Happy new year :)

16x20 inches , gallery canvas  "Sunshine energy"

Hello:) my last painting for this year.
This painting is energizing, is positive...is probably a very good New Year painting!

Here are some details:

The next painting it will be another face...I am just in love with painting faces...:-)
Will probably do the sketch now, after drinking my after lunch coffee OF CURSE!
Then some food shopping and tonight out in SF with some friends for some drinks.
Have a good evening everyone!
Happy new year!
BUON ANNO!!
Szcesliwego Nowego Roku!

Carefree, work in progress

Happy Saturday dear friends:)

Last weekend of the year.... end of our 3rd year here in California, and of my 4th here in the USA

wow...time flies!!!!

I can say that at this point of my life I AM HAPPY, i do what I love most every single day, I married a man that I love every day more...I have a fantastic dog...if only my family was closer :(.....but hopefully I ll go and visit them soon!:)


"If we spend our time with regrets over yesterday, and worries over what might happen tomorrow, we have no today in which to live." I love this quote :)

 Today I busied my self with a new painting, I am posting now the pict of the work in progress

is a 16x20 inches canvas, oil of course!!:)

Now I ll show you the  work behind the painting:

this is the watercolor I did at first to decide the color I was going to use

Then I decide to combine Chris picture with a picture I took in Faenza when I was there in September.
That day I was around with a friend, The colors, shadows, and combination of the arcade strike me so much that I went to take a picture, thinking that sooner or later I would paint it somewhere :) FINALLY! :)

And here is the underpainting....

Dinner time and relax now, back to work tomorrow !
Have a good night guys!

Gaby and Chris sketch

Good evening!

Friday today, I love shorter holiday weeks :)

Another cold wintery day. This is my third Californian winter and is the coldest and wettest of them all...but not a problem! The fire is on and a super yummy apple cake is ready...it will warm us up, I am sure! The smell is sooooo good!!

While Gaby and Chris were here we went on a small photo shoot expedition.
 I need pictures for future paintings project, don't I ? :-)

It was just after the rain and before some more rain, a very wet day!!

Today I worked on the sketches , tomorrow I ll start the paintings.

Chris

 and Gaby

Red hair girl, FINAL :)

Hello everyone!
Red hair girl has a new hair style :) she looks much better this way, hope you guys like her as much as I do!

16x20inches

Red hair girl

Hello everyone!
Hope you had a nice xmas break!
Our was fabulous :) We had 2 very good friends from London here with us and we had a great time!
They left yesterday ...and now I am back to my art :)

Here is my last painting, red hair girl, gallery canvas 16x20inches

Filippo :) is born !

6x9 inches acrylic on canvas

Another name for a baby just born :)

Christmas is almost here...and rain is back!
Lat night it rained so much that our garden is back at the swimming pool state, funny!
And Mona right now is staring at me waiting for me to take her our, hopefully it will stop sometime soon!
Today 2 very good girlfriends of mine are coming to spend Christmas with us, very much looking forward to that!
have a good day everyone!

Look up for beauty, and keep the memory of it with you

Have a nice Thursday everyone!! and keep looking up for beauty, of course :)

Red hair girl , work in progress

16x20
Early wake up here, my husband had some work to do and I had an early painting morning, NICE!
I still need to work on details and highlights on the hair, but all in all I am very happy with how it 's coming a long!
Today was freezing, -1C when we woke up!! now is sunny and warmer , maybe +10C.
Going soon for a swim then off to SF to pick up some paintings that were hanging in a bar for the last two weeks! Really looking forward to have all my guys back home :)


will try to finish this one between tomorrow and Friday!
ciao!! see u!

Back to painting time!!

Hello :-)

Today it was a good day!
It was SUNNY, no clouds , no rain, JUST SUN (but windy and cold!)
Beautiful! I had the best start of the day ever: an energetic morning run with hubby and Mona .
After that I set up my easel, took my my oil color out andstarted painting a girl face like in the old times!!! :)
It felt so good!!!
I had a long break since my last figurative painting . It was a well needed break actually, I enjoyed painting fairies and letters and working on my etsy shop but now it was time to go back.
Here I am posting my work in progress, hopefully it will be done by Saturday.
I have 2 friends arriving and not time to paint over Christmas, let s see what I ll make out of it!

As you guys know I love painting girls, especially girls' faces and especially red hair girls!


16x20 inches work in progress!

Tom :) hello little monkeys!

Monday night, looking forward to crash on the sofa with Mona!!! She is already asleep of course :)
Once again the weather was cloudy, rainy and grey ...not the best weather to help me fighting the holiday season sadness!!!
I know is normal, when you are far away...bla bla bla...I do know! but I am still feeling a bit sad :)

To cheer me up I painted a cute Tom name with funny monkeys!
Hope the new born ( and the parents!) will like it too!

Have a good evening everyone!
ciao ciao!!!

5x5 inches acrylic on canvas

last for now :) ... A....as in A N D R E A :)

Saturday, grey and cold .....but still ok! I am sitting at my desk, Bossa Nova is playing in the background, Mona is sleeping tired after our run and I am working on some new fairies that you will soon !
Life is good!!!
Today's little painting is last letter for the name, here you can see them all together !
They should be hung following the beach line :) sweet!

 Have a great weekend everyone!! where ever you guys are!!:)

esty and TEYLA

Hello! 

This art work is commission I got on Etsy, the art website where I am selling my paintings, please visit my shop here is the link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LAURADALLAGATA

Selling art to perfect strangers and having them returning to my shop too is an amazing experience, I am really enjoying this! 

I love sharing my art  

These 5 small canvas 6x6 inches are meant to go to the nursery of this baby girl named Teyla, in IOWA :)

E...

Hello !!
I have the feeling today was the coldest day of the year, with 52F!!
And I was brave enough to go for a swim :) The worst part is getting in and out of the pool but the feeling of well being afterwards is priceless!!
Today fishy letter is E
alwsy 5x5 inches acrylic on canvas

and now R !!

5x5 inches acrylic on canvas

Fishes are piling up trying to keep R out of the water ! Will they make it :) ?

 Tuesday today, chilly but nice and sunny. Mona is suntanning in the garden, lucky her!!
After spending the morning designing a new project, I am now sipping a very good espresso ( I am Italian! what would you expect ? dripping coffee? NEVER!!!) and about to go out for canvas shopping soon!
 Have a good rest of the day everybody!

Love Fairy

Good evening everyone!
Hope you had a great start of the week! I did :) It was a busy day and now I am just looking forward to crash on the sofa...but maybe I should start ironing first...I so much DO NOT want to iron! amazing!!! But keeping postponing is no good..I know. :(

Anyway let go back to the IMPORTANT stuff, ART!

I love this one fairy, I love the combination of clay, wood, paper!

Down is a detail, 

 hanging...

hope you like it!!

D

Here is the third letter...we are half way! You ll get the name soon! Or you have guessed already ;)?
5x5 inches acrylic on canvas

...N.....

What a beautiful day this one!!
Cold but sunny in the morning but sunny and almost 20 C during the day...awesome!!!
After dropping hubby in SF to study with his study group  (lucky him!) Mona and I went to Berkeley for a full day adventure.
Driving roof down while wearing a T-shirt in December is priceless, I love it.
We had a gorgeous hike, ( plenty of squirrels!!), picnic, coffee break and some Christmas shopping.
Then back to SF to meet some friends and pick up hubby, of course!!!

Today is letter is N
5x5 inches acrylic on canvas

have a good night everyone !

A...jump in the "fish world"

Happy Saturday everyone!

After a looooong break I am back at painting letter, and I am loving it! so much fun:)

Get ready to jump in the fish world!

5x5 inches acrylic on canvas

Excellence is an habit

Hello!
A cold wintery Friday this one, the good news is that the SUN is back!!:)

Today's fairy is dedicated to my husband, he really likes this Aristotele's quote:
"We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act is an habit"
So....here is it my Excellence fairy!:)
Hope you like it!
The dress of the fairy is done with clay....i am loving this kind of clay you can cook in the kitchen oven!!

Leap fearslessly

Hello and Happy Thursday everyone!
Cold but not rainy today, a nice change:)
This is my last fairy, done on framed wooden panel.
I worked the wooden panel as usual with collage and acrylic ,then I painted the fairy and finally added the wings done with clay.
The final effect is awesome!! I love her :)

hope you like it!
Off to SF to hang some paintings in a wine-beer place, my first time!
Wish me good luck!
I am bringing the LEAP FEARLESSLY fairy along with me ;)

Hangover breakfast beer

Hello hello HELLO!!!!!
I am pleased to show you my last painting, 16x20 inches oil on canvas
The picture I am posting is not really good, will take a better one tomorrow IF the sun shows up.  Another grey winter day in Menlo Park, but not too cold at least .

Beer and pancakes, a nice hangover breakfast :)

 This painting was a real struggle!!!
Especially beacuse I started this painting without having  Photo reference,( a VERY BAD idea!!).
It was just a funny idea, of my husband of course!:)
One day out of desperation we opened a bottle of bear and poured it over some slices of bread, to see the effect, that helped a bit!

I was pouring, Michal was taking the picture!

Anyway ,It took a while but to me now is finished !!

Time to open a beer now , have a good evening everyone!!

 Monday evening, having dinner in front of my pc while writing my blog, how dutiful!!! :)

I am actually struggling at writing my art statement, as much as I love holding a brush or a pencil in my hand I hate holding a pen to write essays or similar things!!! Not good! especially now!

Today art work is a love wooden block.
 I found the words in a magazine, looking for them was so time consuming that I decided to print them myself for the next project (the fairies!!)

One side:

the other side:

They are really cute, they make a very sweet gift for your loved one!

Some other stuff for y husband desk!!:)
 He is running out of room for work with all my little gift piling up everywhere.

Have a good evening!

Bye Bye Dear Friend...

Hello!
Another rainy day here...and what a rain!! We had a huge storm last night, the garden is upside down with a small swimming pool in the middle...even  Mona is wondering what's happened!!?

Today's fairy was specially created for a dear friend who is going back to Italy for good next week, that was my ARRIVEDERCI gift :)