Lost in Tivoli

I was all smiles when touring Hadrian's Villa with a group of 120 of my closest friends in Tivoli, Italy.

Then while admiring the beauty, I wondered off to examine the architecture in full detail. The next thing that I knew I had been seperated from my group and lost for an hour. This photo was taken during that time:

As I continue to work on my new series, I thought of my time spent here and the many years that I have lectured about this site and decided to go for it:

Miami Anyone?

I like Miami and have enjoyed the various films and shows that have been based out of this wonderful city...everyone has a favorite. I fancy the unrealistic, yet entertaining Burn Notice. Then there are the highly successful sports franchises as well. Right now, I'm thinking of the Miami heat, not the team-the temperature right now HERE, in our Nation's Capital!  I am thinking that I need to capture the record heat/90 degree days that we have experienced in the past 30 days; we'll see what's next!

New Painting and a question...

Yesterday was a banner day. Finished this painting of the Key Bridge and worked on 2 others. Question though, does this need a Visi crew boat added to make it complete?

Abstract Cities

I was commissioned to create a painting of San Francisco and it took me quite some time to get to it. The very patient patron was so pleased with the work when it was presented that I decided to get going on a series of work that represent a glimpse of cities.

 

Photography

Photography has always been my first love. I got my first camera, a Canon AE-1, when I was 14 years old. I will photograph anything, the whole world around me-like Degas who was referred to as “the observer of the modern world”.   For the first time, I will include my photographs in my show.

Underwater Series

For my son’s room I created an oversized underwater painting and it was a new experience for me having never painted sea life before. It took me an entire day to paint the turtles and four hours to paint a single fish.


I was able to use that experience a year later when I worked with The Decorating Committee at My kids' school. My friends and fellow artists on that committee inspired me to create a couple of murals. One of the murals (over 10 feet) was painted during the historical snow event of 2010, or as people named it ‘Snowmygoodness’ and so on. This was a great way for me to start painting again on a regular basis which I had not been doing. Thanks team!

 
 
 
 
 
 

Kids Collection

When I began to decorate my own children’s rooms, I designed them by themes because I wanted their rooms to be filled with original artwork. So I created a few pieces and once a some parents saw their rooms, I was overwhelmed with commissions. I’m still waiting for Pottery Barn to contact me!

 

 

Still Life

I love still-life and push it on my students in the way of observation works A LOT. One of my favorite artists in Paul Cezanne though I do not attempt to paint in the same vein as ‘the father of modern art’. When I began this series I needed to view actual fruit so I ventured out to the grocery store and bought one of each piece of fruit to paint…you should have seen the look on the face of cashier, it was the “seriously?!” face.

Imaginary Landscapes

One June before we broke for summer vacation, Sister Anne-Marie asked what I would be doing for the summer and I responded with “painting, of course” and she remarked with “you know, you should really try watercolors, only real artists can master them.” I took that as a challenge and created a series inspired by landscapes from Asia. One of my favorite spaces is the Asian garden at The Metropolitan Museum in New York. The piece that I created based on that is owned by Tom Joyner, who I had the opportunity to meet at a White House correspondence dinner.

Portraits

I began painting self-portraits the year that I moved to California. It was the year that my father died and I had quite a bit to contemplate and self-reflection was a big focus. I had never been one for portraits and though I was proud of my work, a lot of people thought that my self-portraits were portraits of my sister…at least there is a family resemblance. I enjoyed the freedom of embellishing and taking liberties, for instance-my skin was always blemish-free, my hair a tad longer and so on.

Truth Denied

This work is modeled after a sculpture by the artist Dou. I created it in anticipation for my first art show when I returned to D.C. after leaving California. My apartment was filled with art and my committee of critics: my sister, brother-in-law, and 2 best friends were over. I didn’t particularly care for the work, it didn’t turn out exactly as I had anticipated and I had it facing the wall, not intending on showing it anyone. My team of critics/connoisseurs insisted that I show it and I did so with great reluctance. As it turns out, people were fighting over this piece. Someone bought it and another person tried to buy it from them. So now, I have a team of friends, some well-versed in art others not so much come by to provide feedback prior to each show.

Abtracts

I remember being at an art show and a guy approached me as I stood before one of my paintings and (trying to impress me with his vast knowledge of art?) stated: “these modern painters I just don’t get-I could paint that”. He didn’t know that it was my art show so I replied with “this painting is about a failed relationship that ended abruptly and the brushstrokes at the top (beginning of relationship) are smooth and near the middle the strokes show waves/rough strokes that represent chaos, then everything goes black”. He was blown away to learn that there was some meaning to the work. I then extended my hand and said “Kelli Duvall, pleasure meeting you”-his jaw dropped, it was priceless! I share that story with my freshmen every year when we discuss the work of Abstract Expressionists and they find it amusing (or pretend to). How great is it that there is now a series of postage stamps of Abstract Expressionists

     

First Post

The Space Frame:


Made of balsa wood, I had to hold and glue each piece together…tedious/time consuming-yes! I created this while I was studying architecture in Detroit. It was for a project and I built this model over a couple of days and nights. After cutting all of those pieces of balsa wood with an Exacto knife, one of my fingers had gone num. The original hung in the school of architecture and was bumped & destroyed. Many years later I created another one.