The Balmain Fairy

One day in a land far, far away, we were able to catch a glimpse of an exuberant fairy running down the path.  Luckily, a camera was a hand that day and later I was able to capture that elusive fairy in an oil portrait.

Composition is always tricky for me and deciding where to place the fairy on the canvas took a lot of deliberation.  Ultimately, I wanted to express the vibrancy of color, the joyous expression on her face and the immediacy of the fairy running towards the viewer.  Some viewers have commented that they feel like the fairy is about to leap off the canvas....and that is exactly the impression I wanted to make.

Doorway in Eze

"Doorway in Eze"

My husband and I both took photos of this doorway in Eze, France last year.  While my husband's photo  was a great shot focused on the upper door, I stepped back for a longer range view of the doors and steps.  (The two photos are included below.)  

The painting focal point is the upper door, but I was able to include a lot of greenery and lanterns by using the longer view.  First, I put in the darks of the two doors and the shadows under the roof tiles, then added the greenery loosely.  The stones in the foreground and background are all painted loosely, impressionistically without any formal definition of stones, but rather, just the lights and darks and textures of stones.  

As it turns out the sharpest details are on the pots, lanterns and doors, in order to move the viewer's eye around the painting.  

closeup of the doorway

longer view