What is left of Halloween, still life work in progress

11x14 inches

What is left of Halloween.

oil on canvas

work in progress

This is my last painting, not yet completely finished but I decided to post it anyway since is already looking good enough (to me!!) 

I painted this for my still life painting class at the Academy, taking it into class tomorrow and will keep working on it after my teacher feed back.

I really love the contrast of colors and lights and darks, maybe the pumpkins will requires some more brushstrokes.

Here is original picture:

I borrowed the two nice vases from my neighbor, a very nice guy with a pottery hobby! He is pretty talented in creating pottery! Planning to use more of his vases!

No posting this weekend!

Hubby, doggie and me are off to Palm Springs ( a desert city in Riverside county, in Southern Cali) for a half rainy half cloudy weekend ( according to goggle weather!) 

Looking forward to do few sketches over there :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sketching around: view from the window.

Last Saturday I went downtown at the Wharton SF building to draw few sketches of the amazing view they enjoy over there.

While the graduate students were busy playing with LEGO :) (!!! TRUE!) I was busy drawing, I did a few small  in b&W and one larger with color:

Bay Bridge, Fire Dept, station and Pier 21, nice view guys!!!

And for those who didn't believe the students were playing with lego, here are the  proofs:

Here is Michal Pilawski little man !
Sitting on a Cezanne copy still life, quite appropriate ;)

Sunday I decided to draw our view from the window, different of course!! but still very beautiful :)  runners, surfers, walkers, dogs, ocean and beach.

Have a great day!

Cross hatching, a street in Faenza.

18x24 inches 

Pen and pencil on paper

Vicolo Corto

This was a project I had to do for my drawing class at the Academy. 

A street with one point perspective was the title of the assignment.

I choose to work on a picture I took in Faenza while i was there last month.

Unfortunately the picture was a bit out of focus and I couldn't read the name of the actual street, so I decided to name it Vicolo Corto. 

I was ALWAYS getting this street while playing at the Italian Monopoly. 

Here is the original picture, if someone in Faenza could come up with the real name would be amazing!! :)

I just added the write bar, to add a bit more of interest!

This was my first try at cross hatching, pretty time consuming ( the piece is 45x60 cm!!!!) but I LOVE the finished work.

Working on a another drawing right now, a street here in San Francisco.

Happy Monday everyone!

Improvement to My mom silver vase painting.

11x14 inches

oil on canvas board

My mom silver vase

A couple of weeks ago I painted my mom vase, today I picked up the painting again to make few changes.

I diffused the shadow on the horizontal plane, I created to stronger highlights and played the others a bit down. Finally I made the whole picture a tiny bit darker.

I like it better now :)

Here as it was before:

Still life with a touch of blue

14x11 inches

A touch of blue.

Last painting for the week, a still life with a limited color palette: yellow ochre, venetian red, black, white and ultramarine blue.

I totally enjoyed painting this last piece, I was missing using the blue (which is my favorite color by the way).

Down here the 2 steps of the painting in progress:

Have a good Saturday !!

Still life with palette knife.

So…my home work for today at Art school is to do a painting with A LOT of paint :)
Here is the painting I did yesterday, a still life done entirely with the palette knife.
Not easy, especially in the tiny areas, but I like the final result! very Van Gogghish ;)
Hopefully my teacher will like it too! :)
Off to the Academy now :)

11x14 inches

oil on canvas

with Palette knife

"The' with lemon."

The set up:

And sketching at first:

Wrapped in Love.

11x14 inches

oil on canvas board

(detail)
Wrapped in Love

Today's painting was inspired by a picture of a very good friend of mine.
That is a version of her with big eyes and russian cheeks (as my husband likes to call my painted red cheeks!)

Off to paint some still life now :)
Have a good day everyone!


Here is the full painting:

Lemon and books

11x14 inches

oil on canvas

Lemon and Books

Here is my last still life, done with a limited color palette of yellow light, ivory black, titanium white, and venetian red.

The green came out from black+yellow+white :)

Here is a picture of the work in progress:

Happy Saturday!!! :)

The way I see US.

19 x 5,5 inches

acrylic on wooden block

Us

Today's artwork is dedicated to the love of my life. I love you baby, looking forward to have you back home.

You and my love for you is in everything I paint, in everything I do.

And for those who a e a bit interested about the story behind this artwork here you go :

Few months ago I found this big piece of wood on the beach and I took it home thinking how to use it.

Then a couple of weeks ago I was looking at my favorite picture of us …in a way it reminded me of the  Kiss by Klimt…so I decided to do my own Klimt inspired piece with a hug instead of a kiss .

Happy Valentine's !

Sketching around the house….

Today I spent a couple of hours sketching around the house, it s really good to improve my drawing skills so I am trying to make it part of my daily routine :)





So let's start!

Mona 's bowls ;)

Then I decided to go for mugs, to improve my oval shape :)

I climbed on top of our small ladder  to have a better view from the top…we totally have to many mugs! But I love collecting mugs…and my husband too! So, we will forever have A LOT of mugs ( we have two more cupboards with cups!)

And at last Mona relaxing on the couch, next to a new entry, the white teddy bear was one of b-day gift (planning  to paint it soon!)

That's it for today!
Have a great evening everyone :)

Blossoming.

18x24 inches

oil on gallery canvas

"Blossoming"

There is a quote from Yoko Ono that I particularly like :

 "People think that their world will get smaller as they get older. My experience is quite the opposite. Your sense became more acute.  You start to blossom."

Just perfect for today, happy birthday to me.

People think that their world will get smaller as they get older. My experience is just the opposite. Your senses become more acute. You start to blossom.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/blossom.html#ZkCQgRllxdiLyZHc.99

People think that their world will get smaller as they get older. My experience is just the opposite. Your senses become more acute. You start to blossom.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/blossom.html#ZkCQgRllxdiLyZHc.99

My favorite place is inside your hug.

“Love is a circular emotion that surrounds you, like a hug"

Enjoy  today's painting!

Between all the pictures from our wedding I have few that I particularly like, those are the ones where Michal and me are hugging, tight, smile on out face.

 Last night I was doodling on my notebook while looking at this one particular picture and I was inspired to do an abstract painting out of it.

I used 3 colors: red, black and white and the palette knife mainly.

 12x16 inches 

oil on canvas

My favorite place is inside your hug.

Still life: my mom vase.

11x14 inches

oil on canvas board

My mom vase

From my last trip in Italy I came back with Parmesan (OF COURSE!), coffee, a couple of new skirts and a beautiful silver vase ( just borrowed to paint!), here it is!

I wish my mom home was closer than 13 hours flight ....  she has so much stuff I would like to borrow and paint! 

Planning to go around some flew market some time soon, looking for cool stuff to paint in my future still life!

Here are few pictures of the work in progress:

The rain has finally stopped, hopefully the sun will back soon!
Even though....a full week of rainy meant so much painting time to me! I really enjoyed it :)

Have a great Monday everybody!

Evening sketch, hubby working while Mona is sleeping

Baby at work….(!) and Mona sleeping

Sketch with pen and watercolor

This is another tiny sweet sketch I did last night;

I am getting really addicted to this!! I cannot even leave the house without my sketch book this days! 

I have a nice one for indoor and not as nice for on the way sketching.

First I did the drawing with the ink pen, then I used water color.

This is a picture of the set up .

Hubby just left for a 12 days trip to Europe, there is only Mona to sketch now….planning to draw her while she sleeps in different positions ;)

Have a nice Sunday everyone!

Shapes in black and white.

11x14 inches

oil on canvas board

Basic Shapes

Sometimes is good to have a bit of light/dark review and go back to basic shapes and basic painting :)

I always enjoy painting these figures, my favorite is ALWAYS the cone :) 

The weather today is as GREY as this painting!!!! :( Working on something more colorful now! 

Happy Saturday!

Back to still life!

I am taking a still life class at the Academy, as per the name suggests...we are painting still life! :)
Here is the one of today.
I am pretty happy with the result.
However, I found it difficult at the beginning, as always when you start with a white canvas.

11x14 inches

oil on canvas board

Still life

 

It was done using a limited color palette of venetian red, yellow ochre, ivory black and titanium white.

 

 

Planning to work on one of my painting  on the weekend and back to still life on Monday!

 

Despite the weather (horrible, cold and rainy!) It has been a good Friday!

Afternoon sketch with watercolor.

As part of  the drawing class I am taking at the Academy we are supposed to  sketch. Everything. People on the tram, houses, passers by on the street, people in a coffee place, you name it, we have to sketch it!

 Is real fun, I wonder why I haven't started before!!

 This is small sketch I did today in the afternoon, afterwards I colored with watercolor.

And here was the real scene :)
More tomorrow! have a good evening everyone!

Princess A.

Hello and happy Monday :)

Today's painting is  about Aurelia, a cute little princess living in her own little colorful world with her cat.

8x10 inches

acrylic on canvas

This painting will be on its way to Germany soon!! :)