Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Simonetta Vespucci

Just last week a friend of mine and fellow Pieces of Eight,  Fay Picardi, had a book launch.  She has written a wonderful book about this beautiful, mysterious, elusive woman although she was really just a girl, dying at 22. 
Not much is known about her except she so inspired Botticelli he painted her several times most famously as Venus rising from the Sea.  He asked to be buried at her feet when he died.  She captivated the de' Medici's , half of Florence, was renowned for her beauty and kindness but still remains an elusive mystery.
All of our group did some kind of painting or collage for the launch, which was a lot of fun.  I did a  collage in encaustic wax.  I really wanted something ethereal and otherworldly.  I loved the effect, it did have that mysterious quality.
If anyone is interested in a really good read the book is titled Simonetta by Fay Picardi and is available on Amazon.


Sunday, November 15, 2015

Values

I attended a wonderful workshop with Elio Camacho, an artist from California, about a week ago.  One of his many strengths is color.  He creates the most beautiful colors I have ever seen.  One of my main objectives was to learn as much about color as I could and interestingly enough the first painting I did was in black and white.  I realized after watching his demo and listening to his comments as he painted that I really need to learn about value then color would follow.