On the train - Life as it passes

The simplicity and minimalism of certain compositions, the quiet power of a red filter placed in front of a lens.

People often laugh when I say I enjoy traveling by train. We live in a culture of the NOW (or even YESTERDAY), where everything is compressed and accelerated, and we are slowly unlearning how to experience time itself.
For me, trains do the opposite. They restore a sense of distance and duration. They create a space where I can simply look out of the window and let thoughts drift, where observation becomes a natural form of reflection and, inevitably, a source of work.

Of course, this is usually accompanied by a good (bad), absurdly expensive coffee kindly not sponsored by the onboard bar.

Beyond that, trains are also an extraordinary study of human behaviour: postures, rhythms, clothing, micro-gestures, even the poetry of people trying (and failing) to sleep comfortably. A moving laboratory for quick gesture drawing and for quietly observing
life as it passes.

View fullsize

View fullsize

Sketchbook #157

Pages from my sketchbook, places.

Sometimes I’m lucky enough to find myself alone in a place I like, without distractions or family around. Those moments are ideal for starting a quick on-location sketch: improvised, direct, and rarely good :) or fully “finished” state (what does “finished” even mean for a sketch?).

Other times I’ll just capture the spirit of a place through a few lines and shapes, and bring a photo back to the studio to further refine — or, more honestly, to reinterpret and push it a bit further. Some of these pages also include studies from master works;
I often alternate between studying from others and drawing from observation, with the aim of absorbing what I learn and re-expressing it through my own hand. Much simpler said than done… but we’re still here.

Elena - a few shots

I do not generally do portraits but sometimes, with the right subject, it’s good to stop, look, think and enjoy the beauty of light and people.

Good memories of my years in New York, and what this beautiful city brought and represented in my life.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Sketchbook #72 - Gouache and my bad brain

I think one of the main obstacles in art — at least in the way I experienced it — is the overwhelming number of tools available, and how collecting fine art materials can easily become a real addiction.

Experimentation is important, of course. It’s part of finding what resonates with you, discovering your preferences, and slowly developing your own visual language. But I also realized that, for me, it often became a form of procrastination.
We are constantly bombarded by advertisements and exposed online to incredible artists creating extraordinary work with every possible tool imaginable. It becomes easy to believe that by buying the same materials, somehow we might also become capable of producing the same kind of work.

That is insecurity speaking — the quiet voice convincing you that the next tool will finally unlock something in you.
For a long time, I believed it over and over again.
So I accumulated enough materials to fill an entire store, only to slowly realize how deceptive that mindset could be. Little by little, I began reducing my tools drastically and focusing instead on process, repetition, and attention.

There was also a period in the past when I experimented extensively with gouache and watercolor. These are some very old studies from life or masters — the few that, as usual, did not end up in the fireplace…. imagine the others….