Orange Street, New Orleans

Orange Street in New Orleans is only 9 blocks long, but has a long history. According to John Chase's book Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children, the street was named "because it ran through the orange grove which the Jesuit fathers planted when once this region was part of their vast plantation." The region now is part of Lower Garden District, where you see street names like Race, Annunciation, Market, St. James, St Thomas, Celeste, and Constance. Only after I read the book in 1998 I found out why that coffee shop on Race at Magazine was called Rue de la Course. (The cafe is now called Mojo.)

That whole area has seen a renaissance since Louisiana's tax incentive towards film productions brought in young people from out of town, who have jobs and enough money to eat out and buy new clothes. After we moved out of that neighborhood, at least 2 Vietnamese restaurants have opened up, as well as one super high-end coffee shop, hip clothing boutiques, salons, iPhone repair place, a pub, more clothing boutiques, more coffee shops, a bike shop, and a crap load of Air BnB hosts.  The houses are being fixed up and repainted, and it just feels a lot livelier now than when I lived there.

Orange near Constance, New Orleans
oil on canvas, 18"x24"

I have a stack of reference photos that I flip through when it's raining, or when the windchill is below 30 degrees. The painting above was done this morning when it was sooooo cold, my husband looked me in the eyes and said "you know it's like -1 degree celsius," in case I didn't understand the seriousness of the windchill in fahrenheit. So I stayed inside and painted from a photograph, probably about 3 years old. I've painted the same block, around the time that photo was taken.

Purple Wall on Orange Street
oil on canvas, 18"x24"

It must have been a trash pick-up day.

Hot Dog Stand at City Park

Once upon a time, there was a place where people gathered to play and have fun; young and old, rich and poor, people with different backgrounds. Then a hurricane named Katrina came and this magical place was filled with water. Trees died, structures sat in the mud for days, if not for weeks. After a while the residents were allowed back into the city, and they cleared the debris and overgrown weeds.

The golf courses at City Park is one of the four public courses in Orleans Parish, and there are only two courses in the East Bank. This is an abandoned hot dog stand that used to serve drinks and snacks to golfers who couldn't, or didn't want to play at any of the private courses in this region.

Hot Dog Stand, City Park, New Orleans
oil on canvas, 16"x22"

The golf complex at City Park used to have three 18-hole courses before the hurricane. They made a lot of money for the city who is notoriously underfunded, even before the hurricane. If your neighborhood is dark at night, or your street has many potholes, wouldn't you want your city to have enough funding to take care of them?

Bywater and Black Pearl

From Bywater, Black Pearl feels as if it's at the end of the world. Geographically New Orleans isn't that large but if you bicycle along the Mississippi River, it's not easy getting to one from the other. So other than having cool names, what do Bywater and Black Pearl have in common?

Dauphine and Piety, Bywater, New Orleans
oil on board, 12"x16"

Benjamin and Cherokee, Black Pearl, New Orleans
oil on board, 10"x8"

Those are the places where you get pooped on by little birds while painting.

I didn't take pictures of them. But in Bywater, I was spared while my palette was not so lucky.
In Black Pearl, my palette AND a left sleeve of my jacket fell victim to this capital offense.
It's been 7 years since I started painting on location, and it happened twice within a month of each other. If it is a sign of once-every-7-years good luck and/or rite of passage, I'll take it. Bring it on!

Negative Space

"Negative Space, in art, is the space around and between the subject(s) of an image." (wikimedia)

Wikimedia also mentions that "The use of negative space is a key element of artistic composition. The Japanese word 'ma' is sometimes used for this concept, for example in garden design."

I've never heard anyone use the Japanese word "ma" instead of "negative space" yet, but it must be some kind of a new, hip thing to say, along with "umami" and some other Japanese words that I can't think of right now. I would use the word "ma" in terms of passing of time, like a pause, mainly in a conversation or in a stand-up comedy, but not when explaining visual elements.
Anyway.
Here is something I painted recently in the Bywater.

Burgundy near Clouet, New Orleans
oil on canvas, 14"x18"

I have to thank Dominique for mentioning those magic words, "negative space" to me. That made me remember that I was Japanese after all, and I should know a thing or two about negative space. Then I went outside and found this location, that screamed NEGATIVE SPACE!!!

Thank you Dominique, for the reminder, AND adopting this painting.

READ

Here's something I have done recently, on black canvas using painting knives.

READ
oil on canvas, 18"x24"

Usually I tend to put too much details on my paintings and I wanted to get away from that habit. Although I was frustrated from time to time since I'm not used to using painting knives, not having the command on paint application was actually enjoyable. Things happened spontaneously, both for good and bad. Also I was able to exercise some muscles on my right arm that I didn't know I had.

Matassa's Market

In memory of Mr. Cosimo Matassa, 1926-2014.

Matassa's Market, New Orleans
oil on canvas 20"x30"

Tuesdays at 9pm

My teacher Phil has been teaching at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts for a while, but for the first time in 20 years he is teaching portrait painting class every Tuesday this semester.

His class starts at 6pm and ends at 9pm, and we have a new model every 2 weeks. Our first model was Marie.

Marie
oil on canvas 18"x14"

Unfortunately this didn't turn out too well. My favorite part is the chair.

Then we had Allen.

Allen
oil on canvas 18"x14"

It was done in one sitting. Not too bad.

Our third model was Anna.

Anna
oil on canvas 18"x14"

Best one yet? I have a lot to learn here.