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Jul on 10 May 2011 |
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Bologna – Santo Stefano, 18 x 24 cm, oil on canvas board, ©2011 Julie Galante. [SOLD]
I love Bologna for its extensive porticoes, which cover the sidewalks and allow you to enjoy a stroll through the city center in almost any weather. This scene also depicts Santo Stefano, kind of a complex of churches all built on top of each other at different stages in Bologna’s history.
This painting was still wet at my Open Studio; luckily its new owner is content to wait a little while for delivery.
2 comments Tags: cityscape, daily painting, Italy, oils, painting
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Jul on 17 March 2011 |
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Venice gondoliere, oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm, ©2011 Julie Galante.
If you follow this or my other blog, you’ll have an idea how much I love Italy. It seems unfair that a single country can contain so much wonderful food, art, and beauty. I find the combination irresistible. So it’s not so surprising that Italy keeps making appearances in my artwork. I am particularly fascinated with the way that old Italian buildings and towns manage to decay in a way that is so intensely visually appealing.
Venice is not one of my favorite cities to visit in Italy. I don’t dislike the place; I just think there are plenty of better destinations for experiencing the atmosphere (and cuisines) of the country. But Venice definitely excels at beautiful decay.
7 comments Tags: cityscape, Italy, oils, painting, Venice
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Jul on 17 October 2010 |
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Assisi – outside the Hotel Pallotta, 60 x 80 cm, oil on canvas, ©2010 Julie Galante.
Over the past couple months this blog has become mainly a chronicle of my small daily paintings, but I want to continue to share my larger works, too. Like this one, the first full-sized cityscape I’ve completed for a while. I used the same reference photo for a daily painting (the second one in this post), and decided I wanted to pursue a larger version.
The details of the bricks took a long time to complete as I built up color with a series of glazes, but overall I’m pleased with the results.
11 comments Tags: cityscape, Italy, oils, painting
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Jul on 3 September 2010 |
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This week I’m playing around with palette-knife painting. I just love the textures that come out of applying thick blobs of paint via palette knife. I didn’t love the way the materials worked on these first attempts – perhaps the paint wasn’t as thick as I’d like, and the board (gessoed Masonite) not quite the right texture. I’ve ordered some small canvas boards, which I think will serve me well as I continue to play around with the knife.
Do you ever paint with a palette knife?
3 comments Tags: cityscape, daily painting, Italy, oils
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Jul on 4 August 2010 |
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Rovinj, 24 x 18 cm, acrylic on panel.
I love medieval cities, especially the parts where the buildings are chaotic mixes of construction and decay from various centuries. I am constantly in awe of how beautiful they manage to be. I mean, how is it that people 600 years ago could create buildings that could age into something this charming, while my culture’s predominant architectural calling card is the strip mall?
These days I have been experimenting with ways of capturing the layers of walls, arches, and brickwork that one sees when wandering the narrow, cobblestone streets of a medieval European town. The panting above is a scene from our recent trip to Rovinj, Croatia (from last week before I switched to oils). Below is a painting of a building I photographed in Assisi, Italy, at the beginning of the year. I’m considering doing a larger (and more colorful) version of this one.
Assisi, 24 x 18 cm, oil on canvas
Tags: acrylic, cityscape, Croatia, daily painting, Italy, oils, painting
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Jul on 22 July 2010 |
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acrylic on panel, 18x24cm
This isn’t one of my favorites, but it was fun to play around with a new style. It certainly doesn’t do justice to Naples.
One comment Tags: acrylic, cityscape, daily painting, Italy, Naples, painting
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Jul on 21 July 2010 |
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Venice, acrylic on canvas, 20x20cm
For most of my art career, teachers and mentors have pushed me to paint larger. While I appreciate the advice in general, this month I’ve been feeling the urge to run in the opposite direction. I’ve been playing with tiny canvas sizes, anywhere from 15 x 15 cm to 30 x 30 cm, and producing one or more finished paintings per day. I find it a great opportunity to practice, experiment, and grow as an artist. Plus it should give me plenty of work to share here. The first couple are scenes from my travels to different parts of Europe, but I’m thinking of narrowing my subject matter down to scenes from Munich, at least for a little while.
4 comments Tags: acrylic, daily painting, Italy, painting, Venice
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Jul on 3 October 2007 |
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I’m still working on a few portraits, but I decided it was high time to start on a new body of work, as well. So I’ve started on a series of cityscape paintings. The first ones were inspired by the canals of Milan’s Navigli neighborhood. Here’s one of the works in progress.
I will be painting furiously for the next month, as I have an exhibit opening in Zurich in November. So much to do!
3 comments Tags: acrylic, cityscape, Italy, Milan, painting
