Monday, May 25, 2009

Two recent street scenes

These are two recent paintings of streets here in San Miguel.
I have been working on some other paintings that are not ready to photograph yet, so I thought I would put these up.
The top one is a studio painting from a few weeks ago and the bottom one was done on location back in March.



"View from Top of Correo", 18 x 24" oil, Frank Gardner © 2009
$2,300. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner




"Aldama View, March '09", 14 x 11" oil, Frank Gardner © 2009
Private Collection

19 comments:

Elizabeth said...

I was particularly struck by the second, vivid nd lovely painting.
Such colors!
Greetings from NY

Perry Brown said...

I can appreciate the skill it takes to paint the top painting: "View from Top of Correo". You handled the linear perspective challenges with great success. Also, nice color saturation on both!

Marian Fortunati said...

What a lovely city you live in Frank!!
The colors you've chosen just make these paintings zing!!

Frank Gardner said...

Hi Elizabeth. Thanks!

Thanks Perry! That is kind of you to say.

True Marian. It is a pretty town. I did not have to make up any of that color as you know. Just painting what I see here.

Anonymous said...

Hard to choose favorites. The vivid, adobe colors of the bottom one is like a weather report. You know it's sunny, you can see where to seek shade and can also tell that what looks like a cathedral is too far away to walk to without a cold cerveca!

Beautiful work again Frank.

Christine Mercer-Vernon said...

i do love the oranges and reds in these paintings. i can't imagine living among such colorful buildings. makes it all seem so drab here. is that the same church in both paintings? these make a nice pairing to hang together.

Frank Gardner said...

Thanks Bonnie. It's only two and a half blocks. I'm sure you can make it that far without a cerveza can't you?

Frank Gardner said...

Same church Christine. It is in the main square, so it is kind of a landmark here.
You would love all the color I'm sure.
Good idea, they would look great hanging together, or maybe another the size of the vertical one for a suite of three.

Alicia PadrĂ³n said...

Oh wow and double wow!! These are fantastic amigo!!
The colors are delicious :o)

Solvay said...

Frank,

I'm behind again, out of rhythm. But, boyohboy are these sights for sore eyes!

The line of cars up the left side of the street - off in the distance to all the way up the hill and fairly up close --- love that curvy line of them, especially amid all the lines and angles!
You seem to be in an interesting color-block mode, these days. Blocks of colors creating the movement across the canvas. Lines and blocks. Very cool to look at!!!
It's so sophisticated and yet so freshly rendered - what a great combo: sophisticated thinking without overthinking!!!

Anyway, maybe I'm thinking too much.
I love them all the same!!!
I also love the spire/s in the lower painting (I always forget to look at the titles before I go to the comment page......so negligent...sigh) - they're like disembodied space ships about to shoot into heaven! And, the central spire - how the top of the canvas cuts it off - like it's already in heaven, in a place we can't see. I just love that!!!

Solveg

Jennifer Bellinger said...

Hi Frank,
I love the "squeezed" feeling of both these paintings, but especially the top one..the bright orange buildings corral the viewer's eye, no where to go but down that narrow street! Love it!

Mary Sheehan Winn said...

oh, the beautiful buildings in Mexico. The perspective is wonderful, as is the saturated color.

Frank Gardner said...

Gracias Alicia!

Thanks Solveg. Behind is fine, I'm glad you stopped by. It is DOWN the hill though.

Thanks Jennifer and Mary!!!

Solvay said...

Funny how I look at the beach painting as if I'm walking into it, but I see the cars facing up hill, parked, but ready to drive out of the painting towards the world of the viewer.
Funny!
Perspective.
Projection.
Viewpoint.
Eyes.
Ah, humans, ah, life.

: )
Solveg

Frank Gardner said...

Yeah, everyone sees stuff different Solveg. You can tell because of the rooftops, especially there about halfway down on the left.

Solvay said...

Um.....I wouldn't write again, but in case you thought I couldn't tell from your painting that the plane of viewpoint looks downhill into the painting - yes, I'm not sure anyone could see THAT differently. I only saw the cars as "looking up the hill" towards the viewer, me, at the top of the hill.....is that a better way to put it? There's nothing unclear in your painting - you stood at the top of the hill looking down and painting what was below.....did I say it better? It's a great painting, and I wish I were in it so I could walk down that hill and vanish into the town, or call one of those cars my own and drive off to the beach of your other recent paintings, stopping along the way for some fresh fruit at a roadside stand.

kathrynlaw said...

Dang, these are SO nice, Frank! Fantastic color and composition--as always, but these are just extra nice. I need to go back and look at all your work that I've missed while being "out of the loop". Thanks for the inspiration!

Frank Gardner said...

Oh, OK Solveg. People DO see things differently sometimes and they often chose different words to express the same thing too.
Thanks for clarifying that you were seeing it right.

Frank Gardner said...

Hi Kathy, thanks.
Real glad that you are back "in the loop"!