odettes

Today I decided to post a pic I have made when I was in Italy... This bridge is Ponte Buriano and it is said that it was painted by Leonardo at Mona Lisa's back. This is in honour to a very good friend of mine: Antonio Zopetti, who lives in Milan and has written a wonderful story regarding this bridge as well. I have just translated Zop's story to English....I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. (For those who speak Italian I widely recommend that you visit Zop's blog, just click at the link) The secret of her Smile, by Zop Painting me was his perversion. And my lust. You cannot imagine how much is it erotic if you haven’t try, just feel your whole painted everywhere. And more, if the one who does it, is an artist like the one he is… At the beginning I was ticklish as he draw lines and doodles. A fresh and soft point that passed and passed again. I shivered with the pencil. I felt his hands on me. His breath on me. Then the splashes of painting arrived. When he dip...

I have a friend. Always when he "sees" me he greets me: Dear Artist! That makes me think... Am I an artist? It is very difficult to say who is an artist and who is not. There are good painters that are not artists and there are bad painters that are artists. Am I an artist? A huge question.... because I am not even able to define what is Art! What I know for sure is that I am a painter. Being a painter means to give a visual form to my feelings. To try to create an image that has its own life....maybe if I succeed in this: creating an image which has a life itself... an existence of its own.... maybe just in that moment I could be an artist... what do you think?

Today is St. Patrick's...and today takes place the vernissage of the show: Céad in China. The oil I posted here is the one that will be in this show in three different cities in China. At the end of last year I was in crisis.... The time I spent in my studio I was not creating but copying myself. Then I was invited to participate in this show in China. I was really afraid, because I didn't like the paintings I were doing at that time. This nude was made on december and although it has many features of the paintings I rejected, I saw there another light....now my paintings are different. Maybe this oil was the turning point in my painting.

Last comment I received from Anonymous, made me think... Am I light? I think that for a painter, Painting is a way of self knowledge as Science and Meditation might be for others. Through Art I try to know myself. It has happened to me... I thought I knew many subjects, but I realize that only when I paint those subjects I discover things in them, I would never thought of.... Painting makes me reach another kind of consciousness. Maybe we are now speaking of mysticism. But it happens... through Art we may "understand", in the only possible way as mystic ecstasy does... although I must mention that this does not happen to me very often, I guess it is rare when a painter succeeds that, but then.... what he or she has achieved is reflected in the painting, and that's why some paintings overwhelm us and others from the same artist don't. Life is magic and Art is the confirmation of this magic state :)

This watercolor is already on my web site, but today takes place the birthday of two very special friends of mine: Norma and Fernando and I wanted to post a watercolor I do like very much. That's why I decided to post Odalisca :)

When I am alone in my studio and surrounded by the last oils and watercolors I have made, I sometimes cannot resist to give some new brushes to an old painting. I did it with this watercolor. It was the first one I published here in this blog, and now although it is more detailed, I think it has lost its freshness. Please do tell me, what do you think? Odette