Two Solo Shows! Oy Vey!!

Having trouble with my blogs, and somehow lost over a year's worth!  ...somewhere out there in cyberspace.  Oh well, carrying on ...


A COUPLE OF JUST-FINISHED PIECES

For my portrait show, "Portraits of the World ... And Beyond" (postcard and further info follows) I have a couple of new ones:

"Madonna" oil on canvas, with 24K gold leaf halo

This painting was done with only 4 colors, and is painted over another portrait I did as a demo of a wipe-out face.  The wipe-out base gave it the depth and mystery I was looking for.  Gold leafing went surprisingly well, as it is very difficult to work with, and one must not waste 24K gold!  It's in a fabulous frame too, displayed over my Jesus painting which has a crown of thorns hanging on it that I purchased from a Jerusalem supplier.


A Totally Portrait Show for all my friends and students who love portraits!

Worked like crazy putting this one together.  Never showed this many portraits at once, excepting for in my own home during the Sebastian Art Studio Tour.  Carole and Peter Coe, curators of the "Pres Galleries," and members of the First Presbyterian Church in Vero Beach, flawlessly installed the show, allowing me some input as to it's setup.  There was a great turnout and the show looked beautiful.  About 30 paintings in all mediums are on display.  They decided to add a mid-show reception I guess to allow the Snowbirds to view it.  It's up through December.


MY MOM, "MILDRED"

My mother was a jewel, and a really pretty one with a beautiful wad of red hair.  I guess this was about 1942, before I was born.  It was painted from a black-and-white photograph.

"Millie, 1942" oil on canvas by Judy Burgarella

PORTRAIT SOCIETY OF AMERICA

Tonight at 9:00 pm I finally got around to entering something in the Portrait Society of America, which I am a member of.  Decided to enter my mom.  It would be such an honor if they accepted my entry.  First time entering a national competition.



AND NOW FOR MY NEXT ACT ...

Just delivered this show today.  Over 40 paintings of Florida-inspired works.  What a job putting all this together, repairing the frames, reframing where needed, cleaning and rematting.  I have too many paintings, so they're priced to go, to make room for more. Looking forward to the opening to see how the public receives them.  I revised a portrait I did of Osceola in 2014 which I have shown around here but it never received much attention.  So I took it apart (not an easy job with pastels) and redesigned the face, clothes, position, and values, contrast and background.  Basically it's all redone.  I am very happy with it now, and I am a better artist than I was in 2014.  That's what's amazing about this art thing, everyone gets better with each painting.  I teach so I see it happen right before my eyes to my students.  Below is Osceola, I love it now.

"Osceola" Pastel by Judy Burgarella

LADY OF ELCHE

Monday I had my first of five classes for the semester in the Vero Beach Museum of Art, and below is my subject lesson.  I brought her back from the 4th Century B.C.  Found her sculptured image in an old sculpture book I got at a thrift shop.  I opened the book and fell in love with her face.  So regal, strong, intelligent-looking and beautiful.  And that headdress!  Wow!  I later found out that the bust, which is hollow and presumed to have been used as a funerary urn, is in a museum in Madrid.

"Lady of Elche" Acrylic on Canvas by Judy Burgarella

Well, that's all for tonight ... I hope you enjoyed my images.

Judy Burgarella
Blogger

Last-minute painting

Talk about procrastination.  I knew about this deadline many months ago, when Sebastian River Art Club member Kathleen Richter, who is heading up the Sebastian Library's January window exhibit, gave a "Call to Artists" to paint a winter animal for her winter landscape mural project.  So she wanted the work in Saturday, December 28th, and I started the painting 11:00 pm December 27th.  Good thing I can work under pressure.  I slept late the next morning.  It's a cute one though, only 8"x10".

"Cardinal" Acrylic by Judy Burgarella

Next emergency is "Osceola's Plume," for the Flora500 project, 500 painted flowers for Florida's 500th Anniversary of Ponce de Leon's arrival to our shores.

After that have to get ready for the Vero Beach Art Club's Art By the Sea, due January 23rd.  Going to paint the Seminole leader "Osceola," whom I've painted before some years ago, using a clay bust, the culmination of much research on his image.  However, after finding a death mask of him in New York shortly after I ended up having the first bust cast in bronze, I realized I must paint him again.  So I'm almost finished sculpting a new image--an exact sculpture of his death mask, sans closed eyes and any other evidence of his being dead.

How exciting it was for me to be in the same room with Osceola's death mask, and taking pictures of it, especially after spending so much time studying him over the years.  Dead at 36, pretty young, but what an impact he had on Florida, evidenced by the numerous places and things named after him.  His story is amazing, even in death, and I believe is greatly under appreciated and under publicized.   Below is a pic I just took of the sculpted head, located on a high shelf in my studio--too heavy for me to get down right now.

Clay sculpture of "Osceola" by Judy Burgarella

Actually, I kind of like this angle, and may paint it.  The beauty part of creating your own "model," is that it doesn't move, doesn't need a break or a drink of water, and you can cast it in any light you want to.  Oh, and there's no model fee.  Oh, and your painting is completely original, with nothing on his face referenced from another artist's painting, except maybe for a portion of clothing.  Trick is, you have to make up color, which never seems to be a problem with me.  I love color, and can imagine it in just about anything.  And skin tones especially are challenging and fun, especially when you nail it!  I just love it when the face is far enough along to be looking straight at me.  Spooky and exciting at the same time. Sometimes I paint the eyes first thing, just for that rush.

Below is a bronze of Osceola, the clay sculpture of which I used to create the first painting of him.

"Osceola" bronze sculpture by Judy Burgarella 11"Dx15"Hx7-1/2W"

 The below oil painting was created using the first clay sculpture based on my original research of Osceola, examining dozens of paintings and drawings of him, as he died before the advent of photography.  Also much of the visual data was collected by first-person accounts of his image and demeanor, clothing, etc., and numerous visits to museums to see artifacts.  I have in my possession several books on Osceola, and many other books which contain information about him, which I have spent way too much time perusing--to my ultimate enjoyment.

One macabre piece of history ... his head was removed from his body after death, used as a scary artifact by its owner Dr. Weedon, given to a medical professor, displayed in a museum window in New York, and supposedly "lost" in a fire.  But I think it's still out there someplace, perhaps in the Mutter Museum in Pennsylvania, or in some other museum's archives.  Or perhaps in a private collection.  Back in the day, the heads and/or brains of interesting, famous, intelligent or violent persons were sometimes separated from their bodies for supposed "research." 

"Osceola" oil painting by Judy Burgarella, 16"x20 canvas

A very disappointing situation it was when the bronze was not even cooled before this other "proof" of his actual image was discovered by me.  And so I had to rename the bronze "Seminole," although it does not have strong Indian features, as I knew that Osceola was only 1/8 Indian. 

So that's part of the story of Osceola's image.  I hope I can do him justice on this next painting.  Hope I didn't bore you with all this stuff, but it's so interesting to me.

Stay tuned.  I'll be posting the painting when it's done, probably the night before!

Judy Burgarella
Artist & Blogger