London + new watercolor painting :)

Map from here

I am back from 2 weeks in London! We had a great time there - amazing place to visit. Lots of art, history and rain. there are only two things I didn't like about London - 1. the rush hour, 2.the food. 

But I am definitely in love with the art (so much of it in London :), the parks, the architecture, the history and the diversity of people...

There are lots of great memories that I've brought back, not only form the art aspect but here I prefer to discuss the art related stuff. 

It's so much for you as an art lover to do in London - 

The National Gallery, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Estoric gallery of modern Italian art, Courtauld gallery, Victorian and Albert, Royal Academy, National History Museum, NOA18 and more!

Very nice art supplies shops such as Cass Art, London Graphic Center and Fabriano Boutique (fabriano is expensive but interesting).

I saw lots of art highlights such as "Late Turner" and "Consteble - the making of a master" exhibitions.

Some art supplies I got in London  -
Cass Art: Moleskine (watercolour A4), derwent pencils, cass 20 postcards set, sepia derwent pens
London graphic art center: brushes and palette
Fabriano boutique: Quadrato artist's journal (23x23cm) 

The new art books to add to my collection!

Monet paintings with me at Courtauld gallery!

Just trying my new pencils and sepia pens. By the way this little moleskine I bought at the Malpensa airport, Milan, Italy, last year.

So far this vacation was the most educative for me, I've learned so much new aspects of art. Thus it' s great to start in north Italy as I did last year and then to proceed further.

My new watercolor painting - No reference, just me, 300 gsm windsor and newton watercolor paper, brushes and my beloved White Nights Watercolors...

This painting was strongly influenced by the landscapes from north Italy (the lakes), Switzerland artists (Hodler and Bocklin), and the British painters (Constable and Turner) as well.

Happy Horse (ooak tote bag present)

A birthday present for a dear friend of mine, Lee, she loves horses!

Not for commercial profit, this is a present.

Hand painted one of a kind tote bag, size 41x38cm, handles length is 23cm, amazing reference photo by Messiahkhan, painted with acrylics,

Are you interested in a special ooak tote bag made just for you? 

Write me an email for all the details - golous@gmail.com

WIPs

WIP1

WIP2

WIP3

WIP4

Kizhi Pogost Landscape (Moleskine)

Kizhi Pogost in Russia 

Reference photo by the amazing DeingeL

moleskine watercolor pocket sketchbook, 46x26cm , white nights watercolors (I just love them!)

 WIPs

WIP 1

WIP 2

WIP 3

WIP 4

Little Beetle :)

Fun little drawing on the inside front cover of my Fabriano Quadrato Artist's Journal. 16x16 cm

All thanks to this gorgeous inspiration photo by LaurentGiguere

The media I used this time.

Basilica di San Zeno and Totoro :)

Basilica di San Zeno - Verona

Basilica di San Zeno in Verona is a Romanesque church in  Verona, it is very beautiful and I've been there at our north Italy vacation in 2013.
Reference photo is from the lovely Romanesque book that you see at the photo. :)

I already wrote about this book before...

Done in my Fabriano Quadrato Artist's Journal, 16x16 cm, rotring rapidograph pens, white gel pen, sepia pencil , graphite and turquoise pastel.

WIPs

Totoro :)

A little key ring I made for myself after I finally saw this amazing movie by Hayao Miyazaki. By the way the movie was made in 1988 so me and Totoro are at the same age. 

Acrylics on wood, 6.5 cm in diameter

WIPs

P.S. I don't have the mood to write about anything but art this time so this is it up to now. 

I wish us all Peace and Serenity.

Guardian by Alanis Morissette

Little Prince made with Rotring Rapidographs

Little Prince

Reference photo by Sooper-Deviant , Rotring rapidographs (0.2, 0.3, 0.5), white gel pen, in my Fabriano Quadrato Artist's Journal, 16x16 cm

WIPs

About my new Rotring rapidographs - 

So I made an art present for my self and got me this amazing set of Rotring Rapidograph pens, and guess that? They are just amazing! I used the Micron pens before but there is nothing better than real fluid ink and the real pen nib. Microns are good in their quality but they not as well good as these rapidographs. The possibility to replace the ink container makes these pens reliable for years and years of repeatedly reuse, the ink quality is amazing and the feel of these pens in your hand is very natural. Most of the reviews at the internet say that these are probably the best rapidographs that you can get today, and I have to admit that they are definitely right.

The Rapidographs that I have in my set - 0.2, 0.3, 0.5

The whole range of them!

I am also very please to report that the rapidographs I have merge perfectly with my Fabriano Quadrato Artist's Journal, it's 90g/m2  paper with four colors of paper inside :) and with the rapidographs on them, the next page remains completely clean and all the ink is observed perfectly in to the paper when you work. 

And to sum it up I just have to say that it's really important for artists to work with high quality materials because from my own experience, the final results look much better and stay for years without changing or going yellow or loosing their original looks!

Life In The Woods and The Fields a New Collage

30x35 cm, Rotring 0.5 and 0.3 rapidographs, white gel pen, collage on fabriano paper for pastels

References - 

Hedgehog inspiration photo , two old american books pages - the first and the second and bunch of black and white xerox copies of photos of New York buildings.

Something completely new for me is a collage and also using some real rapidographs by Rotring which are just amazing after using micron pens I decided to try the good heavy stuff! 

WIP1

 WIP2

May be a series, we'll see! :)

Foxes of The Seasons Series is complete!

for details go here

The Spring - Island Fox - endangered species

Finished this one last week!

Previous WIPs of the Spring Island fox are right here. And two more are - 

To sum up the challenging work on the series, I worked more than 3 years on these four canvases because I have full time job and not a lot time for art,  but I finally did it! 

So every fox stands for a season, Arctic fox for the winter, Island fox for the spring, fennec for the summer and the Red fox for the autumn. 

The Celtic Five Fold symbol is for the four seasons, four elements and the directions all united in balance by the five element. This series is about the balance of the nature and the love to nature and animals.

Each canvas is 40x50 cm, oils on canvas, I also used silver and gold artist Winsor and newton oils on the borders of each canvas - they are amazing quality by the way.

All the series started then I discovered the magical series of seasons, times of the day, flowers, gems...by the marvelous Alfonse Mucha. 

Some exampels

The Arts by A. Mucha

The Gem Stones by Mucha

The Seasons by Mucha

And after the visit ti the Mucha museum in Prague in 2010, I decided why not to create my own series of the seasons with animals, so I started a research on the topic and decided to proceed with a fox for a season because foxes are one of the most common species of mammals that live almost in every climate on earth, so the work on the foxes of the seasons has begun! :)

The first study done in 2011 

for details go here

Thanks to this series I became much more skilled with oils and I keep developing my own artistic personality. This was long project that taught me a lot about art, skills and myself!

I kindly wish every artist to complete a project like this because it is an inevitable step in a development of an artist.

Polar Bear Aurora - one of a kind canvas hand painted bag

Details

Hand painted original canvas bag, size 41x38cm, handles length is 23cm, reference by monstrous-kitten, painted with acrylics on canvas bag, this is one of a kind bag! 

Are you interested in this bag or a special bag made just for you? 

Write me an email for all the details - golous@gmail.com

WIPs