"Secret Garden" Colorful Courtyard ... Happy Father's Day

"Secret Garden," oil, 16"h x 12"w, ©2016 Jill Banks

Today's post is the finished version of a plein air study that I intend to develop into a larger work in the studio. Looking back at my week's work, almost all the pieces are saturated with color to a degree well past my quite colorful norm. The light turns every corner of the place into a vivid, color-drenched scene.

"Secret Garden" is based at the Pacific House in downtown Monterey.  Young kids were at camp in the courtyard learning about Mexican customs and at the moments depicted, they were testing out a historical snack of some sort. I was too engrossed on capturing them before they exited to find out much more. One of their camp counselors said the kids kept asking her if she thought I was painting them ... to which she answered "of course not ... She's painting the flowers."

I'd painted here in the Pacific House courtyard last year but wasn't able to finish. The dappled light enchants but is a bear to paint. I'm going to keep at it because it conveys the place, its intense glow ... so well.

"Coast of Santa Cristina, Lloret de Mar" by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida

These colorful days and the subjects of "Secret Garden" kept artist Joaquin Sorolla's work foremost in my thoughts. His piece shown above could easily have been painted here. There are better examples out there of his paintings in gardens. I'll look for hints from those works in approaching my larger piece born from "Secret Garden" and the hours spent at Pacific House.

Yesterday I painted the chapel at the Presidio in Monterey ... for hours and hours. It was a funny day with flatter light than the blue-skied ones that preceded it. Still, I took lots of mental notes of those moments that the yellows and oranges drew the sun onto the chapel's facade. You'll see it sometime soon.

Happy Father's Day!
It seems fitting that the day's post is of a garden ... in honor of Father's Day. Happy Father's Day, Dad ... who kept each of our homes (as a kid and then for my family) surrounded by flowers and gardens that greeted us each day.  What a beautiful gift!!! (One of SO many.)

May you celebrate the great Dads in your life this Sunday.


See more of the paintings (please) from California and other spots in the Places Gallery on my web site.

I plan on showing my California pieces in Virginia sometime soon.

Thank you for reading!

Jill

Phone: 703.403.7435

Email: jill@jillbanks.com
Web: www.JillBanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com

EVENTS

May through December:  First Friday Art Walk, 6-9pm, Artists' Atelier, 756 Walker Road, Great Falls, VA. The Atelier is also open on Wednesdays, noon to 4pm and Saturdays, 10am to 2pm (or whenever an artist is in there working.)

June 21-August 15: "Flowers and Such: the Still Life Show" Solo Exhibit, Triny's, Great Falls, VA.  14 of my original still life oil paintings on exhibit in Great Falls.

July 9-10: Wickford Fine Art Festival, Wickford Historic Village in North Kingstowne, RI.

August 27-28: Shadyside: the Art Festival on Walnut Street, Pittsburgh, PA

September 17-18: King Street Art Festival, Alexandria, VA

September 24-25: Armonk 55th Annual Outdoor Art Show, Armonk, NY

Learning from a Master

Fellow travelers from the Art League at the Hispanic Society of America in NYC in front of one of Sorolla's mural. Doesn't it look like we fit right into the scene? What's another 29 portraits? Photo courtesy of Susan O'Neill

I've mentioned before that Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (Spanish, 1863-1923) is my favorite painter and how his murals of the Provinces of Spain at the Hispanic Society of America in NYC simply amazed me.  (Read more about that trip on this previous post.) I'd taken photos on the trip just a few weeks ago with Rob Liberace and a group from the Art League but since the murals soared overhead, my images were distorted.  Today, I wanted to paint a portion of his mural of Valencia and went looking online for a source of high res images.

And found it.

The Media Center for Art History at Columbia University has a resource: A Collection in Context: The Hispanic Society of America where you can tour the museum online, enter each room and in the case of the murals, click on each one for info and to access a high res image. Voila!!! I can visit whenever from the comfort of my studio.

Get started here:
http://learn.columbia.edu/hispanic/monographs/sorolla-spain.php

Then I clicked on the heading "A Collection in Context: The Hispanic Society of America" to come to this page: http://learn.columbia.edu/hispanic/
There you see a photo of the ground level of the museum.
Then you see the floor plans for the first floor and second floor on the right side.

Click on the first floor, the room will show the sweeping blue arc. You can move that around in a circle to see all the murals. 

That's it.  Enjoy! I'll get around to showing my copy of his Valencia painting sometime soon.

Take a look at the Classes page too for Spring registration going on now.

Time to post.

Thanks for reading!

Jill

Phone: 703.403.7435
Email: jill@jillbanks.com
Web: www.JillBanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com

Subscribe to my Email Newsletter: News from the Easel

See the Events page for more info/updates

April 10 to May 1: Women Painters of the Southeast Juried Exhibition, Blue Ridge, GA

May 2 & 3: A-RTS @ Rockville Town Square, Rockville, MD

May 12-16:  Wayne Plein Air, Wayne and Philadelphia, PA. Juried as one of 30 artists nationwide to paint the area.

May 30-31: Art on the Green and Paint Great Falls, Outdoor Art Show (under a tent) and plein air competition and exhibit, Great Falls, VA

June 5-7: Rittenhouse Square: The Original Art Show, Philadelphia, PA. 

June 18-21: VA Beach Boardwalk Art Show, Virginia Beach, VA. Visit my booth right on the boardwalk.

June 29-July 5: Telluride Plein Air, Telluride, CO.  Juried as one of 32 artists who will spend the week painting this very cool town lined with Victorian houses, bustling street against a gorgeous mountainous backdrop.

July 11-12: Wickford Art Festival, Wickford, RI.

December 3-6: One Of A Kind Show & Sale, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL

New York City Visit: Sorolla and Scene from Central Park

As planned, I visited New York for a very quick trip. Randy and I drove up Sunday early in time to visit the Hispanic Society of America located near Harlem. The Hispanic Society is home to Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida's (1863-1923) Vision of Spain murals ... as well as other Sorolla paintings and works by El Greco, Velasquez, Fortuny and Goya. What's compelling to me about Sorolla (he's my favorite painter) are his colors (vivid, strong, yet the values hold together in both the light and shadows), his bravura (bold brushstrokes and compositions) and his humanity. He obviously has a great love for his subjects. It shows.

The Hispanic Society of America houses the largest (finest) collection of Spanish art outside of Spain and Latin America. It's worth a visit. The exhibit is permanently housed in New York City.

This visit we hung out a good deal in Central Park ... a spot I decided to explore through paintings and drawings. I set up an easel on Sunday and painted a scene. It actually was daunting because there are just literally hordes of people everywhere. I'm pretty accustomed to having people watch me paint, but some came and visited me before I put the first brushstroke down. I spent quite a while (a few hours) on just one little painting. Another time I'd like to do a number of small, quick studies though I find it difficult to move on and hanging out in one spot made the place familiar to me. It becomes my corner, my memory. The reason I might want to do many small studies is there was so much vibrant life there ... so much I'd be interested in capturing.

I didn't know much about Central Park. I visited there when I was in Junior High (at Cold Spring Harbor High School: a combined Junior/High School on Long Island). That was a long, long time ago. The Park is unbelievable. A park super sized.

This drawing is one of a few I worked on yesterday ... of the Carousel in Central Park. While you can't see the horses going round, you do get a glimpse of the parents hanging out and taking photos of their tots.

"Central Park Carousel", ink wash, pen&ink and pencil on Zecchi's paper (from Florence), 6.5"h x 9"w, copyright Jill Banks 2010.

Below: Detail of Sorolla's Vision of Spain mural. These are HUGE and beautiful. Lots to learn from them.

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435