WEEK # 22 / Three Lemons

Three Lemons

James Aponovich

Oil on canvas, 11" x 18", 2011

When beth and I travel, we always take drawing supplies with us. Pencils, erasers and paper can be easily packed and transported. Oils however are another matter, what with airline restrictions, transporting canvases, easels, solvents and in the end wet paintings. So, on occasion we pack a set of watercolors and a block of paper.

Study: Three Lemons

James Aponovich

Watercolor on paper, 8" x 13", 2009

The watercolor study above was done on one of our "rainy day" sessions. I found these wonderful lemons at an Italian Greengrocer in Panicale (Umbria), and set to work. With the light uncharacteristically coming from right to left, I did my best to control everything.

Now two years later it is time to attempt the oil painting here in New Hampshire. But I cannot find Italian lemons at my local market so I have to make do with ones from California.

YELLOW

If Blue is associated with spirituality and red, passion, then yellow represents the intellect. Technically, yellow is the most difficult color to control. Being the lightest and brightest color it is easily corrupted when shaded, turning a sickly green. Set yellow against black and it becomes its brightest and most luminous. Given that, it is a chore to control the shading and keep these lemons alive.

Francisco de Zurbaran (1598-1664)

Lemons, Orange and Rose

oil on panel

Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena

Spanish still life painters could control the extremes of value and still keep their colors clear.

This painting by Zurbaran is one of the greatest still lifes ever painted.....in my opinion.

2011 copyright James Aponovich

WEEK # 21/ Peonies in a Canton Bowl

Peonies in a Canton Bowl

James Aponovich

oil on panel, 8" x 10", 2011

WHEN A PAINTING IS A STUDY FOR A STUDY

In the hierarchy of 'flowerdom' peonies rank right up there as the most difficult to paint. Delicate yet multi-layered they share with roses a beautiful shape and stunning colors. They transition from a tight ball to an explosive full bloom. Those of us who love them really love them.

So, when I was commissioned to paint a large still life, the client requested, no, insisted on peonies. This small painting is a presentation painting meant to illustrate how the flowers are to be arranged and the colors I would be using.

Peonies from our garden

Next comes the study which I am now working on based on peonies from our peony garden, that we call the "peony walk". The larger study ( which I will post when finished) is full scale, measuring 24" x 26". The commissioned painting is larger yet. Wish me luck.

Study: Japanese Peony Vase in a Niche

James Aponovich

Oil on panel, 11" x 14", 2008

This is a quarter scale study to a pair of paintings inset into a piece of furniture. The Japanese are masters at portraying peonies. This is a painting of a Japanese cloisonne vase in our collection.

For information on the furniture

with the painting of the Japanese Peony Vase in a Niche

click on: David Lamb, Furniture Master

For more on our garden check out the variety of garden postings on:

Aponovich and Johansson At Home and Away

Our garden in featured in the book:

The Inspired Garden

Twenty-Four Artists Share Their Vision

Judy Paolini & Nance Trueworthy

Downeast Books

copyright 2011 James Aponovich

WEEK #20 / HYDRANGEA IN A JAPANESE VASE

Hydrangea in a Japanese Vase

James Aponovich

Oil on canvas, 10" x 8", 2011

We are still on the coast of Maine, slowly making our way back. They call this "gunkholing",

putting in at one port after another. This painting however, began in Blue Hill. I arose early one morning and while my friend Bob was busy painting a watercolor I sketched this flower on a spare canvas I had. Beth and I are now in Cape Porpoise, near Gooserocks. The landscape here is a soft estuary, much different than "downeast". ( see week #19)

BLUE

If red is passion and blood and yellow is clarity and intellect than blue is calming serenity and the spiritual.

Pol, Hermann or Jan Limbourg

May-Day Excursion, "Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry", 1410

Tempera on Vellum, 5" x 8"

Chantilly, Musee Conde

Along with pure gold, blue was the most costly color to use until the 18th Century. It was mainly acquired by grinding the semi-precious stones, azurite and lapis lazuli. When the old Duke of Berry commissioned the Flemish Limbourg Brothers to illustrate his prayer book he spared no expense. Along with lapis lazuli for the blue, malachite was ground to create the beautiful greens that adorn the noble women in this May Day jaunt. Because the book was mainly closed, the colors have remained as pure as when they were painted. That is very rare, many mistaken assumptions of color have been made without taking into account the destructive affects of light and atmosphere on paint.

THE VAULT OF HEAVEN

We call it the sky. Sky blue suggests a certain abstract, remote majesty. It descends from its imperial neighbor, purple which represents immediate, concrete but temporal dominion.

Purple was only for the Emperor's toga, not mine. So blue was passed on to the Queen of Heaven as a symbol of maidenhood. In Christian iconography, Mary's color, one of dignity, spirit, and oddly, wealth.

Fra Filippo Lippi ( 1407-1469)

The Coronation of Mary

Santa Maria Assunta, Choir Apse

Spoleto, Italy

In Southern Umbria, lies the city of Spoleto, now famous for it's festivals and jazz concerts. If you find yourself there, go to Piazza de Liberte, grab a gelato and descend

to the Duomo, Santa Maria Asuunta, to see the most spectacular fresco

by my all time favorite painter / monk / father and overall ladies man, Filippo Lippi.

Here is lapis lazuli, gold leaf, malachite and vermillion all coming together in Lippi's last work. He died here at the age of 63, some say poisoned by enraged family members of a youg woman whom, let us say, he had interest in. He is buried here in the Duomo with this:

Here I, Filippo, the glory of painting, lie buried.

There is none who does not know of the extraordinary grace of my hand

with the fingers of an artist I managed to bring the colors to life

and for a long time to deceive those who hoped to hear them speak

even nature, which had found expression in my figures.

was amazed, and admitted that my art was equal to Hers.

Lorenzo de Medici placed me here in this marble tomb

where before I was covered with common dust.

copyright 2011 James Aponovich

WEEK #19 /" THE DANCE FLOOR", BAKER ISLAND, MAINE

"The Dance Floor", Baker Island, Maine

James Aponovich

Oil on canvas, 14" x 18", 2011

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Sketch: Baker Island, Maine

James Aponovich

Pencil on paper, 7" x 9", 2011

"How to paint the landscape:

First you make your bow to the landscape,

then you wait, and if the landscape bows to you,

then, and only then,

can you paint the landscape"

John Marin

THE PAINTED SKETCH

Granite, spruce, sky, ocean....and the sun relentlessly beating down, my head draped with a shirt like some Bedouin frantically drawing......and the sweat dripping....it is summer off the coast of Maine.

Sometimes the most difficult thing is to make something significant out of the fewest possible ingredients. Boil the perfect egg.

Here I am on the "Dance Floor". The place is Baker Island, off the coast of Mount Desert.

(For more on how I got here go to :

Aponovich and Johansson, At Home and Away , "A Maine Island")

My task is to sketch giant slabs of pink granite that have fractured and have been piled up by eons of repeated "nor'easters", storms of amazing force. The sun is blinding and everything is stripped down to bear essentials. I start drawing, my composition is nothing but diagonals and sharp edges, and all while the clouds build threateningly. Time is limited so I sweat and draw. Captain says it's time to go, storms are approaching. The sky turns black so we return to the boat. Time elapsed? Not nearly enough.

Marsden Hartley

City Point, Vinalhaven, Maine, 1937

Oil on board, 18" x 24"

Hartley painted here, so did Cole, Church, Lane, Haseltine, Richards, Bricher,

Hassam, the Zorachs, the Wyeths and many more. We still come to this place of jagged rock and hard sea, this "wonderful nightmare" that is the coast of Maine.

For further reading and looking:

The Artist's Mount Desert

John Wilmerding

Princeton University Press

Painters of Maine

Carl Little

Downeast Books, Camden, Maine

copyright 2011 James Aponovich

WEEK #18 / PORTRAIT of the ARTIST'S DAUGHTER

Portrait of the Artist's Daughter

James Aponovich

oil on canvas, 7" x 5", 2011

I am primarily known as a still life painter. Although I began my career as a figure painter, the still life and particularly flowers have always held my attention. It is enough to deal with composition, color and dynamic energy, but to throw in human"character", that really complicates everything.

That being said, I have always painted portraits.

I could write a book on the experiences, both good and bad, of dealing with art vs. the human beings perception of themselves.......oy vey!

That is why I most often go to subjects that tend to complain the least,

myself (as in self portraits), and my family; my wife Beth and our daughter Ana. This tiny portrait of Ana began as an example of small scale portraiture. It is a three quarter view of of head and upper torso. She is set against a neutral dark background. I like the stark simplicity of the somewhat off set composition.

Antonio Lopez Garcia

Maria, 1972

Pencil on paper, 27" x 21"

Artists have always used family members as subjects, from Rembrandt's touchingly soulful portraits of his wife and son, to the contemporary Spanish artist,Antonio Lopez Garcia's

hauntingly beautiful portrait of his daughter Maria.

THE SYMBOLIC PORTRAIT

Governor Stephen E. Merrill

James Aponovich

Oil on canvas, 52" x 34", 2003

State House, Concord NH

RESPONSIBLE GOVERNANCE IS SERIOUS BUSINESS

In 2003 I was asked to paint the official portrait of former Governor Stephen E. Merrill

of New Hampshire. I chose to paint not only the Governor himself but also deference to the law and people of New Hampshire.

The composition ascends, at the bottom rests a wooden desk, representing the land of New Hampshire with the state seal. On the desk sits open the rule book of legislative procedure signifying the rule of law upon which the Governor's authority is based. The Governor stands in the posture of reading, but he has just looked up at the viewer, still occupied by his thoughts.

He stands in front of a granite loggia with two vertical columns representing the legislative and the judicial branches of government. The linear energy of his body and the panels ascend vertically to the dome of the State House behind and above his head. His eyes are at the transition between the terrestrial and celestial. Artistically this is risky stuff.

The painting now hangs in the State House and belongs to the people of New Hampshire.

copyright 2011 James Aponovich

WEEK 17 / BLUE HILL, MAINE from SCULPIN POINT

Blue Hill from Sculpin Point

James Aponovich

oil on canvas, 10" x 14", 2011

CHASING EDEN DOWNEAST

After spending weeks preparing paintings for a number of exhibits, Beth and I finally had the opportunity of visiting a part of the world we were very familiar with, Downeast Maine. We were invited to visit our friends Bob & Sylvia for a week.

Some say that Downeast begins after Camden, while others say you must go beyond Naskeag, and still others claim that the true Downeast doesn't begin until you reach Schoodic Point.

But I'll tell you , after five hours driving east, our Downeast begins in the beautiful coastal town of Blue Hill, Maine.

We used to live near here. We owned a summer house overlooking Eggemoggin Reach and Penobscot Bay, so we know the lay of the land ( or ocean).

Fitz Henry Lane

Blue Hill, Maine, 1850

oil on canvas, 20" x30"

Blue Hill sits about half way between the Camden Hills and Mount Desert Island and has always attracted artists and writers. Fitz Henry Lane painted extensively in the area just prior to the Civil War. It has always been an interest of mine to visit the sites where painters of the past have made famous. In New Hampshire the White Mountains attracted painters such as Thomas Cole and John Kensett, but Maine is the painter's paradise.

My painting originated back in the 1990's with a small sketch I did of a dock off Sculpin Point at the mouth of Blue Hill harbor. I was there to paint a portrait but I could not resist sketching what has to be one of the best views of the mountain.

The sketch has been sitting in the studio so I decided to bring a canvas and do a little "plein-air" painting ( something that I do not like to do).

James Aponovich

View of Blue Hill, Maine, 2005

oil on canvas, 36" x48"

Private Collection

This painting is included in the book, Paintings of Maine, by Carl Little

Back in 2005 I returned to Blue Hill to paint this canvas from Parker Point. Last week we walked past this scene while a blanket of fog lay over the bay, it was fantastic. I hope to return soon to paint it. There is usually ample fog.

Fairfield Porter

The Harbor Great Sprucehead, 1974

oil on canvas, 20" x 36"

While Blue Hill is beautiful it was still "the city", we lived "in the sticks." Beth and I loved Eggemoggin Reach and the Islands of Penobscot Bay. While our daughter attended summer camp a few miles down the road, we would explore the area. Believe me, there were no shortage of boats and people eager to have you aboard.

Just past Butter Island and the Barred Islands is Great Sprucehead, the former summer home of Fairfield Porter, a great painter and critic. His painting gives you the feeling of the sun washed bay and broad expansive views.

I still have one more painting to do of Blue Hill then it is off to the grandaddy of them all,

Mount Desert Island and beyond.

If what we seem to say

mostly concerns the weather

we can expect Downeast

where tide and undertow

and variable winds work endlessly together,

it is because our stay

in part,

at least depends

on how opinions mix

in talk that has to do

far more, we've grown to think,

with love than politics.

Samuel French Morse

For more on our trip to Blue Hill click on:

Aponovich and Johansson, At Home and Away

Aponovich paintings copyright 2011 James Aponovich

WEEK #16 / SEACOAST MORNING GLORIES

Seacoast Morning Glories

James Aponovich

oil on canvas, 7" x 5" (oval 5" x 3"), 2011

During the Renaissance the typical Florentine painter's workshop catered to many clients whose demands were quite varied. At the top were the great mural paintings often commissioned by

wealthy merchants and placed in a church or private chapel. Santa Maria Novella, not far from the Florence train station, is a prime example. These elaborate frescos usually required many assistants to complete the job.

Then there was the decoration of private chapels and the living spaces of grand palazzos. Often these areas contained portraits of the merchant, so now we find the emergence of the individual portrait as an important work of art.

The problem was that the artists needed work year round to fill gaps between these large scale commissions,so they painted things like processional banners and shields as well as domestic furniture. A typical piece of painted furniture was a dowry chest called a 'cassone'. Artists also decorated larger cabinets.

About five years ago

I teamed up with a native New Hampshire Furniture Master, David Lamb of Canterbury.

We began to collaborate on fairly large scale pieces of extraordinary furniture

which we dubbed "Lamboviches".

To date we have completed three collaborations and are now beginning our largest piece called

"The White Mountain Breakfront". It is approximately eight feet high and wide and contains several paintings. Aside from the major painting there are four small ovals that are inset into the four lower doors. I have proposed two concepts, one being the four 'elements' of New Hampshire: seacoast, mountains, industry and agriculture. These are each represented by a still life set into an environment.

Illustrated here is the seacoast represented by an export eighteenth century Leeds pitcher filled with deep blue morning glories. The pitcher on a granite base in front of the Atlantic Ocean with the White Island Lighthouse on the horizon off the coast of New Hampshire.

I faux painted mahogany around the oval to simulate the wood that David Lamb will use to create the actual door.

This is a presentation concept so we will have to wait and see if the patrons like it.

I'll keep you informed.

More to come.

copyright 2011 James Aponovich