Backyard Art Show - May 2020

Since many art shows are being canceled due to the COVID 19 crisis, I decided to find another way. I set up my tent in my backyard! After preparing, setting up, filming, taking down, and editing, I did it! Please enjoy.

Minimalist Beauty

A poem I wrote, inspired by my painting of the same name.

©March2018, Francesca Bandino, Minimalist Beauty. Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Canvas, 16x20x.8 inches

Minimalist Beauty

Original poem by Francesca Bandino

Simple and wise

Always be kind

This may be

The definition of perfection

But I’m not so refined.

What seems perfect to you

Isn’t perfect to me. 

I take pride in the imperfections

I move and flow freely

Yet, the lines you drew

Confined me

Held me in

Kept me within

The walls of your expectations.

They were drawn hastily

Without regard

For my pride and perseverance

Don’t go any further

Stay where you are

There’s beauty in

The messy details of it all.

Side view of the painting “Minimalist Beauty”

Why I Take Breaks from Flowers

Flowers are often the theme in my paintings. When given a meaning, I get lost in the flowers as I paint them and recreate them. However, from time to time I have to take a break from them. My 2018 flower paintings are mystical, vibrant, and very popular, but a few things happened in the matter of a few months. 

©February2018, Francesca Bandino, The Heads of Roses. Acrylic on Stretched Canvas, 24x30x.8 inches

My story starts in May and June of 2018. I had a solo exhibition at the Park Ridge Public Library in New Jersey called “Flowers and Their Meanings.” Obviously, the exhibition was filled with my paintings of flowers - 17 to be exact. Some were paintings I had created in 2017, but others were paintings I had created in the months before the exhibition in 2018. Because I was so concentrated on creating flowers, my mind had little opportunity to venture elsewhere. I create best when I work in a series with a clear objective, so even though I did create a few non-floral pieces, they weren’t quite so successful. I truly enjoyed creating these for my show, but I found myself craving something new. 

Also in May the New York Times published an article about an exhibition happening at the New York Botanical Garden - “Georgia O’Keeffe: Visions of Hawaiʻi,” an exhibition of Georgia O’Keeffe’s unknown paintings. Two days later I was exhibiting in Washington Square Park and among my paintings were select pieces from my Bird of Paradise collection. I was compared to O’Keeffe by passers-by all weekend long. Even though I had heard an Artsy podcast about these pieces months before, I had no idea that the exhibition would start around that time or that it was going to be featured in the New York Times. I plan out which pieces I’l bring to each outdoor show at least a week before so that I can create a price list, pack the pieces, and remove them from my online store and my Saatchi store. In that week, I barely go on social media or read the news, so I was pretty oblivious to what was happening. 

©April2018, Francesca Bandino, A Bright Soul. Acrylic on Canvas, 24x24x.8 inches

I have always had an independent spirit, a need to be different and unique. Back in my school days, Georgia O’Keeffe was one of the first modern artists whose names I had memorized and whose work I admired. That being said, I’ve never allowed her work to directly influence my own. She may have inspired me to the extent that I felt confident creating close-ups of flowers, but for as much as I admire her, I don’t want to be seen as a replica of her.

In July 2018 I went to the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum (fortuitously adjacent to one another) in Washington, DC. In one of the exhibitions I was attracted to two bold paintings, one of abstract buildings and the other of an abstract landscape. I was shocked to discover that Georgia O’Keeffe had painted both of them! I knew that she wasn’t just a painter of flowers, but I had fallen into the trap of associating her only to those paintings.

In my tent and with my paintings at the Boardwalk Art Show

A few weeks later, in August 2018, I showed my work for the second time at the Boardwalk Art Show in Ocean City, NJ. My largest painting was a 40x40 painting of orange wind chime roses called Open Fascination. Although my tent also featured paintings from the Canna Tropicanna Black series and the Apples and Temptation series, I was starting to be known as the flower lady. For the record, I once again was compared by a few people to Georgia O’Keeffe. 

While I’m not actually passionate about flowers, I do love being outside and getting that breathless feeling you get when you witness something that can only happen in nature. Flowers are part of that magic, but so are plants, trees and clouds; bodies of water, vast hills, and snow falling to the ground. Sometimes I like to contrast nature with city buildings and fashion figures. Most of all, I want to discover new ways of seeing what’s around me and how they’ll influence my imagination.

©April2017, Francesca Bandino, Tree in Via Roma. Acrylic on Canvas, 30x40x.8 inches, $930.00

Fear in the Yellow Cloud

My Moto for the last two years has been “have courage.” I realized that whether you have a fear of success or of failure, what’s at the root of both is the fear of change and of the unknown. Will things really be better? What if they get worse? This fear sometimes creeps up when I paint. Any mistake can lead to a painting being absolutely horrid or completely wonderful, and that fear can be paralyzing if I let it take over. 

In May and June of 2018 I had a solo exhibition called “Flowers and Their Meanings” at the Park Ridge Public Library in New Jersey. This featured paintings from my series “Flowers in the Garden.” Hands down, Roses in a Yellow Cloud was the star of the show. The vibrant yellow and red against the dark stems and leaves certainly made heads turn. Although bright colors tend to activate our minds, there’s something soothing and soft about this painting. When I started this piece I didn’t intend to go in this direction, but it happened because I didn’t let fear get the best of me. 

What the roses looked like before the yellow. ©Francesca Bandino

The Inspiration

Many years ago I read a book that has left a long-lasting impression in my mind. In it there’s a dictionary of flowers and their meanings in Victorian times. In this era, each flower, plant or fruit was used to send secret messages among the aristocracy. For example, a red rose was sent as a symbol of love while a petunia said “your presence soothes me.” I’ve never been one to really enjoy flowers, but when given a meaning, I have a different appreciation for them. So I started the process of painting a series of flowers that would express feelings and meanings through the flowers, their colors, and the colors that would surround them. 

 

 

 

The Process

Experimenting with the yellow cloud. ©Francesca Bandino

You see, I’m not really one to fully mix my colors on my palette. I mix my colors when my intention is to make something very specific and precise. Most of the time, however, I want my paintings to flow and for my colors to be as close to spontaneous as possible. I set the colors out that I would normally need for a specific color. Rather than mixing them, I just dip my brush into the different paints and then move my brush into the shapes, shadows, and highlights I create. I continue to layer, dark where I need dark, light where I need light, and out come these shapes with multiple colors. If you look at the roses from afar, they just look like red roses, but up-close you can see every single color that has come together to create each shadow and curvature. 

The Final Touches

Adding in the leaves. Still wasn't sure if to bring the yellow all the way to the roses. ©Francesca Bandino

The original background was a pink and purple. As always, my background came from paints left over while creating other paintings. The flowers I  originally intended to make were yellow in order to contrast the background. What I ended up with was this kind of red that I just didn’t want to let go of. I had to make a choice between my roses and my background. With every painting there’s always a little bit of fear that any change I make may ruin the painting forever. I can’t predict the future, but I can imagine what it could be like. I knew that my indecision was keeping me from painting, so I went for it and chose to change the background. I had never made such a drastic change to a painting I liked. The more I studied the painting, I knew something wasn’t right and so I had to go with my intuition. I created many shades of yellow, constantly changing the amount of each paint that was on my palette without any precise reason for the amount I had of each. It was an intentional spontaneity. 

What if I hadn’t taken a risk and ignored my fear? Roses in a Yellow Cloud wouldn’t be what it is. I now have a technique I’m able to and have been able to use in other successful paintings. I’m not sure if I feared failure or success. What’s important is that I took a risk, followed my intuition, and made the change I needed to make. “Have courage" continues to be my moto because overcoming fear is something I work on regularly. Maybe you do, too.

©March 2018, Francesca Bandino, Roses in a Yellow Cloud. Acrylic on Stretched Canvas, 30x20x.8 inches