Warm Art Diary

As the Louvre Curator Jean-Pierre Cuzin once said, "The entire history of portraiture afterwards depends on the Mona Lisa. If you look at all the other portraits - not only of the Italian Renaissance, but also of the 17th-19th century - if you look at Picasso, at everyone you want to name, all of them were inspired by this painting. Thus, it is sort of the root, almost, of occidental portrait painting."  Leonardo perfected the technique known as sfumato , which translates from Italian meaning "vanished or evaporated", in a break with the Florentine tradition of outlining the painted image. He created imperceptible transitions between light and shade, and sometimes between colors, he tended to blend everything without any true borders- like smoke, with subtle, practically invisible, brush strokes. The veil, Mona Lisa's hair, the glowing skin -  all are created with layers of transparent color, none more than a few molecules thick, giving the painting an almost ma...

 Vincent van Gogh, often famed for his bold and dramatic brush strokes which expressed emotion and added a feeling of movement to his works, focused largely on oil based-post impressionist, paintings. He was a unique artist who worked with a sense of urgency and in the 70 days leading up to his death, he averaged one painting per day. Largely self-taught, van Gogh started his career copying prints and reading 19th century drawing manuals and books. His technique came from the belief that to be a great painter you had to master drawing first. It was only when he was satisfied with his drawing techniques that he started adding in colors and this bold palette became one of the most recognizable features of his later work.  In his early career, van Gogh painted with dark and melancholy colors, however, his styles changed immensely when he moved to Paris in 1886. He began using a lighter palette of reds, yellows, oranges, greens and blues, and experimented with the broken brush str...

        Can you imagine what it would be like if creativity worked like a tap? Just turn it on and art flows right out of your hands! Sadly that couldn't be farther away from the truth. For me, finding my inspiration is just as tough as actually creating something out of it. That's why, to avoid dry spells longer than time itself , I like to keep looking for inspiration all around me. Someday i'll look at a pretty flower and be inspired, on other days, although, I have to be considerably less subtle and more direct in my continuous search. Over the past few years I've found quite a lot of artists online that are so beautiful and so inspiring that i just can't help but talk about them every now and then.          My current favorite of these artists would be Santiago Guevara (you can find him on Instagram here  and check out his amazing website here  and  his Domestika course  ). I found Guevara and fell in love w...