Portrait Painting of Victor

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

For two hours each Monday and Thursday evening, my artist friends and I take turns posing for portraits for each other. One model usually sits for four evenings, or eight hours posing time. This last round happened to feature my friend Victor Goikoetxea, who taught the mural workshop I attended in Spain in September.

Sadly, I missed Victor’s first sitting because I finished my mural in Caprese Michelangelo in the wee hours of a Monday morning and by the time I returned to Firenze, all I could do was sleep. Victor is quite a handsome fella, with a strong jawline and kind eyes. I often find portrait painting a bit bizarre. It is very difficult to catch a personality when the body is trying to remain still. Victor is vivacious and interested in many things with a very expressive face, but he did tell me that he spent his time posing thinking about and designing his next mural project.

So, here you may see my little portrait sketch in oil paint. I used raw umber and white, with a bit of black/grey in the hair. I had five and a half hours on this painting, having to leave early one night to meet a friend for a lecture we wanted to see. You can tell how scatterbrained I have been lately by the way I “prepared” this canvas. I grabbed a random piece of loose canvas in which I had done some figure outlines in acrylic a week or so before. Not having a drawing board at this studio, I simply taped the scrap onto another mounted canvas and started to paint. I wish that there were more hours in the day, but in truth, if there were, I would probably fill them up as I do now.

Portrait Painting

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

One of my errands today was to go to Zecchi’s Art Supply store and buy some tela (canvas) for my portrait commissions this month. I ended up toting the roll of unstretched canvas under my arm as I rode my bike – first to the studio for some life drawing and then to my friend Rita’s home for dinner and around midnight back to my home.

It was kinda fun to ride around central Florence, Italy, with an extremely long roll of canvas. I felt like a jouster. I feel like a real artist!

If you would like to get in on the fun, check out my portrait special this month to celebrate eight years of making art full-time:

From your photographs or from life, when possible:
You may choose:
Half life-size or smaller in pencil: $300 per head/person
Life-size (approx.) in charcoal: $500 per head/person
Life-size oil painting – monochromatic (sepia): $700 per head/person
If you prefer color, a life-size pastel drawing: $600 per head/person, life-size
Plus, FREE SHIPPING from Florence, Italy.

Contact me for details (just respond to this blog or visit my site).
Please let me know if this is a gift or if you are having another deadline (such as an anniversary party or wedding) so that I can make sure you receive your original art on time. All submitted photographs must be accompanied by permission from the copyright holder for a one-time use to create a painting from the photograph. And of course, if you were here in Florence, Italy, I would love to make a drawing of you from life.

Thank you for your continued interest and support.

"Blue Madonna" - Painting

Hello again. I had such a good response painting my version of the "Blue Madonna" by Carlo Dolci on Via Calimala in Florence, Italy, last Wednesday. Some examples:
One Italian couple asked me why I was not painting on "tela" -- the Italian word for 'canvas'.
I received a possible commission to create a mural in a small town about 40 km from Firenze.
And one very lovely American girl from New York with big brown eyes (who looked a little like the actress Anne Hathaway) exclaimed that this was the most striking painting she had ever seen here -- and "I live right over there [she points] and I walk down this street everyday to see the art!"
Another man returned to my space around midnight to find me washing my artwork away. He shook his head and said, "I do not know how you can make it disappear. That [artwork] was brilliant!"

Brilliant? Perhaps not, but I appreciated his sentiment just the same. That said, I decided to start painting, now that I am more settled and have finished my application for 'rinnovo' of my 'permesso di soggiorno' -- renewing my 'permission to stay' permit. And why not create something more permanent in this striking blue? Here is a view of my little room above Piazza Santa Croce. You may see my work-in-progress on the right. While I was all gung-ho to get to
work, I realized that I had forgotten to buy some mineral spirits for oil painting -- cannot take THAT with one on the plane. (Oh - yes, my lagging piece of luggage was delivered to me at my friend Jay's apartment last Monday, so all is well on that end.)

Since it was about 1:30 p.m. when I realized I could not oil paint (and most shops in Italia are closed for a long and social lunch), I chose instead to do an under-painting in acrylic. This is what you see here. After 3:30 p.m., I was able to get back to the art supply store and buy some 'trementina' -- turpentine (spirits were not available). I will keep you posted, so stay tuned . . .