What’s the Big Idea? – One Life Fine Art Blog

27Oct 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Earthly Delights: Works in Progress

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

I'm writing this at about the halfway point of the project as funded by Calgary Arts Development's individual artist project grant program. Earthly Delights - 10 Paintings of Food in Places, has close to half of the paintings nearing completion now, and I have begun assembling the reference material for the next three paintings in the project. By the time you read this blog post I anticipate the first four paintings will be complete, the next three will be well into development and I will be assembling reference material for the final 3 paintings in the project. So by way of a progress report I will share process images of the first four paintings along with a few production notes on each of them. In later individual posts I will…

20Oct 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Working with Momentum

Art Sales, Events & Announcements, The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

After The Rain, 42" x 42" Acrylic on Canvas, $4450Debbie.lee Miszaniec I was pleased to be able to deliver a custom reproduction of my 2005 painting, After The Rain, to the Momentum offices earlier this fall. They purchased the print for their new offices in the Radisson Heights area of Calgary. This painting in particular was of interest to their staff as the painting depicts an actual place in Penbrooke Meadows, one of the communities near their offices, and a community I was a resident of for 11 years. It depicts the first sunny day after a solid couple weeks of rain, when everything, even abandoned furniture, expired holiday lights and neglected lawns, appear fresh and beautiful as the sun lends it all sparkle. I have a good history with…

06Oct 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

New Painting: Enchantment

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

Enchantment 11 x 14 O/C $750 CADDebbie.lee Miszaniec, 2022 So Enchantment came about after I painted Tempting Fruit earlier this year. I loved the way that the chocolate cupcake in that painting just seemed like an over the top amalgam of all the wiley ways it could look like a tempting treat. Tempting Fruit, 9"x12" O/C - $595 CADDebbie.lee Miszaniec 2022 That painting made me think of other romantic gardens. So of course it was a short step from Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights to Fragonard's french rococo garden in The Swing. Prior to painting Enchantment I baked and frosted several cupcakes, really going for an over the top frothy look for the cupcake like the heroine in Fragonard's The Swing. From there I painted Cupcake Digest, to study the…

29Sep 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

New Painting: Cupcake Digest

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

Cupcake Digest, 5"x7" O/C, $250 CAD Framed Say hello to Ms. Cupcake. After painting Tempting Fruit I became fascinated with this idea of a cupcake with wrapper seductively coming away from the base of the cake. I could not get the image of the heroine from Fragonard's The Swing , as a frothy pink cupcake, out of my mind. So, determined to do a version of this painting, I set about creating some particularly frothy pink cupcakes as models for the upcoming paintings. Cupcake Digest is about me getting to know this new character in my paintings. Stay tuned for future appearances of Ms. Cupcake!

22Sep 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

New Painting: Thought & Feeling

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

Thought & Feeling, 12"x12" O/C, $750 CAD unframed Our pear is back in Thought & Feeling, torn between Sisyphus and Dionysus again. Early on with this painting I wanted to shift the deep red tone I had started with to a lighter warm pink, creating a feeling of nostalgia in the painting. I saw it as sort of a companion to the longing in the earlier painting I posted about, I Only See You. that painting was about unfulfilled longing, whereas Thought & Feeling is about the power of fond recollections over the intent to follow a reasoned course of action or desire for changes.

15Sep 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

New Painting: Idealized Figures

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?

Idealized Figures, 8"x10" O/C, $450 Unframed Meet Idealized Figures, one of the newest paintings in my series exploring the relationship between a little pink pear and a cake plate of jelly doughnuts. I was working on correcting and straightening some of the lines in the painting, when it occurred to me that this is what we do in life too; with our diet practices we attempt to correct nature and idealize our own forms. With this insight I decided to emphasize my correction lines in the painting.

08Sep 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

New Project Announcement! Earthly Delights – 10 Still Life Paintings in Places

Events & Announcements, Uncategorized, What's the Big Idea?

Preliminary Drawings, & me on location taking reference photos. I’m on location here taking reference photos at Reader Rock Gardens in Calgary for my new project, Earthly Delights - 10 Paintings of Food in Places, funded by an individual artist project grant from Calgary Arts Development. As some of you know from reading earlier posts about the development of my Cravings series, I (intentionally) lost more than a third of my body mass in the last decade. Despite the many health benefits, there are other physical and psychological results of this journey which continue to make maintaining a healthy weight a challenge. Earthly Delights is about exploring that journey through the genre of still life painting. This project juxtaposes the still life within places to speak to the dilemmas presented by our…

01Sep 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

I Painted A Serene Lake Scene On My Garage Door!

Commissions, The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?, Working Artist

Sawmill Lake, 8'x16', exterior mural on wood garage door, 2022. Early this summer I painted this exterior mural on the new garage door my husband built and installed last year. It was his idea to do a mural on what looked like a big blank canvas to both of us, and with that sort of faith in my abilities, how could I decline the opportunity right? The image we chose was from a recent visit to the lake country around my husbands childhood home. This was a small local swim and camping spot walking distance from his home. You can see our grown up kids in the picture, but I opted not to include any figures in the painting. Neighbourhood response was so positive to this mural that I have…

18Aug 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Recent Reads: The Rhetoric of Perspective

Book Reviews, What's the Big Idea?

The Rhetoric of Perspective: Realism and Illusionism in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Still-Life Painting - Hanneke Grootenboer Warning, do not think this is a light Sunday read! So this book is a dense one, with a lot of reinterpretation of language to draw connections between disparate writings of art historians and philosophers. However, as I've been fascinated with the 17th century Flemish still life painter Clara Peeters, and it had a picture of a dutch still life painting on the cover, I had to commit to read this book fully. I over-ran my renewals at the library on this one but I made it. Essentially she goes through many convoluted arguments to prove that painting is a form of thought. Well duh, I thought, ask any artist and you will get that…

11Aug 2022 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Recent Reads: The Pop Object

Book Reviews, What's the Big Idea?

The Pop Object: The Still Life Tradition in Pop Art - John Wilmerding This is a book produced by the curator for an eponymous exhibition at Acquavella Galleries. As such it is a big beautiful glossy refutation of the perception of still life painting as a skill building exercise or a safe way to explore new techniques. Of course there is text here, but the focus is really on the pictures, which makes it a relatively easy read compared to more theory based books. The book starts by exploring an apparent art historical blindspot in the analysis of the Pop Art movement: the legacy of still life art and its influences on or in Pop art. Chapter one covers the origins of the still life genre and documents the parting…