flowers from warmer days

bouquet #1
collage on paper on CD
ø 5"

A little collage from this summer. As with traditional quilts, it's fun to remember where each torn piece of paper comes from. The gold strip on the vase betrays chocolate consumption.

an etsy site

Dancing Tree
oil on canvas
16x12

thank you Thor for your help and suggestions with my opening an Etsy site. plunged in yesterday and it is now running with 7 landscapes, including this tree. will be adding one or 2 images every so often. i'll have to figure how to have a widget on this page about it. for now, here is the link: http://www.etsy.com/shop/sylvieKstudio

sketch class

In these days of doom and gloom, nothing like 3 hours of total immersion in drawing from the model. not ONE thought about money, about the future, about the economy. Just the pure joy of the pen gliding on the page, of the brush adding a bit here, taking off a bit there. The page was blank and suddenly there is a figure on it. Magic!

ha ha ha

america 100
collage on board
12x12

can you spot the torn pieces of a bill? no, i didn't tear a real $ 100 bill. even a $ 1 bill, i wouldn't tear! still saving pennies actually... there are also pieces from an old postcard of a Da Vinci drawing.

this piece will also be in in the show at Martinez Gallery.

delivery

Pregnant
collage on board
12x12

Delivered this piece today with 4 others to the Martinez Gallery in Troy today. They will be part of the new show: Original Sin. Show opens on Friday September 24 for Troy Night Out.
http://www.martinezgallery.net/exhibitions.html

panel # 8

double arch
collage on board
12x12

last one -for now- of this series of imaginary landscapes. 2 of them will be shown at the Fairgrounds Pavilion in Chatham during the Arts Walk weekend. October 8-11.

panel #7

Small Round Orange Rock
collage on board
12x12

so much fun to start from torn pieces of paper and see them evolve into little magical worlds.

panel #6

the man in the tree
collage on board
12x12

probably my favorite of the series.

panel #1

red day in the land of 2 suns
collage on board
12x12

i thought i had posted this one some time ago but i can't find it, so here it is closer to its companions.

panel #5

inner growth
collage on board
12x12

panel #4

black crescent
collage on board
12x12

panel#3

green moon
collage on board
12x12

panel#2

bosquet rose
collage on panel
12x12

i love working on these little square panels. because i am such a stickler for chronology, here is #2 in a series that counts 8 since last night. #1 was posted as RED DAY in january 2010.

The Black Forest at the Albany Institute

I am quite thrilled to have a painting exposed beautifully at the Albany Institute of History and Art. It is among 50 paintings by 50 artists and will be part of the fund-raising silent auction during the upcoming gala. The show is called: Tomorrow's Masters Today. Ten artists were selected as the "Master Class". Not me but not complaining.

on working very small.

étude 4
collage
7.5x3.5

after seeing the monumental size of the pieces at DIA:Beacon, it feels funny to come back to my tiny pieces. but i have such a good feeling about them. i believe i want the viewer to experience something very intimate with them, as one does with a beloved small object, a jewel, a favorite rock. i wish for each piece to become a favorite possession (not necessarily a piece to put on the wall.) a possession that one puts away carefully and takes out for a moment of pleasure or to share with selected friends.

a tiny piece

village
collage
6x3.75

i think a common aspect in my pieces is the flight from reality. some art is a reflection on our times, some take a stand pro or against, some is politically involved. and it is all good. mine is a dream world where i can find solace from an anxiety producing world.

blues and yellows

animated
collage
7.5x5.5

of all the collages i am doing these days, my favorites are the "portraits". i like the way the background creates itself and add an unexpected dimension.

a color study

étude 3
collage
7.5x3.5

possibly one of my favorites.

Mother's day.

flower stand
collage
7.5x3.75

opening tomorrow

getting up
acrylic on board
12x12

i will be buying the munchies tomorrow morning. so glad Visions will take the drinks in charge. whoever is planning to come should bring a friend or 2.

studies

sometimes i like to do some color and shape studies. here are étude 1 (in blues)
and étude 2 (in browns).
they are very small collages on paper.
7.75x3.5

flowers by the window

collage
7.5x5.5

busy with all kinds of things and people but felt like posting and sharing this one.

a show

Opening at VISIONS GALLERY
Friday, May 7
5-7pm
in conjunction with First Friday,

SYLVIE KANTOROVITZ
in VISIONS II

"Sacred Moments"
show: May 7- June 25, 2010

Dear Friends, I hope to see many of you.
Why not starting your evening with Art at Visions with us?

Visions I will present
PAUL KANT
"Playing with Dolls at 70"
(Are they pairing us alphabetically?)

Visions Gallery
Pastoral Center
40 North Main Avenue
Albany, NY 12203
518-453-6600
gallery hours: M-F 8-4

getting ready+a sale

reading
oil on canvas
18x17

Yvonne came this morning to make her choice of paintings for the show starting in May at the Visions II gallery. She will be showing paintings from a few years back: all figures including many angels. The title of the show will be SACRED MOMENTS. I will post details later on as well as some pictures, of course.
The above picture will not only be part of the show but is already sold! Thank you Yvonne.

a favorite model

Faith is one of my favorite models. always inventive in her poses and yet looking so natural and graceful. she gives a lot of herself; even her eyes participate in the pose. when the model gives out so much energy, it makes for a fantastic session.

portal

collage on canvas
10x8

things started out rather nicely on this one. except for the "portal" area which took me about 100 different tries before i was able to enjoy the result!
the piece looks like an underwater landscape to me. it reminds me of the videos on coral reefs sam and i used to watch over and over when she was little.

sketch class

period of no art work. not lacking the time. just not getting to it. will have to push myself. at least there is sketch class. not my favorite model last night, so played with the line. fun for a few poses and then they were all... how shall i call them? exhausted poses.

it's getting to be a small series!

mint drink
collage on paper
7.5x7.5

considering that i have simplify my dressing up to its bare bones, why these elaborately dressed women? some unconscious longing? i don't think so. rather a visual expression of some interior mood.

speckeld tree

collage
9x6.25

not much time to work on collages these days. this one if from at least a month ago. i see pieces from a large destroyed piece , pieces from invitations to shows, from postcards...

sketch class

paul at rest and at work

sketch class is always such a joy. and such an important practice i feel, whether one wants to use the skill directly into one's art or not. i, for one, do not paint or draw realistic figures and yet, i feel my line, my sense of proportions, shapes, movement, so much keener when keeping up with the weekly practice.

first day of spring

undergrowth
collage
7x6.5

in honor of a first day of spring that lived up to its name, this little favorite in earth tones.

early collage

they are looking
collage
7.5x5.5

i enjoy the subject matter that came up in this one (from just shapes). but i've been favoring textured or printed papers over the plain canson type papers that i used here.

although i have only a couple of collages on that subject, i like to think of it as my "suzanne" series as in "suzanne and the elders". must be a bible theme although my knowledge of it comes from traditional paintings, the Veronese version being one of my favorite.

pain

aaaargh
mixed media
7.5x5.75

saw this figure in a few colored shapes. defined it, played a bit with pen and ink, a bit with acrylic and voilà. i am fond of this color harmony.

another "portrait"

so lovely
collage on canvas
7x5

just ink

over water
brush and ink
5.5x7

playing with doodles. so much fun.

appealling birds

benevolence
collage on paper
7.5x5.5

sepia

long ago, far away
collage
7.5x5.75

most pieces of paper are from a destroyed drawing from my obsessive hatching period. hadn't used waterproof ink so ink bled with the glue but i like what happened here. the sepia gives it an old-world feel.

some magic

it takes a village
collage
6x7.5

first came the shapes, they became birds and then, the title came. before anything happened at all though, that greenish shape sat on my table for weeks without going anywhere. and then, boom! it happened. magic!

more birds

full moon
collage
7.5x5.5

mostly i use acrylic to paint over and around the collaged pieces. sometimes, as in this one, i use oil pastel. should do it more often, i think. no?

happy march 1st!!

by the river
collage
5.75x6.25

river flowing, flowers coming out but still cold and winter-like... i thought this picture appropriate for the beginning of march.

a very recent one

the red couch
collage
10.25x8.75

for this one, i started out wanting to make a "portrait" but after that initial decision, i let the shapes help me in deciding the pose, the outfit, the background...

post # 3!!

a light in the night
collage + acrylic
7.75x5.25

in this one, i used some pieces from the card of the current show at the Opalka gallery. faculty show. some very interesting stuff there!

a 2 post-day!

regalia
collage
7.5x5.5

or classical portraiture revisited...

antidote

speckled sun
collage + acrylic
7.5x5.5

on a very snowy day, here is another view from the "land of 2 suns".

salvaged

flight
collage
5.5x4

this is a piece salvaged from a larger drawing. i never mind destroying or painting over, but i liked that bird in the background of a now forgotten collage. in fact the other part also came out well and i will post it too soon. (the body of the bird is made with pieces from a card announcing Wendy Williams show at the Amrose Sable Gallery a couple of years ago. i love her work!)

the elephant and me

paperphant
collage
5.5x5.25

many years ago sam asked me what my favorite animal was. to humor her, i came up with "elephant".
these last 2 or 3 years, elephants have been emerging over and over in my drawings. or elephant like shapes. and i do like elephants. or at least the little bit i know about them: slow, peaceful, solid, beautiful in a wrinkled way.
If sam asked me the same question again, and i had lots of thinking time, i would answer "elephants" again.

the wolf appears

seduction
collage
5x5

once in a while, something comes out that reminds me of a fairy tale. strange. then again, maybe not so strange: i grew up reading lots of them and i do think of them nowadays occasionally: what they brought us as children, what was their hidden meaning, what damage they created in our minds. maybe the theme that came out here is not completely surprising.