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

Times of The Day

These days I am going through older watercolour paintings b me (well, between 2 and 4 years old), a series of “simple” landscape paintings evoking the different times of the day: dawn, early morning, midday, early afternoon, late afternoon, nightfall, sunset… In fact they look simple, but well, when i look at some of them, i really haven’t got a clue how i reached some of the effects! I just know that they are painted very fast, from memory/fantasy, without thinking, and somehow they are meant to be just emotional impressions… with, like always, a big weight on the colours.

Here are some examples

Dawn 01

Early Morning 02

Early Morning 11

Midday 06

Early Afternoon 12

Late Afternoon 13

Sunset 05

Nightfall 07

You can see a big selection of them, and even buy prints online in different sizes in my RedBubble Gallery

Also they are available in my Fine Art America Gallery

Serpa – 2 – (Travel Sketches Portugal 2009)

Some days ago I presented here my first sketches from Serpa, our last stop in Portugal, in July 2009, Here are some more.

One of the most beautiful lanterns I have ever seen in my life. They were all over the town. That dragon must have something to do with the town history, but I have no idea what as I I am not  keen at all on history! The guy going down the staits is an invention of me, no idea who lives in this house!

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Somehow I can’t help making caricatures of the people. perhaps it is a natural reaction to me being forced to make very accurate, realistic portraits when I paint on commission…

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When i put the colours on this ink sketch done outside, i could not help adding the festive decoration in the sky. it reminded me that last year, as we were in Portugal, it was a big feast everywhere we were, all town had this kind of stuff floating in the sky. This time, we didn’t see any… perhaps because it was later in the year… anyway simply a trick to break the vertical composition, I needed this contrast!

Recalculating the Route

I am participating again in a contest organised by the Infectious people. They are making skins for laptops, ipods, iphones, etc, and are regularly organising competitions open to all artists. We are invited  to submit works with special themes. 2 weeks ago I participated in

“I love blogging”

and this time to “Big Cities”.

I have just submitted 2 works, one about Paris (noblesse oblige), and one about Lisbon.

The real aim is to develop a skin for the laptops, something which “rocks” – but they also want us to make an appropriate presentation work of the laptop with the skin. This is perhaps the part I most enjoy in the story!  Well here I did enjoy imagining Vasco de Gama sitting at my skinned  laptop and recalculating his route…

The laptop skin – the work I have entered in the competition – is the following

This work is a combination of several sketches I did last summer in Lisbon. I literally fell in love with that city, I loved the bridge, the discoverers monument, the trams (no, in Lisbon the trams don’t run on water.,,) , the old people striding the streets, the black umbrellas against the sun and the flags everywhere!

I have no idea as to whether this design will be accepted as an entry in the contest, but I don’t really care:

FOR ME THIS IS LISBON AND I LOVE IT!

Like a Bull in an Artshop

I have added today some bullfight paintings and other stuff to my new online shop Miki’s Mart.

It is not easy to make a choice, what to put for sale, and what not. Tastes are so different! And I have had the experience in my life that my taste often does not correspond to the clients’ taste. or at least there is a time difference… what I most like today my clients will like most in about 2 years!

I have often wondered about this phenomena, as I have heard the same from other artists.

I was asking myself if the artist is always  ahead of his clients’ time…

Anyway, among all my bullfight paintings, and as a contradiction to the theory I just presented and the aim that a shop which should be to sell what what people want to buy,  I chose to put for sale this one above, which is my most favourite bullfight painting of all time!

Delirium Tremens

NEW…NEW…NEW…           Miki’s new artist’s website www.mikidegoodaboom.com           NEW…NEW…NEW…

 

 

Somebody in America commented

“… provocative… and well done…”

I was quite surprised by the “provocative”. To tell the truth this was only a further game with the photos of the glasses I took the other day instead of making the washing up…

and well, a drop of creative delirium on top of it,  a drop of eroticism and plenty of color.

But I do wonder about the provocation… just because of one naked breast? Some artists show whole naked bodies all the time… my only aim was to make something appealing…

it does not matter, anyway, the “well done” is more than enough for me!

If you like that artwork, and want to buy a print, they are available directly obline, on paper or canvas, in many different sizes. even as greeting cards, just click on the widget below

Back Fighting The Bulls…

I will have soon “to fight the bulls ‘ again, so i have started yesterday  to practise again, always on the search of new bullfighting techniques…

I have painted that one today, a quite complicated mixed technique!

By the way, if you are still  interested in my bullfight calendar 2009, or already in the new calendars 2010, or in my bullfight mugs, simply got to

my bullfighting art site

Whirled in Digital Rainbow…

It was a  grey and cold day today in Andalucia,

one of these hated days where the world seems to stand still…

I suddenly felt the urge to work with colours again, took some of my storks

and whirled them around in some digital rainbow…

kind of!

PS: today only humourous or colourful comments are allowed…

Thanks!

The Slavery of Freedom

(“The Dance of The Universe”)

Wondering if I am turning myself always more towards Digital Art… The process started at the beginning of this year, using the blossoming almond trees as a pretext to extend my world of classical painting to a mixed technique involving digital art.

I am a little bit confused. I feel myself in the meanwhile more attracted by Digital paintings, when they are well done -  Paintings by other artists or in my own creative process. They seem to satisfy much more my needs of mystery and impossible possibilities.

And… it is soooooo clean!

It allows me to be wild without filthying everything on and around me, clothes, tables, walls, floors,… of course I am missing the sensuality of paper, brushes, water… but there are computer tools which produce similar sensitive effects on my brain.

I know that I am running the risk to lose my faithful fans and clients with this new direction, as most people don’t accept digital art as art. At least I can say that my stuff is not solely digital art. It is strongly based on classical art.

Anyway: first of all, I paint for myself, and I have to do what I have to do:

This is the slavery of freedom!