Perfume lV, An Evening Out Oil Painting by Linda McCoy

The history of perfume began in antiquity. The word perfume used today to describe scented mixtures, derives from the Latin "per fume", meaning through smoke. Perfumery, or the art of making perfumes, began in ancient Egypt but was developed and further refined by the Romans and the Arabs. Although perfume and perfumery also existed in East Asia, much of its fragrances are incense based. And so they say. I'm not familiar about the way it's made, but I love the scents. When painting the perfume bottles, even though they are closed you can still smell the fragrance. It just adds to the experience. I'm forever intrigued by the glass.

6"X6" Oil on gallery wrapped stretched canvas. $100.00 tcoy1@msn.com

Perfume lll, Still Life Oil Painting by Linda McCoy

I thought I would post how the painting looks in a Deco style frame. It's sometimes hard to imagine what the paintings would look like framed. Most all of my paintings are gallery wrapped but can be framed if you like.

With all of the computer generated images that we see daily, it's refreshing to just take objects to a sunny window and paint what you see. This painting took nearly all day to finish, but since I placed the light areas in first I didn't lose the light passages. Even though I now paint almost everything in oil, I painted in watercolor for years. In watercolor the light is the white of the paper and I still follow the "map the light areas first" process.

I have bottles and bottles of perfume, left over from department store visits where I couldn't resist the lure of the perfume ladies spraying the latest scent everywhere. "Oh you have to try this one!" Some scents I never bought again, but some like Paloma Picasso's I wore forever, but just got tired of it one day.

Some women I know wear a signature fragrance and would never think of changing it. I like the unexpected, so now I change them often.

Who could forget the movie "Scent of a Woman?" "Perfume?" (If you haven't seen "Perfume" fasten your seatbelt!)

Perfume ll, Still Life Oil Painting by Linda McCoy

Round two on perfume bottles. The blue heart shaped one is from ebay, I really liked the cobalt blue color. The greenish color is my daughter Bree's, the other is from my own collection. Interesting shapes and colors. We are forever in search of just the right fragrance!
$100.00

Perfume, Still Life Oil Painting by Linda McCoy

No telling what effect the bright sun is going to have on these transparent bottles until you set them up. Sunlight bouncing all all over, reflections, shadows, reflected light, light passing through the amber liquid. Warm light, cool light, warm shadows, cool shadows. Sad when the painting was finished, it was fun and challenging.
6"X6" Oil on gallery wrapped stretched canvas. $100.00 tcoy1@msn.com