“Waiting” is finished

This is a much smaller oil painting than my usual but I love it. I wanted to try painting on a black background in oil to figure out what the challenges would be with trying to get correct color adjustment. ie - getting my darks dark enough and the whites BRIGHT.

Anywho, it’s done and my buddy Joel Cooner is letting them hang at his gallery on Dragon Street here in Dallas among his AMAZING collection of antiques, artifacts and insanely well crafted new pieces of sculpture, (Sherry Owens for example) and sculptural functional wood pieces by Michael Wilson…(love, love, love)!

The title, “Waiting” refers to several things. I took a series of photos for this painting over a year ago when visiting my old college roomie and dear friend, Karen Lenahan, she has a floral shop in Easthampton, NY and does LOTS of weddings and events. We were heading out to Montauk and walked into her garage where I spotted her flower cooler which was full of solely white flowers and greenery and it was stunning. They were in there looking lush and ethereal waiting for the upcoming weekend weddings. I knew these would become a painting as soon as I saw them, but due to different diversions and jobs during the intervening year, I had to wait until there was a break.

Then a pretty significant break comes along, AKA: Corona Virus, Covid-19 and BAM…EVERYTHING IS ABOUT WAITING NOW!

…waiting to flatten the curve, waiting to work again, waiting for a check, waiting for a test result, waiting for stores and schools and venues and absolutely everything to open again, waiting to feel safe about going to all those places, waiting to see loved ones and friends in person, waiting to hug someone without being leery of where they may been that could have exposed them to the virus, waiting to travel…

You get the idea, but flowers just can’t wait that long, their bloom is finite and and so are peoples lives and patience. Your eyes see those beautiful things and you know they will not last the week in the same way and they must be appreciated in that moment. So, I paint the beautiful flower and call or write the people I love and hope that when all this waiting is all over- we are still mostly whole and still able to notice the amazing beauty around us.

why does my web platform hate me

YAAAYYYY! I have been trying to type in this space for a couple weeks now but apparently working on an IPad is NOT ideal because it absolutely refuses to work.

I finished a painting a month or so ago and it has already gone to a new home but I hadn’t posted any finished photos of it yet due to the craziness of this web issue. The stars must have aligned because today it is working- so quickly before it stops…

The painting is an oil on muslin. 6’-4” x 5’-1” I have a few brewing in my head that are not flowers but flowers are just so beautiful especially when you get right down into them and check out the details of shape and light. They are relaxing when the world outside the studio and home is uncertain and maskless!

Visitation rights

I went to put sunscreen on my baby today - by which I mean, I put UV sun protection on my painting: Yoshi Tsuji Eats in Silent Reverence in Japan While Marlowe Paints and Ponders in Dallas. Yoshi now lives at the Bell Nunnally Law offices with his new mother. I am so glad that someone I know and like bought him so I can visit if needed. It’s been a few months since he left the studio and there was some concern about the intense Texas sun shining in through the huge windows and fading his color so I bought a bottle of Golden Satin Polymer Varnish with UVLS and went to to visit.

Seeing a painting of mine after its been out of my hands for a while is always surprising, in this case, I had forgotten how big this painting is 9’ x 5’ and how much I love it.

View fullsize

Here “YoshikiL (Yogi) sits, on the 16th floor at Bell Nunnally Law offices- with the gold leaf changing with the sun.

WORK IN PROGRESS - WIP →

From this day forth to be known as WIP!

This can be applied to many, MANY things in my life - myself, my organizational skills, my computer and technology skills, my attempts at exercise regimes, my minutes, hours, days, weeks…my life in general and definitely my artwork.

In an attempt to get something posted in a timely manner about the evolution of a painting, (bearing in mind that I started and completed the painting “I Should Have Been More Specific” a few months ago) i.e. see above reference to technological skills)) I am going to attempt to post a few pictures of the evolution of a painting.

I wanted to do a painting that expressed clearing my mind of 26 years of artwork that I had done and liked but was not personal to me. I started with taking photos, (selfies-UGH) with different angles and expressions but the last photo was the one that worked for my idea, a look of surrender or giving in…to the whole universe perhaps.

…OK, I have been thwarted in my attempt to load the different stages of this painting so you will see the starting point here and the finished piece is in my personal work section!

I will post the different stages again on instagram @marlowemonfort

I will study on how to post multiple images here and it will be another WIP for my future artwork. Sigh…

Going to a gallery-Liliana Bloch Gallery →

I used to love going to galleries and looking at the art on display and all the amazing talent out there and even the NOT amazing art was fascinating, (that was interesting because I could not figure out how on earth they actually got someone to hang it in public). These days though it is a hit or miss wether I want to go look at art produced by another artist who is actually getting their work done - be it good or bad. My predominate thought is a self-castigating "you should be at the studio doing your own work"...this is a tedious record in my head and one I tire of hearing. HOWEVER, we did get out to a gallery last week during the CADD (Central Arts Design District) Third Thursday happy hour to see the work at Liliana Bloch Gallery and I am so glad we did!

She has the artwork of Christian Fagerlund hanging right now and it is fantastic! If she had had security guards they would have been batting me away from the art- I got as close as possible (without my reading glasses) to see the minute brushstrokes. They are just the kind of thing I would love to have done! A collection of nudes exquisitely rendered but very contemporary in feel with LOTS of fiddly detail. Fantastique! The skin tones, the hair, the simplicity of the setting...all fabulous. The landscapes Mr Fagerlund also has hanging were also beautiful in their simplicity of layout, tone and colors and a complete swivel from the exacting work on the portraits. I liked seeing that both facets of his painting life are received together.

In the end, it did make me want to run back to my studio and stop procrastinating, so off I go...

Isle of Dogs background panel-Don't Blink...

It's been almost a month since this article came out in the Dallas Morning News and the movie is getting great reviews. We did go see the movie on opening night and it was a thrill to see something I had done up on the big screen.. I had forewarning that it appeared  in the first few minutes of the movie while 'Jupiter', the dog narrator, was giving background on how the Isle of Dogs came to be. Thank goodness for that!, because Wes Anderson packs such a visual feast of detail into the movie that you have to watch it several times to get it all in.

I am used to painting really large murals and reminding myself that nobody is going to be focusing on a 2 inch wide section of a 30ft x 8ft painting!  This, however, was not the case on this project and I reveled in obsessing over the details! All the people have patterned clothes on their tiny 2 inch bodies, all the dogs have individual hairs and the pine and cherry trees - teeny tiny needles and blossoms! This picture is from the upper right corner and had a litter of puppies rolling on the floor next to the table. I wanted to show a piece of the panel that didn't stay on screen but for a second because it was so fun to put together. Kudos to all the talented people that worked on the Isle Of Dogs production, what an amazing collection of artists they put together to bring Mr. Anderson's movie to life.

Just a minute

I've said this too many times to count to my children but I am going to say it again, in full knowledge that this time measurement actually encompasses LOTS OF MINUTES and maybe a few days. I'm trying to learn this whole website thing which is taking up space in my brain and time away from some paintings so I say to you...

I will get back to this blog in just a minute...