6/05/2011

The Barricade
















(someone told me I have too much of blues in my works... she was right... I started to get fed up with my blues...)
oil on canvas
120cm x 80cm
2011

55 comments:

  1. Hi, Melinda,
    Very big and interesting work, how you handled a nude.
    Regarding blues, don't be tough on yourselfʚ(ˆ◡ˆ)ɞ. Thank U for sharing the work.
    Cheers, Sadami

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  2. What you do is magical. You can't let others tell you what to do when it comes to something so personal as creating art. l love your work.

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  3. Sadami and Stan, thank you very much... sometimes critics are very accurate...

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  4. The colors and the handling of the figure against the foreground is wonderful.

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  5. Great Melinda. I follow you always.
    I like all your last works. Very nice.

    Ciao.

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  6. Your blues color are wonderful, great work,

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  7. Very beautiful potrait, thanks for sharing.

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  8. Thanks all of you, I really appreciate your kind support, it means a lot...

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  9. Highly esteemed artist, each painting is complete. Continue just as the heart says. Consider Aikatherine on my page is a modest prize for you. You do not need it and not pass the writing tasks you get a prize without any expectations. Good luck and blessings. Take yourself, please.

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  10. I love the blues and think your warmer colours complement them beautifully. Love your work.

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  11. complimenti per i tuoi bellissimi lavori, ciao luisa

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  12. Bom dia amiga
    linda a tela, maravilhosa pintura.
    Parabens!
    Tenha um lindo dia!
    Abra fraterno
    maria Alice

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  13. Interpol has all these blogs..so does IRONICUS MAXIMUS.

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  14. precioso post!!!
    muy buen gusto
    un besazo enorme cielo =D

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  15. Impresionante!!! me quedo con la boca abierta...

    Un abrazo!

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  16. Jesus...pedophiles everywhere!

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  17. kaunis ja värikäs maalaus jälleen.. sivullani on sinulle kaunis lahja jos ehdit hakea. ja toivon iloa ja tervbeyttä rakas blogi ystävä.. olen sinun fani..

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  18. Thanks all of you...

    aikatherine: Kisses my dear...

    IRONICUS MAXIMUS and anonymous Michelle: Thanks for the kind words, at least you made me smile.

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  19. I like it very much! really nice work!

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  20. Wow! Your paintings are wonderful with great depth of emotions. Great blog!

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  21. I love your work..it is so rich and interesting. I'm just starting my blue phase! Don't all the great artists go through that? haha Thanks for sharing your work. We are blessed to get to enjoy your process! xoxo

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  22. Thanks everyone!!!!!!!!


    Tam Hess;

    Maybe the great artists went through that phase, but in my case... I'm not a great artist... and I actually think that I am not able for getting out of my usually used tones... thus for me it's a problem... ha ha...

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  23. I am very impressed by your blog! Your paintings are sophisticated. I follow you from now.

    Please visit my art blog at:
    http://portraits2null.blogspot.com/

    Best regards - Lars

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  24. i love this one!
    and i love blue!

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  25. Melinda, I think your English is very good. I also love your paintings. Is it possible that you paint how you feel?

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  26. Also very beautiful, i think your art is very inspiring....

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  27. Muito bela sua pintura, as pinceladas... as cores. Você de verdade pinta. Gosto de como você se apresenta. Escrevo-lhe em português porque meu inglês é pior que o seu... :)

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  28. So beautiful. Such lovely work you do. I enjoyed my visit

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  29. The aspiring artist is always prone to relying on repetition, even to the point of negating creativity altogether. Death, at the hands of our own hand, must be taken in hand -- it must be entertained for a time. Only after this near negation of self, can we move on. That is a human phenomenon that is old as history; and I do not think it is a mere foible, void of meaning. I think this bare, malnourished desert, which forces us to the ground, is a "step" toward something profound...

    Yes, the blues may very well succumb to the nothingness of white -- of non-description and pure potential, rendering actuality null and void -- but this is a challenge we must face up to and withstand. Negative space must have its say, even if it kills us.

    Repetition is ritual. Repetition gives us that little bit of refuge in a world that is constantly swirling, changing, deconstructing, uprooting. Without established techniques or themes or color choice, we are left open to the ravishings of a merciless nature.

    Without the reality of repetition/custom/tradition there is no change/revolution/liberation.

    ..We have a tendency to rely to heavily on our traditional place of refuge (just ask religion about this!) and forget to forge forward into uncharted, undocumented territories of newfangled potential. But the sheer fact that you are aware and cognizant of your repetition of blues, Melinda, is wise; most humans refuse to acknowledge, let alone beat back, their weaknesses.

    Your blues are going to take you somewhere, and I am interested to see where that somewhere is.

    You have my eye..

    ;)

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  30. Thanks everyone!


    MythofSerpentry:

    You said in this line ....
    "this bare, malnourished desert, which forces us to the ground, is a "step" toward something profound"...
    -It is a thought I have on my mind for some time past... I am kind of prone to melancholy... sometimes I am falling in nihilism... but...this line gives meaning to the unmeaning... many times it has sounded like an echo in my head...

    My blues...ha ha... I am working on some paintings right now and I realize I just cannot get rid of the blues...

    I'm glad sometimes you linger here sharing your thoughts with me... thank you...

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  31. I am really glad that I was able to elicit in you this "echo" you speak of; isn't it a strange, complex thought to untangle??! It is one which can make me both content and also incredibly confused and depressed, though I am not sure there is a better setting from which to learn/heal/grow/mature. A gift and curse, inseparable..

    When will your next work be shown, give or take? I will make a note of it to come and linger some more, as my blues tend to identify with yours it seems... ;)

    -- I actually value this kind of outlet very much, Melinda, as my job/occupation prizes the exact opposite of thought/reflection/contemplation. I work at a call-center doing customer service. It pays the bills, but it can be very stressful at times. argggghh.

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  32. Hello again... :)

    I will finish the next one soon... maybe it is already finished...I don't know if I leave it as it is or change...
    I actually have some paintings done, but wasn't contented so I still wait... I might have someday a more lucid moment and change them into something better.... ha ha ha...

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  33. The process is often better than the finished product. And "lucid moments" are overrated, ha ;)

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  34. Then I assume "lucid moments" was just a wrongly used expression of one who doesn't speak well the language... :)

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  35. Your English is lucid enough :P

    Though, sadly, I am not even a beginner when it comes to "speaking" the universal language of art :(

    Maybe I should fix that..

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  36. "speaking the universal language of art..."
    - You know... I have never felt I might speak that language,,, except those rare moments when I was able to feel the meaning in someone's art...

    When I try to paint something I am rather a seeker... and my works are just processes...can I put the 'process" word in plural this way?...

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  37. Yes, that is the correct plural for process ;)

    That is profound. Other's art brings about speech and meaning. I like that thought.

    There is something about looking at a piece of art that is not yours, I suppose. Maybe as an aspiring artist yourself, one can really appreciate this onlooking.

    What are some art pieces which have elicited this feeling in you?

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  38. Some art pieces... :) ... almost everything by Egon Schiele... Lucien Freud...or a book from Kafka would have the same effect... hahaha... and... there are many many more...

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  39. I love Kafka!! I just reread Kafka's "A Message from the Emperor." I had not read it since my college days. It is a lesser known piece of his, but it is a gem nonetheless. Have you read it? It is an amazing description of the existential self and how social convention bears on us such an arbitrary yet powerful allure (what Foucault would deem a "discursive formation").

    I will check out these other artists that you've mentioned..

    -- oh, btw, I have written a new poem. Come check it out if u ever have the time, as I would much appreciate your input/critique ;)

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  40. I haven't read that book yet... I will search for it in the future...:)

    I visited your wordpress page...but you have no new poem there...right now...

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  41. personally I love the blues...I love the whole feel and I'm sure this painting would work in any color!

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  42. No - the blues are what makes this image so sublime and emotionally present. You are an amazing painter. I just discovered your work on Saatchi online today. I'm an art teacher in Chicago.

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  43. Hi Melinda: I'm responding to your statement about someone telling you that you use too much blue in your work.

    Well, my immediate reaction to their statement is that they have no right in telling you what you should or should not paint. As artists, we are ever evolving, living, changing and responding to our lives. How can anyone jump in the middle of our own experiences and tell us how we should interpret it? They can't.

    So be careful not to take the advice of people who try to tell you how to create. YOU are what makes your paintings unique. And you will continue to evolve into a variety of artistic settings that no one has the right to stop you from experiencing and sharing. So, go be yourself and...

    Live, Love, Paint! :-)

    artist girl

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous Artist,

      Thank you for the warm and encouraging words, I should have friends like you...

      :-)

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    2. It's my honor to encourage enlightened beings as you. :-)

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    3. :)
      Thank you, even if I don't feel like being that being.

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