La mela di Dante ( Dante's apple)

11x14 inches

oil on canvas

La mela di Dante.

For school we were supposed to paint some cloth with pattern…here is my work ;)

Dante is having break and eating an apple while starting the final chapter of La Divina Commedia ( The Divine Comedy) .

Off to the beach now for a nice walk with hubby and doggie :)

Happy Sunday everyone! and happy mother's day! 

AGURI MAMMA!! 

TI VOGLIO TANTO TANTISSIMO BENE!

Romance in the air, part two

The story continues….the two sweet guys holding hands also kissed :) woooow:)
And I was following behind, shooting pictures :)
I love especially his expression…
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151966653851580&set=a.10151966653661580.1073741846.529606579&type=3&theater

Some people around were looking at me like with a WTF she is doing kind of face… but who cares!
I knew they would make an awesome drawing so I kept taking pictures .

sketch with pencil on paper

 And here is the drawing the tracing paper with color on top:

 Working on some others pictures taken on  the that hot day…. I totally love taking pictures of strangers and adding them to my works.

 We are getting  two other summer day this week, happy me! The camera is already ready .
 Be aware of one pazza papparazza walking around ocean beach ;)

Skateboard, red shoes, and jeans…..almost finished!

24x12 inches

oil on gallery canvas

This is was a tough one, not that the subject was a  particularly difficult one… I think I just probably started with the wrong approach.
 My previous study (SF life life style) was supposed to be the study for this larger painting, in the end it was not!

http://lauradallagata.blogspot.com/2014/04/study-sf-life-style.html

So what happened?

The study was too large, it took me way too long to paint and by the time I was done with it the idea of painting the same thing again, just on a larger scale was not very attractive.

So I decided to change skateboard (hubby bass more than one! lucky me!LOL) , to change shoes , and to change position and background.

New Sketch and new study (SMALL AND QUICK!!) lesson learnt :)

Picture of the actual set up  and of the work in progress

 

What makes this painting special is that I build the canvas my self :) with the help of my instructor at the Academy.

1st step: putting tougher the 4 stretching bars
2nd step: wrapping the canvas around
3rd step: stapling the canvas
4th step: painting with gesso.
5 th step: PAINTING!!

Taking the painting to school today to get a feedback from my teacher, still one week to complete this assignment!!!

Will probably work some more on the jeans…they were more difficult than expected to paint!

Happy Friday!!

Romance in the air, part one

pencil sketch

Last week we had a couple of very HOT days, Mona and I went on a paparazzi mission on Ocean Beach, shooting " interesting people".

Here is the original picture:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151966653881580&set=a.10151966653661580.1073741846.529606579&type=3&theater

This couple was super cute!

 Took few shots of them, planning to sketch them again, as soon as I am done with my still life painting which is actually making me cry right now! 

Sometimes painting gets really on my nerves, as much as i love it, it is a tough business.

Here I cover the drawing with teaching paper and I added a touch on color on it! 

Sketching hubby on his graduation day :)

Sketch with pencil

Yesterday was a very special day for us. 

Hubby graduated with honors from his executive MBA at Wharton, after 2 years of serious studying.

I am so proud of him, he did so well!! 

These two last years were so intense for him (and as a consequence for me too!)…that it feels almost unreal that now he is done with school.DONE. No more papers to write in the evening or homework to do on the weekend. More time for me :)

I have to say that during the ceremony I got sentimental my self a little bit,  I am sorry we ll not see our Wharton's friends as often as before, we met some really nice people! 

Hopefully we ll stay in touch with as many as possible!

Going back to my drawing now, since pencil sketches are very delicate I got into the habit of covering with tracing paper, and I added few colors on the paper….here it is:

And here are some of my favorite pictures from yesterday:

When I started my small sketch this morning I realized how much I was missing drawing Michal, he is the only person I am never tired to draw or paint, apart from my self ! ( I love doing my self portraits!)
Planning to do painting of him soon, as soon as i have my time back!
Looking forward to the summer break !
Have a good week everyone!

Sketches from Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit

Got home from hubby's graduation ceremony few hours ago… AMAZING DAY

I was planning to do some drawing in theme but…way TOO TIRED! will do that tomorrow:) 

Posting my sketches from the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition instead.

Last Wednesday with my drawing class we went to see her exhibition at the De Young Museum.

 I have to admit that at first I was not too much into her art work. The show totally changed my prospective on Georgia O' Keeffe and by the end of the morning I was totally in love with the woman and the artist.

Once home I started working on some sketches….I wanted to do something different, here they are:

My sketches with cut out people!

you can lift the people up and down :)

Here the sketches:

Dark & Lavender leaves 1931

Lake George 1922

 Red Poppy 1928

Tree with cut out limb  1920

Jack in the pulpit   1930

Still life with sunflowers .

 11x14 inches

oil on canvas board

Sunflowers.

Last painting for the week.

 I really enjoyed painting this one, I love sunflowers and the color combination blue and yellow is just perfect for me.

Here is a detail, plenty of texture on the flowers! Van Gogh style :)

Work in progress:

Gala evening tonight :) looking forward to celebrate the end of hubby' MBA with our friends!! :)