A Bleeding Heart

You have to imagine that I have a Bleeding heart flower in my hand as I tell you this tale. Fascinated by reading a shortened version of this story I just had to expand on it and capture the emotion of it in a painting. It is painted on nearly a full sheet of Saunders Waterford cold press paper. On a passing glance it looks like the girl is crying a tear of blood but when you look closer you can see what is really in the tear drop. To understand why let me tell you the story of the Bleeding Heart.


Once upon a time there lived a beautiful princess. Young men from far and near came to try to win her heart. But the princess was very vain and ignored them all. A young prince from a neighboring country fell deeply in love with her. She ignored him like the others, though he tried and tried to win her love. One day the prince found a pair of pretty pink rabbits at the market. At this point, I pull off the two outer pink petals and set each on it side to show the animals. He sent them to the princess thinking, "these will surely melt her heart." But the princess continued ignoring him. Then the prince sent her a pair of beautiful earrings. Next I separate the two inner white petals and hold them up next to my ears. Still the princess would have nothing to do with him. The young prince was so heartbroken that he took his dagger and drove it into his heart. The remaining centre of the flower in my hand is shaped like an outline of a heart with a line down the centre. I hold the heart up, remove the dagger-like line, and plunge the "knife" through the heart's centre. The princess, realizing too late that she did love the prince, cried out, "My heart shall bleed for my prince forever more!" and her heart bleeds to this day.


Ona

Summer Romance

Don't you sometimes wish you could just escape from the hustle and bustle of modern day living? This was the inspiration for this watercolour and pen painting. As I stood and gazed at this beautiful bridge, the scent of the nearby gardens filling the air and the sounds of the bees collecting pollen from the wildflowers made me feel as if I had been transported back to a time when Ladies in their beautiful crinoline dresses would stroll through the gardens hoping for a secret rendezvous with their beau.

I have had this on my 'to paint' list for ages and I guess after the steep learning curve of learning Cezanne's style of painting I just wanted to get back to familiar territory. If anyone is interested the bridge in the painting is the Palladian bridge at Wilton House in Wiltshire UK close to where I used to live. The Bridge over the little River Nadder was designed by the 9th Earl of Pembroke, one of the "architect earls," with Roger Morris (1736/7).

Here are some more close ups so you can see the detail in the sky and far side of the bridge.




Ona

Trafalgar 8139, The name is PearO! Hercule PearO!

I got really into the painting yesterday and I didn't want to stop until I finished. My daughter and I then had enormous fun writing the accompanying story.

... If you remember, in 'Top secret...Operation Lemonade' we last left the action with Inspector Japp (who was heading the FB EYE’s investigation into the brutal murder of the blood orange) squeezing the truth out of the lemons because he believed that one of them was responsible for the murder. We also saw the SEE EYE A, Agent Terry lurking in the background. So to the next installment...



“Welcome to Whitehaven Mansions the home of the infamous Hercule PearO. I am your tour guide, Felicity Lemon. During this tour you will explore this magnificent house, view its exceptional art collection including PearO’s favorite piece a very special version of Paul Cezanne’s ‘The Three Bathers’ painted especially for him and as yet unseen by the general public. You will even partake in the sipping of the finest herbal tea’s with PearO himself. First let us enter his office. On top of the chest of drawers just beneath the painting of ‘The Three Bathers’ you can see the prize vegetable marrow grown by PearO himself.

But wait, the telephone is ringing. Who can this be calling at such an hour? Hush everyone. I believe Hercule PearO’s superior juices are being called upon once again to solve yet another murder mystery.”

“Trafalgar 8139, The name is PearO! Hercule PearO!

Agent Terry? So glad to hear from you! Now slow down dear fellow. We don’t want you having a meltdown… James Japp has done what? Felicity lemon! Come quick! Inspector Japp has been leading an investigation into the brutal murder of a blood orange. He was convinced that a lemon had committed the crime and held in custody every lemon that was in the vicinity at the time of the murder and interrogated each and every one of them hoping to squeeze out the truth.”

The usually calm and collected Felicity rushed into the room toward PearO looking more than a little bitter. She had never totally trusted James Japp’s intuition.

“Japp always jumps to conclusions and accepts any clue much too readily.” She murmured sourly as her peel flew in all directions behind her.

The teapot and tea cup leaned closer to PearO, hoping to hear more of the juicy details.

A group of apples that PearO had been neatly ordering in a line were sick to the core at the news and as we speak were turning a very strange shade of green. Another group of apples were looking decidedly drained of colour and one of them was even rolling off the table, it was so pale.




“Agent Terry, of course I will meet you and James Japp. Where? On the Orient Express? Certainly. See you this evening. Goodbye”

“Felicity, Pack me some spare peel. I have a train to catch!”


Ona

Drained of colour and sick to the core!

I have been having so much fun today. I feel more comfortable with Cezanne's style of painting now and can just enjoy it and try to use it to its best effect to bring my characters to life.

Today I have focused on the apples in the painting. They are, of course deeply distressed to hear of the recent fate of the lemons, so I wanted to capture this emotion whilst still remaining true to Cezanne's style.....You know how Cezanne leaves a lot of white paper and how this was a very innovative thing for him to do at the time.... well the idea of being 'drained of colour' sprung to my mind as I was thinking about this. So, using his layering technique to build form I have painted the colour on the bottom half of the apples but kept the top half pale in colour or left the white paper showing. The apple that Cezanne often has falling off the side of the table I have made so pale he has fainted and is rolling off the table. Cezanne often outlined his fruit with charcoal and then mirrored the shape around it so I have accentuated this idea to make it appear he is rolling off.

Cezanne also used a very vivid green for some of his fruit so I have made my row of apples 'sick to the core' at the news so I have painted these mainly greens with just a touch of red in a few. Cezanne was much more concerned with shape and form than texture and detail so often his fruit would just be shapes. In my painting I have made my row of apples face away from pearo so they have no stalk showing or just a suggestion of the base of the apple.

So here is a close up of the apples who are drained of colour or sick to the core.

next I get to paint the telephone and Pearo. I'm off to look at Photo's of David Suchet's Hercule Poirot.

Ona

Painting material 'Cezanne style'.

I have been working on the cloth on the table. Painting cloth Cezanne style is fun. When I think about how carefully I usually blend in the colours when I usually paint material, and how I use very few hard lines or dramatic changes of colour... when painting Cezanne style its the complete opposite. You need definite brush strokes showing, heavy 'charcoal' lines and dark shadows. You also layer instead of blending colours waiting for each colour to dry before applying the next. There needs to be no real thought about shadow or direction of light either. In Cezanne's paintings it often looks as if the light could be coming from multiple directions. White materiel is especially fun to paint this way as although he leaves a lot of white paper showing he also uses many of the colours that appear in the rest of the painting.

So here is a close up of the material that I have painted in this style


and here is the painting's as it is now.


I should finish the material tomorrow and then it gets to the really fun part... bringing all my characters to life.

Ona

Building form through colour Cezanne Style!

It is fascinating to study Cezanne's paintings and see how he builds up the form of objects through his use of colour.

"Cézanne's rejection of the intense contrasts of light and shadow of his earlier years in exchange for a refined system of color scales placed next to one another." (Heilbrunn Timeline of History)

His brush strokes are clearly visible and often mirror the contours of the objects. Colours are also used to link key objects together.

I must admit I find painting in the style of Cezanne quite a challenge, not so much in his use of colour to create shape or form but I do have to strongly fight the urge to straighten lines and correct perspective. Painting the vegetable marrow on the plate which seemingly hangs against the surface of the chest which appears flat on the paper is a classic example as was the table itself the two halves of which if you look carefully do not join up. Creating a table which appears to be larger at the back than the front also felt strange too do but this is a common trend in his still life paintings. The more free use of colour though is quite fun to do, and the painting style quite quick although you do need to wait between each colour application for the paint to dry before applying the next layer. Here is a close up of the chest with Poirot's prize vegetable marrow on the top. Do you notice how the plate seems to be floating due to the change in perspective? You can also see how the layering of colour on the chest helps to create the sense of form but it is all about shape and form, not texture.

The table has had many layers of paint already. I began with the lightest of washes but am using more juicy paint mixes for each subsequent layer. The table is nearly finished. It just needs its darkest top layers.



Ona

A Pearo version of Cezanne's 'The three Bathers'

Ok, it's silly season and i'm having so much fun with this. I have painted the background 'Cezanne style' building up the layers of colour and then turned my attention to the painting that Pearo has on his wall. Paul Cezanne was considered very innovative and was the first to include everyday backgrounds into his still life paintings. So I wondered what sort of painting Pearo would have on his wall. Whilst considering this I thought of how often a womans body is described as pear shaped and then started looking at Cezanne's paintings of nudes. This one caught my eye. It is called 'The Three Bathers' and was painted by Cezanne between 1879 and 1882.



I thought it would be fun to substitute the three nude women for three peeled pears. Here is my Pearo version.





I also substituted the lake for a plate filled chocolate/caramel sauce for the pears to bathe in. It makes me chuckle each time I look at it.

Anyhow, here is my progress so far.


Ona