Umberto Ecco

umberto ecco conte
Umberto Ecco, Conte pencil, 32 x 50 cm/ 12.5 x 19.5″

Umberto Ecco (1932-2016) was a medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. He is best known for his popular 1980 novel The Name of the Rose, made into the movie with Sean Connery playing the leading role. The novel is a tour de force of intricacies of medieval theology. Foucault’s Pendulum pokes fun, again intricately, at conspiracy theory, while Prague Cemetery revisits the plots of the Risorgimento. Another of my heroes. He taught at the University of Bologna, which we visited along with the Focault pendulum then swinging in the cathedral. Portrait in Conte.

Pianist, Singer, Ballerina

Pianist, Dance, SInger dones picanya final
Pianist, Singer, Ballerina, acrylics on canvas, 1.5 x 1.3m/5′ x 4′

This expressionistic piece combines imaginative and realistic elements such as we see in the dancer, from the performer’s point of view. The stained glass look continues, muted in the dark theater as is the audience. It’s about the challenges of cooperative performance. Without an audience there is no performance.

Light and dark interplay. Shafts of light downpour, adding to the pressure. The spotlight’s on you. Do it. There is one escape: that open door. But to get there you are judged more harshly.

Last year’s event here Dones de Picanya 2023 and 2022 here Dones de Picanya 2022

Portrait of Dame Judi Dench

Judy final
Dame Judi Dench, actress (b 1934), conte pencil drawing 30 x 50 cm/ 12 x 19.5″ on pastel paper

I’ve watched Judi Dench perform since the 1990’s in the BBC comedy ‘As Time Goes By.” She’s a natural on the stage. I am not alone in singing her praises. She has been awarded an Academy Award, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Television Awards, six British Academy Film Awards and seven Olivier Awards. She appeared in eight James Bond films. Starting in 1968 she had a long run as Sally Bowles in ‘Cabaret.’ Her accomplishments are almost too long to list.

Mona + X

My take on two famous portraits. I gave Mona a gaunt look with a square jaw. I interpreted the profile of Sargeant’s fabulous Madam X.

mona + x  sm
Mona + X, acrylics on Canson 300# paper, 70 x 50 cm, 28 x 20″

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Woman with a Pearl Earing

Vermeer’s Girl With A Pearl Earring inspired this painting. My reference reminded me of his fabulous and famous piece. However there are major differences. He bathed her face in light, but here it is gently swathed in shadow with highlights produced by the light coming from the side. The background is lighter and more varied than Vermeer’s traditionally dark surface.

Woman with pearl earring final sm
Woman With Pearl Earring, acrylics on Canson 300# paper, 70 x 50 cm, 28 x 20″

Young Woman Glowing Smile

Young woman pen ink sm
Young Woman, pen and ink

This young woman’s radiant smile comes from within. I sought to express it. In previous epochs a smile was impossible to capture as sitters can not smile for hours at a time. Look at Leonardo’s famous smile- captivating but hardly expansive. But with photography, art changed in many ways and the ability to study the smile is one such change.

This is a study for a painting.

Messing around with watercolors– Caravaggio by Ottavio Leoni, 1621

Caravaggio by Ottavio Leoni, 1621
Caravaggio by Ottavio Leoni, 1601 Watercolor

I painted this using Leoni’s portrait of Carravaggio. He was 31 at the time. He died 9 years later, a victim of his propensity for violence. Her revolutionized painting with his observation of the subject together with a dramatic use of chiaroscuro, intense contrasts of light and dark. This came to be known as tenebrism, where the darks are a dominant feature of the piece.