my ART GALLERY

ART GALLERY, a set on Flickr - click on the pictures for details


Welcome to my ART GALLERY, and please have a closer look! Some are watercolour paintings, most are all oil on canvas. On my flickr set you will find more paintings and details.

Since 1985, when I just failed the admission to the art school "Kunstakademie Stutttgart", I thought it wouldn't happen, me, an artist, this life. However, almost three decades later, I am into it. Without academic background in arts. But with a lot of passion for art.

Beside photography, I have always loved painting.

Since I can hold a pencil I am drawing and painting. At the young age of six I copied my first van Gogh painting.

Over the years, I learned with different recognized artists in Germany (watercolour), China (ink wash) and Thailand (oil).

Since 2010, I am painting regularly by myself and with art groups in Bangkok. I prefer oil over acrylic.

I find inspiration in daily life, and photography. My favorite painters are post-impressionists, expressionists and modern artists for their bright colours, light, movement, and compositions.

On Palazzo Pizzo I started to file inspiring art here.

And why showing my paintings here on this blog?

When I started painting, I always painted something I wanted to have in my home. First in my parents home, later in my own home. When I started painting with an group of students in Bangkok, our teacher wanted to do an exhibition. That meant we would have to sell our paintings. I said, I can't sell mine. They are too much work and I would never get enough money for the hours, days and weeks I spent on painting them.

Then one day, I painted something just for fun. I found that screaming pink acrylic colour that I needed to buy. I used it for an underpainting. And then I searched for a subject that would be equally flashy. I remembered the cockatoo that I observed once in neighbours garden. And I liked the result a lot. But like always, I did not really believed in my capability (must be my German education). I thought, it was just lucky coincidence that my painting looks great. Then I said to myself, if I am an artist, I have to be able to reproduce the same painting. And when I reproduce, I will try to become faster. Only if I can finish a painting in, let's say two sessions, I will be willing to separate from it. And if I have two, at least I could sell one. I thought. Now, my son and husband say, the two cockatoos are brothers and cannot be separated... But I feel, I am ready now to produce for an exhibition. I feel freed.

I feel like I need to paint, I can't wait to get back to the brushes. That is the first time in my life, that I feel that strong about painting. And that's why, I am "opening" a gallery on Palazzo Pizzo. 

I hope you like what you see. Enjoy browsing and thanks for visiting.

Windows with a View

A home pleases me when it has a view! It is important that a house or apartment looks appealing from outside. First impression is important. So is the entrance. But I realized, what I like most, is the view from inside out of a home. It doesn't have to be Manhattan's skyline, or the Tour Eiffel. It could be the neighbour's lush green gardens and some old tree. And of course, sea view is one of the best views!

When inside, the window is our connection to the outside world.

Henri Matisse, the impressionist, painted lots of interiors. Very often there is a window with a view in his paintings. Recently, I came across Pierre Bonnard, a post-impressionist painter. When I researched his paintings (thanks to google images) I realized he must have known Matisse. He painted similar windows with a view! And indeed they were friends, they were even part of the same group (Les Nabis) and inspired each other.

Artists have always been inspired by windows with a view:

Pierre Bonnard 1919

Henri Matisse 1918

  

Henri Matisse 1919

Raoul Dufy 1928

Pablo Picasso 1957

  

Pierre Bonnard 1921

David Hockney 1970

"Window, Grand Hotel, Vittel", lithograph

David Hockney 2010

 on ipad with "Brushes"

And last but not least:

Palazzo Pizzo with new shades, summer 2012

Inspiration

This blog exists because I love to be creative.

However, lately, I have not been so creative in writing blog posts. My apologies. And thank you to all of you for still sticking with me.

For those who want to know - and maybe the new reader, I will explain, the reason(s) why I was reluctant to blog:

Lack of idea

• After having finished 99% of our renovation and decoration project, there is not much left to report about the palazzo.
• Also not living in Italy permanently, does not provide me with many new stories from the village life in the beautyful South.
• There are so many blogs around these days, that good new stuff that hasn't been explored inside out by others is difficult to find.
• When I write I want to deliver quality, well researched things. I try not to just briefly touch a fashionable topic.
• When I press the publish button, it's because I have to tell something. Something that worth to be printed. Something that is entertaining and keeps readers coming back.

Lack of time

• As I said above, I aim for quality. And that needs time. But nowadays, you need to be faster and faster if you don't want to be the last writing about a subject.

Lack of motivation

• I started this blog in December 2006, so I am in my 7th year of blogging!! Mmmhhh, is it the seven-year-itch !!??
• People seem to follow more and more other (faster) social networks, like facebook, like twitter, pinterest, tmblr .... than blogs. Maybe.

I was even tempted to sign up for a blog e-course with Holly Becker at Decor8.

As I said, this blog exists, because I love to be creative. Actually, I need to be crative! It enriches my life. Although, for a couple of weeks I have not been writing, I have been creative elsewhere:

I am into photography since some months. I know now how to use my digital camera in the manual mode. I learned that prime lenses are giving better results than standard zoom lenses, and that the body is less important than the lens. Over the past days I played around with the free trial version of Adobe Lightroom. I learned how to improve photos in the post process. And, very important, how to insert a copyright into the metadata of a photo - or even better, into a whole batch of photos.

On top of photography, I did some weekly painting. First with a maestro artist who helped us students when stuck. After a year or so, I gave up to paint with him since I was not able to paint without him anymore. Slowly, I started to paint again, just by myself, and with a group of ladies who use different media and techniques.

Over the time I realized, how photography and painting are inspiring and complementing each other. I grew with both. I also came across many artists. Some I heard before, but most were new to me, especially the photographers. Very Inspiring!

I am always curious about an artist's life and where famous artists got their inspiration from! Often from each other!

The other night, I looked up my favorite post-impressionists on my iphone... for hours...The next morning I woke up, sleepy though,  I finally knew what to paint on my pink canvas.

In one session I almost finished the painting. Now, just some glazing (shadows) is missing. I posted it on FB and my friends liked it. I got compliments from art connoisseurs, form art buyers and even a successful artist friend. If I continue to be productive like this, I will be able to participate in the exhibition of my art group at the end of this year. - The only problem is, that the exhibition's target is to sell paintings. - Ha ha, I am not sure, if I can separate from that bird?!



oil on canvas (40 x 50 cm) by me

For future inspiration, I always collect photos and art work in files on my personal computer, ipad and iphone. But today I had an idea. Why not share my inspiration on my blog? I will have a new label "inspiring art" and feature painters and photographers I like. Here we go, same purpose of blogging as before, filing my inspiration online (and finding them in cyberspace always)!

And so, after photography and painting for many months, I am happily back to writing again.
What a connection!

Renovation Reloaded

I am not talking about a new project. We are renovating in our house again. We are renovating the renovation. Or are we re-renovating? Maybe, I should say repairing.

Before we left Italy this summer, I walked through the house and noted all the tiny and not so tiny things that needed small repair or even big make-over.

Angelo, Tonino and Mimo, our workforce, went back to work. Starting from adding rings to several door hinge-joints (to avoid abrading on the floor) to restoring entire walls. The latter is documented with photos below:  

preparing renovation in a renovated house...

craftsmen everyone likes (broom!)

the colour and plaster strangely peeled off in this corner

wall newly plastered and drying (hopefully!)

same corner, one floor down, similar issues

This is an outside wall, facing South-West. The same wall causes humidity problems on all three floors of the house. In the bathroom of the guest residence (to be), one floor above in the living room, and one more floor above in our master bathroom (no photo). We have already insulated the wall from the outside. 

Could there be a leakage from the roof top terrace? :-/ 

Actually, there are two possible explanations for the humidity in the wall:

1. Rain water penetrates the whole wall from top to bottom in that corner of the house. We will have to look into re-doing part of the roof terrace.
2. And that is Angelo's theory, that the centuries old, one meter thick wall has absorbed water over the years before the renovation and had not yet dried out completely. - I hope so. Otherwise we will repeat this same repair work again. But then after the roof top examination.

Beside that humidity problem, we also had a material problem:

interior natural stone wall is too natural - sand keeps falling

but hopefully the new material can fix the problem

same with our "just" renovated outside wall,

the rain washes the plaster/sand-mix off - and sand keeps falling on the garden terrace

Not sure, what Angelo, my father-in-law - who is from Piedmont and in fact is based in the Veneto, but prefers spending his time in Calabria - would do here in the South, without my new To-Do-list...

It sounds like a joke, but every joke has a bit of truth - and this one is almost all truth. Angelo always needs a crafting project. Therefore, we are blessed that he coordinated right away all the tasks.

Meanwhile, our cappo is back in the Veneto. And everyone prepares for the holidays. For now I have no more updates and news from Pizzo and will be back on the blog in January. I hope to see you  !

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

and ALL THE BEST FOR A LUCKY 2013 !

 ***

Upholstery: Sofa and Armchair ! Before & After !

I wrote about the inherited tiger sofa, the 7 different dining chairs and the funny baroque armchair before. All in need for upholstery. Then, I confused my readers and myself while searching for the right fabric - but knew how to measure and calculate the right amount of fabric.

But it is all good now.
Almost.

First, I had to travel to Italy this summer. I packed all the chosen fabric from Thailand into my suitcase. Before arriving in Calabria we stopped in Venice for a wedding. Then, I repacked the suitcase. The fabric continued the journey by car, while I travelled by air. Reunited in Pizzo, I entered the house - the sofa was gone! But that is another story that I prefer to skip.

It is all good now.
Almost.

The craftsman who was introduced to us had a look at the furniture and the fabric. We explained what we want, he made a proposal, and we agreed. Since it was summer, the craftsmen would need longer than 10 days for the work. We were awaiting guests and did not want to miss dining chairs. Therefore, we decided to have them, the sofa, and the armchair picked up after the holiday peak Feragosto (August 15). When everyone and everything goes back to normal.

One day after summer, we were long gone back to Asia, our order was ready and delivered - or picked up -  from the tiny upholstery workshop in the heart of Pizzo. My father-in-law made some snap shots and mailed the result to us.

From what I see, the sofa looks good.
The armchair looks wrong.
The dining chairs look okay.

What do you think?

AFTER: calm grey fabric enhances carved sofa frame

BEFORE: the "tiger sofa" and it's story

For the sofa, there was a big surprise: I never saw the back! I did not know we would need fabric for the back too! I am very glad, I bought some spare fabric.

always have some spare fabric for surprises

From what I heard, my mother-in-law did not like at all the new upholstery for the armchair. She "discussed" with the craftsman - got a chair for free - and asked me to buy more fabric, in order to redo the seating cushion.

AFTER: the armchair - something looks wrong

BEFORE: it looked promising

BEFORE: the real before with gold lacquer

(previous pic is a 2nd chair that needed more work) 

Apparently, I was not clear enough about the fabric direction for the armchair, as well as for the dining chairs. One chair had even a similar fabric and the fine stripes ran from front to back - and not from left to right. But who knows why the craftsman changed direction.


Now, our 7 dining chairs of three styles have something in common: a dark finish and a bluish upholstery.

AFTER: dining chair

BEFORE: backrest broken, fabric riven 

BEFORE: unstable and rotten fabric

BEFORE: unstable and broken backrest

(fabric runs in the right direction!)

AFTER: all new! (sorry for blur photo)

Lessons learned:

• Always buy more fabric than you need! Miscalculation or mishap may happen.
• Explain your idea clearly! Direction of fabric, border, nails, finish tone or colour for wood - don't leave room for unexpected creativity.
• Be sure about the finishing before choosing the fabric (silver seems not the right choice for our armchair)

Maybe, I should think about a DIY upholstery project next time? I researched some books about upholstery and think, this might be a good introduction:

Upholstery: A Beginners' Guide

A final remark and last photo:

AFTER: new upholstery with good vibes

Does anyone see the spots in the above photo? Not the spots on the wall. The two circles, below the light switch. I would have said, Angelo's camera has spots on the lens again. My friend says, these orbs are a sign for good energy in the room. Wow, my new upholstery has a great energy boost then! 

Photos: Angelo and Palazzo Pizzo