Holiday gift

Hello dear readers,

Do you know what to gift this holiday season?

This time is a small blog only to remind you that you can give a great give to the ones you love. Try making a gift by yourself.

I decided to give this replica of an artwork  from an artist called Niko, I liked the colors and the shapes; the person that I giftinging it to liked it very much and will match his art collection.

 

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Life lesson

What have I learned from a young entrepreneur? 

Two days ago I woke up to a beautiful day after it had snowed overnight. According to me, it is better to clean the snow right after it snowed because you avoid compacting it while walking and later on it becomes hard to shovel.

After having our breakfast, my girlfriend and me were getting ready to leave and start running our errands; it was around 10 in the morning when I heard that someone was knocking at the door; which was uncommon because we just move to the neighbourhood and we don't know a lot of people in the area.

What to expect when you open the door? maybe a salesperson, a religious group, the neighbours next door; maybe we were disturbing their Saturday morning dreams; most likely the postman... nope! they don't work on weekends.

It was a young gentleman, around 12 years of age and speaking a fast French; at first I thought he said that he wanted me to lend him my shovel which was right outside the door; but at the same time I made out that he said "trois dollars". I wasn't sure what he meant to be honest the in any case he seemed determined and you cannot say no to a determined young gentleman. 

Then he started cleaning my pathway and the stairs... Finally I understood that he was cleaning the snow for three dollars.

I found him very courageous and a great worker, first thing I said to my girlfriend is that this young gentleman will be rich one day. Think about it, he knows that he needs money and he is not afraid to go out asking people if they need help, making some capital in the process.

When I was young the shyness was bigger than my needs, I wouldn't do things or ask people for thing unless I absolutely had to. This has the courage that I was lacking when I was a kid.

So there it is the life lesson dear readers, no matter how young or old we are, shyness is only a wall we build in our mind to feel save on our side, on our comfortable zone. I learnt this with years the years and this young entrepreneur reminded me that.

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Prekrasna

Hello dear readers,

Remember I talked about Chuck Close and his impressive portraits; not only because of the grid technique also because of the dimesions; so I decided to take on a bigger task after my first attempt of  this technique. 

After I finished Oko I wanted to paint my girlfriend and gave it to her as a gift; the problem was that the size and the spare time I had were not proportional.

Besides I wanted to be a surprise but with all the time that took me even her parents saw it and actually titled it differently. So again prekrasna is in Slovak and it means beautiful. Talking about languages. I'll be learning Italian and Slovak next year; I'll keep you posted about my advancement on that end.

Back to the painting; lately I've been putting some hours and here is the final product. I started by painting the background colors; that took a lot of time, I wanted to be precise because usually the portraits does not resemble the model. I this case I wanted to show how beautiful my girlfriend is.

 

 "Prekrasna" 36X48 Inches, oil on canvas, 2014.

 Do you have some suggestions? comment and share.

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Pissarro

Hello dear readers,

As always, I was watching some videos about impressionism an I stumbled upon Camille Pissarro. According to the video he was the only one that appeared on all of the impressionist exhibitions.

Well respected between his fellow impressionist artist he was also thought to be a fatherly figure for Cezanne.

Something that marked me was the fact that Cezanne had a very particular way of painting; a little on the dark side; what I mean by this is that he used be obscured and sad on his paintings until he met Pissarro, who influenced him to go outside and paint. All of a sudden Cezanne's artworks are more bright and happy.

Another life lesson, we should surround ourselves with positive individuals. That is gonna change our way of looking at life and finally enjoying and becoming more happy.

10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903

Finally another thing that caught my attention is that this gentleman was able to keep and maintain  his values even he moved to Paris. At that time Paris was the sin city but he decided to take trips to the surroundings to paint landscapes; he didn't want to frequent Paris' areas where other impressionist would go and paint the crowds.

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Artistic friends

Hello dear readers,

One day I was looking for a video with the title impressionism and I stumble upon a documentary about the life of the most renowned impressionist: Monet, Degas, Manet, Renoir and Cezanne.

Made me dream about finding good friends; that we would share this passion for oil painting and; like in the documentary; go out and paint the forest,  the park and of course the landscape with a lake in it.

A Studio in the Batignolles (1870), by Henri Fantin-Latour, 

I like very much this painting with Manet seated in his studio at his easel surrounded by younger artists Monet, Renoir, and Degas, and others; because shows that the only way to get better is to practice your art; also because we can appreciate the amazing era that this gentlemen where portraying.

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Modern impressionism

Hello dear readers,

At the end of October I was watching some videos about impressionism for a change and it always makes me feel inspired; the way they used to paint, the speed and the colors; I wanted to buy more materials and canvases.

So it was set for the day that I would go shopping, get my canvas and again my goal was to paint it in one session; I spent around 4 hours one night and another hour tonight. 

The result is the next painting that I titled "Rainy evening"; actually I found a painting on the internet made with a knife. Just search for modern impressionism; you will find it.

 

 "Rainy evening"  36X24 Inches, oil on canvas, 2014.

Adding a good quantity of paint is helping me to get the feeling of painting fast, but I'm still not sure that is the best technique. What do you think? What would be the best way to do an impressionist painting?

In case you are wondering I haven't sign in to the art classes; for sure I'll get answers to my questions; but I still think that is better to try it.

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Impressive coincidence.

Hello dear readers,

I decided to use the application Umano to listen the news and in one of the podcast they started talking about Monet; the shapes the colors, the impressionism. I was hooked so the decision to study more about this great artist came up easy.

Later on after work;  when I sit down to watch television a surprise! right there and then a documentary about impressionism, Monet and Degas. I took it as a sign to continue studying this style of painting.

According to what I've been studying about Monet, he desired to be an exhibition artist for a great gallery in Paris, but this gallery was under the control of a few critics and they were always looking for a certain still of painting; clean, classic. 

Monet wanted to paint what he saw and to accomplish that he needed to paint fast to capture the colors the shines and shadows. Him and other artists started painting out doors using this new style of painting; they also decided to create their own exhibition.

I believe this is the best example of never giving up, they suffered in many ways but they enjoyed their life.

Personally I love this painting, according to the documentary, Monet woke up to an unusual sunrise and the painted what he saw, the colors seem easy but I still cannot decide to do a replica. I need some classes.

Sunrise, 1872, Claude Monet

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Life is still

Hello there,  have you ever wondered what's the best type of painting for the kitchen? 

Still life is my answer. Usually fruit is the main subject, glasses with wine and bread. My first instinct was to paint a reproduction of a masterpiece from Manet or Monet even Picasso; but there was nothing I fell in love with. 

So the search continued until google suggested 'still life photography'... clicked on it and voilà... the perfect picture.  Composition, lighting, colors. The only challenge was the metallic kettle. 

The very next day I bought a nice 16x20 inches canvas a couple of brushes and headed back home decided to finish the painting in one sitting. My plan? You guessed it. Impressionism.

I started painting the background then the kettle and at this point the fact of being an amateur artist showed right away, the painting slowly became realistic. Although I'm happy the painting took me 3 hours the first night and two nights later another 2 hours to finish;  it was clear that I need some classes and fast.

"Still life one" 16X20 Inches, oil on vanvas, 2014

What do you think about this still life painting? Do you have any suggestions or comments?

Stay stay tuned because I'll be blogging about my art workshops and classes.


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How 'Oko' became reality

Hello dear readers,

Thanks to my cousins that started asking me about the meaning of  'Oko' I realized that addressing the idea behind my first oil painting was important, so here it is.

A couple of years ago my girlfriend and I decided to visit the riviera maya, we had a great time in Cancun, we fell in love with 'Playa del carmen' and we took some time to relax in Tulum; but among theses holidays we also took a day tour to visit Chichen Itza; while in the tour we made a stop to a 'Cenote' which is basically a cavern that is interconnected through a series of underground rivers to other cenotes.

Once in site we took the stairs to go down the cenote and I found a great spot for a picture. Imagine, half way down to where the waters is; the sunshine coming from the opening on the ground above us. I loved it, the colors the shadows; specially those eyes that always melt my heart.

Few days later I could not get over that look so I decided to draw it; I found a piece of paper and a pencil. I was really satisfied with the result but I never thought I would paint it until I decided to start oil painting and I was looking for an idea that meant something important in my life.

That is an important advise I can give you:

If you wanna start a new project in your life; find something that means a big deal to you and implemented; that will help you to do your best and will help you to obtain the desired result.

So this was my idea that meant a lot to me and painting it made me feel really good.

Finally I post this article today because is my girlfriend's name day. What is a name day? well, she is from Slovakia and the celebrate their name if appears on the calendar. For example in saint Patrick's day, Slovaks will celebrate the name day for all people called Patrick.

Now you know why I called my first oil painting 'Oko' and now you know why I decided for Slovak title.


Do you want the Spanish version?. En versión español?

It all started with Chuck

Hello dear readers,  to be honest I always loved arts; maybe thanks to my brother because he used to paint and me next to him for hours just watching.

One day as part of my job I was introduced to a project, the goal was to rewrite the website of a prestigious art gallery. We had to develop a customized search engine to find artworks, it was then that the name of Chuck Close came across the table,  across computers and across cold programing code. 

The memories of my brother painting came right away when we started searching for Chuck's art; impressive even on a small digital picture of portraits; taller that a regular man; I was in awe.

The project continued and I started studying Chuck Close's portraits. Based on a grid technique; according to the descriptions made in videos I found on youtube; Chuck Close takes pictures of close friends and family submitted to a grid and then painted to create massive portraits.

I found this way of painting a great technique for me to start in the arts world. Soon after discovering this artist I painted "Oko" which means eye in Slovak.  

Oko, 20X20 Inches, oil on canvas, 2014.

Why Slovak?  Well that's another story.

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