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In the Shadow of the Ruins

We, as westerners, live today in a society of a tacitly accepted moral relativism and therefore moral confusion and blindness. As a recently and decidedly Post-Christian society, we have rebelled against our own past, yet we find ourselves unable to loose the shackles of our monotheistic and moralistic history. We all desire, no it's more than just desire, we all know with certainty that things like justice, honor, beauty, compassion, and charity are real and objective goods, yet we mock certain of these truths to a shockingly frightening degree. As C.S. Lewis, in The Abolition of Man, wrote, "We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst." 

This painting is my hopefully mysterious allegory of this moral confusion. I have hinted at older symbols of justice and beauty, but distorted them. In the distance, the ruins of our monotheistic history can still just be seen. I don't want to, through an all too detailed description of the painting, strip away the possibility of the viewers own interpretations so I will end here with the hope that these two paragraphs have offered just enough of my thoughts and intentions to subtly illuminate the work, yet leave the viewer peering into the still dark mystery.

In the Shadow of the Ruins

oil on linen

24x36 inches

Limited edition prints of this painting are available.
Please contact me via email for purchasing information
donovanfitzgeraldart@gmail.com

Bernstein Portrait Commission

I was recently commissioned to create a portrait of Claudia Bernstein, the wife of Ed Bernstein one of Las Vegas' most well known and respected attorneys. Claudia was just a pleasure to paint. Her gentle shyness is nicely depicted in this pose as her gaze flees from direct contact with the viewer's. This painting was mounted in a wide black frame and hung over their beautiful fireplace.

Bernstein Portrait

oil on linen

36x48 inches

hand detail

final placement of the portrait over the fireplace

Sanders Portrait Commission

This is a small oval portrait commission which I completed near the end of 2014. I used a very limited range of color in this piece to lend a nice vintage feeling to the work. After completion, the painting was set in a lovely aged gold leaf frame.

Sanders Portrait

oil on Belgian linen

12x16 inches

Commission: Pot Liquor, Las Vegas

I was commissioned by a group of designers and restaurateurs to create several large oil paintings for a new Las Vegas restaurant called Pot Liquor. The concept for the new restaurant was an upscale hip BBQ joint. Along with the designer, I came up with a several painting concepts depicting farm animals in unique styles. Each painting focuses on a different animal, set within very different backgrounds and utilizing different painting techniques to make sure each piece has it's look of it own. There were several individuals involved with the creation of this space, and you will notice the varying tastes being realized within each painting.

PIG
This painting grew out of combining of my personal painting style, being more classical in nature, with the subject matter decided upon by myself and the designer. The only request I was given was to paint a pig with the butcher's diagram depicted on its side. As I mentioned, this is a BBQ restaurant so you will understand the subtle humor in the painting, considering its final home.

So in this painting I have placed a pig upon a wooden platform, standing before a drapery hanging over a brick wall. The scene is lighted by a warm golden glow creeping across the canvas from right to left, before it is ended by a strong cast shadow over the left side of the painting. My goal with this piece was to create a very "classical" looking painting, while still incorporating the buyers requests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

COW
The desire for this painting was, to show a very simple pastoral scene with a cow as the central focus, but obviously updated with the butcher's diagram and some technique changes in the actual painting. The horizon separates a golden sky and flat plains. The landscape falls off into large heavy vertical brushstrokes with the goal of making the scene, as a whole, feel a bit more contemporary. One of my primary concerns with this piece was to create an interesting contrast between the warm golden sky and the darker cooler cow in the foreground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ROOSTER
This painting was based on a personal request of one of the owners of Pot Liquor. His request was to create a very modern urban landscape with a large rooster standing on a Cadillac in the center foreground. Obviously, this is a rather specific request, so you will likely notice the differences between this and the other paintings. I wanted to use very heavy and loose brushstrokes to depict the urban scene, to bring a more modern style to the final piece. As you move nearer the center of the painting more details begin to emerge until you reach the rooster, which is painted more traditionally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working with Pot Liquor was an interesting and very rewarding experience. I have always enjoyed collaborating with others to create pantings which I may not necessarily have chosen to create on my own. This type of commission allows (or forces) me to work outside of my zone of comfort. And this in turn helps me in my growth as an artist.

 Thanks for reading,


Donovan Fitzgerald



CES digital painting

I was recently commissioned, by Sony and a digital painting application company called ArtRage, to create a large digital painting for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which takes place in Las Vegas every January. I am not a digital painter but the ArtRage application is surprisingly similar to traditional painting. I would certainly recommend this program to any artist interested in digital painting.

Sony requested that I create one large painting completed in panels on more than 20 touch screen computers which were mountes on a wall. This made for an interesting effect, one large painting seen through "panes" almost as if seen through a window. I still need to piece together the entire image, because it was created over many separate computers, so I am only able to post the portrait panel of the painting today.

"Poppy Meadow" portrait detail

The intent with this painting was to create a visually beautiful and interesting painting, but without making any especially bold statements. After all, many thousands of people were to see this painting and Sony didn't want to distance any specific group of viewers. So, I proposed the concept of a very simple portrait of a beautiful young woman walking through a poppy field. The symbolism behind poppies has always interested me, so you will see them appear occasionally in my work.

Portfolio Images 2014

Thank you for visiting my blog. I will attempt to post new work on this blog fairly often so please continue to check back for more updates. Below I have posted several images from my recent portfolio along with some basic info about each piece and a few in depth explanations of my vision for certain paintings. Please enjoy.

Sincerely,

Donovan Fitzgerald

donovanfitzgerald.com
donovanfitzgeraldart@gmail.com
facebook.com/donovan.fitzgerald

"To End an Age"

Oil on Canvas, 54x36 inches

This piece originally grew out of my desire to paint a figure surrounded by the local desert landscape of Southern Nevada. After completing my plein air studies of the landscape, I spent some time drawing with my niece, who was to pose for the piece. At this point my concept grew out of her transition from early childhood into what might be called early or pre adolescence. In the painting she symbolically leaves behind her little rag doll, a remnant of her youth. Her gaze is proud, and strong, yet subtly fearful and saddened at the loss of childhood.

"Eve and the Fall of Man"

30x40 inches, Oil on Canvas

This piece is my attempt to portray the story from Genesis in a very iconic and subtly allegorical composition. You see Eve, fallen over a heavy, solitary stone, with the bitten apple lying beside her hand. The landscape which she inhabits is, symbolically, more arid and lonely that one would expect from a "Garden". From behind the dark mass of trees, the oncoming storm approaches.

"Poppies" (Commissioned Work)

approx 40x60 inches, Oil on Canvas

This painting was a commissioned work. It was loosely based on a design which I had previously conceived, and was altered to fit the client's feelings/tastes. I hope this piece will have sparks of romance, but clouded with an air of melancholy. Poppies have traditionally been used as a symbol of both sleep and death, I want this symbolism to bring a certain ambiguity to the final composition.

"Artist's Wife in Black" (in progress)

26x42 inches, Oil on Canvas

When I paint my wife I feel as though, in some sense, I am also painting my self portrait. Through her lovely face, I see my children, myself, and our long history together. The portraits of my wife are among the most deeply personal of my works. You will notice an underlying melancholy in her expression, my wife has a tendency to become very shy and introverted while sitting for her portrait, and I wouldn't want to change that about her. This fact, that the sitter, likely unintentionally, influences and almost defines the direction of the painting, is one of my favorite aspects of figurative and especially portrait painting.

"Family Concert" (Commissioned Work)

10x5 feet, Oil on Canvas

This was a commission for a collector and amazingly talented musician and performer, Frankie Moreno. The concept is simply a family of musicians, around a harpsichord, playing music together. Frankie and his family actually posed for the painting as well, so that made this a very fun and personal piece.

"Young Woman draped in Black"

20x30 inches, Oil on Canvas

This piece is, visually, very emblematic of my stylistic love for baroque painting. I very much enjoy the use of a thick, heavy, black atmosphere, falling away behind the soft and gentle figure emerging from the cloud of pitch behind. These types of paintings speak volumes to me, through their simplicity and subtlety.

"Orpheus and Eurydice" (Commissioned ceiling painting)

Approx 28x18 feet, acrylic directly on ceiling

This piece is based upon the wonderfully tragic story, told within Ovid's epic poem Metamorphoses, of Orpheus' ultimately and sadly unsuccessful journey into the underworld to save his beloved, Eurydice. I could explain each figure in the piece but that would take a few paragraphs, so I will refrain. I will just say this piece is very much designed around my personal interpretation of Ovid's story and how it affected me.

"Artist's wife, The Melancholic"

20x24 inches, Oil on Canvas

another portrait of my wife

"The Silver Pot"

14x22 inches, Oil on Canvas

"Winter Still life"

14x22 inches, Oil on Canvas

This is a very simple yet personal still life for me. This is plainly winter in the Fitzgerald home. in the composition you see apples from our trees, the dead leaves of those trees strewn across the table, a Charles Dickens novel, and a pint of Guinness. Winter in my home displayed in a painting.

Ceiling Fresco, Commission

approx 45x25 feet, acrylic over fresh plaster

"Callan, oil sketch"

12x16 inches, Oil on Canvas

This is a quick study I painted of my beautiful daughter, Callan.

Live Chalk Painting

"The Storm" after Bouguereau

I am often invited to shows, all over the West coast, where I paint, in chalk on the street, reproductions of great master's work. In this case I am reproducing a work by my favorite french painter, William Bouguereau of the 19th Century.

Assorted charcoal drawings

I have an endless amount of these, I will post more another time.

"Seated Figure study"

20x24 inches, Oil on Canvas

simple figure study in oils

I suppose that's enough for today, I will post more soon. Thanks again for visiting, I hope you enjoyed this small sampling of my recent work.