Autumn in Tuscany

The glow of autumn colors has always been something magical for me. It is even more spectacular when visiting the Tuscan region. Recently my wife and I took my parents to visit various destinations in Tuscany such as Pisa, Lucca, Siena & San Gimignano, among other places. I have been to the Tuscany area 2 other times before, but this trip was different. This time we rented a car and drove through the country side and got a chance to see things off the beaten path that you can't see by train. Those are the special moments when you can pull the car over and snap a breath taking picture for future projects such as the one I am writing this post about. No, it wasn't I who took the wonderful photo that gave me inspiration, but the wonderful landscapes and the vibrant colors did.
This landscape is of a vineyard in the Autumn just before the vines are about to turn a deep red. Boy are they beautiful. The yellows, oranges, reds and greens flow together to create this lovely scene. I have yet to name this painting, but I am thinking of several titles such as A Vibrant Tuscan Autumn, or Tuscan Vineyard Glow, or just Autumn in Tuscany.

After taking 6 months off from painting(no I didn't paint, but I did a lot of drawing in graphite), this was a great way to get back into painting again. I really enjoyed this watercolor and this is a painting that I am going to keep and hang in my home. The size is approximately 20x 30 inches on 260 lb (356 gsm) weight paper and I used a number of various watercolor brand paints. Off to decide on my next project!

Absent but not gone!

Yes, I have been away, but I am not gone. Just absent for a while. Sort of like skipping school. You have to every now and then. Why you ask? Well, I have been working in my yard since the beginning of June and hopefully will be finished by the end of August. Let's hope. My father-in-law and I(mostly him since he is retired) have been cladding the walls with stone, cutting and carving limestone, building a custom BBQ Pit(it is nice if I might say) and other things. It is very hard and tiring work, especially after a full day at the office. Anyway, it will be worth it. Enough about that.

I just wanted to post a few photographs that I took in March when I took my son Jason out to the Malta National Park at Ta 'Qali. While he was having fun riding his tricycle, I snapped a few photos. I love black and white photos and they have always been a favorite of mine. The first one is of a tree viewed through one of many massive archways in this rotunda. The second is a favorite of mine. It has more artistic qualities to it and I could see this one easily becoming a painting. It is a shot under a palm tree of other palm trees, but the shadowing and texture in this picture is what makes it exciting. I also like the fact that you can tell there was a sort of wind that was blowing the palms in the background back and forth a bit. Anyway, I hope to start painting again once I find the time. Once I do, I will post my work. Until then, I will continue posting more pictures.

View from Saint Mark's Square

This is a small watercolor on Bockingford 300 gsm/140 lb CP(NOT) Oatmeal colored paper measuring 6 x 6.5(15 x 17 cm). I used Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber and for the shading I used Ultramarine Blue mixed with Burnt Sienna/Burnt Umber where needed. I wanted to capture the old world feel with the earth tones.

Yes, this is unmistakingly Venezia, a view from St. Mark's Square, where the Gondolieri are waiting to show you throught he beautiful canals. This was from a picture I took in 2005.

Cabo San Lucas - Crashing Waves!!!

It has been a couple weeks since I last posted. I have been trying to improve my technique and unfortunately, the local teachers(artists) weren't of much help, at least from what I have found so far. I hope I will be able to find a local teacher that are willing to share their techniques & knowledge with me. So....I have been studying a number of different books, styles, DVD's and trying to copy a bit as well, which I find as a useful tool for learning.

I have really been influenced and taken to Arnold Lowrey's painting's, DVD, and book, Sea and Sky in Watercolour. It is straight forward, although he makes it look so simple, it is not! I have really enjoyed painting a number of exercises in his book and some of the paintings as well.

So onto my painting. This is a photo of a beach in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. A great place for sun, fishing and relaxing. Beautiful scenery as well. This is on Conda 8.5 x 11.5 inch Cold Press, 300 gsm/140 lb Watercolor paper. All paints were W&N including, raw umber, burnt sienna, burnt umber, cerulean blue, ultramarine, veridian and finishing touches for the sea spray using Chinese White.

The second picture is a detail picture of the wave. I thoroughly enjoyed painting this one.

Inspired by Arnold Lowery

Certain things draw you to a picture, painting or the style of an artist. After viewing a number of paintings on WetCanvas by Arnold Lowery, I was drawn to his style, flow and creative ideas in his paintings. I especially like his "action" paintings of the sea. For those of you who aren't familiar with Arnold, he is an artist from Wales and as you can imagine, is inspired by the sea. A few weeks ago I purchased his instructional book Sea and Sky in Watercolour and I also got the DVD to go along with it. It is a really helpful book full of ideas using his techniques. What I have learned is something that I will be able to use in my paintings, but with tweeking to my own style. The DVD is a very helpful tool to actually see him painting.

The painting above is a rendition of one of Arnold's paintings titled "Cliffs" in his book. This is my version of it and I think it is similar. I made a few changes to it though. This is a smaller painting on an 8x10 Conrad Watercolor paper, 300 gsm or 140 lb, Cold Press. I hope that one day I will be able to make it to Wales to attend one of Arnold's classes. Your comments are always welcome and I appreciate any feedback regarding any of my paintings, pictures or the site in general.

Sunflowers, Sunflowers, Sunflowers!

I have always loved Sunflowers. I will venture to say that they are my favorite flower. There is something bright, cheerful and invigorating about them. There are so many various types, colors and shapes and they are all so beautiful. It is amazing when you are driving through the Tuscan Region of Italy and you are surrounded by fields of Sunflowers on both sides.

This is a watercolor that I copied from a Shirley Trevena painting appropriately titled "Sunflowers" pictured on the left . I saw this in Hazel Sloan's "Flowers in Watercolour" book and I was immediately attracted to this painting. Her painting is a 4x4". The one that I have painted is 6x7". The picture on the right is my interpretation of her painting and my main reason I chose this was the loose style and the vibrant colors. It is a real challenge to get the colors just as they are in the original painting. As stated in other posts, when you copy other artists work, it helps you improve and I have seen the improvement with my own eyes over the last 2 months. The works I copy are for my own enjoyment and I use them as exercises to better my talents.

If you are interested in seeing more of Shirley's work you can visit her site at http://www.shirleytrevena.com/

Study pieces, Art lessons and Learning from others

It has been a while since I posted last. I have had a number of things going on lately, so not all my time has been dedicated to painting. I recently took a short trip to Paris, France for 3 days and it was very nice. Not Nice, nice. Sorry, just a joke. There is a lot of beautiful things to see and a lot of inspiration as well from all the major sites such as the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre.......ah yes the Louvre. What a wonderful place of inspiration and perspiration. It is a large place, but worth it. There are so many other Art Museums in Paris that I could have spent all 3 days in them, but I wanted to see other things. It was raining a bit while we were there, but it makes you stop and look at things while waiting for the rain to stop. I saw a lot of beautiful reflections off of the brick/stone streets from the rain and at night, the Seine River is just beautiful with all the buildings lit up.

Which brings me to my first painting. Reflections in Water. This is my first subject that I have been trying to learn more about and tackle by painting and copying/mimicking other painters to see how they have gone about painting their view of reflections. This subject is a work in progress and one I want to get better at. This is a scene from Venice of a painting by an Italian painter. His painting was originally done in Oil and I took a cropping of the original painting only to work on the water portion. This is on a 9x11 inch sheet of Arches Cold Press(Rough) 300 gsm/140 lb paper. I am very pleased the way it turned out. This was just a study piece rather than a painting that I was intending to "keep", "frame" or "sell". I learned a lot from this painting about reflections and how to approach them from a drawing perspective and from a painting perspective. I will continue to copy other painters reflection type paintings in order to improve. This is my goal. I don't like to copy other peoples work, but in reality, this is the only way to improve and learn.

My second painting is of an apple using a wax resist technique. This was taken from an exercise in a book by Ray Smith called The Artist's Handbook. Of course it doesn't detail every step, but it is decent in describing what to do. I would have preferred a bit more explanation in the steps, but I managed. This was my first attempt using wax resist. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Wax Resist, it is a technique in which a white crayon or white wax candle is used to highlight the areas where you want the direct light to show on the subject. It also forces you to think much in advance to block out the areas that you want highlighted before you start your painting, rather than at the end of your painting like with oil or acrylic painting. After you block out the highlights, you then lay down your first wash, let dry and then add subsequent washes & blocking and drying, etc. It is a timely process to build up the color, but the effect works well. I look forward to working with this again in the future.

The third exercise was of an orange or rather two. This was a quick painting, but I was able to use different tones of orange......actually I mixed Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow and in some areas I used a Yellow Ocher. The shadow was fun to work on and I used Burnt Sienna and French Ultramarine Blue. I didn't finish this exercise and it is obvious when you see what looks like a floating orange in the background. Since I didn't apply the shadowing or darker tones to ground the orange, it looks as if it is floating. I may get around to fixing it, but then I may not.

The last exercise was one I copied from a painting of my Art instructor. OH by the way did I mention that I started taking some watercolor lessons? If not, I have now taken 3 lessons and I have some mixed feelings. The class setting is not exactly to my liking. There are 6-7 people all working on different mediums and different projects, so there is really no cohesiveness to the class. One may be working on pastels and another on acrylics or watercolors or drawing. So if I get to spend 15 minutes with the instructor in a 2 hour class, that is normal. Also if someone asks a question, not all people benefit from the question as if everyone were working on the same medium. Unfortunately it seems that is the way most classes are taught here in Malta. Most, not all. I have learned a number of things from my instructor, but I have to say that copying other artists work has helped me improve most. I will try a few more classes to see if it is something I want to continue. I think I would be better off in a class as described above or even one on one. Back to the exercise. These flowers in a vase were fairly simple to sketch and paint. It took me a couple hours to complete everything, but it was a good learning experience to match as closely the colors to the original painting. I am very pleased with it. It is on a 9x11 inch sheet of Arches Cold Press(Rough) 300 gsm/140 lb paper and I did highlights with a fine liner art pen.

I have enjoyed all of these exercises and just over the past 2 weeks I have seen the improvement in my work. Not to boast, but others have commented as well. I can see it with my own eyes so I believe I am on the right path. Now if I only had more time to paint. Hmmmm............

Getting back into the Acrylic Groove

It has been a few weeks since I have posted anything on my site. I have to say that I am really excited with the outcome of my latest painting......and it's not watercolor either. My feelings have been torn and reborn, realizing what I have been missing for the past 5 yrs since I last painted in Oil or Acrylic. Acrylic is different from oil in it's drying times and it's sheen, but they are very similar in mixing, consistency and texture. What I have realized is that I am much better painting oils and acrylics than watercolors. Watercolors can be more difficult in a sense. You have to reverse your thought process about how you are going to apply the paints. With watercolors it tends to be light to dark, but with Acrylic and Oil, you are applying the colors from dark to light since you are always adding white to get a lighter color. Of course you can have darker tones than straight out of the tube, but you get my drift(I hope). Automatically with watercolors you add water and build the colors. This can be a difficult process. It shouldn't be of any surprise that I am realising that my talents lean more towards oils and acrylics than watercolors, but what can I expect since in all honesty I have only been painting with watercolors for the past 2 yrs or so. Although watercolor is more difficult for me at this time, it won't stop me from learning and trying to get better. I see this more as a challenge.

This is a painting from a picture I took of an old shelter in a field here in Malta at the bottom of Saqqajja Hill. This building has been around for some time(at least 100 years) and has seen better days. My painting depicts the building in a much better light than it actually is. I have added some coloring to the stones as well to give the painting interest. I painted the stone in lighter shades of cream and white, but the painting became washed out and uninteresting, so I changed it to the current color scheme. This is a smaller painting that measures 8x10 and due to this, it took a lot longer for the brick work than it would on a larger painting. Regardless of this fact, I thoroughly enjoyed this painting and I can't wait to start painting more in oil and acrylic. I hope you enjoy this landscape and I always look forward to your comments.

Silhouette Series

Recently I did a series of 3 paintings that were silhouettes of various skylines in Malta. Some may look at these and say "I could do that" or "those look easy", and I must admit at first I thought the same thing. What I soon discovered was that it wasn't as easy as I thought. Okay, they are fairly quick paintings in comparison to something that is detailed, but it still takes patience and planning. I thoroughly enjoyed each of the 3 paintings and I am really pleased with the outcome. The first watercolor is a view of the Church of Xewkija in Gozo. This is an 8x10. The second is a silhouette of the silent city of Mdina as viewed from Mtarfa. This is a fortified city originally built by the Arabs around 800 AD. This is a 5x7. The third watercolor is of the Cittadella in Gozo. This is also a 5x7. All the watercolors were done on Arches 300 g/m or 140 lb paper and painted with Windsor and Newton paints.

For those of you who do not know much about the Maltese islands, they are packed full of history, war, religion and relaxation, not to mention some breath taking scenery. I have included some links, stories and perspective on Malta. In the small island Republic of Malta, the church or chapel is a very common feature of the landscape. Many churches in Malta dominate the skyline and the domes and steeples can usually be seen from across the island. You can usually find the centre of a town or village by driving towards the parish church although many towns and village cores usually feature two or more churches and chapels. The worst thing that can happen if you get lost in Malta is that you drive your car into the sea, then you know you are lost. Seriously though, the roads in the older villages were often made small and narrow for defense purposes. It was easier for the villages to block or divert and making it sometimes difficult to navigate through a small village.

On the islands of Malta and Gozo, there are a total of 359 churches (313 in Malta and 46 in Gozo). This means that there is 1 church per square kilometer. In Malta every locality has its parish church, apart from two or three small localities. This is only considering the Roman Catholic Church, since this is the official religion of the island, but there are many other churches and religions on the island. Malta is mentioned in the book of Acts in the Bible(Acts 27 & 28) when Paul was shipwrecked on his way to Rome.

Everything that I have mentioned above and all the history of the Maltese islands provides a large and endless pallet for subjects to draw, paint and photograph. I would be lying if I didn't say I wasn't inspired by what I see daily. A lot of people here though take it for granted what is in front of their eyes and how they can maintain and preserve the architecture until recently. I hope you have enjoyed the paintings above and the brief notes on Malta. Thank you for your visit and I hope you will return to see my work.

Living, Loving, Painting and a bit of Wet Canvas

Over the past few days I really haven't painted a lot, and that could be due to the colder weather we are experiencing here in Malta at the moment, but I have had the opportunity to discuss various issues about painting with friends and acquaintances in a number of different conversations and topics. Whew! What a long sentence. Anyway, one of the topics I was discussing with a friend was trying to go from one level to the next. You know, improving your game and stepping it up a bit. I am in the process of taking some painting classes, but I just haven't found the right place or teacher yet. Another way is to network and to do research on the Web or by reading. There are plenty of videos on YouTube, WetCanvas and many other sites, where you can find instructional videos on different topics to help you improve as a painter or artist. Personally, WetCanvas is one of the best ways I have found to get instruction, critique, and comments on my paintings that I submit for other artists to view and provide feedback. This has encouraged me a lot as an artist knowing that if I ever have a question about how to start something or how to correct a mistake or to enhance a painting, I can go to a forum and ask fellow artists worldwide. Not will I only get 1 or 2 different types of feedback, but I may get 5 or 10. Other than you being your own worst critic, other artists will shoot it straight and try to help you out.

Another discussion I had this week was whether it is right or wrong for an artist who is painting to trace or copy the under drawing or if it should be done freehand. The subject of copying from a projector came up. A person can look at this in a number of different ways. If you are wanting to paint, you tend to want to start the painting right away, but the under drawing takes some time, so some people find it easier to trace the drawing instead of drawing freehand. You still have to paint it and that is the hardest part. The thought is if you can paint, that is the end goal and the drawing is only a small portion. If you can't paint well, no matter how good the drawing is, the painting will.....well you get my drift. This is one theory. The other thought is that the drawing is part of the art itself and more of a "pure" form and this isn't looked at as cheating, such as with tracing or copying. Both are food for thought. I myself have always taken the "pure" approach with the underdrawing, but this doesn't mean it is right or wrong. Let's face it, Michelangelo used his black pin box to help him cut corners too, but it didn't make him any less of a painter.

I recommend that anyone who is interested in learning, advancing your skills and talking with other artists, I would highly recommend connecting to WetCanvas . I do know that taking lessons will improve and advance my God given talents, and until I find the desired place to study, I will be living, breathing and loving painting........and I will spend some time on WetCanvas too.

Retired Gondola

Venice is one of those places that you hear about all of your life that stirs up visions and thoughts of the "Old World". Upon visiting my first time, I can now say that all the things you hear about Venice are real. It is a wonderful old world city with a twist of the new. The canals, although sometimes stagnant, have a life of their own and add to the charm and mystery that surrounds this inspiring place. As an artist, everywhere I looked I would see something amazing or breath taking wanting to take a picture with the thought of "Some day I will get around to painting that!"

Well, I have started 3 paintings of Venice & Burano and I have finished 2 of the 3. The watercolor above titled Retired Gondola is from a picture taken by my wife on a trip where we took my parents to see the wonderful sights. We stayed in the Dorsorduro district of Venice, which is one of the oldest areas in Venice(to view pictures & tourist information on my wifes blog Stories & Scribbles). We were walking along when we stopped to take a look at this wonderful Gondola that had seen better days. The backdrop and the reflections made this a picture and sight to treasure. This is a watercolor on 140 lb or 300 g/m Arches Watercolor paper using Windsor and Newton watercolor paints. This particular painting was time consuming due to the brick work and it was a challenge to capture what was in the picture, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I am off now to continue working on another painting, but I will soon be back with additional paintings, pictures and thoughts.

My Love for Painting

I have always loved to draw ever since I was a little kid. It started with drawing cars, trucks, people and then patterns I would see in objects such as wood or in the clouds. My love for drawing and painting grew as I entered school and at around 7 or 8 years of age, I realized that drawing was something I enjoyed. At this time I won a number of competitions for various things such as an ad campaign for M.A.D.D. in the mid 1980's.

I was always encouraged by my cousin Dian, my brother who would challenge me, and the graciousness of my dad who would hang my brother's and my drawings in his office for others to see. My love for drawing turned into painting, first with Acrylic, then on to Oil. This was in Jr. High where I learned perspective, tones, shading, and of course the color wheel! I even learned how to stretch my own canvas', apply gesso and so on. I didn't appreciate these things at the time, but looking back, it is something I will always cherish. Unfortunately after graduating High School the love I had for painting soon started to be overtaken by "real life" and I had to focus on College. I didn't stop painting, I just didn't have the same time. I must also mention that I was very serious about playing my guitar and that consumed me for 15 years of my life for 3-4 hours a day. I would also paint smaller scale oil/acrylic paintings for friends & family in the late 1990's. In 2001, I met my beautiful wife and of course I painting some landscapes for her, not that I thought that would win her heart! Fast forward to 2003, my dad bought me a Watercolor set as a gift. I never did touch watercolors, other than the one's we all painted with as kids. It was an instructive set from Readers Digest with Technical & Project books to follow. I dove into it head first and my first painting of Ta' Kola Windmill from the island of Gozo turned out pretty good, if I may say so myself. As a token of gratitude for the watercolor set, I gave this to my dad as a Fathers Day gift in 2004. I found that Watercolor was a style of thinking ahead and planning before leaping in like you can with Oil and Acrylic. With the latter, you can correct mistakes by scraping off or painting over, but not with Watercolor. To be honest, what I love about Watercolor is that you see results right away and the clean-up doesn't take long at all. With Oil and Acrylic, the progression is a little bit slower, but I am slowly getting back into painting with Acrylic and Oil.

As for my paintings, I haven't had any formal training other than my days in Jr. & Sr. High School. I look forward to one day taking some classes to improve my God given talents in Oil, Acrylic and Watercolor. I must also mention that I live in a region of the Mediterranean that has a lot of top notch artists to learn from. You can literally start talking about art with someone and most of the time they know some guy who works in the Dock Yards, lives down the street or is the average "Joe" who is a master painter, and most of the time it is true. I am sure that I will gain more confidence in my skills once I take some sort of class, but until I find the time, I will continue to paint. Since the end of 2008, I have started to sell my Watercolor paintings in a boutique in the States. Some of these are shown in my slideshow presentation. It is just the beginning of a journey that I hope will grow into a lifelong venture.