Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)

Rubens at Villa Olmo, Como

I think I'll go! :)

Nicoletta Ceccoli's Art

Nicoletta Ceccoli is an Italian artist who "has illustrated many books, mainly in Italy, in the USA and in the UK. Her work has been exhibited at the Bologna Children’s Book fair seven times. She has also shown her work among the others in ‘Roq la Rue’ (Seattle), ’Magic Pony’ (Toronto), ’Dorothy Circus’ (Rome), Richard Goodall Gallery (Manchester). In 2001, Nicoletta was awarded with the Andersen prize as best Italian illustrator of the year.
She is also a four time recipient of the ‘award of excellence’ from Communication Arts. In 2006 she received the silver medal from Society of Illustrator (New York)." (Biography, http://www.nicolettaceccoli.com/)

I personally love her paintings: luckily I saw with my eyes some of her works at the Mostra dell'Illustrazione in Monza, they were amazing. Strange, unnerving figures painted with the softest touch... The titles are: Crows, Lucciola (Glow-worm), Butterfly, Lucy, Biancaneve (Snowhite), Giocoliere (Juggler).

Funny characters!

Little Red Riding Hood

Me when I had fringe!

My Sketches! (black and white)

Here they are my little confused sketches! They're a little bit old, I drawed them a year ago, if I remember well.

There'e the Skeleton series: Mr Skeleton, Captain Skelarrow, Skel-Drakula, Skelin Hood and Ham-leton, my favourite one.

Then we've got a little fantasy portrait of me and my Love as the young, fair redskin and the attractive bandit (how I love him!).

Then a pencil drawed portrait of Nicole Kidman taken from a photo: the divine!
And finally a young lady which I call "Madame".
Do you like them? I'll post others in colour.:)

Rubens, "gentle and courteous"

Pieter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)"was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality." (Wikipedia)

There's a reason why my email is juliette.rubens13@gmail.com.

First, Juliette is the name of a character of the novel "Holy fools" by Joanne Harris (who is famous for having written "Chocolat"); then, 13 is my favourite number and, finally, Rubens is one of the most brilliant artists, in my own view. I know a little about his life, but I've seen with my own eyes many of his paintings in Rome at Palazzo Pitti ("The Consequences of War") and in the National Gallery in London ("Samson and Delilah", "The Judgement of Paris" and others), and I've always been fascinated by his taste, his style. Colours, shapes, structures, myths...

I post here two of his works: "The Judgement of Paris" (which I personally saw and enjoyed) and "The Death of Hyppolitus", preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum of Cambridge, "a masterpiece of controlled chaos", as critics wrote. I'm fond of this painting, I find it marvellous.

Here is the story of the Greek myth: The subject is the death of Hippolytus, son of the Greek hero Theseus. After being falsely accused of attempting to rape his stepmother, Phaedra, Hippolytus is cursed and banished by his father. The sea god Poseidon sends a monstrous bull from the depths of the ocean which terrifies the young man's chariot team and causes the bloody and fatal accident that we see here. Hippolytus, whose name means ‘loosed horse,’ tragically lives up to his name.

Sarah Mensinga

She's one of my favourite artists in field of illustration. Her paintings are so fresh and cute, I love them!

I wish I could draw like her. Maybe I'll post some of my sketches, just to see what you think about them. If you wanna see other works of Sarah Mensinga, you can go directly to her blog (titled "Sarah's Sketches) on Blogspot: www.sarahmensinga.blogspot.com I thouroughly recommend you this artist, she's really talented.

The Green Fairy of Thoughts

Strangeness is the indispensable condiment of all beauty.

(Charles Baudelaire)

Today I'm gonna start with this marvellous painting by Viktor Oliva (1861-1928) called "The Absinthe drinker", which shows a beautiful woman, a ghost, "la Fée Verte" sitting on a table towards a drunken man that is looking at her. He's alone, but his mind wanders as the alcohol runs through his veins... I find this image poetic: I love the colours, and the prospective, the smoke in the air, the loneliness of the man and yet the consciousness of his glance. I discovered this strange artist thanks to a group on Facebook (Peripheral Visions: Mythic, Mystic and Other Strange Art) founded by another amazing artist of our days: Andy Paciorek. I strongly recommend you his works and all he loves and stands around him, because there's a world of beauty we can't imagine. Beauty, but also Strangeness, and unusual visions men could create with their dreams, or distortion of their dramas.

I wish I could have lived among Bohemians like one of my favourite artists, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (I will tell you his sad story another time), or Genius like Charles Baudelaire, whose words fascinate me all of the time, anything he wrote has a strong effect, and at the same time a majestic and obscene poetry.

We all are artists

Can Art save us?

I've just asked (myself) this question, I posted it on my other blog Life is a musical!, and I answered: I think so.

That's why I chose to call my new one, in which I'm going to write my personal thoughts and emotions provided me by paintings, sketches, illustrations and all that stuff, Art can save us.

Probably it would seem banal or senseless, but I believe in it. I think it's important to express feelings before they're gone, to vent all the troubles and let our soul show, any way it comes out.

We all are artists.