Memories of Paris

"Distant Pantheon"
30 x 24, Oil on Canvas
(c) Lesley Powell 2018

It's been a while since I posted about the new work on my easel. Time to remedy that! Most recently, I have been working on a new series of paintings based on my time in Paris last fall. I am working from sketches I did on location, as well as from notes I took on site. I have also used reference photos I shot at the time. Granted, a photo doesn't give me the same information that "being there" does, but it helps fill in the gaps when I get home.

"Pont Neuf, Toward Place Dauphine"
18 x 18, Oil on Canvas
(c) Lesley Powell 2018

This trip, I stayed in a new location: the Ile St. Louis. I had never stayed there before, and found it to be wonderfully convenient to all of Paris. Best of all, several of my favorite

The Power of Suggestion

"Cyclamen, Colorful Patches"
12 x 8, Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2018
(Available)

My last post drew an analogy between painting and music. Today I have an analogy between painting and poetry.  I've been reading about the French symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé (and trying, mostly in vain, to read some of his poems--thanks to my musty college textbook on 19th century French poetry).  My curiosity was aroused when I saw this quotation from Mallarmé: "To define is to kill; To suggest is to create." 

"Top of Gordes"
Oil on Linen, 8 x 12
(c) Lesley Powell 2017
(SOLD)

Hmmmm. I was reminded of a common saying among painters, used when one over-works a painting. When you have a fresh, lively painting started, and then you fuss and fuss over it until you have completely zapped the life out of it,

Guild of Charlotte Artists

(c) Martha Armstrong

I had the honor of speaking recently to the Guild of Charlotte Artists. I prepared a handout, but we ran out of copies, so I promised to post the contents on my blog. Here you go--resources on Perceptual Painting. In this post, I've been able