Inspiration is everywhere

Ever heard of Raimondo Sirotti? Me either. At least not until last month when someone invited me to the exhibit here in Genoa. All I can say is WOW! I was blown away!

Obviously his art inspired me and I love a good challenge. His use of light and dark in abstract had me staring at his paintings and feeling this overwhelming sense of awe and calm.

If you can, do check him out…and in the meantime, here is my feeble attempt at capturing his essence. I ran out of white paint…so this may just end up back on the easel again, but for now it is slowly drying since I recently switched to water based oil paints and in this horrid summer humidity the layers are taking forever to dry! This has no name so feel free to call it whatever you like just be kind with your adjectives please. Also, just like all my abstracts, orientation varies depending on my mood. Feel free to rotate this one to your heart’s content! And since size matters…no really, it does, this one is big. 🙂 PM me for details.

…Enjoy!

Harmony

On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?

• MEATLOAF, 1977 Bat Out of Hell

The air is thick with heat tonight. Church bells chime in the distance and dogs are barking at the moon. It is almost full. It reflects magically over the sea and every time I see it, I am amazed at how peaceful an image it is.

Covid still lingers in our midst, like an unwelcome guest who doesn’t know when to pack up and leave. Nothing is normal. Even with many of us being vaccinated, there is stillness in the air. It’s really hard to look at the future right now because there are so many uncertainties. It is like this is the future and there is no going back. Covid is here. It is not leaving. And we just need to accept that our lives will forever be this way. Distant. Unattached. Uncertain.

When I painted this one, it took me months. Layers upon layers. There was a lot to cover. It started as a landscape…believe it or not, sometimes I think to paint something real, but eventually they all end up abstract. I’m not sure why, but they just do and I am totally okay with that.

This one had me experimenting with liquid pours…those darn YouTube people make it look so easy! But trust me, it isn’t! It’s a big one and I ended up liking it so much in the end that I had it stretched and it is now hanging on my wall at home.

There’s just something about the shades of blue, grey and yellow that flow and the black pour that bring me peace. I called it HARMONY because this is how I feel when I look at it.

I also refuse to sign it…at least not on the front. I want it to be versatile. At the moment it is hanging vertical but I had a copy printed and mounted for a friend and she hung it horizontally. It brings me such joy to walk into her house and see my artwork in her beautiful home.

I hope you enjoy it either way!

• Namaste my friends xo

Day 17

Yes, I know I missed a few days of painting! Such as life I guess but I shall not give up trying to keep up with this crazy challenge!

Day 14

I decided to try another one in the same style. It looks very different depending on the light in the room but I prefer to look at it in a darker setting because the colours are so moody.

Day 13

This was inspired by a request from a friend. He asked me to paint something from the archives of 1916 by Canadian artist Tom Thomson. I loved how the bright oranges contrasted with the blue sky and river and the dark hill and foreground really make the other colours pop out at you. I am inspired to do more with this colour palette in the future…

Day 12

Day 11

Yes, I am way behind schedule and gave up on trying to catch up! I did paint yesterday, but I didn’t like how it turned out so I trashed it. Oh well, will try to get back on track but no promises since life has a way of getting sidetracked now and then.

Here is the latest which was inspired by a post in Pinterest so I cannot take any credit for originality but it was fun to paint…

Day 6

Day 5

Day 1 Painting Challenge

Windowsill