Grand Venice painted as a small vignette

Though the subject matter is vast and expansive, this painting is tiny. I enjoy the looseness of it. With a painting this size you can't help but be loose! The little gondolier and other people were a challenge, so I resorted to a size 0 brush in some places:

"Grand Venice" Oil on Canvas, 4x5"

The image is about true to size. Painted on a mini gallery wrapped canvas with edges painted a near black (the gondola color). This is offered on its own or with an accompanying mini easel. Additional pictures and info will be added to the website later, but you saw it here first. Please contact me for all the details.  Available to ship this weekend, after my openings Thursday and Friday. Update: just sold! To see the other small works I still have available for sale, please click here and here.

"Lingering Light, Tuscany" miniature oil painting

More "small stuff" today as I continue preparations for Thursday night's gallery anniversary party and the First Fridays Art Walk that follows. This little painting shows the setting Tuscan sun over a sloping grove of olive trees .  There is a companion to this little painting that I'll try to post soon. 

 

 "Lingering Light, Tuscany" Oil on Linen mounted on birchboard Approx. 3.5" x 7.75"

It's an odd size, I know, but I do have a frame for it. It would also look great unframed, just perched on a mini easel.

I am enjoying the long horizontal format I've used in these pieces and in my previous painting of Venice. That's the great thing about making small works--you can experiment with formats and compositions (mediums too) with less sweat, tears, and expense than is sometimes required of a large canvas. And if they don't work out, they fit into the trashbin  a whole lot easier! I think this one's a keeper though. ;-) 

Venice oil painting, "La Città D'Oro"

 

This little painting is of a golden evening along the Grand Canal. It is one of the small works I will feature in my upcoming show, "Small Stuff".

I'm celebrating my first year the gallery, so I'm offering a preview of this exhibition at my anniversary party on Thursday evening, December 6th. Invited guests will enjoy a chance to win a free painting during the event! Contact me if you're in the area and would like to attend the preview. The show officially opens at the gallery on December 7th from 6 to 8:30 PM for the First Fridays Richmond art walk.

Click here or on the image above for more information about this painting.

Fun new mini prints and free shipping!

If you subscribe to my email newsletter, you may already know about the charming new mini prints I'm offering. But if you're exclusively a blog reader, you may or may not have noticed that they're also newly linked here on the blog (scroll down to the end of my sidebar on the right side of the screen.)

These new prints are made on acid free fine art paper with archival inks, and sizes range from very mini 2.5" x 3.5" (such as the one pictured, matted to 5x7") on up to 8" x 10". All are signed and make great holiday gifts. I'm offering these prints via my new Etsy shop for online shopping convenience.

As an added bonus, right now shipping is free one-way in the Continental U.S. for all purchases of $30 USD and over. Customers outside of the continental U.S.A.: You will receive a shipping credit (based on my listed shipping charges) towards your actual shipping costs! (Contact me for a custom shipping quote prior to placing your order.)

By the way, I'm offering the same shipping promotion for any paintings and limited edition prints purchased via my website as well. Click here or just contact me for more information.

"The Terraced Grove, Tuscany"- Watercolor Vignette

Busy day today getting ready for the Thanksgiving holiday, but at 5 PM I've finally managed to find time to post!  Today it's a new Tuscany watercolor. I think I might be getting the hang of this watercolor thing :-).  The vignettes are a great way to work out compositions on a small scale. I may just have to reinterpret this one into a larger oil :

"Terraced Grove, Tuscany" Watercolor/Pen & Ink, 4x6" Contact me for more info!

We're getting ready to take a little Thanksgiving hiatus for a few, so if I don't have a chance to post again before I leave, happy Turkey Day! (Or if you are a veggie like me, happy carb day!)

Landscape painting of Lake Como, Italy

 

"Morning Quiet in Pescallo" Oil on Canvas, 20" x 24"

Fresh off the easel is the painting I blogged about a bit earlier. It shows a view from Bellagio looking down on the tiny fishing village of Pescallo.  This was our morning view from our hotel room balcony. What a way to wake up!

For more information, please click on the image or contact me.

On the Easel- Lake Como Painting

 I thought I'd share a new painting I have up on the easel:

 

 Not sure how much more I'll get done today because I'm getting the studio ready for the First Fridays art walk tonight. If you come out to the gallery on the art walk tonight you'll probably see it on the easel in all it's unfinished glory (along with a number of other paintings that are actually finished and framed :-) .)

 This scene is an aerial view of the little fishing village Pescallo in Lake Como, Italy. It was my view every morning from the balcony of our hotel room in Bellagio (*sigh*). What I'm painting is the village rooftops and  the placid lake with docked boats in early morning. I hope it turns out, because I really loved that scene.

All of this work I've done for the "Luminosity" show, has really helped to get me into painting water scenes. For the longest time I had a fear of water-- not "real" water, just water as subject for my paintings. I don't know why. I guess it was just a mental block or something. So this past summer, I made a point to "just do it" and I really tried to focus on water scenes, especially when I went out painting en plein air.

On another note, I'd like to send a shout of thanks out to artist Boyd Greene for giving me a nod of recognition yesterday on his own fine art blog. I just discovered that I was among the artists he honored with a "Shibumi" award. According to Boyd;

 The ’shibumi’ award was originally created by Hawk and has a deep and profound meaning: ‘Shibumi is a Japanese term which used in the following context is a noun. Its meaning refers to a ‘particular aesthetic of simple, subtle, and unobtrusive beauty� which can be applied to almost anything.’

Thank you Boyd! I truly feel grateful and honored by my fellow artist bloggers this week. :-)

Do you Squidoo? My new lens on hanging artwork.

According to Wikipedia,

"Squidoo is a network of user-generated lenses --single pages that highlights one person's point of view, recommendations, or expertise."

According to me, it's pretty addictive! I've really been enjoying surfing it, and I've also created a couple of lenses of my own. My most recent lens is: Hanging Artwork and Caring for Your Art Collection. While I've blogged some of this information before, I've included new content on my lens that I hope will be of interest to art lovers and art collectors. I've also just updated my other lens on landscape painting with new content, so check them out! And if you enjoy my lenses, please consider leaving a star rating for them at the top of the screen.

Getting ready for tomorrow night's art opening

I'm busy today doing the last minute touches for a show that opens at my Richmond, Virginia studio tomorrow night. Read here for the details. No oil painting in the last couple of days so I thought I'd share a sketch of Venice, from one of my sketchbooks:

"Gondolas Near Piazza San Marco" 6x8", Watercolor & Ink

Bridge of Sighs

Here is a still-wet painting I've just finished of the Bridge of Sighs.

 

Built in the 1600's, the Bridge of Sighs (Il Ponte dei Sospiri) was so named because it connected the inquisition room in the Doge's Palace with the Doge's prison. Crossing over the bridge to their confinement the prisoners would give out one last, yearning sigh as they looked out at beautiful Venice before they went to meet their fate.

A rather sad and poignant story! But a beautiful bridge nonetheless, and one of the many landmarks of Venice. I've gone on a tour of the palace and the prison and it is fascinating.

This painting is 24"h x 18" wide (without the frame). It is oil on canvas, priced at $1200 unframed or $1350 framed. For more information, please contact me.

Villa Balbianello

It's been about a week since I've been back from Key West and I've not had time to unpack and photograph my third painting from that trip, which I shipped back home before I left. Right now, I'm getting ready for a show at the gallery this Friday called "Italian Waterways". This show focuses on recent paintings of Lake Como and Venice. Here is a new painting I did for this series of the Villa Balbianello:

Dave and I took a private boat ride and tour out to the villa in Lenno while we were staying in Bellagio. The villa has had an interesting history. It was built for a cardinal in the 1700's on the grounds of an old monestery. It passed through the hands of several owners since that time; the last of whom was Guido Monzino. Monzino was an explorer and led the first Italian exedition to Mount Everest. Upon his death he bequeathed the villa (and apparently a lot of booty from his explorations) to the National Trust of Italy, which is why people can visit it today.

While the story of the villa is interesting, what fascinates me most are the beautiful grounds and gardens, and it's excellent position on the tip of a peninsula. Apparently it has captivated the imagination of many artists and filmmakers as well. It was the setting for several films, including Star Wars Episode II.

Any way, back to the painting! It measures 24x36" and is oil on canvas. For more information about this painting, please click on the painting or contact me.

Long Shadows on the Villa

I have been under the weather and it has been too long since I have blogged. But I'm finally back to painting again and it feels good! This is a painting fresh off the easel of beautiful Lake Como. This was one of the views from our hotel balcony.

 

The painting measures 30x40" and is oil on canvas. I did watercolor sketches of our views and took many pictures. But I also spent a good deal of time just sighing and looking and drinking it all in. Every evening the light differed and provided me with a slightly different spectacle.

For more information about this painting, please click on the image or contact me.

A Boat Ride in Como

Continuing on with my Lake Como series, here is a newly finished 16x20" oil painting inspired by our recent trip to Lake Como, Italy.

 

One day during our visit we decided to splurge with a private boat ride around the lake and a tour of the beautiful Villa Balbianello. On our way to the villa, the driver indulged us by stopping often so that we could drink in the sites and take plenty of photos.

For more information about this painting, please contact me.

Bellagio Vignette

With this cold February weather, I naturally long for warm, sundrenched places. So lately I've found myself pouring through sketches and photos from our last trip to beautiful Lake Como. This is a little watercolor/pen and ink sketch I did from the balcony of our hotel in the lovely lake town of Bellagio:

We had great mountain views on three sides. This brings back some warm, sunny memories for me, painting and listening to the water lapping on the lake shores below. The image size is about 6x8", done on 7x9" paper. For more information about this painting, please contact me.

A View From the Villa

Today's painting is a view looking out over Lake Como from the grounds of Villa Balbianello. Villa Balbianello is located in Lenno at the far end of the Lavedo peninsula. This position gives it the most lovely views from several sides of the property.

This painting measures 6x6 inches. It is done on a gallery wrapped canvas, and the edges are finished off in deep blue/gray color that compliments the painting.

 For more information about this painting, please click on the image or contact me.

A Walk in Varenna

Here is a new painting of the walkway along the grounds of the Villa Monestero in Varenna:

 

Even when it's 30 degrees outside here in Virginia, painting gives me the luxury of transporting myself back to a beautiful warm spring day on beautiful Lake Como in Italy!  This oil painting measures 36"h x 24" wide. For purchasing information, please contact me.

Verdant Hills

Here is today's newly completed painting:

 

Southern Tuscany has the most beautiful sloping and undulating hills. They are made even more striking, I think, by the winding roads (referred to as the "white roads") and cypresses that punctuate the landscape. As you can see by the field of sunflowers, this is a scene at the height of summer. This oil painting measures 20x24". For more information, please contact me.

Il Villaggio Piccolo

This is a painting of one of the small villages I saw while traveling throughout the area of southern Tuscany. I am not even sure if it could be called a "village". It was more a small grouping of houses plopped in the hillsides of the region called La Crete. The painting measures 24x30".

Silver and Gold

Here is another painting of Tuscan olive groves. I call it "Silver and Gold" because of the silvery leaves of the olive trees, contrasted by what I believe is golden broom in the foreground. This is a gallery wrapped painting measuring 24x30":

 

I've been moving my computer, phone and painting gear into the new studio space  over the past couple of weeks. I've had First Friday openings here monthly, but until today I was still working out of the old space. Being more or less in one location should help me to be a lot more productive in the coming weeks!

I should be able to get a better photo in a day or two and at that point I'll post the painting on my website. In the meantime, please contact me at the link below if you would like more information about this piece.

New Gallery Photos

I thought I'd post some photos of the new gallery space, which officialy opened last Friday night. We were swamped the entire night so I did not get ONE picture of the actual event! It turned out well--hectic but fun. We're both still recovering from total exhaustion, but at least we made it through "phase one". Phase two is still to come--moving my art studio part into the building. We hope to have that accomplished by mid January at the latest. Front room:

This is the wall to the right as you walk in the front door. The flowers on the table are from our new landlord!

This is the left wall of the same room--A great spot for the paintings in my mini collection:

This is a view of the right hand wall as you continue on into the middle room.

Here's a shot of the same wall looking back into the front room:

Here is the opposite wall in the second room. The picture to the far left is an original oil painting of Tuscany. The pictures to the right are canvas prints on the walls, and paper prints in the rack. People were amazed at the quality of the canvas prints, which looked so much like paintings that I had to tell them they were prints and not originals.

   

Heading out from the 2nd room and into the third room. This is where the band played opening night:

Rounding the corner into this third room, here is my wall of Key West paintings:

   

   I had these paintings framed differently from the usual gold because I felt like the solid gold was too formal for this subject matter. I like the linen liner and the platinum colored frame with the bamboo motif for these sunny Key West pieces.

   This last room will undergo some changes. The front two rooms with the hardwood floors will remain gallery space, but we'll use this area more for work space (to be determined), though we'll still hang some art here. Down that hallway is a fourth small room and a bathroom with a utility sink.

   Jennifer Young Studio & Gallery is located at 16 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA, 23219. Currently we are open from 6 to 9 p.m. during the First Fridays Art walks, and other times by appointment. Please call 804-254-1008 (1-877-DIAL-ART toll free) to visit the gallery or to inquire about the paintings you see on the website.