Aspect of Love

This weekend, on the 11th May "The Language of Flowers" group exhibition starts at Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco. So excited to be part of this show with so many other amazing, and talented artists!

Below, is my piece titled "Aspects of Love" acrylic on gesso board, 8x10" (9.5 x 11.5" framed).

Aspects of Love – work in progress

My first group show is coming up shortly on the 11th May ay Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco. It's called the "Language of Flowers" and is all about using flowers to communicate little hidden messages. I was immediately drawn to this concept as I have already been using flora a lot to express  feelings and emotions. I focused on all the flowers that meant different types of love. Here's an explanation on the history of floriography followed by my work in progress on this piece:

The language of flowers, sometimes called floriography, was a Victorian-era means of communication in which various flowers and floral arrangements were used to send coded messages, allowing individuals to express feelings which otherwise could not be spoken. This language was most commonly communicated through tussie-mussies (small flower bouquets), an art which has a following today. In addition to floriography, Hanakotoba (花言葉) is the Japanese form of the language of flowers. In this practice plants were given codes and passwords, meant to convey emotion and communicate directly to each other without needing the use of words.

To look up the meanings of certain flowers here's a link:   
Floriography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_flowers

Exciting May Group shows

I have a couple of group shows that I will be appearing in, in the month of May!

The first is "The Language of Flowers" group show that kicks off on May 11 at Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco. The line up of artists is amazing, and I'm truly humble to show my work alongside these guys. Can't wait to see the final paintings. If you are interested in the preview listing, I recommend you contact the gallery. More details below:

The other show I have 2 paintings in is the "Art of Cirque du Soleil" in Brisbane, courtesy of 19Karen Gallery and The Gold Coast Sofitel. I will post the final pieces framed as the date gets closer!

A little bit of catching up to do

Hmm, it seems I've let things go by without blogging all the things I've been working on currently.

I've been trying out the silver leaf this time round, palladium to be exact. I've used it in a couple of pieces recently that you will see below. These are for my 'Petite la lune' series that compliment the main series. I particularly liked working on the eye paintings and feel I could expand on this idea at a later date. I'm getting better with ever eye I paint.

Here are some work in progress shots of "Deadly Nightshade' followed by 'Inner Reflection' and 'Reflection'. For the final pieces, you can see better images on my newly updated website!

'Deadly Nightshade' acrylic on gesso board, 8 x8"

'Inner Reflection' and 'Reflection' acrylic and palladium on gesso board, 5 x 5"

I've also completed a larger piece using the palladium in order to create a halo/ silver moon.

Acquiescence

"Phases de la lune"

acrylic and palladium on gesso board, 2013

11 x 14 inches, 27.9 x 35.6 cm

 That's it for now! I am currently working of a piece for a group show in May at Modern Eden gallery, so I have to get a move on with that. Lots of flowers to paint!

If you want to see more work in progress shots I post a lot more frequently on instagram. You can find me under the name melissajhartley

New limited edition prints available

I have just added another 2 prints "Audrey" and Overwhelmed" to my etsy store. These are limited edition and I am only making 20 of them available, so once they are gone, that's it, there will be no more produced!

They are all signed and numbered by me and all come with a Certificate of Authenticity. The print is 180 x 230mm with a white border. It is a giclée print using pigment dye inks on 350gsm "Museum etching" archival paper.

You can find them on my etsy site here

Candy colours and deadly nightshades

Have loved working on this piece, with all it's candy like colours, or candy floss hair as I've decided to call it. Which was actually inspired by a girl I saw that had very similar hair, and thought it would be beautiful to paint.

Have been quite happy with the progress of this one and have enjoyed immensely painting the deadly nightshade creep up around her. Here are some progress shots.

Ode to Joy, limited edition prints

I have just recently made available prints of my painting "Ode to Joy". It's an edition limited to 20 prints for purchase here.