Italian Shoes 01

Italian Shoes 01 - by Miki

At some point in Italy  I realised that Italian shoes are a wonderful motif for still life paintings. I don’t remember where I consciously noticed them for the first time but I think it was in the South of Tuscany, in Pienza, as I am not a passionate fan of shopping, and certainly not of fashion. To tell the truth, I hate shopping and fashion!!!! But now,  from the artistic point of view, I wished I would have opened my brain and eyes to that kind of stuff a little bit earlier. At least I was so lucky to have Kevin with me,  he is all the contrary of me regarding fashion, he especially loves his shoes. So I really could not avoid to see that world wonder… I was especially attracted by all these different shoes in red, white and green, the colours of the Italian flag. They are so much fun!!!!

In Pienza, and later on in Montepulciano, I started doing some sketches featuring shoes and bags the way they were exhibited in the many shop windows. I will publish them gradually, after finishing the original sketches. With it I am not pretending being faithful in all details to the Italian elegance, my art works are just impressions, like most of the time, above all focussing on colour, unusual shapes, contrast. Also I was rarely comfortable sketching, as the shops were usually full of tourists eager to spend their money for one or more pairs of these artworks (I mean the shoes, not my paintings!!!!!)    So I hope I won’t get any complaint from these excellent Italian shoe designers!!!

If you fancy to get such shoes and had no opportunity to get some so far, I can’t sell you the shoes, but you can purchase Giclee prints (in many different sizes, on paper or canvas) and greetings cards of these paintings in my Fine Art America Gallery. They might even been cheaper than the shoes themselves,and you get even 3 pairs and some bags for the price of one!

The Italian Job 02 – Santa Margherita

Miki sketching in Italy in Santa Margherita

We arrived in Santa Margherita, an enchanting little town about 25 kilometres  south of Genova on the 3rd of April 2011 and spent some days there. It was strategically well situated, allowing us to make some bike rides along the coast on both directions. This place was where Kevin used to join Ocean Village on occasion, the cruise ship on which he performed a solo rock show before we met. The ship would dock out in the bay and ferry the people to and fro to Santa Margherita by the ship’s tenders.

Here I was confronted with massive American tourism, most of them arriving by sea on the big cruise ships. While I was sketching on that rock, and the arriving AmericanS were dIsembarking behind me, I was thinking: one day , on one of my trips, an American will come to me and recognise me! The fact is that I have many clients in the USA, especially through my Giclee prints gallery in Fine Art America. This would be fun!

Santa Margherita 07 – Travel sketch by Miki

Perhaps you can recognise that this sketch was done exactly in the moment when Kevin took the photo! One of the rare sketches I could do outside that day, as I was freezing! And also after the American landing, it had become much too busy and I was no more able to concentrate on sketching.

Santa Margherita 01 – Travel sketch by Miki

So we had our first encounter with Italian coffee, in form of a Latte Macchiato in a beautiful Cafe full of cookies and stuff which looked incredibly appetising! It was quite hard to resist. And on the way back to Boo, we bought Italian bread, from a friendly bakery, and this was also a big revelation: we just adored it!

Cafe Life In Santa Margherita – Travel sketch by Miki

As I said, we spent some days there, and I managed to do some more sketches. You can see all of them in my FAA gallery. And also buy some prints if you want, they are available there directly online in many different sizes, on paper or canvas, and also as Greeting cards.

The Italian Job 01 – Imperia

Imperia in italy 02 - Travel sketch by Miki

Before we arrived in Italy we spent a few days in France, where I sketched a bit. Right now I don’t know where these sketches are, they kind of disappeared into one of the many secret holes of “Boo” (new nickname for our Boomobile… ), but at some point they will probably reappear and land on the conveyor belt of my production line…

For now, let us go to Italy. It was the Second of April 2011. Some distance before the border between France and Italy, on the Cote d’Azur,  we had abandoned the National street for the highway. In Italy our first contact with an Italian person was the woman at the toll station, well equipped with a charming, welcoming body language. Nothing better than entering a new country and getting at once the feeling  to be wanted! We paid the highway fees and that lovely lady opened her mouth to say:

“Grazie!”

Well, as I commented to Kevin,”There was a whole Italian opera told in this one word!”. The way that woman spoke it was beyond what we normally call language, it took her ages to arrive at the final letter, and the accompanying music was of the most surrealistic kind. From that moment I knew I would never be able to speak Italian, never find the patience and motivation to spend so much time and drama to deliver one word. Later on, every time I heard Italians speaking, my first impression was confirmed. Quite a disappointment to me, as I wanted to learn Italian!

After having left the highway, we drove directly to the coast, in search of a place for the night. We eventually stopped in Imperia, a beautiful little town about 40 kilometres North of San Remo. We had a walk though the town, eager to capture the first impression of Italy. What impressed us here, and would never cease to impress us for the rest of the trip, was the size of the buildings: Great, towering, imposing edifices.

I did some ink and watercolour sketches, and thought of staying one day more there as I saw many attractive motifs. But well, we had just started the trip, and I would probably see millions of stuff to sketch. Better learn from the very beginning to let it go…

Imperia in Italy 02 – Travel sketch by Miki

You can see more sketches and paintings from Imperia in my Fine Art America gallery.

And if you want to purchase a print (on paper or canvas and many different sizes available) just click on the widgets below

The Italian Job 00

Just back from my sketching trip to Italy, mainly focussed on Tuscany, 7 weeks altogether in our box on wheels (The Boomobile, our motorhome), started in Turre (our home in the north of Andalusia, Spain) on the 29th of march 2011. Yesterday afternoon, 15th of May, we arrived safely home after a 5000 kilometres journey through Spain, France and Italy. Some days before, in fact the day of my birthday, we had been told about the earthquake in Lorca (located about 70 kilometres from Turre) a big shock, having to travel through Lorca quite often. Not exactly the kind of birthday present I wished! Anyway, we were happy to find all our paintings and posters still hanging on the walls, and our beloved mugs on their shelves! Living so close to Lorca, it could have been much worse…

In Italy I sketched a lot -well, this of course was the aim of the trip- although I must say that I could not sketch outdoors on the site as much as I wanted: much too many people around, no chance to get the peace and concentration I needed. Also I had the intention to paint more with gouache than with watercolour this time, but I soon noticed that it is much too complicated to deal with all the tubes and palettes and brushes, much too messy too for the motorhome. So very soon I went back to my usual technique in watercolour and ink. I did what I could, loads of the sketches having been done simply from memory some hours after having been on the site, or done from inside our Boomobile looking out of the window and imagining what I could not really see….. This might have the advantage of rendering all these well-know places in a more personal way.

I had been in Italy before, a long long time ago, when painting was not my main activity. It is very different to visit a country with the eyes of an artist, and also in company of the man one loves. Being shared, all the impressions and feelings are much deeper, intensified. Also, in this special case of Italy, there was an additional strong emotional component as our artist friend from the USA, Pamela Allegretto-Franz, of Italian origin, had helped me to choose the travel route. We followed step by step her advice, went to most of the places she had recommended to us. It was very emotional to think that she had been there before herself, especially because we have never met in person! At least we can say now that we have been at exactly the same spots, just not at the same time. Being such dear friends as we are, this alone means a lot! 

Now I guess I will spend the next few months revisiting Italy,  working on all these sketches and painting material, of course, publishing it, in the form of paintings, sketches and blog posts. Suddenly the net will be infected with Miki’s Italy stuff, but I hope some people will find pleasure in them, and perhaps be reminded of their own holidays in that marvellous country, or their native country, or their family history.

First blog post with first Italy sketches coming soon… fasten your seatbelts please!  

Miki sketching in Italy

Photo taken by Kev Moore as I started sketching, somewhere between Rapallo and Portofino… judging by the white paper, I hadn’t done much yet! 

And please take a moment to admire my wonderful; bag, bought in the Sierra Nevada last year to carry my sketching material, , and used in Italy for the first time! So far it had been used as a model for the following still life

Miki's art bag