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.