Boats in Key West

16x12 inches

oil on canvas board

Boats in Key West

This is a painting I did yesterday from a picture we took during the last day of our trip.

We were on a small boat on our way to see some wild dolphins ( we did spot them!)

Colorful summer landscape, Italy

 :( Why do holiday always pass by so quickly??
If we had Mona with us and my painting supply I could have easily stayed in Key West.
What a beautiful week we had!
With an unhappy ending though.
At the airport yesterday my phone fell down and it stopped working, all my pictures are GONE!!!:(
We ll try to fix it but it will take some time I guess...

Today I was busy with cleaning cleaning cleaning....despite the only thing I really wanted to do was painting. The painting I am posting today was done few days before we left. It was inspired by a picture I took few years ago while driving across Tuscany. 

 9x12in

Summer, Italy countryside

Miami holiday :)

Hello! We made it to Miami :)
Third day of relax, having a great time in this beautiful hot place .
Loving especially the clouds, the strong light, the blues-greens mix.
Looking forward to paint some of the pictures we took.
Bye bye Miami tomorrow!  We ll be driving to key west and stay there for 3 more days. Time when holidays pass by way to quickly :(
Mona is home, resting after her last minute surgery with her "granny", which is taking great care of her. Missing our puppy and looking forward to see her next week.

Galway beach, Ireland

Hello, while I am writing at the pc I look at the ocean in front of me, kind of beautiful today. There was a storm during the night.

Not a fine day on many front, Mona is not well and it looks like we are not going to Miami. Let's hope the poor puppy will recover soon.

The painting of day is one I did some time ago, taken from a picture of my friend Stephen Curl.

12x16 inches

oil on canvas

Going abstract, mind at rest ;)

Hello and happy Monday!
Weather update....today is....partially cloudy, partially sunny, warm enough :) not too bad!
The funny thing is that we are off Miami on Wednesday, weather forecast in Florida RAIN RAIN and RAIN. But it ll be hot, at least! Over here the weather channel is saying SUN SUN SUN instead. Looking forward to a nice break with my hubby!! Whatever the weather :)
 I ll bring some pencil and watercolor with me, will try to sketch something...lets see if i keep my word;)

Today's painting is an abstract still life with a limited color palette.

12x16 inches

oil on canvas

Bottle, apple and lemon.

 

 

 Down is a picture of the actual still life set up.

Windy hill trail

9x12 inches 

oil on canvas board

Windy hill

 A greyish Sunday after a glorious beautiful Saturday.

I have to admit that since we moved here in Ocean Beach I have been starting to appreciate sun, light, shadows, contrast, heat, warm and more(!) much more now than I did before ( when it was sunny and hot just EVERY single day ;) !)

ohhh yeah!!! When the sun is out is time to take pictures of new and old painting, I get better colors, better contrast, better everything.

But when the sun is out I also feel like I need to be out myself too :) so I don't paint much in the end, I just find excuses to walk Mona several times.

However yesterday I surprised myself, super sunny and still I managed to go for a medium length run in the morning and do two and half small painting in the afternoon.

This painting was inspired by a picture taken while walking up to Windy Hill. It was a warm spring afternoon, beautiful light. Hopefully I succeed in capturing the light on my canvas!

Off to do some more painting now :)

Have a great Sunday everybody!

 

me in b&W

9x12 inches

oil on canvas board

Foggy me

For the last few days it was foggy here in Ocean Beach, very relaxing and calm ...kind of nice I have to say..but now is enough :) Sun feel free to show up whenever you want.

I am pretty happy with this painting because, I didnt use a photo reference as I usually do for the drawing but I worked in fronted of the mirror, adding the closed eyes at the end of course !

Enjoy!

Painting something more colorful today!

Ocean Beach with palette knife

We are having a beautiful weather here in Ocean Beach...so beautiful that I am finding it a bit difficult to stay inside and paint :(

I should try to take my paints outside and try some beach-sea scape...for sure when is less windy:)

Today I took some very good ocean shots and I painted a couple of them.

These are short studies, I need to go back to use colors and the full palette, short studies are I want i need;)

 8x10 in

oil on canvas board with palette knife

Ocean Beach

That' s the place where I normally do my U-turn while running in the morning, the small house is a Restaurant called Cliff House ( still to try!) and the 3 big rocks in the water are called Seal Rocks.

Hope you like it!

Red hair girl with Pointillism

8x10 inches

on canvas board

I painted this girl two days ago, is was meant to be a quick painting before dinner not waste the left over colors ;) in the end it came out nice! Sam pose as the previous girl but here I used the pointillism technique for the hair. It was fun!

Time to paint some see now....I am feeling utterly compelled to paint the ocean...no wonders why!
It is just in front of me every hours of my day now, staring at me !!  ;)

A day to my self

14x11 inches

oil on canvas

After several weeks of "serious" painting with landscapes, still life, black and white and more today I gave myself a break and just painted what I felt like painting.

It was fun, relaxing, it was like going back home... a L O V E  L Y day 

Hope you you like it too!

Here are the picture of the painting in progress:

Water reflection with palette knife

11x14 inches 

palette knife on canvas board

 

Another painting with the palette knife, great fun, trust me! :)

Today I am back to my great love...back to painting girls, I ll show you the work in progress soon!

 

Have a great Friday everyone!

 

Abstract still life in B&W

Hello!

This is my last painting, an attempt in going abstract!

18x12 in

oil on canvas

It was a fun and relaxing experience, no pressure to represent the reality as it is :) I really enjoyed.
No school till September...that means one month ahead of me where I can just paint, paint, paint, run, run, run ....I LOVE HOLIDAYS ;)

Here are some picture of the work in progress:

I choose few elements  from this set up

 Initial drawing

First stage block in.

Chinese vase and cherries, still life

12x12 inches 

oil on stretched canvas

Cherries and Chinese vase

 

Hello! 

What a Sunday :) wake up at 5.50 am to get ready and go be at starting line at 7am.

Too early start for me but the good things is that by 10am we were already sitting at cafe by the beach having brunch. Really nice!

I am happy with my time 1hour 36(considering my knees problem!) and I ll stick to my plan of painting my running shoes next. Not today though:) Looking forward to a chilling afternoon on the couch!!

This is my last still life done at home, the vase is a 200 years old original Chinese vase borrowed from one lady that lives in our building. I love it! Planning to paint it few more times before giving it back.

All from me for today! Have a great Sunday!

Have a great Sunday everyone

Near Delphi on Fin Lough, IRELAND

Another painting from a beautiful picture ( thanks Stephen :) !!)

14x18 inches 

oil on canvas

A very calm, soothing painting. 

I LOVE IT!

Hope you will like it too!

A nice cozy Saturday, spent most of the morning doing my art history homework and then went to pick my race t-shirt for tomorrow. I am running a half-marathon here in SF, my knees are not jumping with joy, especially the left one ! But if I make it ok I'll be painting a pair of running shoes next, deal!!

Have a good evening guys!

Gotta go an eat my 1 pound of pasta!!:)

Painting with the palette knife, water scape

Another day BRUSHES-FREE :) Today I painted with the palette knife.
I painted 3 landscapes, this the one of the three. I need to add few details on the others two, but I need to wait for the color to dry a bit...and there is a LOT of color, so it might take a while :)

8x10 inches

oil on canvas with palette knife

I really like this style,  I love the texture you get..... very touchy, just the way I like it :)

Enjoy it!