"Passeggiata con Cinghiale", 2011, oil on canvas, 5 by 7 feet -- $3,600.00
This exhibit has an Italian theme based on recent work done at the American Academy of Rome, Nov-Dec 2010. When in Rome this Fall and Winter, the country was preparing for the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. The "Garibaldino" shown at the left is a volunteer soldier in that revolution, called the Risorgimento. Garibaldi was the "George Washington" of Italy in that he was their revolutionary general and military genius who rallied the troops fighting for unification and independence against the occupation by Austria and France and the political domination of the Church.
While at the AAR, I studied the life of Garibaldi, utilizing their rather large research library. The saga of Garibaldi and his wife Anita is monumental in complexity and drama. I was impressed by his life story and by the ideals of humanitarian socialism and secularism that he upheld.
Those that follow my painting style, know by now that I am a student of the I Macchiaioli painters of Tuscany who were the painters of the Risorgimento. They initiated an early form of impressionism that was uniquely Italian. Their focus was "spot painting" ("macchia") and working rapidly from life. Abandoning academic preparatory drawings in many cases, they combined drawing and painting in a simultaneous expression of gesture, light, and calligraphic brushwork.
The work shown above, "Passeggiata con Cinghiale", depicts a fashionable Milanese couple taking their evening stroll (la passeggiata) and coming across a large Cinghiale, a large Italian boar, which is a metaphor for all the ills that beset Italy today (the Mafia, corrupt right-wingt government of Berlusconi, etc.). The characters in the painting are based on faces I actually sketched and photographed in Milan. The lady in black with a veil is based on Novecento references. Although not directly related to Garibaldi and the Risorgimento, it is a comment on contemporary Italian life.
"This painting seems timeless. At first the colours and the style seems aged, like an 19th century photograpgh. But then something subliminal starts nagging at you and suddenly it all becomes very actual, strongly tied to Italian current news. And maybe this is what really gives strenght to this composition. It captures Italy. An ever present past, looming on today's events. A history so rich that shapes the present and the future. Even if Italians seems to forget, to not care, to wanting to turn the page and start building a new Italy, the faint colours of the past, of traditions are always there. At times a strength, at times a drag, but ever present." -- Andrea, Life in Italy.
Portraiture has defined my work for many years. Here my portrait of Angela ("Angela a Go-Go") shown below is part of the Jazz Station show. The portrait didn't win the go-go contest (Oregon Arts Alliance) but it captures the light on the Oregon coast as it falls on the face of a beautiful woman (my wife) with Scapigliatura (wild hair) blowing in the wind. The deliberately unfinished style complete with paint drips accords with the Jazz Station theme of improvisation and invention.
$6000
"Girl on the Train" -- $630
Sometimes you meet or see people on the train that remain mysterious. Travel in Italy typically means a lot of train riding. Is she Italian? Serbian? Moroccan? In this case her eyes were enchanting and not a word passed between us. I painted this when I got back to Eugene. The corrective drawing became parts of the painting. Brilliant blues have been sneaking into my paintings, of late. There is something very compelling in her expression.
Portrait of an Italian Artist, 2011 --- $429
"Man from Milan", 2011 -- $429
"Portrait of Wolmer, Milano Sculptor, in Party Hat", 2011 -- $1600
More to come: Landscapes and Cityscapes:
"Il Cannaregio di Venezia ", oil on canvas, 2011
-- $825
Eugene Landscape, 2010 -- $726
I have always loved painting landscapes, probably because that was my first subject matter as a child artist. I was at the Buffalo Art Academy and we were taken outside to paint from nature. Hopefully my landscapes are not the ho-hum variety but expressive of something deeper. I have learned to do the color mixing wet into wet to deepen the darks greens with reds. I am adhering to the "spot painting" methods and am able, in this manner, towork quickly from a rapidly changing vista. Most of my paintings are influenced by the Italian veduta tradition (very distant views) but this next one went beyond that.
It was painted during the Eugene Celebration, outdoors in front of a jazz combo, and based on sketches made from nature. "Oregon Coastal Range" is a hawks-eye view of the mountain range and hopefully expresses the expansiveness and power of "mighty Oregon" and its vast mountain terrains. There is a beauty and grandeur that exists in Oregon but here the jazz music allowed the expressiveness and spontaneity in composition, drawing, and painting to take over.
"Oregon Coastal Range", 2010, oil on canvas --- $825
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View of Eugene, oil on canvas, 2010 -- $330
"Oregon Vista", 2011 -- $720
"Evening Sky", 2011 -- $330
Tuscan Landscape, 2010 -- $420
"the Grand Canal, Venice", 2010 -- $3000
My painting table
Beach Paintings:
I am exhibiting a few works from my beach paintings series. These were painted on the Adriatic coast of Italy at Martinsicuro, Sympathy Hotel beach. These are ones that remain from a show at La Follette Gallery last year.
"Martinsicuro Beach", 2010 -- $474
"La Donna e il Bambino al Mare", 2009 -- $429
Additional Works for consideration: (These were added to the inventory late)
"Umbrian Landscape -- $420
"Velasquez Study" -- $175.00