CANIGLIA - NEW YORK CITY

I apologize for the lack of updates over the last month. I have been traveling a lot for teaching, advising, and art shows. I have been busy working on movies, book illustrations, and new personal paintings. This year was an amazing year for me in teaching. The greatest thing about teaching is seeing the confidence grow in young artists as their voice and vision become stronger in their work. I was in New York this weekend for an awards ceremony at Carnegie Hall in which they recognized my work as a teacher and one of my students for a National Scholastic award in drawing. The ceremony was such an amazing event. Chelsea Clinton was the keynote speaker for the awards ceremony. Whoopi Goldberg gave the guest lecture and other special guest speakers included Matthew Morrison (Glee), Michelle Tan, Jenxpenn, and Donald Lipski. It was great to so many young emerging artists recognized.

During my visit to New York City I had an opportunity to visit the Frick Museum. They currently have one of the most beautiful paintings ever created on display. The painting is called “Flaming June” and was created by the artist Lord Frederic Leighton's in 1895 during the late Victorian art period. It was a controversial painting in its time and still is today. Some people love the painting and some loathe it.

I am one of those who love the exquisite sensitivity, elegant color, and brushstrokes. Leighton creates the composition in a rose-like form, with the sleeping woman configured in rounded radiant orange glow that envelops her strength, beauty, and vulnerability. He puts paint to canvas as elegantly as a poet put words to paper. The painting transcends art and becomes reality. In the gallery that the painting was displayed in at the Frick Museum, you could hear a pin drop. Everyone young and old was in awe of the painting. The Museum does not allow the public to take pictures so I decided to make a sketch in my sketchbook to get a better understanding of the form and composition that Leighton had created. So I sketched for 10 minutes.

I decided that Leighton was a genius. In creating the piece he made things suggestive and ambiguous on purpose. The woman and the dress aren’t observed in particular detail and not transformed into classical anonymity. Instead of classical realism, Leighton goes for the heartstrings of the viewer and uses classic emotion and feeling and the result is genuine love. This piece stands out because it has mood, emotion, and physical beauty. The human condition is a tricky thing to understand and grasp and only a few artist can do it. A good artist pushes paint, a great artist makes paintings that push boundaries and time and this is one of those paintings. I tip my brush to this great master and his painting that lit a room and the hearts of the viewers that had the opportunity to gaze on it first hand.

Thank you, for taking the time to read my post and I will have more updates coming soon with images of my latest paintings.

Caniglia