ARE WE THERE YET? ( week10)

STILL LIFE WITH THREE GROUPS OF FLOWERS

James Aponovich

R.I.P.

( week 10 )

ARE WE THERE YET?

"It ain't over 'til it's over."

-Y. Berra

Still Life with Three Groups of Flowers

James Aponovich

oil on canvas, 40"x 52"

......It's over.

But wait........something new next week!

PAINTING IN PERSPECTIVE ( week 8)

P. I. P.

PAINTING IN PERSPECTIVE

STILL LIFE WITH THREE GROUPS OF FLOWERS

James Aponovich

LOST IN SPACE, AGAIN

week 8

So far I have been dealing with the arrangement of things ( composition) on

a flat 2 Dimensional basis. 3 horizontals and 4 verticals. There is another, 

perhaps more important element I must confront....Space, or what

is called Aerial Perspective.

Self Portrait ( in -progress)

James Aponovich

oil on canvas

"Isn't he already dead?"

You see, I paint in a very traditional manner, based on the principles

of the Italian 15th Century...So there's not a large support group

for me... Lone Wolf Club.

Montalcino (Tuscany)

Usually a painter ( particularly a landscape painter), must deal

with Depth of Field in three distinct sections:

Foreground 

Middle Ground

Distant Ground

Panicale ( Umbria)

"Listen Buddy, Between you and me, there ain't much Middle

Ground here."

Typically, Middle Ground is the most challenging because 

it's all about transitions. It bridges what is closest to you ( Foreground),

and what's most distant ( Distant Ground). It's the in between

that is such a headache.

Detail with Lake Trasimeno ( Middle Ground)

The still life is up front and in your face, and what there is of Middle Ground

is minimal.....some peek-a-boo glimpses of the lake and Val di Chiana.

So to create a whole new zone...

I have introduced the Imaginary Space of the Viewer...

sound confusing?

The vase is black glass.....Welcome to my world.

There I am with palette looking at the painting. 

Elizabeth is also in the room, arranging flowers....

Kinda wierd

Still Life with Three Groups of Flowers {in- progress}

James Aponovich

oil on canvas

Next week.....Sweatin' the Details

P.I.P. PAINTING IN PERPETUITY ( week 6)

STILL LIFE WITH THREE GROUPS OF FLOWERS
( And even more stuff)

Painting In Progress
week 6

JAMES APONOVICH

" Oh, It' you again"

Remember that old cartoon of a prisoner scratching six lines on the
cell wall and the seventh line through them.... One week down...
Let's just say the bloom is starting to fade with this painting.
'Chained to the easel', all day, everyday.



" Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end, 
but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
-Winston Churchill 



IT'S A MATTER OF VALUE

So far I have been thinking a lot about color and it's effects,
but value ( light /dark) comes with it and it's starting to raise its head.

To counter the brilliance of the yellow ( light), I have introduced
another cloth underneath which is blue (dark). So, as the yellow can
soar to great heights, blue can descend to almost black. There is a
reason ( I think) for all that pattern, but I will get to that later.          

As deep in value as blue is, it can also ascend to be light and
celestial. Blue can move around quite a bit, but yellow
doesn't want to.

So, aside from some final fussing, the bottom third of the painting
is finished, like a massive chord of music...full and rich.
Now, I must try and compose the melody with the ever-present 'stuff'.
....It is a Still Life after all.

Still Life with Three Groups of Flowers ( in -progress)
James Aponovich
oil on canvas, 40"x 52"




Until Next Week.....................

P.I.P. Painting in Purgatory.....week 5 / Painting in Progress

STILL LIFE WITH THREE GROUPS OF FLOWERS

(and Lots of Cloth)

Painting-In-Progress

James Aponovich

DEEP IN THE WEEDS

This week has been the week of never-ending fabric.....

Everyday, all day .

Cloth Before 

Cloth After

YELLOW

THE CELESTIAL COLOR

In Ancient China if you as a Commoner dared wear yellow you could be rewarded by

having your head cut off, immediately. It is Heaven's color and only

The Emperor was allowed to wear it. So it's best not to add it to your wardrobe.

Yellow is very difficult to control. It rises to the most brilliant light

and it sinks to a muddy dark mess. No other color is as hard to handle.

You know a beautiful yellow when you see it, and a bad yellow screams.

So, with all this yellow on my hands I turn to it's opposite, violet

for some counter balance. And since the yellow wants to go green, 

I must choose red-violet.

Still Life with Three Groups of Flowers ( in-progress)

James Aponovich

oil on canvas, 40" x 52"

Until next week................

copyright 2019 James Aponovich

all rights reserved

P.T.P. / PAST THE POINT OF NO RETURN... week 4

STILL LIFE WITH THREE GROUPS OF FLOWERS ( and stuff)
James Aponovich

PAINTING IN PROGRESS
week 4

Before

After


It's Halftime but no break here. The canvas is covered with paint.
All the elements are at least sketched in, others further along.
At this point....

 "It is what it is."
- B. Belichick

This week I will paint the cloth in...not so easy...the 'fun' part is over.

Town sketched


The landscape is just emerging. It's Italy for sure, but more of
a composite of various places that have played an influential role
in my life; Val D'Orcia, the Tuscan Garfangnana, and of course, our
home, Umbria.

Town finished

My fanciful take on 'Our Town', Panicale, overlooking
Lake Trasimeno.

Looks like the Wolfman ( Goethe) was right with the Primary Chord
of yellow (cloth), blue (vase), and red (raspberries)
balanced by green.
Red tends to want to be the Schoolyard Bully so it's best to
use it sparingly. It has quite a punch, a little goes a long way.

Still Life with Three Groups of Flowers ( in progress)
James Aponovich
oil on canvas




Until next week......

A LITTLE BALCONY with A GRAND VIEW {Panicale}

The hill town of Panicale rises above the flat plain that once was the bottom of Lake Trasimeno  but now is  a green productive agricultural land. From our balcony the farm fields are clearly defined by rows of crops, trees and white roads.

The geometry of the patterns are fascinating while the lake is in constant flux. At times the three island appear to be floating above the green water and yet when  the lake is calm, the still the water reflects the islands and the outcropping where the fortified town Castiglione del Lago  boldly stands.

There are huge Cedar  and Cypress trees growing on the steep slope that leads up to Panicale. Olive trees dot the landscape in neatly terraced rows.
The light is spectacular and on a clear day the blue sky is remarkable in it's depth of blueness!

 In the late afternoon and into early evening before the sun sets is The Golden Hour, the moments when the Umbrian landscape glows with  rich warm light. 

As the sun nears setting
 the shadows grow long across the plain. The green fields brighten in contrast to these dark shadows yet it all retains a warmth particle to Italy.
Cloud formations, like the lake are in constant change.
All I can say is... this is a remarkable place to be.

Isola Polvese [ A Year In Painting ]

JAMES APONOVICH 

A YEAR IN PAINTING

LA VITA E BREVE

L'ARTE E LUNGO

As our planet makes its journey around a star we call the Sun, I make my own journey in paintings. Each week I present some aspect of our shared life experiences through the medium of paint on canvas.

"Old men ought to be explorers."

-T.S. Eliot, The Four Quartets

___________________________________________________

ISOLA POLVESE

From The Trasimeno Series

James Aponovich

Isola Polvese

Oil on canvas, 13" x 21"

It sits in Aquamarine and Cerulean, is covered with Viridian and Emerald and it is all under a dome of Cobalt and Ultramarine. It is called 'La Isola Incantevole', The Enchanting Island, 

largely uninhabited with a Medieval fortress and a monastery in ruins.

They say that the olives grown on Polvese produce the finest oil. I don't know about that, but dreams of the Templar Knights, Dragons and unabated Romance is there.

Copyright 2017 James Aponovich

All rights reserved

THE PINES OF TRASIMENO {A Year In Painting}

 JAMES APONOVICH 

A YEAR IN PAINTING

LA VITA E BREVE

L'ARTE E LUNGA

As our planet makes its journey around a star we call the Sun, I make my own journey in painting. Each week I present some aspect of our shared life experiences through the medium of paint on canvas.

"Old men ought to be explorers."

- T.S. Eliot, The Four Quartets

____________________________________________________________________

THE PINES OF TRASIMENO

James Aponovich

From the Sketchbook

Pencil on paper

" It doesn't matter how you swing the bat,

you gotta hit the ball."

- M.Z. - My old painting teacher

They are called Umbrella Pines. For a painter, the landscape around  Lake Trasimeno is rich with potential. Fulfilling that potential is another matter. When we are in Italy, Elizabeth and I usually spend the day drawing landscapes of Umbria and Tuscany. Success is never assured. Just finding a place to park is often a challenge. But every now and again, you stumble upon the right elements and for a brief moment......

You swing at the ball

James Aponovich

Trasimeno Pines

Oil on canvas, 13" x 21"

James Aponovich

Trasimeno Pines ( detail)

Copyright 2017 James Aponovich

All rights reserved

ARTICHOKES { A Year In Painting }

JAMES APONOVICH :  A YEAR IN PAINTING

VITEA E BREVIS

ARS E LONGUS

As our planet makes its journey around a star we call the Sun, I make my own journey in paintings. Each week I present some aspect of our shared life experiences through a medium of paint on canvas.

"Old men ought to be explorers."

                                - T.S. Eliot,  The Four Quartets

___________________________________________________

ARTICHOKES

James Aponovich

Hanging Artichokes

Oil on panel,  20" x 16"

"He was a very valiant man who first adventured on eating thistles."

                                                     -James Fuller

" I eat to live, not live to eat."

                                - my Mother

THE DAILY CHORE

I grew up in a house where eating was characterized as a necessary evil. The Original Sin redeux. It was all viewed as drudgery and dinner only became a stage for family fights. With the exception of corn in the summer, vegetables came in cans and for some reason, they all tasted the same. It wasn't until I was living on my own that I discovered that vegetables came fresh. One of the more mysterious among them was artichokes, armor plated, prickly and with an inedible, aptly named 'choke'. It was nasty and my mother proved right, it was a lot of work! Boiling, scraping, dissecting and eliminating the fuzzy choke. It was all a daunting task but the reward was there, for deep in the interior was the 'heart'. With only some olive oil or melted butter, lemon, salt and pepper it could outshine any meat. It is a glorious food and, from an artists eye, a very pleasing form.

SLICING AND DICING ( not just the veggies)

James Aponovich

Trasimeno Artichokes

Oil on canvas, 14" x 10"

So, here I was, lying on an operating table ( non-life threatening stuff) with my surgeon, hard at work (on me) telling me how much he loves artichokes. He had just seen my Trasimeno Artichokes painting and he was explaining in detail how he prepares them on the grill with olive oil, lemon, etc. His parents were born in Italy, they know artichokes and taught their son accordingly. I knew he belonged to the club.

ALL PAINTINGS, GREAT AND SMALL

Last week I posted a portrait of my friend Tonino, surrounding him are all sorts of objects, all related to his occupation, or in the case of Tonino, his passion. As a group they work just fine, but sometimes a single object is enough to carry a painting.

James Aponovich

Single Artichoke

Oil on canvas, 8" x 9"

Copyright 2017 James Aponovich

#2

CALLA LILIES OVER TRASIMENO

Calla Lilies Over Trasimeno

James Aponovich

oil on canvas,  50" x 34"

TERREMOTO

The Earth shakes and cities are destroyed. Amatrice, Norcia and Castelluccio will never be the same. Buildings that have stood for 800 years are rubble. The geological forces that are unleashed as the African Tectonic plate slides under the European are felt as pain and loss.

Just beyond the Mountains in this painting is the epicenter.

Our hearts go out to everyone touched by this disaster.

James & Elizabeth

WHY ITALY? PERCHE NO! ( Part I, March& April 2015)

It is late December and the first snow has created a landscape of white out my window. The winter has been kind so far, but we still have January and February in front of us to trudge through.

Memories of Italy fill my head and heart as I hear from friends and go back through photos from our spring months spent in that beautiful place, Italy.

So, if you don't mind I am going to share some of the riches of our time in Panicale, Florence , Rome and places that fall between....oh yes, and  friends too.

Our "home" when we are in Italy is Panicale (Umbria), a medieval hill town that looks over Lake Trasimeno.

Looking down from Panicale to the white road 'strata bianca' that cuts its way  through crops of wheat, across the plain. This is what early spring looks like, a welcome carpet of green.

Up and out early, here we are ready for a day out, but first cappuccino Bar Gallo....always!
"Ciao Daniela"!  "Buon giorno Aldo!"

Bar Gallo 

DESTINATION: DERUTA

Deruta Workshop

Handmade. James watching  as a craftsman in this workshop carries on a tradition in ceramics

I love driving down this road under the pines back to Panicale.

Aldo makes a killer Aperol Spritz!

OFF TO FLORENCE TO MEET FRIENDS

Ponte Vecchio on a clear and still spring evening.

Alberti's stunning facade on Santa Maria Novella, which contains numerous masterpieces,one of which is Masaccio's groundbreaking Crucifixion.

Ghirlandaio's masterful fresco with this  procession of women.

a detail from the Spanish Chapel

time for refreshment!

Le Volpi e l'Uva

A favorite enoteca in the Oltrarno and  we  always know ( at least hope)  if we hang out here long 

enough the doors of Santa Felicita will open and a wonderful Pontormo painting will be there for us to see.  But while we wait.....

 SHARING ITALY with FRIENDS

Here are the friends James and I are meeting.....Mark, Andi and Giuletta!

Knowing we would not have time for dinner in a ristorante  before a concert we were all attending that evening, someone suggested room service. Perfect and luxurious. Ah , so it was burgers.

The evenings entertainment was very American....James Taylor in Florence !

Getting a taxi home afterwards was a bit of an ordeal, but with Mark's phone and James' Italian , we all made it back to our hotels!

Meantime, back in Panicale....

a foggy morning walk

and the artichokes are in season!

That is late March and April in Umbria and Tuscany.

Are you seeing any common elements running through these memories. It is becoming clear it has something to do with, art, people, food, wine and a beautiful landscape.

May  2015 will be next, we  will see if that trend continues!