Portrait Painting Thibault

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I heard again recently painter Michael John Angel's lecture on the artist he knew, Pietro Annigoni here in Firenze, Italia. I like many of Annigoni’s works, mostly his portraits, but also his drawings after Firenze was bombed during World War II. I like the way he mixed media in his work in a very contemporary way. In fact, John Angel related that he once saw Annigoni paint with a brick!

But what I enjoy best about seeing his portraits is being reminded that a good design trumps a photographic likeness every time. On Monday, I started to paint a portrait of a young artist I know named Thibault (pronounced “T-bow). He is a good-looking French boy with dreadlocks and wears cool clothes.

Anyway, Mondays are typically my lesson exchange night: I teach anatomy to an Italian artist friend and he teaches me how to speak and understand Italian. On that night I was also making him dinner so that he could taste the new oil I had received from our weekend of olive picking in the Tuscan countryside. This is the Kelly length of telling you that I only had one-hour of a typically two-hour session with the model. So, I hope to improve upon this with more time. The third image is a close-up of the second image.

Compatibility Sculpture

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Most people do not know how shy I really am because when I was a teenager my mother enrolled me into the organization Toastmasters International that helps people conquer fears of public speaking (and also to learn how to do it well). I remember feeling unworthy of introducing myself to new people as an “artist.” Artists were cool people, I thought, and I am only me.

Well, that is one fear I rarely struggle with these days, since I have embraced who I am wholeheartedly. I am very happy to be celebrating this month my twelve-year anniversary for “taking the plunge” to full-time art. You may share in some of this joy, if you like, by reading my latest art newsletter about my visit to the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, and noting how you may enjoy some of my sculpture (or my friend's -- the amazing Ukrainian-American sculptor Vasily Fedorouk).

Here is a sculpture I did of a couple of models who happened to be married … to each other. My favorite comment from them after our multiple sculpting sessions together was that posing for me was the best quality time they were able to find in their busy lives. I dearly hope they have continued to find more of that after the sculpture was completed! What a rare treat it was to be able to work with a couple of models in such an intimate pose! I hope you like the love in this composition titled “Compatibility.” For views from other angles, please click on the title “Compatibility.” Thank you for your interest!

"Compatibility"

bronze with wood base
9" h x 14" x 11"
limited edition of 12 for bronze
Price List

Also, terra-cotta original sculpture
artist's proof (one-of-a-kind)
11" h x 13" x 9"
by Kelly Borsheim
Price List

Painting the Female Figure Magda

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Back in October, I wrote in a blog post about my oil painting of Magda. And I shared with you some of the process of the painting I was creating as a study of a nude woman’s back. Here is the finished work.

”Study of Magda”
80 x 40 cm
Oil on Canvas
By Kelly Borsheim 2012
Available, just ask…

Also, a gentle reminder that if you enjoy the art of sculpture and are intrigued by the vision and work of my friend and artist Vasily Fedorouk, please see this once-in-a-lifetime offer to receive more art with his sculpture in this special offer in my latest art newsletter: http://www.borsheimarts.com/news/2013_01_GuggenheimSerraBilbao.htm