Breakfast still life in black and white

Hello!
Another super hot day here in Menlo Park, way too hot! It must be around 90F outside.
Perfect heat to dry quickly my painting though :)

This still life is my homework due tomorrow. It was done in two steps, following you can see the pictures.
Last painting in black and white !!! YUPPY!!!;)

 11x 14 inches

oil on canvas

Study

 First step, blocking in darks and lights

Drapery and sphere study in B/W

14x18 inches oil on canvas

Drapery and sphere, study

This is my work from yesterday class, I am pretty happy with it.

Here is the picture of the real still life:

 

It took me a couple of hours ...focus focus focus! I was totally tired afterwards ;)

As soon as I am done with the painting of house (!!! HOPEFULLY SOON) I would like to try to paint some kind of colored drapery ....the list of the paintings to do is getting longer and longer, looking forward to go back to my brushes missing them so much!!

But I am also enjoying decorating the new home, is coming nice !

 

Challenging still life in balck and white

One more painting in black and white from Thursday painting class.
We could choose from different still life set up,  I was attracted by the one I choose the moment I opened the door of my class.
Is a 2 hours study.
Two more black and white to come :)

As much as I missing painting with colors I need to admit that this black and white period it turned out to be very useful, I feel I have improved my light/dark technique and the shading.

 11x14 inches

oil on canvas

 

 

Mr and Mrs Kilpatrick

18x24 inches

oil on canvas

"Love at first sight"

Wishing you both lots of joy and happiness on your wedding day. May it be the start of a wonderful and exciting life together. Lots of love!

 

 

YELLOW ;)

I think my blog is need of some bright color! Just to break down this black and white work stream :)
Me painting our new living room bright yellow might well do the trick!
ENJOY SOME COLOR!

More forms in black and white

 11x14 inches

study oil on canvas

This was our class assignment from last Thursday painting class.

I enjoy especially painting the doughnut shape, I am looking forward to paint real doughnut as soon as I have some time!

The wall painting at the new home is not yet finished but we are getting there:) hopefully two more days and I ll go back to my favourite kind of painting!

This is a picture from class.

Still life with matryoshka doll in black and white

11 x 14 in 

oil on canvas

I love doing my homework for... I think... the first time ever! :)

For tomorrow painting class I was supposed to paint a still life in black and white , these were my choice of subject:

Green green GREEEEEEN :) my new painting room

Today's painting is my wall :)
Yes! Today I spent the day in the new apartment in SF painting walls.
I am so very excited! I will have my own painting room, with green walls:)

 view from one window

I love this view actually...looking forward to be painting the colored houses lined up

TIRED FACE ;)

Back to shapes ....

11x14 inc

oil on canvas

 

My first painting class at the academy yesterday, we talked about light, shadows and primary form.

Then we had to paint 2 basic forms creating and illusion of 3-D dimension on a 2-D surface, this was my work.

 

As first class I loved it! Learning, learning, learning!! Loving it :)

Looking forward to work on my homework tomorrow, today will be a day FULL of paint, but a different kind of paint ;) driving to SF to re-paint our new apartment.

Have a good day everyone!

:)

Cozy Kitchen, quick study 50 min

Hello!
Lately I have been a bit busy with non-painting stuff :( Not good not good!! But it happens :)
And I was missing painting A LOT.
So this evening before dinner I just decided to go for a quick 50 min study.
I was walking around the home looking for inspiration, opening cupboard, opening the fridge looking for some fancy vegetable or something NICE to paint.
Then I decided to go for something quiet different and a bit more busy ;) our kitchen.
Here you can see it ...I will probably do some re-touch here and there tomorrow...
But I want to leave it fresh and spontaneous.

 9x12 inc

oil on canvas

Cozy kitchen

Going to get ready for my first day at the Art Academy tomorrow, exciting!!
Have a good night everyone!:)

A blind date....4 years ago there was a summer storm

14x11 inches oil on canvas

Blind date

4 years ago I went on a blind date that completely changed my life.

After exchanging some emails we met in pub near my place in London. He was terribly cute, funny, interesting, good looking...well I was immediately hooked on him ;)

He entered my life like a summer storm and he never left.

He is today more than ever the love of my life.

Happy meeting anniversary baby!

Love youxxxx

A quiet place, a quiet painting

5x5 inches

oil on stretched canvas

A quiet place

A tiny cozy quiet painting....
Sometimes I think I would love to leave in a tiny home with a red roof in the middle nowhere,like the one in this painting.
But that is gonna stay a painting dream :) 
Moving soon to SF and looking forward to paint the ocean view that we get from our apartment....IF IF IF I clean the window;)

Dreaming, mixed media and oil on canvas

8x10 inches

oil and mixed media on canvas

Dreaming

 Another experiment with dried paint, here I also used modeline paste to creat texture on the canvas.

Once is dried it will be a painting fun to touch :)

Is similar in a way to the one I did last week, here they are together.

Hope you like it!

Enjoy !!

Cowgirl at heart :)

9x12 inches

oil on canvas board

quick study 

60 min

As you can see from today's still life I am 100% in a footwear mood lately ;)

These are my favorite boots EVER.

I bought them 4 years ago in Marina di Ravenna while walking around the shopping street with my friend Michelle. We had a fun week time at the beach , a nice break from out life in London.

At the time I  was dating a very cute polish guy (!) and the main reason of buying the boots was wearing them on a date with him!

The boots worked wonders since I got married to the cute polish guy :)

As you guys know we are about to move house and it's time to decide what to keep and what to throw...I will keep these boots no matter what :)
They have been with me every where in these last 4 years, and I went to MANY places I swear :)
They are super comfortable and they fit with almost any clothing combination, I could define them my feet- bestfriend, definitely to keep!

Here are some pictures of the work in progress, enjoy !

Breath in breath out.... DESTRESS and paint yous shoes!

8x10 inches 

oil on canvas board

DE-STRESS TIME

This is my quick study of yesterday.

After a bad morning I needed to cheer my self up so I put together a still life with shoes. I love painting shoes, they have history, I shared moments with them, they are full of memories.

I was tempted to paint my red shoes once again, they are my comfort -relaxing painting but I decided to go for the blue instead... here they are!

We bought these beautiful D&G shoes in NYC, during a sunny hot summer day.

 I wore them for our wedding in Vegas almost 3 years ago... 

At the end of the day both my feet were so full of blisters I couldnt walk anymore!! 

Anyway here they are :)

Experimenting ...and loving it!

8x10inches

oil on stretched canvas

Sweet dream

Some days are more creative than others.

I have experienced that after a very creative day I normally have an "empty" one...but this week has been kind of different though, I have been in creative day almost EVERY day.

Better taking advantage of it! :)

Few weeks ago I tried to re-use dried paint in a painting, I loved the touchy-super texturize effect and here I am doing it again. 

I absolutely love the final painting, hope you will like it too!

Here I am putting pictures of the work in progress, enjoy it!

FIgure painting, quick study

8x10

40 min 

oil on canvas, quick study

I am pretty happy with this quick study done with a limited color palette of 4 colors:

-yellow

-alizarin crimson

-ultramarine blue

-white

Enjoy !

Head drawing...last Tuesday :(

This is the portrait from yesterday's class.
My last class for now but I ll keep practicing of course!
Planning to do a couple of exercise portrait per week, just not too loose the habit ;)
Counting the days to the beginning of the Academy now!! getting a bit stressed actually :)

I am very pleased with the final result !

A blind date , work in progress, part II ;)

Still a work in progress, I need to work more on finger, hand and small details, still very happy of how is coming though! the "collage" was not easy :)
Off to my last day at the Palo Art League before starting the Art Academy....
Have a good everyone!

A blind date, work in progress

To me there is something magic in painting faces, drawing a mouth or a cheek, or eyes... making them looking 3-D by adding colors, shades and shadows... Looking at the full face ones is done...I get butterflies in my stomach during the process of painting....don't laugh!!
I don't really know WHY I am attracted to face more than to anything else...
Maybe is just a matter of personal taste :)

Long story short yesterday I really wanted to paint a face in a different way, I went running with MONA while thinking on this and I came back with few ideas. I am so happy my new phone has the reverse camera ( the only nice feature of this new phone actually!!) so I started taking pictures of my self and I made a collage.

Here is the work in progress, under you can see the reference picture I used.
No time to paint today or tomorrow unfortunately, but I ll do it on Monday :)
Have a great weekend everyone!

 14x11 inc

oil on canvas

A Blind Date