Meditation

Hello dear readers,

Question for you; which activity helps you meditate? do you like walking? running? play an instrument?

There is this book called "the miracle of mindfulness" that I started reading a few weeks ago; it is really interesting and helpful because I could perceive an immediate improvement in my state of mind after reading the first chapters.

The book teaches you easy tricks to meditate and there is one that I liked very much. It suggests that when you wash dishes you should wash dishes; in other words you should wash dishes and stop thinking about something else; just focus on the task and try to meditate, enjoy every second of what you do while you do it.

Many of us worry to much about many things at the same time, we are told that we need to be 'multitaskers' to accomplish more; maybe with all the technologies that we have nowadays, we don't have to be told, we just do it; all of that make us worry or maybe just keeps or mind super busy. We stop enjoying what we do, we are not aware of ourselves while we do something.

It was always hard to put into words what I experience when I'm painting, until now. I now believe that I am meditating while painting, I enjoy painting while painting, I am aware of my body while painting, the colors the feel of the brush and the canvas, the sound of brushing canvas. Painting relaxes me, makes me feel happy.

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Younger Mona Lisa

Hello dear readers,

Could you recognize your friend or a member of your family from a picture when he or she was 10 to 15 years younger?

Well, paitings were the only way to create images of people back in the days. Not long ago I read a news article about the exposition of the "10 year younger mona lisa"  at an art gallery in Asia.

When I searched for the pictures on the internet; it was clear that the same Lisa di Giocondo was on both paintings, I could recognize her like you would recognize a friend or family member on a photo taken 10 years ago. I started searching for more information and I found this interesting video that I share with you.




I can't consider myself an artist but from my humble experiences I could say this: If you wanna make a master piece you have to practice and then when you feel ready you can start with the big task.

My theory is that Leonardo sketched Lisa di Giocondo on canvas and later he created world known Mona Lisa on wood.

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Happy new year

Hello dear readers,

I wanted to wish you a happy new year and to encourage you to accomplish all your resolutions.

From my part is to learn Italian and Slovak. Another resolution is to create videos about art, hobbies and daily life with my girlfriend and friends, stay tuned.

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.

Spanish - Español