Loving Vincent

The guys from Oscar-winning studio BreakThru Films are in the process of creating a piece that I find really interesting. It will be the first feature-length animated film made solely through hand-painted canvases – more than 40 painters will create nearly 60,000 paintings -, examining the life of post-Impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh.

In words of the creators: “Loving Vincent is an investigation delving into the life and controversial death of Vincent Van Gogh, one of the world’s most beloved painters, as told through his paintings and by the characters that inhabit them.”

The Ultimate Sophistication

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Six’s Bridge” by Rembrandt.
This and other great prints can be seen at the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston.

Nicolas Delort´s Illustrations

Have you seen the great illustrations created by Nicolas Delort? I found them today, by chance, while looking for some visual inspiration in the Internet. I attach a couple of samples of his outstanding work, and suggest that you visit his Tumblr for more of his imaginative illustrations.

My Thinner Edvard Munch

“A person himself believes that all the other portraits
are good likenesses except the one of himself.”
~ Edvard Munch

In the 150th anniversary year of his birth, Oslo will be celebrating the work and life of Edvard Munch. By chance, I have found a pen drawing, I made several years ago, based on a self-portrait of this great artist, considered a pioneer in the Expressionist movement of modern painting.

His face is thinner in my portrait, but drawing with a pen has limitations, and the impossibility of deleting the lines made is the main one. In any case, hope it works as my personal tribute to the figure of the celebrated Norwegian artist.

Drawing © Nano Calvo

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Krüger´s Faces

According to his website: “Sebastian Krüger was born June 30, 1963 in Hamelin, Germany.

After studying free painting with Prof. Dörfler at the Braunschweig University of Fine Arts, he made a stunning reputation as the designer of a number of cover spreads for the press in Germany and abroad and as an illustrator and creative designer of various LP covers.”

He creates some awesome paintings – collected in a book titled Faces – like this precise acrylics on canvas, showing Bob Dylan and Keith Richards on stage. You may view more of his Faces in this online gallery.

Paintings © Sebastian Krüger

The Sound of Stenciling

Very interesting and well executed video by talented street artist Pahnl, showing the process for creating a stenciling painting, with a very nice result.

Apart from the recent use for street art and graffiti, stencil system has been used since the prehistoric period – with the popular cave paintings, where the hand was used as stencil -, or applied to official and military uses, for labeling places, objects and locations.

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A Shy Peasant

“A Shy Peasant”
Ilya Repin
Oil on Canvas, 1877

The Street Painter

If you walk around Madrid, you have a chance of seeing him in action, while painting, with surprising accuracy, some of the most popular landmarks and buildings of the capital.

His name is Alberto Martin Giraldo, and he came to the big city from Pontevedra, in Galicia, more than ten years ago. He considers himself a citizen of Madrid, after all this years, and preferes open air settings for displaying his unquestionable art. In the recent past, he has won several important painting awards.

I met him some weeks ago, near the Cortes Generales del Estado Español – building that hosts the legislature of Spain -, during the hottest minutes of a windy summer afternoon. He was kind and communicative, with us and other curious pedestrians. Therefore, I want to publish these spontaneous pics as a simple tribute to his patience and a visual testimony to this difficult way of artistic expression.

Photos © Nano Calvo

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Ran Ortner

In my art, I contemplate the collision of opposites, from tender brutalities to the devastating sensitivities. Every day I enter my studio, prepare my materials and, as James Joyce said, “go for the millionth time to encounter the reality of the experience.”I attempt through painting to sustain my encounter with life’s biting reality ~ Ran Ortner

Photos, Text & Paintings © Ran Ortner

With Hagi Branch

Ayus Swimming Upstream 
with Hagi Branch
1830-44
Utagawa Kuniyoshi