Giuliana on yellow

March 14th, 2010

It’s been several months since I visited Roma and promised my friend Giuliana to turn some of my sketches of her into a painting but got around to it just now, particularly thanks to my fascination with the cool new medium for my oil paintings I’ve been posting about here in the past week.

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oil on p.v.c. 30×21 cm, 2010, commission

National History Interior II

March 13th, 2010

Today have been staying in and working on my interiors – really enjoyed yesterday’s oranges and purples in the NHI interior, having another take.

natural history museum II

oil on p.v.c., 21×30 cm (A4 size)

listed on Etsy

Columbia road market revisited

March 11th, 2010

Have been suffering from sniffles all past week, particularly hurting on Monday. After finishing up this painting of the Columbia flower market today I finally realized that the allergy season started! A pot of blooming hyacinths bought at the market on Sunday must have made it worse for me. So here is a reflection on this, to the extent my itchy eyes  allowed for it.

Columbia road revisited, 6x8 in, oil painting

oil painting, 6×8 in, for sale on Etsy

Noah and the Whale at Koko, original oil painting, 21x15 cm (6x8 in) Best flat white in London, original 6x6 in painting, 2010

The great hall at the Natural History Museum

March 11th, 2010

Took the kid(s) to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs. Had a coffee and cakes in the hall, stood in a long line to see the T-Rex and checked out the oldest tree stump. It’s amazing what beautiful things the architects used to build not so long ago. Can hardly say that about anything that has been put up in the past 60 years…

The hall at the Natural History Museum

aprox 21×30 cm oil painting, 2010

listed on Etsy

Noah and the Whale at Koko

March 9th, 2010

Having loads of fun with the new medium. Here is a quick sketch of a couple watching a concert by Noah and the Whale performing at the Koko club last year.

Noah and the Whale at Koko, oil painting 21x15 cm (6x8 in)

oil painting 21×15 cm (6×8 in), for sale on Etsy

On the windowsill at the moment

March 8th, 2010

These are a few of the things we picked up at the Columbia Road flower market yesterday. I am having absolutely the best time painting on these smooth surfaces, see my brother’s portrait below and the first still life. Hat tipped to the amazing artist who pointed me into this direction. The greatest thing about it is that you can customize the background of the painting to your liking by changing the backing of it in the frame, see the thumbnail of the dandelions with a white background (it’s backwards too, it does not really matter). The only downside of the clear glossy medium is that you can see my reflection in the artwork photo.

On a windowsill at the moment, oil on acetate, 21x30 cm, 2010 by you.

oil on acetate, 21 x 30 cm, 2010, for sale on Etsy

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Sasha on a sunny day

March 7th, 2010

Painted a quick portrait today – of my brother actually . He dropped in for the weekend and brought with him a great deal of sunshine. Columbia Market trip was a must and I finally got a photo of the market with me inside it, hehe. Picked up one of the crinkled cups by Robert Brandt there. I was only half joking telling him that he should keep it tucked away in his office, as one too many cups like that were just tossed away by the cleaning staff.

Sasha on a sunny day

oil on glass, 2010

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Best flat white in town

February 24th, 2010

Reportedly this guy makes the best flat white in London. He is at Broadway market on Saturdays and Whitecross market by Barbican some other days. My friend said you can tell him by the long line next to it and surely enough it was worth the wait. On Broadway market he is usually in the middle of the street next to the flower stall.

Best Flat white in town

oil on panel,6×6 in, 2010, for sale on Etsy

Head in feathers

February 22nd, 2010

Meant to post about this new barrette I got at Sunday Up Market in Spitalfields – from the small crafty brother and sister run business. They do really amazing work, mine’s got vintage brooch, and  speckled feathers, it goes with nearly anything I have in my wardrobe. Mr. Uzzband thinks it’s a bit silly.

Feathers in my head

mixed media on paper, 2010, for sale on Etsy

Watercolor girls

February 20th, 2010

I am messing around with watercolors again, to get my hand looser and more spontaneous on my large scale paintings, plus there has been awfully few girls in my work recently, so here’s the catch up; and here’s another one.

That hat detail

24 pages,  2010,  listed on Etsy

Inspired by Sartorialist. This is about the first time I drew from a reference photo that I did not take myself or have not been asked to use by the photographer. I recently did some work that had to involve some partial use of borrowed material and then around the same time I saw a show about Picasso and how he boldly used old master paintings as reference. The legal rule of thumb I’ve heard is if art created off someone else’s creative property, it’s got to be altered enough to be it’s own thing. To me it’s also about  how close  the used image is to what I am trying to express, so the photos I took, and, therefore are my personal expressions, translate into more successful and complete painting. What thoughts do you have on this point?