Dominique Amendola is a French-born painter currently living and working in Northern California. She focuses primarily on landscapes and figures, using gorgeously vibrant colors to create scenes of amazing clarity and intensity.
It’s that brilliant color that first attracted me to Dominique’s work, along with a sort of Impressionist flair that permeates her paintings as well.
Take this piece, for example, entitled Monterey Port with Boats and Seals.
Almost every color is saturated. . . the shadows are rich greens; the water is a pure blue mixed with nearly pure white. I say nearly, because the white in this painting has touches of yellow in it, giving us just a hint of the warm afternoon sunlight and crystal-clear skies above.
And speaking of “Impressionist flair,” you’ll notice that those seals are simply dashes of greenish-gray amidst brushstrokes of blue and white, yet it’s still more than enough to get the point across.
In The Bathers, Dominique packs even more color into one space by completely filling in the background with tall grasses and other foliage.
Where the shrubbery threatened to overwhelm her subject matter, however (like the area behind the boy in orange) Dominique lightened the background grass to a paler green while emphasizing the intensity of his reflection to pull that figure forward.
And as lovely has her paintings are, Dominique’s scenes rarely feel posed or structured. French Market, below is a perfect example.
The scene may be ordinary but Dominique’s handling of the paint and the beautiful colors make it so much more.
To see more work by Dominique Amendola, please visit her website or take a look at her art blog for additional daily paintings like the ones above.