Love and death, and painting.

For some reason, I was thinking recently about the paintings that I’ve looooved for years, the paintings that grabbed my attention as a youth and really stuck with me – sometimes to the point of making a special pilgrimage to see them in person. The leading ones are the three below… and I only just realized, upon collecting these images, what a seriously gruesome group of paintings this makes. Am I really that morbid? Yikes.

David Holding the Head of Goliath, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, oil on canvas, 1610, 49”x40” (at the Galleria Borghese)

La Mort de Marat (The Death of Marat), Jacques-Louis David, oil on canvas, 1793, 64”x50” (at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels)

Ophelia, John Everett Millais, oil on canvas, 1851-1852, oil on canvas, 30”x44” (at the Tate Britain in London)

For those who are keeping track, that's a body count of three (although I guess there's no actual Goliath body in the Caravaggio one, is there? So maybe that one doesn't count...?).

Boy, I was a weird kid.

Mindblown.

Okay, Internets. Are you ready? I have to share with you something that blew my mind the other day when I saw it at this link:

Richard (detail), oil on canvas, 28"x26", work in-progress (as of 2/1/11) by artist Jacob Collins 

For real, it blew my mind. Jacob Collins has serious painting chops. If you have any interest in studying with this guy, get your butt down to the Grand Central Academy of Art, post-haste. 

Sigh. Back to the easel.



Narcissiste!

When I was showing some of these paintings in Paris back in 2005, a French man came through the show, came up to me, and said "Narcissiste!" It was a comment on the fact that all of the paintings were paintings of myself (well, yes! I'm a cheap and readily available model), which apparently was the leading symptom in the diagnosis. So, now that we've established that I'm a raging narcissist, let's talk some more about me, shall we? More specifically, a recent acquisition of a painting of me by another artist - woot!

Maine artist David Graeme Baker was in the city this weekend for a show at Artists' House Gallery here in Philadelphia. I am super-pleased to share with you a painting of me by David from waaaaay back 15 years ago, done in 1996 and featuring some vintage Diane:

Diane Rollins, oil on panel, 1996 by David Graeme Baker



Yay! It was good to see it again. And by the way, if you haven't checked out David's work at Artists' House Gallery,you should do so this month! You can also find his stuff in NYC at Gallery Henoch, or in Maine at Courthouse Gallery.

But wait, there's more! I'm not done gushing about other artists' paintings of meeeeee... Philadelphia artist Alexandra Tyng recently completed this painting, which I absolutely luuuuuurve:

Vision to Hand, oil on canvas, 36"x26", by Alexandra Tyng

This painting was done in the wake of the Women Painting Women expedition to Charleston, SC last November... which is where this sketch of me was done by Arizona artist Linda Tracey Brandon:

Sketch of me by Linda Tracey Brandon

And I know I've posted these before, but let's revisit these other works of me by awesome friends/artists:

Diane with Kitten, oil on panel, 20" x 16", by Alia El-Bermani

And this:

Pastel painting by Philadelphia artist Scott Noel

I know I'm being silly about the whole narcissism thing... maybe. But really, I'm super-honored to have sat for all of the above excellent artists, and find it really fun to see the various interpretations of my Self by other artists. Cooool.

And, since it's all about ME, I'll throw in a recent sketch of ME by ME :

sketch: leaving California, 2011, oil on linen, 10"x8", by ME.

Haha. Enough about me. So, do you want to paint me? Let's talk about that.

Charleston revisited.

Hey, I keep forgetting to post a video which was created by Charleston Today back when we were on the Women Painting Women expedition in Charleston last November... whoever shot the video of painters painting in the Charleston Fine Art Dealers Association's Painting in the Park event that chilly Saturday caught a couple of us Women Painting Women painters, including myself, Shannon Runquist, and Katherine Stone. They captured me at different stages of creating this painting, take a look at the following link:

Charleston Art Today video

Cold weather = staying indoors and painting.

What better way to spend the long winter months than hunkered indoors inhaling paint fumes? Right? Of course. Here are some paint sketches I've done over the past month, in addition to working on some commissioned paintings and some projects of my own:

sketch: jl, pink kimono, 2010, oil on paper



sketch: jw, kimono, 2011, oil on canvas panel



The following are a couple of sketches I did back when the weather was still condusive to outdoor painting:

quick color sketch of a tree in Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, SC (from November, actually)

sketch: bridge in Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, SC

More soon once I have some better photos of what I've been working on!

Eye sketch.

Here's one of many recent paint sketches I've done:

eye (m.b.), oil on panel, 2010, 8"x8"

Christmas commission.

Hey! I've been busy painting and such - one thing I was working on before the Christmas holiday was a commissioned painting of a sweet little dog - here it is:

Millie, oil on panel, 14"x11", 2010

More soon!