Technical issues and heat

I've been trying to install google chrome all morning with no success because apparently, I need it if blogger will work properly.  So, I will try to write anyway and see what works, and what doesn't.  Maybe adding photos is not possible?  I just tried and cannot post photos untill google chrome is installed and cannot do that till the error is fixed...talk about catch 22, internet-style!
Anyways, I can still write. there has not been too much action in the studio lately because of the heat in Montreal.  Much of the action is in the streets and outside during summer here if one doesn't have air conditioning! But the plants in the studio are very happy with the tropical-like heat! 

April 2012 in Montreal

At the speed that time flies by in this blog, days have become minutes and years seem like days!  It is already april 2012 and almost a year since I last wrote.  April is a strange month in Montreal, a month of transformation, from ugliness to beauty, from dirt to cleanliness.  After winter there are hundreds of papers littered everywhere whch have to be cleaned up, lawns where grass has to grow, flowers which have too shoot up, bare trees which have to be clothed....the list goes on...and in the end Montreal will once again be beautiful! The people also have a bit of beautifying to do, once the pale and pasty faces see the sun, and once the layers of clothes are shed to reveal beautiful bodies!...My next painting is exactly that...the transformation of winter to spring...I will post it in my next blog, as I have to go work on it in the studio now!  

February Already

Studio just before 2011

Well this poor little blog is certainly neglected!  I haven't written for 2 months!  The Zouzoulas family portrait, which can be seen in the bottom right corner of the above photo, was a great hit in Greece!  Now I am working on two figurative oil paintings using green acrylic backrounds which I prepared beforehand.  Green is difficult and at the same time beautiful to use in painting!

December Already

It's all about time and lack of it.  If there were no time would we accomplish more?  What would a world without time be like?  Is it possible?  I can't imagine it.  So yesterday part of my long lost family came to the studio as well as new model, F. I always seem to paint people in transition, from one stage of their lives to another.  I still haven't photographed the portrait, which was painted under reflectors positioned on one side.  That created very strong and dramatic shadows.  The portrait shows exactly how the model was feeling.  That's what happens with my portraits...they tell the truth....will put it up soon!  As far as other events, I did not go to the vernissage at Kafart tonight as I asked a couple of peple last minute and did not feel like going alone.  It is the first time that I am exhibiting small abstracts...very pretty!  It is getting colder here in Montreal at the beginning of December and I am surrounded by Saggitarians with whom I get along with very well, and which means lots of birthday gifts!  Maybe the little abstracts!  They are so beautifully framed, too.

Time Flies

Already ten days have passed since my last entry, and I have a feeling that this will be the rate of input, after the  initial, enthusiastic, daily updates.  The painting of S finished itself...time, visits, comments, all conspired to finish it.  When someone said they wanted to touch it, I was happy.  There is a lot of releif in it even though it is a small canvas.  There are many layers and some nice palette knife work.  I am more and more drawn towards abstract but continue to resist, though I did leave a small 8" x 8" completely abstract for now.  It is more or less a sampling of new colors, strokes and pigmetnts.  The funny thing is that I can rarely remember how an effect was achieved since I use so many different mediums.  So each one really is an original which can't me repeated, like a rare jewel.   I'm looking forward to doing a few more.  The abstracts are really like playing, when I should be doing something more serious, such as the Zouzulas portrait of 13 family members.  That portrait is going really well by the way, but it requires utmost precision and decision.  By putting red curtains on each side of the standing family, as D suggested might work,  made them look like royalty.  They are, in their owm way!  I will emphasize that royal aspect as the work evolves.

New Day

What a beautiful day november 3 was!  I spent the whole day inside and painted in the studio, but those who were in nature today were the luckiest.  Today I spoke to I about "The Brooch" by Munch.  It is either a charcoal drawing or lithograph from what I see.  It's amazing how many sites are offering it as an oil painting.  And I learned something new about copyright laws.  In most parts of the world the copyright belongs to the artist while alive and 70 years after death!  So be careful all who would profit...though, it's hard to believe that the family doesn't have copyright afterwards.  Where are the lawyers to clear this up for us?

Anyways, the only two people that know this blog exists, for now, are the 2 Vs.  I'll call them big V and baby V for the moment.

The painting of S went well today, but it is amazing that a small painting can exact so much.  The challenge is to make it real, but not too real.  

Step by Step

                       This was the studio 3 years ago, as I was choosing paintings to exhibit.

There's lots to learn with these blogs.  I just went to see mel's blog and realise what it means to write a "profy" blog!  This one is really in it's embrionic stage and I don't know if it will ever grow up!:)
For one, I don't know if I can write as much as it seems to be necessary to create a serious blog.  And, so far there are only two photos...anyways, it's fun and no-one is reading it anyway.
Today I painted S again for the second time and the painting is retaining it's luminosity, while becoming more real.  The sun travelled along her arm and leg just as I was painting them, which was perfect!  I will post a photo soon.  It's great to paint on such a sunny day...