Looking to capture the image and personality of this attractive and strong young woman, I was again guided and inspired by the principles of portraiture laid out by Rembrandt.
Portrait of Young Woman II
Art
On the Terraza, acrylics
Looking through the double glass doors, the terraza stetches about 10 meters along the street 5 floors below. The sun hits portions of the walls and floor of this outdoor area. A neighbor looks on.
Portrait of a Teenage Girl
I did this portrait following as closely as I could Rembrandt’s approach to portrait painting. However he used oil paints and I use acrylics. Blending with acrylics is problematic as they dry so quickly so you have to paint afresh where planes join, although retarders help. His models were in person whereas I use photos, as do most of us given the hours and hours it takes to paint a portrait. Some do a combination of a sitting during which they take photos and work from them later. In the British national portrait competition they had a model and all the artists worked from photos while the sitter could move around freely and talk to the interviewer. Not all photos are professionally done so the lighting is not easy to deal with, as was the case with the photo I used here. The subject was in a snow scene, cheeks red here and there from the cold and hardly any shadows from the diffuse lighting.
Paintings and drawings of ships and boats of the Netherlands
During our many travels to the Netherlands we have seen many boats and owned two ourselves. Viking is our current boat. We have seen two Tall Ships parades that terminated in Amsterdam, one in 2000 and another in 2015. These are magnificent sailing ships with three to fives masts. Here are my paintings and drawings.
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Picard
Patrick Stewart has aged, making for interesting challenges for an artist, so I took it on.
Patrick Stewart b. 1940 an English actor, director and producer. He started as a Shakespearean actor before going to television and film. He has been nominated for multiple awards. He is one of my favorite actors. I watched some episodes of Picard just to see him do the part. It was otherwise a not series I found particularly interesting. The popup control panels were astonishing.
Study of Couple
From a scene in The Crown, Anne with her photographer boyfriend
Morris Minor
This is the car I drove as a teenager. It’s a 1958 or 59 Morris Minor 1000 produced in the UK. Morris is famous for the MG, standing for Morris Garage.
It was manufactured fom 1948 and 1971. There were three series: the MM (1948 to 1953), the Series II (1952 to 1956), and the 1000 series (1956 to 1971). There was a two-door, convertible, a four door and a station wagon, called an ‘estate’ in the UK.
Its peppy performance and decent handling no doubt were influenced by the MG, and very good interior space. I drove a VW bug at several points in my life and by comparison the Minor was a much better car and nearly as reliable.
Oh Solo Mia!
“O sole mio” which is the basis for my pun is a famous Neapolitan song written in 1898. Lyrics by Giovanni Capurro, music by Eduardo di Capua and Alfredo Mazzucchi. It is usually sung in the Neopolitan dialect. ‘O sole mio in Italian is ‘Il mio sole,’ “my sun” or “my sunshine.” O Solo Mia means ‘O just Mia’ or ‘Mia alone.’ She resides with friends in El Carmen, taking one or the other for several walks a day.
A Bakery in Petxina
An ode to Manet
This scene is based upon our local bakery, and inspired by Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère. Petxina (pronounced ‘Pechina’) is a neighborhood of Valencia. The bakery is around the corner from us.
Family portraits
Portraits of members of my family.
Her first name was really Sebastiana, an Italian name, but she went by Diana since around 1928. She was born in Brooklyn. Her sister was born in Sicily, probably Partanna where her father, my grandfather, was born.
Mathew, as we knew him, was born in Partanna, Sicily. He was our uncle. He came to the US around 1914. His last name differs however. I obtained his birth certificate. Unlike the others, the parents names are not stated. We have no idea who his father was.
Camillo was born in Marsala, Sicily (yes, home of the famous wine). My brother says his hair was not curly as I have depicted it. He died during WWII while at work at the Brooklyn shipyards. I found his death certificate, upon which my mother’s first names were both used. I needed this to show the Italian consulate that Diana and Sebastiana were the same person. This allowed me to claim Italian citizenship.
These next two are my more creative and less realistic portraits of older relatives
