My latest painting titled "Cast iron gallery Belle"

My latest painting titled "Cast iron gallery Belle", Available. 

This morning I completed my latest painting titled "Cast iron gallery Belle". This painting was started in Dec of 2010 when I was living in Baltimore, Maryland. I was confident I would complete the painting at that time that I dated it. Finally 6 years latter It was completed this morning May 25th 2016 in New Orleans, Louisiana. This painting was a part of about 40 unfinished canvases I have started over the years, that are in various stages of unfinishedness. 

The painting Shows a Southern Belle holding a fan in blue dress standing on a ornate cast iron gallery.  On the gallery is a terracotta potted orange tree. A open guillotine window shows a cut crystal gasolier chandelier in a upstairs room. The building is salmon colored stucco walls. A French Quarter balcony can be small or stretch the length of the building. You see most the balconies in the French Quarter of New Orleans. You will also see a number of cast iron galleries. A Gallery is generally wider than a balcony as it is supported to the ground by posts or columns often the width of a sidewalk.   

Ironwork is so associated with Old New Orleans that it may come as a surprise to some that wrought iron (worked by hand) and later cast iron are Victorian additions and not original to the oldest French Colonial masonry townhouses. Balconies and porches were bounded by tall wooden columns. Decorative ironwork, derived from Spanish architecture, mimicked another famous Spanish product: lace, and offered an ornate visual contrast to otherwise sober, handsome fronts. Wrought iron was popular in New Orleans during the Spanish colonial period 1760's to 1803. Hand made wrought iron was still used after 1803 when New Orleans became American up until the mid 19th century. During the mid 19th century the more ornate cast iron work is often floral or leafy, adorned with French fleur-de-lis and coquilles, or shells (associated with Saint Jacques and religious pilgrims), also abound.

New Orleans Creole Micaela Leonarda Antonia Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba use of visually appealing lacy decorative cast iron railings on buildings she was building on Jackson square between 1848-1850, set the style for balconies throughout the French Quarter on older and new buildings. Famously, the railings on the Baroness buildings feature the intertwined letters “A” and “P” signifying the two families, Almonester and Pontalba, who were so responsible for the architectural  face New Orleans presents to the world.

A cut crystal gasolier chandelier can be seen thru the guillotine window.

The architecture of the building is Italianate in style. 

Italianate style Features, Balanced, symmetrical rectangular shape. all, narrow, double-paned  Arch-headed windows with hood moldings, brackets and cornices. Balconies with wrought-iron railings, or Renaissance balustrading, Carved decorative keystones. 

My latest painting titled "Cast iron gallery Belle", Available. 

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