Figure painting, quick studies

Hello!!
Following are the 2 small painting from this afternoon quick studies class.
Unfortunately I arrived few minutes late and all the easel were taken :(
My fault, I wanted to stop and get a coffee in my favorite place in Palo Alto.
Coffee that I have then spilt in the class since I didnt have enough leg room and I kicked it!!! :(
 I had to sit down in front of the model an paint while sitting down ,holding the canvas with one hand.
Not very practical!!! So for the bad situation I was in , I am happy with the results. :)
Enough talking here are the paintings:

Carmen

Hello !
Cold and cloudy today , a perfect Halloween day :)
I have finally finished my big painting, but I need to wait for some sun to take a decent picture, that means you will have to wait!
What I am posting are the portraits from yesterday's class.
First a full face....

 then a quick profile in the last 20 minutes...

Siesta time

Happy weekend everyone!
The sun is back shining here, just back from a nice run with Mona: A W E S O M E !!
Going to do some food shopping soon then I am planning to paint in the garden in the afternoon.
Today ' painting is my present to my best friend in Italy, she just had baby few weeks ago and this cat is on his way to Italy!! Ready to be hang in Lorenzo's bedroom!!

 12x12 inches mixed media on canvas
as you can see the cat is done with sand, very cool to touch!!

Figure Painting

Hello!
Wednesday today, no class, no meetings, NOTHING but painting, such a beautiful day!
I love day like that when the only interruption I have is eating! ( and cooking! I made a strawberry cheese cake, yummy!)
My big painting is getting there, still some things to fix and some major areas to work on but I am happy with it for now, is not easy but this is its beauty too.

I am posting the 2 painting I did yesterday , 2 studies from a model.

I love the cropping, while I am not very happy with the choice of colors..anyway, here they are! Enjoy it!

Head drawing

Hello!
As every Tuesday I went to head drawing class in Palo Alto. I normally cycle but today I was lucky enough t get a lift from my husband, a good start of the day!

 I drew this model many times before. Still, every time I see him entering the class I found myself thinking :
 " this guy is tough to draw!!! "
While posing he talks a lot and MOVES even more, making everything more difficult!Today though he said something funny.
There was some reggae music playing in the background and he came out with this : " You guys cannot expect me not to move at the sound of this music and being black at the same time!" He made me laugh :)

These are the 2 drawings I managed to do in class.

The first one took 3 poses of 20 minutes each:

With 20 minutes left to the end of the class I squeezed in a quick light profile:

I am very pleased with both drawings, I like especially the eyes  in the first one.

Have a good night everyone!

Poppies on a wooden panel.

Good evening dear friends! Hope you had a good start of week.
It was pouring down here when we woke this morning but the weather cleared up in the afternoon . It was the first serious rain since April and it felt nice. Even the sun after 7 months in a row can become boring, believe me!!
I worked all day on a new painting started yesterday,this is a real challenge...I went for something difficult, finger crossed!
I am about to wash my brushes and crash on the sofa!
But first let me show you today's painting!

Last week I bought a new set of palette knife and I use them to create this painting on a wooden panel.

Three poppies. Great texture! Hope you like it!
Have a good everyone!
ciao!!

Experimenting with chinese brushes with Zdenka :)

Hello!

Hope you guys had a nice Friday, Friday is almost ALWAYS nice anyway, right?
My day was very busy with everything but art !! Sometime I need a day off :)
What I am posting now is the result of an hour or so of "chatting and painting " from yesterday afternoon.
My very good friend Zdenka is taking a class in chinese brushes and she was patient enough to explain me some technique !
I love her!! She a real sweetheart, my first friend here and the most important I can say.
This technique is very relaxing, and fun. I am buying my own set of brushes and a  book so I ll practice more!

I used red, black and green ink on rise paper.
The Chinese writing means PEACEFULNESS.

Have a nice weekend everyone!!
ciaoo!

Radish oh my radish!

Good evening everyone!
Hope you had a nice day, mine was excellent and very busy.
Amazing weather, totally like summer today!
Run with Mona first than off to the garden for some painting, and since I havent been painting a still life in such a long time I decided to paint a RADISH :)

5x5 inches oil on canvas

Unfortunately the leaves of my radish were ugly and old ...so I went for some fresher leaves !

and this is Mona with radish :)

Impression of poppies at dawn

16x20 inches oil on canvas

Hello!
Sunny and warm here...( nice nice nice!!!)
I spent part of the morning painting in the garden finishing today's painting, an impression of poppies.
It has a very peaceful feeling, I hope you will like it!
Off to the pool for a quick swimm :)
I LOVE CALIFORNIA!!
ciaooo!

Asia

Today's model was Asia, a girl from Oakland.
She was wearing a funny hat very Moulin Rouge style...very tough to draw!

I am very happy with the drawing, the straight front position is not easy ;)
Here is a picture with the model:

 No painting for me today unfortunately but a lot of cleaning and  some cooking, chocolate biscuits are in the oven, almost ready!!
Off for a walk to the park dog with Miss Mona now,  she driving me crazy!
ciao!!!

My turn modelling :) LOL!

Hello everyone!
Summer seems to be back :) at least for a few days, and I am clearly enjoying it !!

As every Tuesday I went to my portrait class, the model was running late so I offered to pose for my artist friends to warm up.
I posed for merely 20/25 min...these are some of their work!
It was fun!!

Impression of poppies

4x4 inches mixed media and oil on canvas



Good afternoon!
Monday...a good one :) !!
After a nice morning run with hubby and Mona, I spent the rest of the morning painting on a bigger canvas ( aiming to finish in couple of days)

 This tiny painting has a lot of color and a lot of work on it.
Last week I glued some layers of paper ( Palo Alto yellow pages!) on the canvas,  then painted with different color and let it dry.
Today I added the flowers and the sky, is pretty cute  I think!
Hope you like it!
ciao!!

Hearts on wood

Mixed media on a wooden panel 7,5 x 10,5 inches

I discovered painting on wood some time ago....and I fell in love with it!! loving the texture and the weight of the panel especially.

Amazing weather today in the Bay area, so beautiful that I decided to drive to the beach with Mona, big mistake!!!After 1 hour in the traffic (It should have taken us 38 min!!)I gave up and we drove back  :(
We ll try again during the week!

Have a nice evening everyone!

Ale's Hibiscus :)

Hello and happy Saturday!
Yesterday was Ale's birthday, a friend of mine who love hibiscus  A LOT ...so I painted a tiny one for her
4x4 inches oil on canvas

Sunflowers on jeans

Hello and happy Friday!!!

Almost a week ago my dear husband  broke  a pair of jeans and...I was quite happy about it!!!
For a while I was thinking about painting on denim material and here was my chance :)

I like the idea of RECYCLABLE ARTWORK, making something nice and different out of what people is throwing away...I believe is pretty cool!

The pieces of denim are glued on a wooden panel, hope you like it!

Into the woods

Hello hello!
Cloudy and chilly today, a nice change!
Fall is here, I can tell! And is very welcome , I love the change of seasons, trees turning red and leaves everywhere...I actually think fall is the most romantic season...do you agree?

Today is painting is the one I have been working on for past week, I find it very romantic and very soft...
I am super happy for the way I rendered the hand of the girl, I hope you like it too!
Have a great Thursday everybody!

18x24 inches
oil on canvas

ready for Halloween :)

Hello!
Here you can see our nicely painted  pumpkins :)
Starting from right me, Michal and on the left Mona .
WE ARE READY for trick or treat!

Cherry blossom in gold

Hello!
Today was a good Monday :I managed to clean the house, run with Mona, ,go for a swim, cook a strawberry cheese cake, do some painting...now time to make dinner and take Mona out for a walk.
Busy day !

I really enjoy working on my small painting yesterday, so today I made some more with that gold -collage style.
My husband is purely in love with Japan, (Haven't been there yet!maybe once I go I ll fall in follow too, looking forward to it!) so this painting on wood Japanese style is dedicated to him .
Hope you like it too!

Survivor

Hello everybody!
I hope you had a good Sunday,  mine was pretty awesome! :)

Running on Sunday morning is nicer than running on week days.
First of all there is less or no traffic at all,  second I meet other Sunday runners, all happy and cheerful...and finally there is no hurry to be back home early so I can take detours and run as much as I want!
 That makes running on a Sunday morning just priceless.
 I spent the rest of the morning cooking curries , yummy!!Then some painting of course!
Went back on working on my last canvas, 18x24 inches, a girl from the back,  almost finished ( so you 'll see it soon!)
The weather is still very warm here, with temperature in the mid 70F during the day, so as nice break from painting I went for a swim.  NICE NICE NICE!!

Enough about my sporty day! Now let's talk about today's painting :)

The day I came back from Europe my lovely husband was at the airport, waiting for me WITH FLOWERS!! I love him! and he know I love flowers!
They died pretty quickly, unfortunately :(
In less than a week they were all gone apart from one, a white carnation (garofano, in italiano!). A shy , tiny strong flower that at the beginning I havent even to noticed.
Well,it is still alive after 20 days!!!It definitely deserved a painting!
This is a 6X6 inches mixed media on canvas.
There is a collage , then acrylics and on top oil with palette knife.
It portraits the carnation from 3 different point of view.
I hope you like it!

 And here a picture of the survivor with its own painting!

Figure painting

Happy Friday everyone :)

This two paintings on card board are from last week figure painting classes.
The first one was done with 3 sessions pose and the second with 2 sessions.
I find this class very challenging and very tough, reason why i have TO STICK TO IT :)
When you find a naked model in front of you ...is always intimidating, no matter how many times you have been doing it ( I havent been doing it for too long!!)...deciding the flesh color, and cropping her body...I find it hard and beautiful at the same time.

A bit cloudy today, hopefully the sun will find his way out there (so that I can go swimming!!)
Off to the garden now, starting a new painting, very excited about it!
Have a nice weekend everyone!

Baby in B/W

12/12 inches oil on canvas

I was meant to finish this painting yesterday afternoon....but we had such a crazy day that I didn't even had time to touch my brushes!!
Today has been nice and calm, at least till now :)
Great morning run with Mona, no killing of squirrels and no emergencies of any kind:N I C E.

I am pretty happy with this last portrait of my husband, it was a bit of struggle...it s always difficult to paint your other half ( I think!!)
But he is liking it too...so good!!

and here it the tiny picture I found in a magazine, a painting from Carlo Botelho that inspired me:

Have a great day everyone!

Portrait of Rita

Still summer here in Menlo Park, with temperature around 90F today !! (over 30C!!)
Today it was a pretty busy day :)
Class in the morning and in the afternoon...and a nice refreshing energizing swim afterwards...this is what I called a great life!! ( super thanks to my husband for taking me here!!!)

Anyway...let's g back to drawing!!
Here is today's model: Rita
I am pretty happy because I managed to do two full drawings.
For the next month or so, I ll not attend this class,  taking a figure drawing class instead! I ll miss it though! so very much!! But it will make me good to experiment new things ;)

Emily ,  a lady in my class, painted the whole scene from the back...the model in front and me red haired drawing her! I love this painting!
Thanks Emily for sharing it !!

Baby in B/W

Hello!
Monday was quite ok this week, the weather here is still amazing!
In between my painting session I was able to made to the pool... it was fantastic!!!
Few weeks ago while in Italy one day I went to the beach with my dear friend Fabiana, we spent the whole afternoon suntanning and reading Vanity Fair catching up on the Italian Gossip :)(sometime you have to!!)
Anyway...while reading i find I find the picture of very inspiring painting, a portrait in black and white from a Portuguese artist, Carlos Botelho. It was done using mainly big brushes...I decided I wanted to do something on the same line.
Now I do not usually paint with large, big brushes...I prefer small, tiny, round pointed brushes so this for me was a change and a challenge.

Here you can see my painting...on the way ! the green will disappear and I ll add some red...