It's the art: the tricky cyclamins

Drawing flowers leaves me always a slightly uncomfortable, because they are a bit cheesy as subject. But they are also irresistible especially when you think at the essential, clear lines that Albrecht Durer used in his watercolors.

So I keep drawing them; trying to capture the elegant complexity of their shapes and tones keeps me happily for hours into the right side of my brain.

(Click on image to enlarge)
Oil on cardboard, 40x30 cm.

In this case I wanted to enhance the contrast between the dark, colorless background and the energy that the leaves of cyclamins project into space. The background itself was also the part that took me more to define, I could not find a good solution for it.
I added the little toy to have some accent of pure color and suggest that the calmness of this place would be soon over, the time of a child nap.

Martial arts: 10 years of sanda

I became aware of sanda as martial art in 1990, thanks to the effort that PWKA made in getting to Italy Chinese masters from the mainland and visiting periodically the PRC. Nowadays this is fortunately a common practice, but back then a good part of what was pushed for kung fu was in fact karate mixed with some made-up, esoteric looking sequence of movement.

Today sanda is a well known discipline available in any good gym of chinese martial arts, with a reliable definition in wikipedia.
Actually the sanda tournament rules I placed on my website back in 1997 are a bit outdated. Sanda today is structured in 4 main levels: beginners, amateurs, semi-professional and professional.

In a beginners tournament the athlets fight with a moderate contact (no KO), with 2 rounds of 1 minute each and a 30 seconds break between them. The fight is seamless, meaning that the referee does not stop the match to assign points.

Amateurs fight with KO, with 2 rounds of 2 minutes each and a break of 1 minute. A third round is required if the score is even at the end of the second one.

Semi-professional athlets fight on the distance of 3 rounds of 2 minutes each, while a professional match spans over 5 rounds of 3 minutes each, with a break of 60 seconds.

The use of elbows and knees is now permitted, and only in the professional category. Another important difference is that semi-professionals and professionals wear only boxing gloves, mouthpiece and groincup (no headgear or chest protection), much like in the other kickboxing disciplines. In fact sanda athlets begun to partecipate to K1-like tournments with interesting results.

But then I would argue that sanda without takedowns is just kickboxing, because the strategy for close-quarter, which I believe to be the most distinctive element of sanda, is just the same.

It's the art: Anna-chan and Hamtaro

Disclaimer: I am not especially fond of mangas and franlky find the current ubiquity of manga aesthetics slightly pesky.

Nevertheless, Anna does look like a manga character from time to time. And I wanted to combine this with the cartoon she liked mostly, to make a time capsule so that many years from now she will be able remember these days.

Click on image to enlarge
Oil on cardboard
50x40cm

Early keyboards: Saint Cecilia

This is Saint Cecilia, patron saint of music, as she was represented by Nicolas Poussin in 1628.
A few weeks ago I had a chance to visit the Prado museum in Madrid and there she was, playing the harpsichord among the cherubs. I could not resist the urge and took a picture with my phone (apologies for the low quality).

I believe that Poussin modelled his drawing after a real musician (look at the way she flexes her fingers and the position of the wrists) but I cannot say what kind of keyboard instrument is portrayed here. The shape of the frame seems reversed with the bentside on the left, and the compass covers about 3 octaves, maybe from C to c'''. Note the lack of external case. I read somewhere that this harpsichord is a double manual, anyway only one is represented. Interestingly enough when Raphael represented Saint Cecilia about one century earlier, he placed in her hands a small portative organ, with an odd reversed shape again: the longer pipes are to the right, and there is no evidence of bellows.

It's the art: trail #13 on the Matterhorn

The Normal Italian way to the Matterhorn starts from the hut Rifugio Duca d'Abruzzi, at 2,800 meters. The simplest way to reach this hut is the trail #13 starting from Cervinia, which is simple enough for a walk with the kids.

The trail is actually an unpaved road where meeting various brands of smelly SUVs and off-road vehicles conducted by city jerks is all but unfrequent. But it also provides a great view to the Matterhorn, the glacier of Plateau Rosa and the mountains surrounding Breuil.

(Click on image to enlarge)
Watercolor on paper, 24x33 cm

This watercolor is made after a picture taken in a sunny Sunday of September 2004.
I consider this the best time of the year for this trail, right after the holiday and just before the snow - that means perfect weather and not many SUVs around.

It's the art: Elena with dragon

Elena has always been for me a difficult subject to draw, I made many attempts which regularly ended up in the bin - except this one.

Also I always thought that she would be the perfect subject for a portrait along the style of Alfons Mucha, with a halo surrounding her head and a raging dragon symbolising her tough, untamable inner glow.

Ink and watercolor on paper
33x48 cm
(click on image to enlarge)

It's the art: Alberto on a slide

This portrait of Alberto was made while I was reading Johannes Itten's "The art of color".
I found this unique book highly inspirational, especially when Itten analyses the work of the great masters.
I recommend it to anybody interested in painting or art history.

Anyway, this is my attempt in creating a four color harmony based on 2 couples of complementary colors: blue and yellow-orange, with red and yellow-green.

Click on image to enlarge
Oil on cardboard
30x40cm

It's the art: portrait of Clara

This sketch was the basis for an oil portrait that kept me busy for many weekends.
The grey tone of the paper is not quite right (it should be white) despite my efforts with Photoshop.

(Click to enlarge the image)
Pencil on paper
33x48 cm

It's the (martial) art: Anna with fighting Felicia

The cat doing some kung fu position is an idea I took by reading Rumiko Takahashi mangas. And combining Anna's peculiar grin with the cat she found some months ago generated this watercolor.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Watercolor on paper, 24x33 cm

More precisely the stance in the bottom right corner is a Taiji classic, tso peng from the sequence Grasping the sparrow's tail, while the others are bits of wushu's bu xing: ma bu, pu bu and duli bu.

It's the art: virtual spraycan

I always found graffiti a fascinating form of art, which is unfortunately still largely perceived as form of vandalism. I fiddled with the idea of doing myself some graffiti, while the parallel chance of being arrested looked a bit too undignified and also a bad example for my family.

(Click to enlarge the image)
Oil on cardboard, 24x30 cm

I resorted then to this oil painting compromise, making a virtual spraycan tag on the front door of my house.