Buon 2014.. Felice Anno Nuovo !!

Libera in cielo i tuoi desideri
perché ad ogni ventata improvvisa tu te ne posa ricordare.
Libera in cielo le tue paure
perché con la sua profondità le mischi con le stelle
e le trasformi in nuovi punti di riferimento per crescere.

Carl Payne, 1969 ~ Figurative sculptor

British sculptor Carl Payne was born in Staffordshire. During his education he studied Figurative Sculpture and began on his first commission in 2000. Since then, Payne has compiled an extensive ensemble of commissions including 'Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross' and 'King George and Queen Mary' which were unveiled by George Best, Bobby Moore and Pele and by Princess Anne at Banbury respectively. Today he has a wide variety of collectors throughout the world.

Payne's works are incredibly lifelike, portraying their subjects flawlessly, the pieces look like they might spring to life at any given moment. Despite a lack of use of colour, the pieces convey a dynamic sense of weight and movement, capturing the viewer in the freeze-frame that his sculptures are trapped in.

Leonardo Bistolfi | Symbolist sculptor

Leonardo Bistolfi (1859-1933) was an Italian sculptor, an important exponent of Italian Symbolism. Bistolfi was born in Casale Monferrato in Piedmont, north-west Italy, to Giovanni Bistolfi, a sculptor in wood and to Angela Amisano.
In 1876 he enrolled in the Brera Art Academy in Milan, where his teacher was Giosuè Argenti. In 1880 he studied under Odoardo Tabacchi at the Accademia Albertina in Turin.

His first works Le lavandaie "The Washerwomen", Tramonto ‘Sunset’, Vespero ‘Evening’, Boaro ‘Cattle-hand’, Gli amanti ‘The Lovers’, executed between 1880 and 1885, show the influence of the Milanese Scapigliatura. In 1882 he sculpted L'Angelo della morte ‘The Angel of Death’ for the Brayda tomb in the Turin cemetery known as the Cimitero Monumentale, and in 1883 he produced a bust of the painter Antonio Fontanesi for the Accademia Albertina: these works show a turn towards Symbolism which the artist was never to abandon.

From this time until 1914 Bistolfi produced many busts, medals and portraits of prominent figures including the Piedmontese painter Lorenzo Delleani, the kings of Italy Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I, the criminologist Cesare Lombroso, the writer Edmondo De Amicis, and the publisher and journalist Emilio Treves.
In the early 1890s he was made an honorary member of the Accademia Albertina and became secretary of the Circolo degli Artisti ‘Artists’ Circle’.
In 1892 he began a two-year task of decorating Chapel XVI of the Sacro Monte di Crea, one of the Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy which are recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In 1893 he married Maria Gusberti.

Michel Rauscher, 1957 | Abstract Figurative painter

Michel Rauscher painter and photographer, born in Alsace is a passionate autodidact. Great traveler, he takes his endless curiosity in regions, on land that fascinated him in search of color, light and authenticity, with a predilection for the African continent.
His need for discovery and the interpretation of dreams become sources of inspiration for his painting. It evokes the beauty of the everyday magic of ordinary, the emotion of the moment. He expresses his artistic sensibility with timeless themes, stylized characters in cracked places, evocative and poetic silhouettes causing emotion and enthusiasm.

Jacqueline Osborn | Stories on canvas

British painter* Jacqueline Osborn captures strong, graphic and compelling images in her present series of paintings entitled Moments in Time.
Although Jacqueline has lived in California for half of her life she admits that England will always be home to her and that she is fortunate that she can return fairly often.
Her work communicates precious every-day moments that tell a story of another era, place and generation. Her warm and restrained palette suggests a mood of times gone by - out of reach, elusive moments that are captured on her canvases.

Mary Jane Cross, 1951 | Figurative painter

Born in 1951, American painter* Mary Jane Q. Cross received her formal training at the Worcester Art Museum, in 1970-1973 in a time of Expressionism.

Followed by workshops with Daniel Green and mentoring with Fran Hoyt (student of Vincent Dumond), Mary Jane designed her own curriculum based on the Atelier System, to gain the tools necessary to make her art speak with historic purity, and her own unique voice.

Amy Brown, 1972 | The forest spirit

Born in Bellingham, Washington, Amy Brown is the first Fairy Artist in America.

As a child she spent countless hours drawing fairy princesses at an old, dark wood table in the living room of the beach cabin her parents rented.

The doodling continued throughout her adolescence and at the age of 21 she began to take her art seriously, specializing in painting the fairy realm.

Amy started working with water-colors and found a deep love for the translucent qualities of the paint.

Sculture di ghiaccio e Neve ad Harbin

John Keats / Aldo Luongo | You say you love / Dici di amarmi

Dici di amarmi, ma con una voce

più casta di quella di una suora che canta

il tenue Vespro della sera a se stessa,

mentre suona la campana a festa...

Please, amami sul serio!

You say you love; but with a voice

Chaster than a nun's, who singeth

The soft Vespers to herself

While the chime-bell ringeth -

O love me truly!

Dici di amarmi, ma con un sorriso

freddo come un'alba di settembre,

come se fossi la suora di San Cupido

nella settimana di astinenza.

Please, amami sul serio!

You say you love; but with a smile

Cold as sunrise in September,

As you were Saint Cupid's nun,

And kept his weeks of Ember.

O love me truly!

Édouard Manet | Quotes /Aforismi

• Everything is mere appearance, the pleasures of a passing hour, a midsummer night's dream. Only painting, the reflection of a reflection - but the reflection, too, of eternity - can record some of the glitter of this mirage.
• A painter can say all he wants to with fruit or flowers or even clouds.
• A good painting is true to itself.
• - In una figura, cercate la grande luce e la grande ombra, il resto verrà da sé.
• - Si vede come si vuol vedere, ed è questa falsità che costituisce l'arte.
• - Dobbiamo ammaliare la verità, darle l'apparenza della follia.
• - Un quadro è una combinazione originale delle linee e dei toni che si mettono in evidenza.

Sir William Russell Flint | Watercolour painter

British painter and illustrator Sir William Russell Flint (1880-1969) was known especially for his watercolour paintings of women. He also worked in oils, tempera and printmaking. He was born in Edinburgh. From 1894-1900 Flint apprenticed as a lithographic draughtsman while taking classes at the Royal Academy of Art, Edinburgh.

From 1900-1902 he worked as a medical illustrator in London while studying part-time at Heatherley's Art School. He furthered his art education by studying independently at the British Museum. He was an artist for the Illustrated London News from 1903-1907, and produced illustrations for editions of several books, including Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, 1912.

Leonard Cohen | Winter Lady /Signora Inverno

Boris Indrikov ~ Russian painter

Signora in viaggio, resta ancora un po’
finché la notte non sarà terminata
Sono solo una tappa del tuo cammino,
so che non sono il tuo amante.

Vivevo con una bimba di neve
quand’ero soldato
e combattei ogni uomo per lei
finché le notti non crebbero in freddo.

Trav'ling lady, stay awhile
Until the night is over.
I'm just a station on your way,
I know I'm not your lover.

Well I lived with a child of snow
When I was a soldier,
And I fought every man for her
Until the nights grew colder.

Pavel Mitkov, 1977 | Impressionist /Abstract painter

Award winning painter Pavel Mitkov, born in Sofia, Bulgaria, is the most successful and collected Bulgarian artist in the European connoisseur of art community in recent years. Extremely talented, his philosophy of life pertains to wisdom unusual for his young age. The paintings of Pavel Mitkov reflect not only his natural artistic talent, but also his passion for painting.

Goxwa Borg, 1961

Maltese painter Goxwa Borg was born in Valetta, Malta. She began painting at a very young age and enrolled at the Saint Martin School of Art. Years later, she moved to Boston where she attended Emerson College for film studies. In 1993 she was awarded fellowship at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.

Her encaustic works on canvas defy categorization. Although she draws inspiration from ancient frescos, her paintings have a very contemporary feel. Goxwa explores all genres, yet all of her paintings have the same element of mystery and intrigue. In 1993 she had her first of many solo exhibitions. Since then she has shown in various cities including Paris, New York, Strasbourg and San Francisco. Goxwa currently resides in Paris and her exhibitions continue to draw crowds of admirers and collectors.

Leonardo da Vinci | Che differenza è dalla pittura alla poesia

Trattato della Pittura - Parte prima /17

La pittura è una poesia muta, e la poesia è una pittura cieca, e l'una e l'altra vanno imitando la natura quanto è possibile alle loro potenze, e per l'una e per l'altra si può dimostrare molti morali costumi, come fece Apelle con la sua Calunnia.

Ma della pittura, perché serve all'occhio, senso piú nobile che l'orecchio, obietto della poesia, ne risulta una proporzione armonica; cioè, che siccome di molte e varie voci insieme aggiunte ad un medesimo tempo, ne risulta una proporzione armonica, la quale contenta tanto il senso dell'udito, che gli uditori restano con stupente ammirazione quasi semivivi.