The Peredvizhniki - Pioneers of Russian Painting

Another exhibition that I can highly recommend and a rare occasion to see these masterpieces outside Russia. The Peredvizhniki were "the losers under the Tsarist regime. Political repression. Landscapes and portraits of prominent citizens and intellectuals. With their realistic depictions of Russian society, the members of the Peredvizhniki group were artistic pioneers." The show is taking place at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm from 29th of September 2011 to the 22nd of January 2012.

"Evening mood"

A painting I've done in springtime in the Maremma, the South of Tuscany. After a long day of painting I was ready to return to the house when I saw this little country road and the evening rising above it. The air was moist and you could smell the summer being close. I immediately took the next panel and started on a new painting, trying to capture the mood of the moment. Working fast allowed me to reduce the painting to just the essence what was in front of me, but work out the feeling strongly. One of the paintings I enjoyed the most this year.

Orientalists. Incantations and discoveries in the Nineteenth Century Italian painting

Beautiful show of orientalist paintings now at the Chiostro del Bramante in Rome. A real treat that I can recommend to everybody. The exhibitions at the Chiostro del Bramante are always well organized and have a good selection of paintings in a unique location. The show is going on from the 20th of October 2011 to the 22nd of January 2012 and will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Tuesday to Sunday.

"Il padre - Angelo"

During my time as a student I was working as a bartender in an Irish Pub in Florence. That's where I met Angelo, who was one of the clients that has come to the Pub since the first day it opened. Not every day and not to get drunk, but to have a pint of Guinness every now and then after he's finished work. Talking to him it soon turned out he was one of the nicest people around that place. Soon after the birth of his second child I saw him sitting in the corner, very quiet and thoughtful with a look on his face that he's never had before, concerned, disappointed and sad. Asking what happened I got to hear that the company he has been working for for more than 20 years went bankrupt and he had lost his job. He was worried about his family, but also about how much Italy has changed and the future of his two boys. The way he looked conveyed such a strong feeling and touched me so much that I asked him to sit for me for a portrait. I wanted to try to capture that expression of a father being concerned and contemplating about his and his family's situation. Sometimes it's those quiet moments that are showing the most of a true and raw feeling and are the most moving ones. I was honored to paint my friend, and became aware how important it is that every painting should tell a story and be meaningful, nothing in art should be done thoughtless.

"Summer Breakfast"

I noticed that during summertime for two hours in the afternoon I have direct sunlight coming into one corner of my studio. Usually I would avoid these kind of light conditions and rather go for a stable light - halftone - shadow situation. What fascinated and inspired me though was the idea of breaking the rules and painting pure sunlight falling onto white objects. While setting it up and finding an interesting composition I already saw all colors of the rainbow reflected on the objects and reacting differently on the textures of each surface. Challenging enough those colors kept changing constantly throughout the two hours as the sun was moving. I felt it was almost more observing what was actually happening than painting it. Understanding what was going on and making the right selection of information to make the painting work as a whole. It has been a great experience, painting with pure colors, almost like the impressionists did, but in a classical realistic set up and catching the feeling of a nice Sunday morning breakfast during summer. Last week I got notice that this painting has been selected for the final round in the Syrlin-Kunstpreis competition and it will be exhibited in several places during spring 2012 in Germany, starting out with Stuttgart in January.

Landscape drawing

After one year of mainly painting I have recently come back to drawing. It gives me the great opportunity to study nature on a smaller scale without color, but gives me the freedom to experiment a lot with values and different ways in how to use the medium.  It is much fun to play around with different effects in drawing, from glazing in layer after layer a light, ghosty background to drawing out some details in the foreground while approaching the middleground in an almost painterly way, massing in big areas of light and dark.This drawing I have done as a study of trees in the hills around Florence in preparation for a bigger painting I'm currently working on. Almost like in drawing or painting the model I got to understand that each tree has his own characteristics , while every type of tree has a specific anatomy in common. If we don't understand nature well, it will be impossible for us realist artists to reproduce it well.