odettes

This is going to be our very first WHITE Christmas!  We  happen to live just in front of Clissold Park and when we saw through the window how beautiful white everything was,  we took our bikes and went to the park.  We saw dogs playing and hiding themselves in the snow... the children, the snowmen, the deers! everybody was happy and one of the things I enjoyed the most was to see the ducks slipping over the frozen pond. What a wonderful day was this winter solstice!!!

All this year I was struggling to get a studio in London.  I needed a place in which I can make oils. I was offered some places but with the condition of being a "clean" artist, that means not to use oil because it smells.  Finally we moved to a bigger flat and I decided to make my studio at home.  Here I can paint in the media I want. And? After longing for so long for oil paintings...  I am making watercolors! Is it something intrinsic to a painter, to be so irrational? Yesterday I had a weird dream.  I dream I have found my hand.  This hand was separated of me... but I wasn't shocked due to this fact but to the fact that the hand, my hand was very ugly.  So I took a look to my hand, the one that is of course bond to my body and I was shocked to see it was just as ugly as the hand that was alone... does this has anything to do with what I am experiencing nowadays? ------- Todo este año he luchado por conseguir un estudio en Londres.  ...

Visiting Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Royal Academia of Arts is like traveling to another world. First of all, you feel like a child, you have the urge to touch everything!  Of course it is not possible because all the sculptures are very fragile, but it put you into an anxiety state because the longing of getting inside the wax, or to jump and throw yourself into some objects is indeed very strong. Well at least it was on me...  Of course I have to accept that I am very impulsive :) So it transports you through time, because you feel childish and happy...  some objects seems mathematic layouts that definitively are playing with TIME, like "Hive", which looks like a time machine that will hoover you into another dimension.  "It is an object that forms itself as a skin" and "emphasize inside and ouside: Courbet's L'Origine du monde". Besides "Hive" that I think was the piece that impressed me the most... I loved the mirror room, and...

On Wednesday November 25th, 2009 will take place a fine art auction at Mealy's Auctioneers in Castlecomer.  I was invited to participate... so again I am exhibiting in Ireland :) ---- El próximo 25 de Noviembre del presente tendrá lugar una subaste de arte en la casa de subastas Mealy's en Castlecomer.  Me invitaron a participar... así que continuo exhibiendo en Irlanda :)

These Autumn days I have been overwhelmed by the beauty of some trees. I should admit that I really have a passion for trees... I have made a B.A. in Architecture, but as soon as I could I worked doing something else. Architecture was never my passion but maybe if I had linked Architecture and Trees, if I had studied Landscape Architecture my story would be different... Anyway I don't regret it because now I am a painter! Today I made a sketch of a fantastic thin tree, the trunk and branches were ebony black and the few orange leaves that still remain looked like shivering butterflies... it was a long time that I haven't experience anything prettier. The tree I saw today was very much like Schiele's tree. Therefore I posted that fantastic painting here. And now I would like to write briefly about love... Yesterday I read a very complex and interesting essay from V. about love: Del Amor and in one of the comments "Iluminaciones" wrote about a painter that paint...

Or should I better say My "tiny" London Studio :) I finally have finished to set up my small studio at home. It is very small and it won't allowed me to do the big canvases I enjoyed so much to do (as in Ireland), but it is a start. I have to realized that it is not easy to change country, here I am starting and I must be humble. Although it is very small it is very cozy and has a fantastic view, because just in front of my place there is a wonderful park with pond, castle and even deers :) The only thing that still worries me about painting in my own place besides the smell, is that I would have to be clean. Don't misunderstand me, I am a clean person, my children even say that I am a bit of neat freak :))) but absolutely not when I am painting... when I paint I forgot everything that is around me and I know I finished with paint on my hair, my face and all the place around it! I think I will have to cover the place with plastic each time I start having fun :) -...

I am now one of the members of the Hesketh Hubbard Art Society, and I am starting to make life drawing again. It feels sooo good. Life Drawing is in my opinion one of the most pleasant things a human being can do, it is very different from Painting. Painting is such a huge art... (and of course is relative, yet not always is art) but you are creating and that has to deal with a huge amount of challenge and yes, sometimes you suffer. But in Life drawing you only have "to grasp" what is in front of your eyes... it is therefore more relaxing, less pretentious, it is a meditation that could take you to a great level of Mindfulness, of time, of space, of the present... ------- Soy miembro ahora de la Hesketh Hubbard Art Society, y estoy empezando a dibujar con modelo de nuevo. Se siente taaan bien. El dibujo con modelo es en mi opinión una de las actividades que más placer nos pueden dar. Es muy diferente de pintar. Pintar es un arte enorme... (y es claro relativo, ya que no si...

Finalmente ya estoy conectada! Sí recién nos instalaron internet y teléfono y ya puedo de nuevo postear y escribir a los amigos lontanos que extraño tanto. Y mi conexión es en todos los aspectos ya que finalmente después de muchos meses de total inactividad artística (sentía que moría) ya por fin retomé los pinceles y eso me da vida de nuevo! ------- Finally I am connected! Yes, Internet and phone was just installed in the new flat and now I am able to post and write to the faraway friends who are so much missed. And my connection is in all senses, because after many months of art inactivity (I feel I was dying) I was recently able to pick up the brushes again, I am again alife!

Again I am participating at this wonderful festival. The Blackbird Gallery has chosen an amazing list of huge Irish Artists for this 2009 exhibition and I am very proud to see my name among them. ----- De nuevo estoy participando en este maravilloso festival. La Galería Blackbird hizo una selección impresionante de grandes artistas Irlandeses para su participación de este año 2009 y me siento en verdad orgullosa de ver mi nombre entre ellos.

A pic I love...

Sometimes I feel very blue because now I cannot paint... But today looking at those pics of Rome, I found an image of a very inspiring scene. Yes, sometimes at the bottom of a hole... when you less expected... you may find even a GLOW. My travel to Italy gave me strength. I have wonderful friends there… this was a travel I need, to keep on going on until I find again a light :) Here more pics of Rome... ------- Algunas veces suelo sentirme muy triste porque no puedo aún pintar... Pero hoy mirando algunas de las fotos de Roma, encontré una imágen de una escena muy inspiradora. Sí, algunas veces en el fondo de un agujero... cuando menos lo esperamos... podemos incluso encontrar una luz. Mi viaje a Italia me dió fueras. Tengo amigos maravillosos allá... éste fue un viaje que yo necesitaba, para poder segir adelante hasta que encuentre de nuevo una luz :) Aquí más fotos de Roma...

Here I am in front of the 4 River Fountain at Piazza Navona. In my opinion this is the most beautiful piazza in the whole world. Here the 2 greatest baroque architects will continue their dispute till the final battleground. It is said that the Bernini sculpture facing Borromini's facade has a lifted arm in order to support the church when it falls down and at the same time is horrified by the facade. Borromini's church was constructed after Bernini's fountain, so the whole story was build up. But their hostility was not and this piazza will always be to remind it us. Sometimes I think how important it is to be competitive as an artist. It was said that Bernini nominated Borromini as architect for the proposed church of S. Carlo alle Quattro Fontane to be rid of him at S. Pietro. And the result was Borromini's master piece!!! Being an artist is a very introspective work, but artists have the need of seeing what others are doing. I have just finished reading Giac...

This is the city I like the most. I do think that Brunelleschi's Duomo is the most beautiful Duomo in the whole world... Words are not enough to describe the emotion I have felt being again here... The sunflowers pic belong really to San Sepolcro, but as it is Tuscany I wanted to post it here... Esta es sin duda la ciudad que más me gusta. Para mi el duomo de Bruneleschi es el más hermoso del mundo... Las palabras no son suficientes para describir la emoción que sentí de estar ahí de nuevo... La foto de los girasoles pertenece en realidad a San Sepolcro, pero como es Toscana quise postearla aquí...

This was my first time in Milan. Some Italian friends have told me it wasn't worth. But I think that il Duomo and the Castello Sforzesco, where I have seen Michel Angelo's last Pietá worth the trip to that city. --- Esta fue mi primera vez en Milan. Algunos de mis amigos italianos me decían siempre que no valía la pena. Pero creo que el Duomo y el Castello Sforzesco donde ví la última Piedad de Miguel Angel hicieron que la visita a esa ciudad valiese la pena.

I have been in Italy some days. It was the first time my daughter visit that amazing country, so I have chosen to show her some of the most famous cities. Here we are in Venice... --- Estuve algnos días en Italia. Era la primera vez que mi hija visitaba ese maravilloso país, por lo que escogí mostrarle las ciudades más famosas. Aquí estamos en Venecia...