Five Chocolate Truffles

Recently finished:

Five Chocolate Truffles

2022, oil on linen, 10" x 12"

This painting, along with twenty-one other oil paintings and four drawings, will be shown in my upcoming solo exhibition at the Adelson Galleries in New York, from September 15th through October 31st. A reception will take place on Thursday, the 29th of September.

Here is a painting and a drawings that will be in the exhibition:

Two Women with a Monkey

2018, oil on linen, 18 x 20 inches

Two Women with a Monkey, drawing #2

2017, pencil on paper with red oxide tone on reverse, 18 x 20 inches

 

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Upcoming Retrospective

A retrospective of my paintings will be at the Greenville County Museum of Art in Greenville, South Carolina, from February 5th to March 29th. 

Link to the GCMA web page about the exhibition

Thirty-seven paintings and two drawings will be shown, dating from 1987 to the present. Among the works:

Betting Windows
1995, oil on linen, 38" x 46"
Private collection, New York

Sophie with Tarot

2001, oil on linen, 30" x 24"

Private collection, Massachusetts

Tortilla Factory
2003, oil on linen, 11" x 20"
Private collection, New York

Ginevra de' Benci

In The Truth about Lola, the book that accompanied my 2008-09 retrospective, Bartholomew Bland, curator of the exhibition, wrote the following about this painting:

Eliza with Saigon Martini

2000, oil on linen, 6 1/4" x 5"

Private collection, New York

Eliza with Saigon Martini is a classic pose of the world–weary woman [ ... ]. With her décolletage and slightly sullen demeanor, Eliza perhaps most closely resembles the figure in Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra de Benci, with a cocktail and a cigarette.

I was extremely pleased by the reference because the Leonardo is one of my favorite paintings in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and I always make an effort to see it whenever I'm there.

Ginevra de' Benci
Leonardo da Vinci
1474/1478, oil on panel , 15" x 15"
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

The painting was acquired by the National Gallery in  February 1967 for around 5 million dollars (or ca. 38 million in today's dollars). I believe that was a record price at the time for the purchase of any painting, though it seems quite a bargain by today's standards. Sold to the museum by the House of Liechtenstein, the painting traveled across the Atlantic in a specially-modified suitcase nestled in its own first-class seat on a Swissair flight.

I remember standing in a considerable crowd to see it for the first time. When I finally had a few moments to look closely I was amazed by the subtlety of the tones, the exquisiteness of the details, the beauty of the ringlets of hair and the pattern of the juniper behind her. 

The psychological aspect of the Leonardo's painting was also intriguing. Ginevra  was 18 or 20 at the time the portrait was made and a few years before had married Luigi Niccolini, a respected Florentine from a moderately wealthy family. Her melancholy in the portrait has been attributed to different reasons, depending on the source. One, that her health was poor. Another - more romantic - was that she was pining for her lover, Bernardo Bembo, the Venetian ambassador to Florence who had been recalled home.

Years later in graduate school, I wrote a paper about the painting for a required art history course. I compared it to a painting by Lorenzo di Credi (1456/59-1536) in the Metropolitan Museum in New York - Portrait of a Young Woman - who is similarly backed by juniper and a receding landscape. The woman's grief - a recent widow - is represented by the iconography of the ring and the black dress. The point of my paper was that Leonardo's portrait presented the sitter's emotional state without the use of symbolic clues. The paper is long lost, but it was rather grandly titled Ginevra de' Benci: The First Psychological Portrait. My professor liked it, though I'm far from expert enough to know if my conclusion was actually true.

Portrait of a Young Woman
Lorenzo di Credi
1490/1500 oil on panel , 23" x 16"
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

I painted Eliza again nine years later, a little older and with a more sophisticated drink:

Woman Smoking: Eliza

2009, oil on line,  7 1/2" x 6"

Private collection, Maine

Nadine with a Cigarette

A new painting of Nadine ...around the twelfth time she's made an appearance in my work since 1974; usually she's alone, though in four paintings she's with other figures. Since I'm counting, this is also the ninth painting I've done of a single individual smoking.

Nadine with a Cigarette

9 1/2" x 7", oil on linen, 2018

Three earlier paintings of Nadine:

Nadine with Espresso

24" x 17", oil on linen, 1998

Private Collection, New York

Nadine's New Dress

6" x 4", oil on linen, 2009

Nadine with Two Demons

7 1/2" x 4 1/2", oil on linen, 1998

Private Collection, England

And here's one time when - by way of three posters on a wall - she was transformed into a chanteuse:

The French Singer

28" x 36", oil on linen, 1998

Private Collection, New York

Jessie's Diner

Finished:

Jessie's Diner

35" x 65", oil on linen, 2016-17

The view outside the windows was the last area painted and I tried a number of ideas before finally settling on a single building with an attached wall and a swath of sky. Originally I thought to have a second building on the left side, but this solution brings in more light and balances the density of the right side. It also solves the problem of how to stay minimal and it doesn't distract from the interior.

The real-life view out the diner windows offered me little inspiration: a stretch of US route 20 and a wide parking lot with a large windowless building on the right side - the Northborough Highway Department truck terminal - and a barn-like structure filled with sand on the left.

Since the painting is large and the photo above is small, here are two details:

ca. 34" x ca. 37"

35" x ca. 39"

Chet's becomes Jessie's

The assortment of food containers stored under the counter is finally finished. Organizing them and their colors in a way that enhanced the composition without being a distraction was a challenge. They originally had letters on the labels and images of tomatoes, chickens, oats, etc. That soon became very busy and precious; I scraped them all away, and restarted, making the containers more minimal and abstract, quieter and in harmony with the rest of the painting.

Jessie's Diner, detail of lower half

approx. 17" x 52"

I've also decided to change the title from Chet's Diner to Jessie's Diner. After my last blog post, a friend wrote to say that the original title was confusing since it is Jessica who owns and operates the diner and is in the painting, while there is no Chet to be seen. In fact, Chet had sold the place in the 1930s, leaving behind only his name printed in large block letters on the exterior. As I developed the idea in drawings, I always referred to the subject as Chet's Diner, but for the painting my friend is right. The original title makes no sense. Jessie's Diner now it is.

Jessie's Diner, in progress

35" x 65", oil on linen

Next will finish the upper wall and ceiling, and then turn my attention to the last challenge in this painting - figuring out what will be going on outside the windows. As with the items under the counter, will try to find a solution that is minimal and unobtrusive.

Chet's Diner, in progress

My painting of Chet's Diner has been moving along slowly but surely. All the figures are now in place and I've been working on the background.

In my previous two blog posts I wrote about paintings by Benozzo Gozzoli, Sano di Pietro, and Sandro Botticelli, and about how figures in those paintings were repeated to capture movement and/or the passage of time. I've played with the same idea here, putting Jessica, the owner of Chet's Diner, in three different places as she goes about her day: cooking, serving, and opening a window.

Chet's Diner, in progress

35" x 65", oil on linen

My neighbor's 24-year-old son, Ethan, stopped by the studio last week. His take was quite different and futuristic; he thought the three Jessicas were a trio of clones.

A few days earlier, another visitor thought they were natural-born triplets. And someone else told me that the idea made no sense at all.

I've always enjoyed and encouraged the fact that different viewers interpret my work in different ways. Probably the most extreme example happened at one of my openings when a person came up to me, pointed to a painting called Pharmacy, and said I must be seriously depressed to have produced such a bleak work; just a few minutes later another person came up, pointed to the exact same painting, and cheerfully complimented me on having a very amusing and insightful view of the human condition. Paintings in a way can be mirrors.

Pharmacy

9" x 9", oil on linen, 1994

Private Collection

As for Chet's Diner, Ethan immediately recognized it as the setting for my painting, though when I'm done, the lower part of the walls will be colored differently ... not white but the same red I used on the window frames. The other major difference is that the real Jessica has brown hair, not blonde, but - together with the man's shirt - I wanted to bounce golden yellows across the surface.

Photoshop color study for roughly how the wainscoting will look when painted:

Interior of Chet's Diner:

Chet's Diner

Chet's is a diner in my neighborhood, built by the Worcester Lunch Car Company and assembled in its present location in 1931. It's had several owners over the years and is currently run by Jessica Fidrych, daughter of the late Mark Fidrych, a well-known pitcher for the Detroit Tigers and a 1976 All-Star. Before his accidental death in 2009, he often worked the tables.

Chet's is only open for breakfast, and Laura and I go there fairly often. I've wanted to do a painting inspired by the place for a long time, and have accumulated numerous sketches, trying out different compositions and different points of view. Three months ago the composition finally came together. Here's a photo of that drawing, surrounded with some of the sketches that led up to it: 

on the drawing wall

A few of the sketches:

A.)  pencil on paper, 6" x 7 1/4", 2004

B.)  ink on paper, 4 1/4" x 4 1/4", 2 July 2008

C.) ink on paper,  7" x 5 1/2", 2009

D.)  pencil on paper, 3 1/4" x 4 1/4", 25 November 2010

E.)  ink on paper, 4 3/4" x 4 1/4", 29 January 2015

F.)  pencil on paper, 4 1/2" x 7 1/2", 6 September 2016 

I made a large version (35" x 65") of the drawing below to work out the size for the painting, now in progress. There was no change to the composition.

Chet's, pencil on paper, 21 1/2" x 40", 23 - 24 September 2016 

I'm planning to paint the three figures who are cooking, serving, and opening a window as the same person: Jessica, the owner and cook. In some Renaissance paintings a narrative is told this way within a single image, such as in the panel by Sano di Pietro below - one of my favorite paintings in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. - telling the story of St. Anthony traveling to meet St. Paul and getting directions along the way from a centaur.

The Meeting of Saint Anthony and Saint Paul
Master of the Osservanza (Sano di Pietro)
c. 1430/1435, tempera on panel, 18 1/4" x 13"
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

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canvas on the easel with drawing transferred, 11 October 2016

Interior at Night (initial concept)

After a run of small and intermediate sized paintings, I've been working on drawings for a larger and more complex piece: a composition of a woman in an empty room, with a window in the background open to the night sky. The final dimensions will be around 52 x 50 inches and I'm imagining the painting to be predominately tones of white with several smaller notes of dark color.

Interior at Night, drawing #2

18" x 17 3/8"     pencil on paper     2013 

The composition is a variant of a painting I did at RISD in 1969, Night in a White Room. I've always liked the image and often thought about making a new version, though have never done anything similar since then.

Night in a White Room 

12" x 18"     oil on canvas     1969

destroyed in 1974

The original idea was based on a dream and the young woman is someone I knew; she figured in several of my paintings at that time. Unfortunately, the painting was damaged by an experiment in varnishing that went wrong. After some additional damage that happened in 1974, it was destroyed.

Below is a photo of another painting of the same person; this one was based on reality and included a self-portrait. These are among the first paintings I did with figures, having transitioned three months earlier from making hard-edged abstractions.

D.C. Nightclub

72" x 60"     oil on canvas     1969

Private Collection, Connecticut

Chocolate Truffles

I finished the second painting based on the composition of a woman eating a chocolate truffle.

Chocolate Truffles

12" x 7 1/4"     oil on linen     2013

As in the first version, I kept to an analogous harmony of closely related colors. Often when I go in this direction, I'll add a note of complementary color which can add some jump and energy to the visual experience - perhaps could have made the ribbon green or blue - but this painting wanted the quiet of staying totally focused on warmth.

Chocolate Truffle

The first of the two "chocolate" paintings is finished. The second one is still in progress.

Chocolate Truffle
6 1/4" x 5"    oil on linen     2013
Private Collection, New York

Chocolate Truffle

I've been working on two paintings ... two versions of the same composition ... a woman about to eat a chocolate truffle. In the larger one (12" x 7 1/4") she's wearing a dress and in the smaller (6 1/4" x 5") she's not. The larger also includes a table with a box holding three more chocolates; I didn't think those additions were necessary in the smaller one. 

left:  12" x 7 1/4" pencil on paper with dark ochre pastel on reverse 2013

upper right: 4 1/2" x 3 1/4" ink on lined paper 2011

lower right: 6 1/4" x 5" pencil on paper with red ochre pastel on reverse 2013

The idea originally came to me a couple years ago and I made a very quick and simple sketch at the time, top right above. The sketch floated from place to place in the studio until a week ago when it resurfaced on my work table, catching my eye. After that, the final drawings came together fairly quickly.

I've often noticed that an initial idea can remain dormant like that for a year or two or more, before it's ready to become a fully worked out drawing and then perhaps a painting. I've never been able to figure out the reason for this long wait. Maybe the image needs time to flow around the subconscious.

Group Exhibition: Post War Works on Paper

I have four pieces in the upcoming group exhibition, POST WAR WORKS ON PAPER, at the Adelson Galleries Boston, from 14 December 2012 to 30 January 2013. The opening reception is on Friday, 14 December, 6 - 8 PM.

Drawings for three recent paintings will be exhibited: Blackjack Players, On the Stairs, and Sophie ... as well as the print, Nadine with Espresso.

Nadine with Espresso

20 ¾” x 8 ½”       line etching with chine collé        2001

Nadine with Espresso is the last etching I've made and is an edition of 25 with 4 artist's proofs. The chine collé process is one of my favorites; a thin sheet of delicate tissue is placed over the inked plate and the pressure of the press bonds it to the supporting paper, creating a beautiful tone beneath the lines. 

The print is based on a composition I'd used earlier in a painting of the same title.

Nadine with Espresso

24" x 17"     oil on linen     1998

Private Collection, New York

2012 Exhibition

My exhibition at Adelson Galleries Boston has been extended another week ... to run through Sunday, December 2nd.

Aztec Lounge

24" x 24"    oil on linen     2007

view exhibition catalog

Mughal Miniatures

In New York to deliver Dinner in Ithaca and two other paintings.

Dinner in Ithaca

25" x 30"     oil on linen      2011

While there, I saw an extensive exhibition of Indian miniatures at the Metropolitan Museum:      
Wonder of the Age: Master Painters of India 1100 - 1900.     (until 8 January 2012)

I've always admired many of these artists ... especially when their compositions are beautifully abstracted and the colors are vibrant yet subtle, and all is held together with a graceful and delicate line. In reviews and commentary about my work, the Renaissance and Expressionism are very often mentioned as significant influences ... but somehow the influence of Persian and Mughal miniatures has rarely been mentioned ... just once I think. 

L: Gopis Pleading with Krishna to Return Their Clothes
    ca. 14" x 9"   ca. 1635 - 1650

    Early Master at the Court of Mandi

R: Krishna and Radha Enjoy a Winter's Evening

    ca. 11" x 8"   ca. 1780

    Court of Guler

Paintings from 2010

Ollie's Pizza

16 1/2" x 12"     oil on linen     2010

On the Stairs
54" x 60"    oil on linen    2010
Private Collection, Texas

Subway: East Street Station
10" x 10"     oil on linen      2010