on a Plate  

N°113-

20x20 cm  (aprox 8"x8" inches)

oil on Italian fabrication gesso board

shipping in france 10 euro, worldwide 15 certified mail

This is my first painting on auction at the Daily Paint Works, this was posted last Sunday, June 12

Florence sweet Florence.

We're running around Florence, 

shoe shopping, 

eating icecream 

and visiting family and friends.  

Eat your heart out!  

See you in a few days.

café carte Noir

Café Carte Noir 

N°116 -

15x15 cm  (aprox 6x6inches)

oil on Italian fabrication gesso board

The background has written in it coffee in French, English and Italian.  I can smell the fresh ground beans.  I tried many a coffee here in Paris, Lavazza is my favorite, Illy is good too but overrated and too expensive, one pays for the packaging.  In the end Carte Noir won over my taste buds.  The Lavazza is not as good as in Italy, it's for importation and all those eco-solidal brands are missing a the kick my butt needs in the morning or they're too strong to be tasteful.  Vive Carte Noir!

Fraisier au Pistache with reflection

Fraisier with reflection 

N°115 -

15x15 cm  (aprox 6x6inches)

oil on Italian fabrication gesso board 

I could barely resist this!

Fraisier au Pistache

Fraisier au Pistache  

N°114-

15x15 cm  (aprox 6x6inches)

oil on Italian fabrication gesso board

Pistache flavored mouse lighter than heaven and pistache flavored sponge cake interwined with fresh gariguette strawberries await my 3 year old's palette.  She'll be delighted, the aroma is enticing.  Did you notice the tiny piece of of gold leaf stuck in the glaze on the left?

Baba on a plate

Baba on a Plate  

N°113-

20x20 cm  (aprox 8x8inches)

oil on Italian fabrication gesso board

I don't like baba unless I'm eating one in Naples but this one was good.  The green thing was candied celery.

Bouton de Rose la Nuit

Bouton de Rose la Nuit  - N° 112

oil on gesso board, Italian fabrication

5x7 inches (aprox 13x18cm)

This one says: Mon petit bouton de rose, tu fleuris que la nuit.

Now I'm blushing!

bouton de rose

Bouton de Rose  N°111.

5x7 inches (aprox 13x18cm)

oil on gesso board - Italian fabrication

This paintings says: Mon petit bouton de rose fleuri.

If you don't know what a bouton de rose is ask a Frenchman and watch him blush!

Deux Cerises

Deux Cerises

N° 110

oil on gesso board - Italian fabrication 10x10cm

SOLD

From 1998 to 2006 I painted hundreds of small food paintings, mostly of Italian recipies and wrote in the background.  There are many photos of these on my website, you can see a link on the right.  This little painting has written in the background: deux cerises , due ciliege, zwei kirschen, deux cerises.

I like to use a sharpened soft lead pencil, something like a N° 7 lead, to write on the board.  It engraves the paint and is wonderful for details.

deux cerises dans un coquetier

Deux cerises dans un coquetier - n 109

oil on gesso board - Italian fabrication 10x10 cm

I bought this coquetier at a flea market on Avenue des Goblins last year.  The cherries are all over the markets right now.

This and the future small daily paintings will be on auction starting in after the 18th of June.  I feel terribly out of practise.  EEKs!

Chanel N°5

Chanel N°5 .

n 108

oil on gesso board

5x7 inches

The lights went out

Talk about technical problems.  Last week the two main lights in my studio burned out.  I finished the last painting for the show in the dark after trying to change the fuses.  It was difficult to unscrew the box on the chord to even reach the fuses. Why do they have fuses in France? and why do I have to spend my painting time changing the lights? is what I asked myself.

Yesterday I went to buy new light bulbs, two different kinds for two different lamps and replaced them, they still did not work so I painted again in the dark.  Today I bought new fuses and they still do not work, bizarre.

If it were only the lightbulbs, my SD card on my mac doesn't recognize the card anymore and the web is on and off.  I thought these things happened only in Italy.  When it rains it pours, yes in fact it is raining after three months of drought.  At least I don't need electricity and wavelengths to paint or write.  Ink on paper.  I'll get a painting posted today but to satisfy myself here is a rare photo of my daughter.  Sorry I blocked out her face.

Parisian Pastry n 107 - a painting a day

I'm back painting the Gourmandises Parisiennes.

La Polonaise n 107

oil on gesso board 5x7 inches

100 euro - 

This Parisian pastry has almond nougat, candied fruit and sponge cake,  topped with almond flavored meringue and sprinkled with toasted almonds.  I don't know why they call it the Polish woman - bizarre.  I have to add that I did eat it.  The inside was excellent but the meringue had a funny fish taste to it.

Today I am a fan of Tim Anderson

In 1995 I met Tim Anderson when I was selling oil paintings atop the overlook at Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence.  There was this strange guy staring at my paintings, his cute nose almost touching the canvases.


He was probably smelling them because when Tim looks at an artwork he must experiences with all his six senses.   I had the luck to visit the MOMA with him and see a museum the way Tim does.  A painting is not just a painting, it is hung on the wall a certain distance from the floor, on a tilt and the frame is from whatever period by whoever.  We ran around the museum like we were on magic mushrooms and when we hit the Robert Rauschenberg show were hammered, beaten, torn to pieces then walked out on our knees.


Tim is a walking encyclopedia with a moleskin in his pocket.  His moleskins are filled with drawings and tickets from his travels that writes about, comments on.


I asked the bizarre guy if he was an artist and yes, oh yes. The Beverly branch of the Chicago Public Library hired him and paid him to paint Faces of Chicago, for their walls, a permanent collection.

Tim was raging through Europe in Mercedes Station Wagon and just happened to be staying at Nittardi, the Tuscan villa of one of his German gallerists, a few stones throw down the dirt path from the house I was renting on top of a hill between La Piazza and San Donato in Collina.

We made plans to meet for wine and cheese, he said he'd drive up the hill in the Mercedes. I agreed and wondered what kind of car it was. Later that night, back in the country where the dogs barked all night and mysteriously disappeared, Tim arrived on foot sweating like a wild boar with a bottle of Nittardi in hand. He didn't realize that you needed a 4x4 to scale the road. Tim said he'd been to a wine tasting and when they'd asked him what he thought about the aftertaste he'd said, "It tastes like burnt rubber."

Viva Tim!

My favorite painting for the show

West Village Corner is a 50x50 cm oil on canvas, gallery stretcherbars.  What I like about this image is the movement of the guy and the stark contrast.  Like the Macchiaioli used.  What's that?   There is a lame article on wikipedia: Macchiaioli .  I used a palette-knife to scrape off different colored gobs of semi-dried paint from my palette, added them to smooth chunks of luxurious ivory black then liberally smeared the mess all over.  I love the 3D effect of the colored black background.

my Atelier in 2007

When I moved to Paris in January 2007

I had a commission from Gables Residential 

to create 50 large format paintings 

for the luxurious Villa Rosa, but

I had only seven months to get them done and frame them and send them.

It was freezing cold and terribly grey in January.

Those seven months were filled with tears from missing my buddies in Florence 

and lots of parties with my new friends at the Ateliers of la Fabrique in Ivry sur Seine, the ugliest place in the whole wide world.

I painted, and painted,

and painted.

 Seven months later all the paintings were finished.

I'd been the eye witness of choice and ear-to-bend at the ateliers.  Couples got together, broke up, studio mates punched eachother, others loved eachother. There was a nymphomaniac that loved everyone including a  schizophrenic that followed her like a beaten dog, both wanted to confide in me.  

We drank lots of coffee.

All of the artists that I met disdained my type of painting, considering it commercial, but when they saw me whack out 50 huge ones in  seven months they were impressed.

I rented a truck and drove them all the way to Florence

to have them framed, crated, and shipped.

Now they are in Gables Villa Rosa.