Wow! How long since my last entry… I’m sorry, I’ve been quite busy lately.

You will understand why taking a look at what the postman brought this morning:
“Felt to Stitch: Creative Felting for Textile Artists” by Sheila Smith and ” PHP for the Web: Visual QuickStart Guide” by Larry Ullman.
(The package arrived from my beloved Amazon UK, of course).

These books are opposites of creativity in my own opinion, both interesting but so different.
Of course my love goes to the art part and I’d rather spend all my day felting, stitching, drawing and painting… But I have to learn PHP, along with a lot of other stuff, for my job.

That is why I’m feeling torn between those opposites and not much time is left for blogging!

Beside this, I’m struggling with my botanical drawings, and I invoke this quote by Toulouse-Lautrec to feel better:

“I am certainly not regenerating French art, but am struggling hard to accomplish something on an unlucky piece of paper which has done me no harm at all, and on which, believe me, I am doing nothing that is good… I hope things will improve eventually; as it is, I am pretty wretched.”

Being Toulouse-Lautrec one of my favorite artists, this quote never fails to comfort me… The masters, too, can feel useless and on the wrong way!

To support my thoughts on struggling creativity, I looked for some of the wonderful works of this artist.
Keep your finger crossed for me about the duck entrails too!

From left/Da sinistra: Au Salon de la rue des Moulins, 1894 | Au Cirque: danseuse à la corde raide, 1899

From left/Da sinistra: Au Cirque: cheval et singe dressés, 1899 | Au Cirque: écuyère à cru, 1899 | Au Cirque: ours savant, 1899

From left/Da sinistra: Femme qui tire son bas, 1894 | Gueule de bois: la buveuse, vers 1887/1888

Left, "Roosters" by Ito Jakuchu - Right, "A Shower Below the Summit" by Katsushika Hokusai | A sinistra, "Galletti" di Ito Jakuchu - A destra, "Pioggia sotto la cima" di Katsushika Hokusai

I’m doing some research in Japanese art to follow the intuition that came out in my latest paintings.

I always loved Japanese art – and Asian art – because is so different from European art and that amazes me.
It is like discovering a whole new world, a completely different way to see and represent the world around you.
I can only imagine what happened when impressionist painters first learnt about Eastern art!

All these images are now available to everyone in books and on the net.

I own some books about japanese art and patterns, and I started from those.

My books on Japanese art | I miei libri sull'arte giapponese

I love doing research, as I previously stated, it makes me feel like my brain cells are excited and active!

I had to work these last days, but I look forward to some painting time this weekend! Japan style, of course.

Below, some results of the research.

"Lion Dogs" by Kano Eitoku | "Lion Dogs" di Kano Eitoku

Three prints from the series "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo" by Hiroshige | Tre stampe dalla serie "Cento famose vedute di Edo" di Hiroshige

"Evening Snow at Asuka-yam" by Hiroshige Utagawa | "Neve di sera ad Asuka-yam" by Hiroshige Utagawa

"Fuji from Goten-yama" by Katsushika Hokusai | "Il Fuji da Goten-yama" di Katsushika Hokusai

"A Bird's Eye View of Japan" by Sakuma Soen | "Una veduta del Giappone a volo d'uccello" di Sakuma Soen

From left,“Facing the Mirror” by Ito Shinsui, “Dyers' Street, Kanda” by Ando Hiroshige, detail from “Walking Along the Riverbank at Night” by Kitagawa Utamaro | Da sinistra,“Di fronte allo specchio” di Ito Shinsui, “Strada dei tintori, Kanda” by Ando Hiroshige, dettaglio da “Passeggiando sulla riva di notte” di Kitagawa Utamaro

My paintings | Le mie opere

It took me the whole weekend to relax after the exhibition that took place on Wednesday and Thursday.
You know how anxious I am about my works!

Everything went well, and the event was well organized and pleasant.

I didn’t listen to all the speechs about engineering problems, to tell the truth, I’d rather enjoyed a cup of coffee or a glass of wine with the friends that came to see the exhibition.

I can’t really thank enough who came to see my works, your support means a lot for me.
I met friends I haven’t seen in ages and that was great, I missed you so much.
My students from IED courses came too, thanks a lot!

I met Alessandra Amstici, the daughter of an old friend of my dad, Tullia Cubani.
They are both wonderful artists and made a special artwork for the exhibition, called “The Ogre”, taking inspiration from the terrifying monsters that live deep in the earth and creates earthquakes.
We spend a really nice time with Alessandra, and I’m so happy I had the chance to meet her.
If you want to have a look at their work, please visit their website at www.amstici-showroom.it

"The Ogre" by Alessandra Amstici e Tullia Cubani | "L'orco" di Alessandra Amstici e Tullia Cubani

Alessandro and his assistant Lucio recorded the whole event so I guess I will be able to post a little video on it soon.
I will spare you all the engineering parts, I promise!

Both evenings we enjoyed a glass of wine and some delicious finger food on the terrace, while my sister Elena and her collegue Umberto played and sang.
They have been amazing, my sister’s voice always take my breath away, and it had the same effect on all the people attending the concert!
On Thursday one of the programmers that work for Softing, Marco Francescangeli, joined them playing the sax and he was terribly good too!
Luckily, we have the record of the jam session they did.

The exhibition turned out well, with my artworks put on some special supports my friend Patrizio Alviti made for me, and the long paper roll by Alessandra and Tullia exposed on a black table.
We had a little room reserved for the exhibition.

People were asked to vote for their favourite piece of art, and the choosen artwork was prized by Softing with a donation to the “Associazione Risveglio” (”risveglio” meaning “awakening”).
The association was founded by a dear friend, Francesco Napolitano, to help people with acquired brain injuries and their families.
To have more informations about the association, please visit their website at www.associazionerisveglio.org

My painting “Japanese Landscape” came first, and I had the pleasure to donate the prize to the association.
“The Ogre” had only one vote less than my artwork, so I can say we really shared this success!

It was interesting though, that this painting had more votes that the others I exhibited.
This artwork is the one that came out more easily, and I like it a lot.
I would like to explore more of this kind of suggestions.

I titled it “Japanese Landscape” because it remembered me of the kind of atmosphere you can find in such paintings, even if I wasn’t really thinking of that while painting it.

Japanese Landscape (whole and detail) | Paesaggio giapponese (intero e dettaglio)

Alessandro took some wonderful pics of details of the artworks, and I posted them on the “Paintings” section of the site, along with the new six paintings.

About the title of this post, I have to explain I spent the whole Friday ironing clothes!
I have been so dedicated to work and art last week, Ale and I both ended with no clean or pressed clothes to wear.
So I put away my artist’s hat for a day and I’ve been perfect housewife instead, perfectly pressing our clothes and cleaning the flat a bit, while watching tv!
A really good way to refresh my mind after the tension of being a real artist for two days… And artists need not only canvases and clean brushes, but clean and pressed clothes too!

The invitation to the exhibition / L'invito alla mostra

Friday! A busy and hectic week is almost ended and I’m still overwhelmed by my to-do lists.
From going to the bank to send the last invitations to the exhibition, I feel like a spinning top trying to stay up as long as possible.

The event is almost here and I hope I did everything and didn’t foget something really important.

Like… Painting the artworks! I was sure there was something missing.
I painted three of them, one more is on the go and I have some plans for the fifth one. The sixth – I planned to have six made for the event – is still a mistery.

I printed the invitations for both the event and the exhibition and they are going to be sent by snail mail today.
It is amazing how much time it can take to put together addresses, print labels, put cards in envelopes and so on!
And I still have to buy the stamps and stick them on each envelope! Anybody willing to help?

It took for me a lot of effort to put together this little exhibition, and I really hope people will come and enjoy a pleasant time drinking a glass of wine and looking at the artworks.
Of course I didn’t have to do all the organization alone: Softing organized most of the event.
However, taking the leap into painting again has proved quite hard for me.

I forgot how much I love painting and drawing, after years of neglecting this part of myself.
Since my oil painting days at school, I didn’t do much with my hands.
My creativity was soon transferred on computer work, and put at use in graphic design projects.
I felt that something important was missing, but I didn’t realize exactly what since I found myself happily covered in charcoal during the drawing course I took in London.
I love messing around! Simple as that.

I really don’t know where all this painting and drawing and sketching will lead me. I don’t care much.
In the meantime, I enjoy the process!

My drawing for the new year / Il mio disegno per il nuovo anno

Yesterday it was the first day of the new year – in my personal calendar – and I was overwhelmed by the amount of projects I have to complete and incredibly angry at the whole country that stopped for one month.

I couldn’t accomplish any of my tasks, I tried to run errands but with no success.
The icing on the cake: the art store didn’t receive their canvas supplies yet!
It seems their order just vanished and they don’t know where it is.

I was so stressed, I decided to make a drawing.

I had some ideas about a serie of abstract drawings, and I decided to start right away, because I wasn’t really able to do anything else.
Here you can see the result of my efforts.

It was ages – I guess since elementray school! – I wasn’t using pastels.
Of course, that doesn’t stop me by buying a lot of them anyway.
I really enjoying the process of drawing this abstract subject with pastels.
I love touching the colored surface with my fingers to spread the color on the paper, seeing it sink in the fibers, mixing the different shades to see a new one emerging.
I added some touches with a crayon, one of my favorite Derwent crayons, and I tried a different pastel for the white lines.

I have to work more and more to master the use of pastels and to understand where this kind of drawings can lead me.
This drawing opened a lot of possibilities and it also reached its goal: I calmed down right away, focusing my thought on the color and paper, with no space left for anything else.
That is a really big result, given that I’m constantly trying to focus while my too many thoughts run around in my head like happy children.

Today I plan to go to a bigger art supllies store to buy my canvases and – uhm – more pastels!

Then I had donuts for breakfast – Ale I really love you! – had a walk to buy magazines, had a nap, prepared and ate lunch…

I wasn’t really feeling like jumping out of bed (jumping? “Trudging” would be a more accurate verb!) and switch on my computer rigth away.
I’m using it so much these days, that I felt I needed a break.

Now, here I am again writing and browsing through Twitter/Facebook/Etsy/Google and so on in search of inspirations.

Etsy is a must. How I could survive without even knowing its esistence?
(I know this sudden love and need can be part of my obsessive nature)
Please have a look at it. It is absolutely wonderful. Please go to: www.etsy.com

So many things to explore, so many really good and talented crafters to discover!
I could spend hours just looking at objects there.
But I won’t, I promise.

I crossed some items off the list, so I’m not a total failure at following lists. Usually, I’m good at it!
I love lists. In the past I’ve been often obsessed by lists, in the form of neverending to-do lists.

Tomorrow will be a busy day too, so now I will enjoy my daily dose of icecream, a pizza for dinner and a long sleep!

Alessandro will be home tonight, so part of the “good girl” attitude could be the lack of excuses for buying more fabric (I could explain the canvases somehow, but not the fabric, I’m sure).

I’m trying to set up an online store to sell my drawings and paintings, that leads to the necessity to have something to sell.

I did some research about birds, because I like naturalistic drawings and I would like to make some drawings of birds.
Flowers and plants would be a great subject to study too, I think I will do some research on that later.
Internet is really a wonderful place to resarch!

I also have a collection of pictures of rusty surfaces, chipped paint and cracked walls, to use as inspiration for asbstract paintings.

A lot of inspiration sources – maybe too many! – I guess I need a good action plan on that.

Today I had to work too – I’m starting to dread the switching on sound of my laptop – and I walked the dogs like a million times and went to the vet twice. Paco is sick, so it is like having a sick child in constant need for love and attention.

I had to move my laptop in the kitchen, because the studio is terribly hot, and the chairs here are uncomfortable and the table is not high enough, and the laptop has a micro 12” screen – do you think that is enough to declare the office closed at 8 pm?
I think yes.

I’m going to mess with my Project Notebook and research flowers. And have a well earned glass of wine!

Here some inspiration for bird drawing.
(You can research and buy those images at www.allposters.it if you like them).

From left/Da sinistra: Ando Hiroshige, John Gould, John James Audubon, George Edwards.

"Chic and Simple Sewing" by/di Christine Haynes

I recently bought from Amazon – one of my biggest addiction! – this wonderful book by Christine Haynes, “Chic and Simple Sewing”.

I like the process of sewing, I love fabrics, and I’m always looking for books as a source of inspiration to broad my creative horizons.

I love to find a book that inspires me and that I want to read again.
It is so hard to write about something so elusive and personal like creativity.

This book is packed with great and simple ideas about how to sew your own clothes.
Christine Haynes is able to convey her ideas on sewing and fashion along with her passion about her work.
I just would like to sew everything in the book!
But even if I maybe won’t – I’m a lazy seamstress, remember? – just looking at the pictures makes me dream.

I’m working on a Projects Journal to keep track of my ideas, with the aim to find a common thread in them.
There has to be sense in what I do… Or not?

“Sewing” is one of the sections, so I guess this allows me to do more research about the subjects, buying more books and more fabric! (I hope Alessandro is not reading this!)

Anyway, have a look at Christine Haynes website and blog at http://www.christinehaynes.com/ to have a preview of the book and a look at her collections.

I love these models… I really like ruffles and feminine dresses – and of course prints!

Some models from Christine Haynes website/Alcuni modelli dal sito di Christine Haynes