Landscapes

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.

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.

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