View point

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Oil on canvas 100×60 cm

“Good Morning, a black coffee please, scrambled eggs and brown toast”

Would you like some jam and a Kipferl ? They are very good madam, I recommend them

No thank you,

Quite a pity, we have great cakes too, maybe a small slice just to start the day with sweetness?

No thank you.

Well, your choice, but let me tell you miss an opportunity.

Missing opportunities is my specialty…

I see, enjoy Madam “

This dialogue would be a very uncommon one in a Wiener cafe house: usually waiters are not very talkative, not even for selling’s sake- a relatively measured friendliness must be part of the job education.

The painting is inspired by a coffeehouse in Vienna: I love this terribly old fashioned furniture and the slightly decadent atmosphere. Early morning, when all is quiet, those places are meditative: you get a good coffee, people read newspaper, the time extends and all flows with its own rhythm.

In this view the light and the reflections were particularly appealing to me:the way the sunshine enters through the windows and reflects on the marble surface of the tables and the warmth coming from the crystal chandeliers fill the room with a mixture of hope and memories.

It is a oil painting on canvas, 60×100 cm

Treasure

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“ I absolved my morning jogging round and on my way home,I nearly forgot it’s flee market day, I will have a short look.

How it can be so crowded here,… old stuff, granny stile robes, nothing practical… but, wait, look those plates with a thin golden profile. They are not even so ugly but for the dishwasher are not an option. So, let’s move on, I need a shower and a good coffee… but hey! Hold on, I don’t believe it! it can’t be true, look at what that girl has found…I need to watch it closer, if it is what I THINK…It must be MINE“

Oil on canvas 60×80 cm

I like the sense of life in market place’s scenes, the contrasts and the variety they offer. From a painting point of view, it is just fun to play with different surfaces, objects and people. The main challenge is to focus on a story, because the reality has so many suggestions that from one shot you could create many paintings.

Ink sketch on Moleskine

For this one I used a photo reference but to focus I had to pick up in an ink sketch a some interesting characters: the sporty lady there by chance, the deep into matters one and of the back what I called Mrs Magoo which I felt in love with. Diverse people, as much as flee market objects, captured at once, looking for their own personal treasure … I liked it so I took a 60×80 cm canvas and started to work.

My Polaroid

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“ I double check the address and I am right, I didn’t expect to find this small house surrounded by other buildings. The appearance is quite modest and the garden surrounding it is wild and green like a Bavarian jungle. I have the task to get this ground, of course as cheap as I can – it looks like an easy job…we can build more apartments there, I will ring the bell…“

An old lady opened the door, deaf and suspiciously looking at the real estate agent…

Oil on panel 30x30cm 2021

Metropol Garage

‘ Her car is there so she must be at work, I can wait a little… I know we don’t have a date and I am not even sure she will be happy to see me here around but I must try it. She is so beautiful, I can’t wait days in the hope to meet her again at the coffee shop where we hada chat last week… why I didn’t ask her phone number?….I am such an idiot … now here I look like a stalker’. The Metropol Gar age door opened suddenly, there she was.’

Oil on panel 30×30 cm 2021

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I painted both scenes in the last weeks, they are spontaneous works and have been painted outside on the spot, enplain air, like the impressionists used to do. This way of working requires speed and focus in the execution and the small format forces to take quite bold decisions on the subject and composition.

The old house is entirely painted with pallet knives for the simple reason I forgot the brush’s case at home that day, nevertheless I like how it turned out. The snapshots I decided to depict were impressing me for the light and the simplicity – I feel they are close to ‘real life’ with some imperfections and stories to tell.

Würstelstand

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Saturday morning, weekly market day, it’s sunny and warm, all are out for business.

At the Würstelstand: 

„ ehhh man, you here too…come on sit here, yeah man, no I am waiting for nobody, you know, people are crazy, before all closed now, they come to the shop all at once and then the mask, can u breath with that on the nose? No right? Ahahah! so you put it there instead? Ah that’s it.

-I need a beer, you too right? Let me tell you really there is no other way to survive this damned world, -you made all right man, really,  I mean it ALLRIGHT but me I am the last fool …you see…but yesterday, you must see it, I found a rarity, let’s have another beer and I tell you“…

Something similar… so I imagine a possible discussion, with no real purpose than the excuse to have a drink.

As many of the latest photo reference on which I am working on, the city is Vienna. In his case it is not really important the specific place: the spontaneity of the characters and their gestures, a true moment and genuine subject, that’s what this work is about.

When I take photo references for painting, I let the camera free to scan the environment. The photos are usually not particularly good, I just shot randomly like I did for this reference at the marketplace not looking much at what is in the picture.

To zoom in and find stories is the fun part that follows later, the image is just an help to retain relevant details of life which serves my purpose to depict the reality with its imperfections and beauty.

Here I loved the light pattern, the triangles in the composition and the loose attitude of the men at the stand: a moment worth to be captured.

TABAK

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Ink on paper – very little sketch thinking with the brush

„When the night comes and the lights are on

You walk home, the same way as every day in a cold winter evening. Nobody waits for you beside Micky, your cat waiting for his dinner. It is different from what you imagined or not?

Tokyo, Hong Kong, London and now here, you have not really expected more company, the job is less thrilling than years ago and your watches collection reminds you that time pass by.

Smoke from your cigarette and you walk home.”

While I paint, I tell myself stories and I begin when I decide for a subject.

It’s very often a spontaneous decision, immediate, like taking a instant picture or the opposite, growing day by day , slowly, passing by always the same spot.

In this case it was a slow approach, the flair of this shop, the light in the night with the warmth of the window: smoking as comfort for the soul, a meditative hug a relaxing moment where you stop the hectic of the day and start thinking.

I never smoked and I can’t tell if my interpretation is right: but the sketch convinced me, the square composition simple and balanced with a jazzy mood. The enlightened red of the label, you can’t help falling in love with it while painting.

I changed a bit the drawing in the painting, introducing a little perspective instead of a side view; it shows a bit better the dynamic of the walking man, the way he comes back. From-where we don’t know, to where, neither.

How to be cool

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A new start for my blog with stories, ideas, inspirations and of course paintings

Behind every painting there is a short story and in most of the cases all happens by chance. I won’t tell how I came to the reference used for this work,  it is open to your imagination as it has been for mine. 

I don’t know those teenagers and the photo reference is surely not in perfect quality but for me it was impressive: the girls here are just incredibly strong. Top of the known world, over the roofs of a city like models on a fashion shooting.

Be over all, with the most loved oversized yellow sweater, the color is the power and it is what makes it happen –  also in the painting it dominates.

I started with a small oil sketch on carton paper just to get a bit closer to them: the attitude – how do those little women stands there? Self confidence in double pack, concentrated like a lemon juice, sweet bitter but fresh. At this stage it’s easy, the technique is crispy, the focus goes to the essence.

Then the real painting challenge comes, which at this point was not possible to avoid for me…I wanted them in a proper size on canvas (50x70cm) and I

zoomed in on the portrait, with the goal to keep it simple ( how difficult that is …)

The portrait is oil on linen canvas realized a la prima: I am quite satisfied by the limited color palette, i keep deeply loving indigo blue and cad lemon yellow and they served the purpose.

Finally here they are my little cool and cute models: spotlights and catwalk are ready and they will make it, enchanting the world. They believe the can and so do I.

ArtMuc 2020

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The last weekend I had the luck to participate to ArtMuc with some of my oil paintings. The experience has been intense and I feel some echos even with a week distance. Hard were the rules, Covid related, masks, longer opening but the effort was rewarded by many people visiting and a great exchange between artists.

Many are asking me now… how was it? So I decided to share some impressions from those days

My wall, my friend who helped me to build up , my card

We had super busy days and rush hours but also some minutes for sketching – a very subjective view on the event: artists waiting, people interested in art diving into it and others focused on their mobile

Some colleagues and visitors in sketchy form

I am thankful to all the people that came and to whom I chatted with, for the comments and the feedbacks received and to all the artists I met there – amazing people. The organization is adding the possibility to virtually visit the show, a good opportunity to get a flavor of it if you missed it

http://artmuc.exxeta.com

To all – Stay safe and healthy!!!

Choose me

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Following the theme of the hat shop, a second work inspired to a lovely shop in Munich and to my exceptional friend that model for me. Somehow it’s not the season to paint in studio but given the current situation and the indication to stay home , I am coming back to all the photo references even if older ones.

It’s super interesting to see which elements are differently capturing my attention, completely new stories come out from the same source. Here I liked the gesture to look for the matching element in the hat atelier shop.

It’s oil painting on canvas 60x70cm

The garden

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The first weekend at home… a relatively warm day, actually I would have loved to go out and set my easel somewhere in the city for a street view subject. I decided not to do so even if I would have been alone and without company, mostly by principle.
Apparently the only way to reduce possible illness is to reduce possible contacts with other people.
Therefore I used my outdoor equipment and installed it in front of the window… the neighbors garden is not particularly spectacular but the afternoon sunshine was supportive and a little painting story could be created .
That’s all from the home studio