Painting this was fun! Mi sono divertita a farlo!

I was already starting to think that maybe painting dogs was not such a hot idea, then I watched a lot of videos by Kerrie Evenson, an artist whose bold and carefree choice of colors and painting style inspired and influenced me to use colors I really like. You'd think that would be an obvious thing to do, but I guess not. 

So last night a painted this in a couple, maybe three hours. I enjoyed the process and the result makes me happy. Even on the morning after!

Gia` cominciavo a pensare che dipingere immagini di cani non era poi una grande idea, quando ho guardato tantissimi video di Kerrie Evenson, un'artista il cui spensierato e dinamico uso di colori e stile di pittura mi hanno influenzata ed ispirata ad usare i colori che piu` mi piacciono. Sembrerebbe una cosa ovvia da fare, ma si vede che per me non era cosi`.

Quindi, ieri sera in due o tre ore ho fatto questo dipinto. Mi sono divertita e il risultato mi fa sorridere. Persino la mattina dopo!

It's my dog Argo, who showed up here on July 25 close to death and now weighs 88 lbs and is doing great!

E` il mio cane Argo i quale, apparso qui il 25 luglio vicino alla morte, adesso pesa 40 chili e sta benone!

Women and dogs

When I draw a woman's face I see this being staring back at me and I wonder where the heck she came from. From my subconscious, I suppose. Sometimes they bug me and I decide that I am moving on to something else, that I will resist the impulse to draw a female face, but it is difficult to do.
After these two babes, the alien princess and the pin-up, I decided to move on to dogs, but don't know how long it will last. Both the "pin-up" and the dog on the right were there on the page, barely visible after I put down the background, waiting for me to give them a more definite shape, so I did as I was told. Honestly. Of the woman, I saw the breasts, the shoulders and the hair, of the dog, the ears, the nose and one eye. If you use several layers of paint, scraped on and rubbed off, you are bound to see something in there.

Quando disegno un volto femminile vedo questo essere che mi guarda e mi chiedo da dove diavolo venga. Dal mio subconscio, immagino. A volte mi danno ai nervi e decido che comincero` a disegnare qualcosa di diverso, che resistero` all'impulso di disegnare un volto femminile, ma e` difficile. 
Dopo queste due, la principessa aliena e la bambolona, ho deciso di dedicarmi ai cani, ma non so quanto durera`. Sia la bambolona che il cane a destra erano li` sulla pagina, appena visibili dopo che avevo dipinto lo sfondo, che aspettavano che io gli dessi una forma definitiva. Cosi` ho fatto come hanno voluto loro. Davvero. Della donna ho visto il seno, le spalle e il capelli e del cane le orecchie, il naso e un occhio. Se usi vari strati di pittura, spalmati su e strofinati via, e` inevitabile scorgerci qualche immagine. 

Maybe I should do women AND their dogs. 

Forse dovrei dipingere le donne INSIEME ai loro cani. 

Backgrounds and Doodles

Every time I accomplish something having to do with the house or the land or just the requirements of daily life, I reward myself with hours of DIY youtube videos or putting paint and pens on paper.

Yesterday I took my car in for this thing called a "revisione" (much more than a smog test) and it passed, which means I'm set for two years, and today I delivered what I hope is the final documentation in the never-ending saga for obtaining gas heating. So I had a lot of rewarding to do!

A couple  of days ago I made these two backgrounds, but haven't yet decided what to paint over them. I put paint on both pages and then stenciled over the paint with gesso or white paint - can't remember which. Maybe I can't decide how to proceed because I like them the way they are. 

Last night I worked on two very different pages at the same time. On the one on the left, inspired by Doodlediem's youtube channel, I used my Uni Posca markers to draw and doodle. This is the brand sold in Europe that is excellent in place of Sharpie Poster Paint pens, maybe even better for writing over acrylic paint.  Unfortunately I have them in only 3 colors and only in the large size, but there are many more available in stores elsewhere and online.

The one on the left started out like this:

This is definitely an enjoyable process. They only difficult thing is knowing when to stop. 

Here's a close-up.

Food and art - Cibo e arte

How I keep myself entertained, besides cleaning muddy dog paws.
Come mi diverto, oltre a pulire il fango dalle zampette dei cani. 

In the last couple of days I've prepared olives packed in salt and Quince jam, both from my trees, made using recipes found online or passed along from a person in a shop to a friend to me. The jam is great, but as for the olives, time will tell.
Nei giorni scorsi ho preparato olive sotto sale e marmellata di mele cotogne, entrambe raccolte dai miei alberi e preparate seguendo ricette trovate su internet o riferite da un amica che l'ha sentita in un negozio.... La marmellata e` ottima, ma per le olive bisogna aspettare per saperlo.

As far as the art goes, I've been making a lot of mixed media pages in my homemade journal.
Per quanto riguarda l'arte, sto creando molte pagine in tecnica mista in un quaderno rilegato da me.

Cat Thoughts

Teddy's Dream

 Mermaids take naps too

Yearning

Under the sea and above the clouds

The face is cut from a magazine and overpainted - il volto e` ritagliato da una rivista e ridipinto.

That's all folks!