Jenny Wantuch: Figures

Showing posts with label Figures. Show all posts

Friday, October 28, 2011

A Certain Place of Indecision

The Road Not Taken- by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

A Certain Place of Indecision- Oil by Jenny Wantuch, 2011

When I showed this painting during Open Studios, someone told me how it reminded him of the dilemma that Robert Frost describes with his poem "The Road Not Taken". We all recognize this place. A place we will come back to "ages and ages hence".

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Figure in Landscape II

This painting is also in my series of contemplative figures in landscape. It is titled "Longing" and was juried into Gallery Route One's annual juried show. This year Rene de Guzman, senior art curator at the Oakland Museum of California, was the juror. http://www.galleryrouteone.org/

The painting was inspired by a visit in Sweden in the fall, I walked around a lake with my dear friend Petra (http://www.petra10001.blogspot.com/). I took many photos from the walk and this painting was initially inspired by one of the photos of Petra looking over the water. I wanted to make it a self-portrait, and so I took another picture of myself in the same pose. Well, Petra's daughter says "mom" when she sees this and for people that don't know Petra, they believe it is a self-portrait.

I realized it doesn't really matter, the "self" in this, is the memory of feelings in a serene landscape that I think most of us have within, at least that is my wish.

"Longing", 30 x 40 inches, Oil on canvas prepared with fiber ground

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Preview Show for SOMA Spring Open Studios 2011

ARC Studios hosted a preview show for SOMA San Francisco, Spring Open Studios, called SOMANIA, earlier this spring. Below is a snapshot of artwork by artists from SOMA Artists Studios, 689 Bryant Street. My contribution was an abstract figure painting, painted from a live model (third from left, top row, and also the one he is pointing at:).