Parlor paintings

 Way back when I first started this blog, I briefly shared the story behind the Renoir painting that hangs in the parlor. My grandmother has two copies of this painting hanging in her house. One was painted by my great grandmother, and the other by my aunt. As a little girl, I loved to compare the two paintings. My great grandmother especially took a bit of artistic license with her copy- she made the blonde girl into a redhead to look look like my grandmother's best friend! Josephine Meyer painted the copy in my dollhouse. I think it's one of the best miniature paintings she's ever done (though I might be a little biased.)

 

 

 The painting below the Renoir is another special Josephine Meyer painting. Josephine told me after I'd purchased it that it was one of the paintings that she'd submitted to become an IGMA artisan.

I couldn't remember anything about the original portrait, and google wasn't being very helpful either. I finally figured out that the painting was a portrait of the Marquise d'Antin by Jean-Marc Nattier. It looks like Josephine changed changed the color of the dress from blue/grey to gold! Josephine also made the gold easel. I've always had a vague idea that I should drape it with a bit of silk or velvet, but I'm holding off until I have the color scheme for this room pinned down. The (standard bespaq) upholstery in this room was light green for years, but I never really liked it. Right now the parlor is in a bit of a battle between the brighter shade of green which I used to reupholster the loveseat, and some brown and pink furniture I stole from other rooms and loved in here. I think the brown and pink will win in the end, but it's a little hard to banish the green after years of picturing it that way.

A Gift For Mom

Every year, I try to make one or two miniature gifts for Mom. This one is a project I've had in mind for several years. Mom loves dummy boards in both real life and miniature. We also have a really sweet English Cocker Spaniel who loves to sleep in front of a fire. Sometimes she curls up so close to the fireplace that she's nearly lying in the coals! For a few months, I toyed with the idea of commissioning a dummy board from Pastmastery, but just as I was ready to commit, they announced they would no longer be making miniature dummy boards.

The other day, I finally decided to try painting one myself. Since I couldn't get the dog to remain in the correct position for long (she's getting old, and kept putting her head down to sleep) I had to do the initial sketch from a photograph. I painted her with acrylic paints on thin birch plywood.

There are still a few touch ups I need to do, but most of the painting is done. I added a toothpick to the photo above for scale.

Here's the back, showing the triangular support piece. I still need to sign and date it, something I always forget to do. It doesn't matter too much when things we make are just staying in our own collections, but we have to double check that everything is signed before each show!

A New Painting for the Front Hall

I didn't buy much at Philadelphia, and most of what I got was supply stuff. But I did find a great painting at Henny Staring-Egberts table.  I bought it thinking it might go over the large enterance to the dining room (on the left), but the height of the opening meant that the painting ended up too close to the ceiling. But  it worked out well over the smaller door which leads from the main hall to the parlor.



 

 

Sorry this post is so short!

Painting Update

Real life interrupted part way through painting, so I didn't get as far as I'd hoped. I did manage to work on the very top part of the painting, which I'd been avoiding since it was all very complex architecture. I've got a much better idea of where all the different elements are supposed to go now, though all I really did was lay out the basic shapes of the largest architectural features. I did have to fudge a bit, but I think (hope!) the space will make more sense as I go along. Right now, I'm noticing all the wonky angles and the poor, painted-over columns... I'm not sure how much time I'll have over the next few days, but I hope to snatch bit more time. We also just got two more sets of storage drawers for supplies, so all those wandering materials will finally have a home!

Painting!

I got the chance to take an introductory oil painting class after school last year. I've always hated acrylics, because they dry so quickly, especially when I'm only mixing a little for miniature paintings. The other day I was rooting around in my box of miscellaneous pieces, and I came across some miniature oil paintings I hadn't finished.

I have quite a few brushes as you can see, but most of them are in relatively poor condition, since I received them secondhand or used them so much that they are just worn out. The largest fluffy ones are actually makeup brushes that I use to dust my dollhouse.

I found these brushes at the Sturbridge show and really got a chance to use them today. They were amazingly helpful!

Here is one of the paintings I found. I had really only gotten a chance to block this one in, before I abandoned it. I decided I'd try to salvage it, and make it something I could actually hang.Below is the painting after the work I did yesterday.

I'm excited that I may be able to finish this painting. Of course I still see lots of things that need to be fixed, and large parts of the painting are still untouched, but it's going a bit faster than I expected.

This was the second painting I found. I painted this on a crooked piece of wood, at a funny angle, which caused some chaos when I tried to paint the features.I went back in and straightened out the mouth a bit, and lowered the eyes a little (still a bit cross-eyed and eyebrow-less). The hands could use lots of work as well. I'm concentrating on the first painting for the time being though, and letting her wait a little longer.

I'll put another picture or two of my progress up sometime tonight.