"Wine & Roses"
"Tulips In Alcove"
"Symmetry"
"Paris Cafe"
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A visit to a lovely vineyard, One great bottle of wine, Two glasses, And a bouquet of roses... Ahhh...romance My inspiration: Old world style… a beautiful old building… rustic, plaster walls… and in the alcove, a grand arrangement of tulips I am drawn to very textural and variegated backgrounds in my paintings. This canvas was one of the first large pieces I have painted, and I wanted it to encompass what was developing into my own signature style. “Symmetry” was about creating a contemporary painting that was balanced, while at the same time giving each individual square its own individual textural quality. I wanted to paint an architectural piece, so I “embarked” on several video and photographic tours of Europe. I loosely based this painting on a photograph I found of Place des Vosges in Paris. I often complete the backgrounds of my canvases first,as was the case with this piece. It became a major influence to the overall look of the piece giving the appearance of the beautiful light of a sunset. I chose to paint the building in a linear fashion, focusing on the glow of light and
darkened shadows of dusk falling on the Paris Café. I painted the background of this piece first, and then placed the painting on my easel while I decided what it would become. One night I looked over, and in the background I saw what looked like the outline of a woman’s eye. I went over to the canvas, painted in the eyes, and then the face. The background organically revealed the shape of her dress, and the light colors in the center suggested a mirror. The dressing table came next, and then the perfume bottles, and “Vanity Mirror” was complete. In August of 2011, the Magnet Open Art Project Exhibition was held in Concord, N.H. Artists from all over the world submitted a single piece of artwork which was printed on a miniature magnet. The magnets were displayed in varying locations around the state, as well as on salvaged refrigerator doors up & down Main Street in Concord. I decided to paint something really light and airy, while staying true to using a textural background. Keeping the flowers a bright white gave the paintings a “pop” of light. I used both dark and light tones to create the illusion of a “frame” on the canvases. I wanted for a long time to paint a series of herbs, and was excited to find images in full bloom. I painted the background of each 4 x 4 panel with its own distinctive textural background, and thenI added the herbs. Each canvas is labeled with the name of each herb on the back . This series is mounted on Plexiglas for hanging as a single unit; each canvas has also been fitted with a saw tooth hanger to hang them individually. I designed and painted “Centerpiece”, in admiration of all of those immense, beautiful arrangements that I have seen, but cannot keep in my home, because our cat knocks over vases eat the flowers, and then drinks the water. I painted both canvases with tiles equal in size and shape; each tile has a distinctive variegated background. To unify the set, I used like colors on both canvases, and I painted the leaves and tree all black for a more contemporary feel This painting is reminiscent of a necklace I have had for years. A gold filigree leaf with the fine lines of the veins, surrounded by the outline of a leaf. It hangs from a simple gold chain. I painted this cluster of foliage revealing the background beneath: the winter white of sky, side by side with the beautiful golden and red colors of fall. Recently I saw a necklace just like mine modeled by a famous actress. Sometimes things never go out of style. I spend a lot of time taking photographs to inspire new paintings. This painting was created from a photograph of a gerber daisy in my garden. Painting the canvas a dramatic black created a nice contrast to the color of the daisy. This is a custom printed canvas which came from my original acrylic painting “Authentic Abstract”. When photographing this painting for my portfolio, the flash reacted with the gold paint. I loved the "lights" of blue, red & white that it created. I had this section of the image enlarged and printed on canvas, which I hand-stretched onto a solid wood frame. It reminds me of a beautiful, starry night and the Milky Way. I wanted to paint something with a summer theme, in light, airy colors. I wanted it to remind the viewer of the beach, and nice, warm sunshine. The waterlily on this painting is very textural, and I painted it in multiple layers of pink, blue & purple to give it a funky quality. The name of the painting came from my mother. Every time she would paint something in our house (walls, cupboards, etc...) a new color, and we would ask what color it was, she would reply, "Sky Blue Pink". In other words...no clue. This is an abstract that I created using only hues of pink, blue and white. Staring at the sky on a hot summer day at the beach... Visions of driving down the highway in a blizzard alongside a field with trees. Just because of the Fourth of July... |
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All artwork is the sole intellectual property of Cathy Steele/Cally Marie Designs and cannot be duplicated or reproduced in any manner.
Cathy Steele Art - Cally Marie Designs
For information on purchasing original artwork, please contact Cathy directly at 603-703-1764 or cathy@cathysteeleart.com
