Monday, December 7, 2009

"Rosario"

This is another painting that I will be including in the group show of Mexico paintings at the Addison Art Gallery On Cape Cod starting Jan. 7th. 2010.

Rosario is a quite a character. He is always smiling or laughing and loves to pose for a picture. Especially if he can show off his ranch or animals. He tied this burro up under a tree for Paul, Colin and me to paint. My painting from the day with Paul and Colin was not that successful and is still in that limbo stage of me wondering wether I can pull something out of it or if I will throw it in the stack of clunkers. I don't think that any of us liked our paintings of that donkey that day. It started to rain off and on and the light was real flat. Besides, I've told you how much burros like to move around while you paint them right? We did not have an apple or anything this time to keep him in line. Below this painting are two pictures from that session. Paul and Colin painting, and one of Colin painting. Check out his version of an umbrella. Paul and I both had EasyL umbrellas to keep us dry (ish) but Colin made due with what he had.

This painting is from a different day.


"Rosario", 14x18" oil, Frank Gardner © 2009
$1,430. Framed, Available at Addison Art Gallery





Paul and Colin




Colin and his ingenious umbrella system.

12 comments:

Art with Liz said...

Love the painting of Rosario Frank - and very inventive rain protector!

Solvay said...

How do you always get the facial expressions and gaits (in both people and animals) with 1-2-3 brushstrokes! Amazing!

My Christmas wishlist includes a trip to your Cape Cod show.

Perry Brown said...

Fantastic painting Frank!

Frank Gardner said...

Thanks Liz! I'm not sure the rain protector was working very well. It reflected a lot of orange light onto the canvas, made it very dark in there and probably smelled like paint under there.

Frank Gardner said...

Hi Solveg, Probably should not say anything, but sometimes it works at first stroke and sometimes it takes a million. The burro and Rosario's body are the first attempts, but Rosario's face was wiped out at least 20 times. Too many fussy strokes, wrong values, awkward or clumsy drawing, not looking enough like him, maybe you get the idea. It took a very long time to get something the stayed in the shadow of his hat, yet looked enough like him and stayed fresh as well.

The shows start in Jan. but the receptions are not until Feb. 12 and 13. Oddly, she likes to take down the sold pieces so by Feb I would hope that there would not be many of my pieces still hanging.

Frank Gardner said...

Thanks a lot Perry!

Marian Fortunati said...

Oh my!!!! THAT'S a WONDERFUL painting... The light is so beautiful on them!!

WOW.... It won't last long in the gallery!!

Frank Gardner said...

Your too kind Marian! Thanks for your support.

Rhonda Hartis Smith said...

Gorgeous painting Frank, love it.

Bruce Sherman said...

Hi again Frank!...."Rosario" is a colour-filled masterpiece!A painterly portrait... and that beautiful, bright, curvilinear straw hat...in the fore... WOW!It sings for me!Your choice of a beautiful, broken (green-dominated) colour backdrop really "shoves forward" the subject grouping... isolating it for the eye.

That rope sure does draw your wonderfully unmannered, painterly subjects together!

Beautiful work!A gem indeed!Good luck with your show...I'll attend... by way of the Collector's coverage... wish it were in person though!

Cheers!...and Good painting!
Bruce

PleinEric said...

I like the feeling of 'shimmering' light... largely due to the broken brushwork. Nice one!

Solvay said...

Well, Frank, that makes for an even higher compliment - that you can get that fresh, first-try effect out of all of that! Impressive, as always.

Your show...I actually looked into flights, today. But, with what you said about the paintings being taken down as they sell, it seems like I would want to go right away at the start in order to see all the work, but then I would also want to come at the end in order to be there for the Frank Gardner presence at the reception, assuming you'll be there for that........frustrating.