Still life with pumpkin and sunflowers. Oil painting by Sara Calcagno, 30 x 40 cm. Last autumn I painted this still life study with pumpking and sunflowers in one session.. only in a second moment, I refined the painting.
I love autumn color and autumn fruits and vegetables. I love autumn. I think maybe is my favorite season together with late spring.. Anyway, if you think about it, both autumn and late spring are magical moments for nature! Lots of different seasonal fruits and flowers are at their best and very mature and so rich in their colors. The painting has already found a collector.
With this painting I tried to paint the idealized memory of a peony garden: the dream of a peony garden. It is a study and it isn’t so big but neither so small.. I enjoyed with experimenting on this piece.. I finished it some days ago.
Peonies are such a poetic flower, with all those gigantic light petals. They amaze with their size and with their splendour. I adore going in peony gardens and absorbing their energy and their beauty. They are such beautiful and poetic flowers! For some years, in the past, I lived in Montefiascone (Viterbo, Italy) and in april and may I used to go very often to Centro Botanico Moutan in Vitorchiano. There they grow all kinds of peonies, they say they have the biggest collection of chines peonies in Europe! I don’t know, if it’s the biggest. For sure it is astonishing. They have such a gorgeous collection .. you can litterally walk among peonies high like yourself for hours.. This year I would have loved to go again but due to covid lockdown, we couldn’t move from our region. Pity but it will be for next year! I was lucky that my neighbor has the most amazing peonies and I could make so many pics.
Hope you will enjoy this study. It was funny to paint it and the result is what I expected, a little bit dreamy and ethereal.
Peonies’ Dream, oil on canvas by Sara Calcagno, 41 x 22 cm
Who doesn’t know the gorgeous portraits by John Singer Sargent?
He was a famous American painter, born in Massachusetts in 1820 and died in London in 1925. He is generally considered one if the most famous portrait painters of XIX Century.
His beautiful portraits speak for themselves. I’ve studied his painting technique and many of his portraits.
Among them there is this portrait of a woman with glasses. Her severe but ironic face is so interesting my interest was literally completely captured and I decided to copy it.
I made a painting using the wet on wet method, that is I painted it in one day and tried to maintain the fresh look of the original.
Like most of us, I love Rembrandt and his paintings..
In particular, I find his portraits particularly beautiful and intense and I totally love his technique! I like the thickness of his painting and the apparent roughness of his style in some points.
Rembrandt was certainly very modern for his times and I find his style sometimes really surprising and strong.
After Rembrandt – Old woman reading – Sara Calcagno
Because of my love for Rembrandt, a couple of years ago I decided to spend some time in making copies after some of his portraits. I decided to go small (all these paintings are no more than 11 x 8 inches big) and I gave myself only one day for each one of these portraits.
It was a real challenge but I had also a lot of fun
For a little painting like these ones, for studying the image and drawing it I spent at least three/four hours. Of course, if the painting was bigger I would have needed much more time!
I stand there looking at the image and drawing it until I was sure I liked the drawing and I perfectly understood the forms and the points on which I wanted to focus my attention both in the drawing and in the painting.
For me, these two steps are the most important ones, the ones in which I get in connection with the masterpiece. If I don’t analyze with attention the subject or if I go too fast with the drawing, this normally means to me making a bad painting or one without a soul. Painting needs time and concentration.
After Rembrandt – Portrait of an old man – Sara Calcagno
For coloring with oils little studies like these ones, I needed around another three/four hours. It was not so much time but again.. it was so only because these were very small paintings. If they were bigger, I would have certainly needed more time.
I find particularly helpful making copies after paintings I love. It helps me learning and making steps forward in my technique. I always say, that making copies after great Masters is like making a private lesson with a great painter. It is like getting intimate with him/ her. Sometimes you can even figure out what the Master had in mind when he made some technical choices and when this happens, it is gorgeous and exciting.
This little painting I did after Rembrandt is (like most of the little studies I made) a detail of a bigger painting. I wasn’t interested in making the copy of the whole painting. I only wished to focus on the portrait and, in particular, I wished to focus on the portrait of an old man as I really love as Rembrand painted old people. I think he could really capture old people’s soul.. These faces really speak to me and have some real magic.
Hope you like this copy of an old man after Rembrandt and, if you are a painter, I wish you happy inspiration and happy painting!
If you wish to receive more information about my paintings or you are interested in commissioning me a portrait, don’t hesitate to write me through WhatsApp or call me directly at the number +39 348 9136889
Last sunday I made this little colored painting with the technique wet on wet (or “alla prima”).
The subject is a basket full of red and yellow apples. It is taken after a photo I made a couple of years ago, exactly in an autumn day like these ones.
Autumn inspires me always very much. Autumn colors, autumn lights, autumn fruits and flowers. For this reason it happens often I make some still lifes in this period of the year.
This was a very small and quick one. Some kind of simple “color study”, as I didn’t want to spend too much time on it, I gave myself only one day so I decided to concentrate particularly on colors. My main goal was to paint the warm autumn colors and autumn lights.
I enjoyed very much painting this subject and I could enjoy more only by painting the same subject from life..
Dear friends, just a little study after a painting by Joseph Todorovich representing a red-haired young girl outdoor in plein sun and with closed eyes. I love this portrait, I find it poetic and full of magic. If you wish to commission me a portrait, I would love to paint an impressionistic painting.. I love the feeling of freshness and colors of impressionistic portraits.
Dopo diversi studi su Rembrandt, Velazquez ed ultimamente, uno su Caravaggio .. è arrivata la volta di Roberto Ferri.
Roberto Ferri è uno dei pittori contemporanei che preferisco, i suoi dipinti hanno una forza ed un’energia che pochi pittori riescono ad eguagliare.. E, come se non bastasse, ho la immensa fortuna di averlo come maestro. Con lui ho già fatto diversi master di pittura, l’ultimo la scorsa primavera.
E siccome, quando si ha a che fare con un pittore così straordinario, non si smette mai di imparare … eccomi a studiare ora uno dei suoi capolavori.
Ho iniziato con il disegno di uno stupendo cavallo di un suo dipinto molto grande: I Cavalieri dell’Apocalisse (Roberto Ferri 2011).. Un’opera che a suo tempo vidi anche dal vero, a Roma.
Il dipinto di Roberto Ferri è un capolavoro. Spero che vi piaccia (almeno un po’) anche il mio disegno.
Studiare i giganti della storia dell’Arte e dell’Arte Contemporanea è sicuramente un modo per imparare al meglio e ai massimi livelli.. A me piace molto. Inoltre imparare dai grandi mi sta insegnando tantissimo. Ogni copia è per me come una lezione privata, ogni studio una conversazione sull’arte con , di volta in volta, Rembrandt, Velazquez, Ferri… Insomma, meraviglioso!
Disegnare questo cavallo di Roberto Ferri è stato impegnativo, tale e tanta è la bellezza dell’originale. Spero di esserci riuscita, almeno in parte..
Uncomfortable situations… 😊😊 Self portrait with Caravaggio (work in progress)
Dear friends, this is the painting I’m working on in this moment. It’s a study after Caravaggio but it’s also a self portrait (with him)..
At the moment I’ve almost finished Dave and Golia (Caravaggio) but I’ve got still only the drawing of me.
As you can see, this time I’ve chosen to put myself in a very uncomfortable situation..
I’ve got my head off exactly like Caravaggio (Golia), and the painting represents me while, with my last breath, I’m shouting and looking at him.
This is, first of all, a study after a masterpiece so I tried both to copy what Caravaggio painted so gorgeously and to represent the tragedy and the drama, that he was able to put on scene so brilliantly..
The second part of this study is my self portrait. It represents me looking at Golia and, while exhaling my last breath, shouting at what I’m seeing..
In this self portrait I try to represent the interior drama of the artist, the pain and the anguish towards himself and his destiny and, at the same time, my deep understanding and identification with him both as an artist and as a human beeing.
Working on the the last details of my last study after Rembrandt.. Detail of “Dr Tulp Anatomy Lesson”
Carrello
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