Recently I had the opportunity to exhibit 2 watercolor paintings at Emporio Michelangelo in Vila Madalena São Paulo. The event was hold to celebrate 90 years of the famous modern art week event in São Paulo.
These are my two paintings, too traditional for the overall show proposition.
watercolors on paper, 28x39cm/11x15in
I´d like to thanks both Claudia and the Emporio Michelangelo crew for hosting such great event and for curator, Carmen Pousada.
Recently I had the opportunity to visit Milan, Italy. This was an unexpected trip and my very first time on the city which worth a lot due to its historical aspects. I knew Leonardo DaVinci lived part of his life in the city - actually he was hired by the monarchy and spent 25 years in Milan. This was an interesting aspect, as he had his montly salary without the need to hunt for commissions thus facilitating him to concentrate on his projects.
The city breaths DaVinci in many aspects and it was trully a joy to visit the Last Supper on a guided tour: I found I knew only 20% about the historical aspects of the masterpiece and was touched not only by the painting but by the amount of information shared during the visit. Unfortunately the environment allows maximum of 30 visitors during 15 minutes only, with reservations done months upfront, but it worths the visit.
In addition to that there´s a great exhibition of DaVinci´s drawing, on Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, but there was so much to see: Caravaggio, Raphael and for my surprise Francesco Hayez (check Francesco Hayez´s biography), a painter I didn´t know by then (a good resource for his most known paintings: Francesco Hayez´s gallery).
Back at Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, the following painting trully caught my attention:
La Maddalena Penitente - 1825 - Pinacoteca Ambrosiana
This was one (of the many) renderings Francesco did for Mary Magdalene, but there´s something about this one especially on her contemplative face that speaks to the beholder in a very introspective way.
Thanks to the Internet, many of these artworks can be seen here: Pinacoteca Ambrosiana Virtual Tour . The highligth of the museum is a Raphael`s cartoon (a huge sketch) for School of Athens (Scuola di Atenas).
Last but not least, Pixar is cellebrating its 25 years of production and Milan's Pavilion of Conteporary art is hosting this exhibition, running until February 14th. This one is packed with many sketches, concepts, originals and reproductions - very good slide show can be found here. The highlight is the Toy Story Rotoscope - on the video bellow is the one at the end, showing the Toy Story characters playing around.
On the top of everything else, the urban city is a must for inspiration, if you like plain air or sketching. I couldn't help myself and had to paint the Duomo Cathedral, bellow.
A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend sometime back at the Louvre. Words can not express how delightful this experience is and I had choose to focus this time on the French section, spending time specially on the painters I did not knew previously, such as Louis de Boullogne and Luis Leopold Boilly.
There was a great exhibition of Louis de Boullogne's drawings and sketches, which I've found delightful when compared to the final paintings. More info on Louis de Boullogne here and additional drawings can be found here.
Additionally I spent some good amount of time sketching at the sculpture section. No price
Bellow, one thing that heated my thoughts: what better class can you take if not Rembrandt's?
I wish I could do something like that in the future :)
If you like to read or have any interested on the history of writing, this is a very interesting exhibition at New York Public Library covering 200 rare and precious works created over the past 1,500 years. Among them, great works of the miniaturist's art and of calligraphy, drawn from all three faiths, delight the eye, as they have done since their creation centuries ago. Manuscript materials are accompanied by some of the most significant printed works of the past 550 years.
When viewing the Three Faiths exhibition at NYPL, don't forget to visit the Scriptorium. Named after the medieval monastic writing rooms where scribes copied manuscripts, this interactive center compares and contrasts scribing traditions of the three faiths, showcasing the natural materials—animal hides and minerals and gems—from which the parchment and ink are derived. Visitors can make bookmarks with calligraphic materials.
Bellow I had attached three videos present at the interactive Scriptorium exhibit, covering the lettering aspect, how paper, parchment, pigments and tools played an important role on the art of lettering through the centuries.
Artist Karen Gorst from Gost Studio was kind enough to let me share some of the exhibit material explaining how to create such beautiful hand lettering as in the first video.
Karen Gorst's hand lettered Greek alphabet sheet:
Karen Gorst's hand lettered Latin alphabet sheet:
Exhibit Information:
Three Faiths Scriptorium - on-line resources: http://exhibitions.nypl.org/threefaiths/resources
The New York Public Library
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Gallery
Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street
October 22, 2010–February 27, 2011
