JaZzArt en València

So, Leonardo da Vinci…

The great Renaissance man? The genius? The artist, inventor, poet, researcher? Or the lazy rich boy who coasted through the years, living in comfort with servants and being trained by some of the masters of the time?

I think the latter description suits him better…

First I must say that I do think he was a great illustrator and painter. No doubt. But I also must ask myself, how many other young students of art also painted as good…or better…than the famous Tuscan? If other young lads would have had the same opportunity to train with the great Master Andrea del Verrocchio, like Leonardo had, thanks to his rich father, I am sure they too would have created incredible works of art.

Leonardo da Vinci hardly ever finished what he started. When he found the going rough, he abandoned the project. The famous fresco «The Last Supper», which he painted on the wall of the refractory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the church and convent of the Dominican Order in Milan, has had to be restored many times because it was painted using tempera and now little of the original remains. What kind of artist…with the experience of Leonardo…would be so careless?

Leonardo left many paintings unfinished, not only the «Monna Lisa» (which I will return to promptly), but «The Virgin and Child with St. Anne», «Saint Jerome in the Wilderness», «The Adoration of the Magi» as well as many other projects. All of his inventions were left unfinished and none of them would have worked had they ever been built, which they were not. Actually Duke Ludovico Sforza only engaged Leonardo to make entertaining objects, and such that could be used for decoration. The equestrian statute he commissioned from him was never even started, it remained as a sketch.

One of his greatest failures was the fresco of The Battle of Anghiari (1505) which he was commissioned to paint on the walls of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence ,and which he never painted. Leonardo, (the great innovator?), tried to paint with oil but placed a much too thick undercoat with wax and when he applied the colours they began to drip and he gave up and abandoned the project.

So, in conclusion…and in my opinion…Leonardo da Vinci was no greater…and much lesser…than his contemporaries, great artists, who truly worked hard, like: Michelangelo, Raphael, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Donatelo, and the master of masters, Filippo Brunelleschi, the architect/engineer/artist that truly kicked off the Renaissance in Italy.

Reference Monna Lisa…

I look at it as a little painting of not much importance to me. I looked at it (when I visited Le Louvre) for less than a second and the painting did not really catch my eye. It is small, 77 x 53 centimetres and not very interesting. I would say it is a second rate portrait. Well, then why is it so famous? Because it was stolen and remained missing for two years and during that time it received a lot of press, making the painting famous…

Can anyone really say that this painting, Monna Lisa, is better than this one:

Now it is your turn to tell me what you think.

And I do think he was a great artist, a great illustrator but he did not really pay too much attention to his craft and gave up too quickly when things went wrong…

Cheers…

I’ve travelled much…

I visited Turkey, starting with Istanbul (which my grandmother always called Constantinopla) and I began to learn about the country’s history…

I learned that Atatürk was a great man. Should have been honoured as “Man of the Century “…

He created a secular and democratic nation from a part of what had been the Ottoman Empire…

He wanted his fellow Turks to look to the West…

I have read about him and greatly admire him.

I suggest, if you like history and you want to get to know some of those that have made history in outstanding manners, that you read more about Atatürk…

I leave you with this short video I made a few years ago:

Cheers

This drawing…graphite on paper…is from the old days and now it has made its leap forward into a new form, fine art prints. Look for it in my Fine Art America gallery here.

There are more to share:

Cheers…

Veurem si us agrada…

El 24 de febrer del 2001 Josep Maria Bardagí mor d’un infart…

Aquesta cançó és un adéu a aquest musico, compositor i intèrpret català…

Moltes gràcies…

Dear Diary today I woke up dreaming that life was like a bouquet of tulips, in a bunch, on a vase on top of a dinner table, in an apartment on a hill, next to a lake, surrounded by mountains, under a cloudy sky and enjoying the mildness of a sunny day with little humidity and a temperature of 16 degrees Celsius…

If you think this is some kind of hallucination, you would be quite wrong. Sometimes I just like to let an unconscious stream of words flow unimpeded, unchecked, unedited and smooth. And the tulips are quite real. They are actually my favourite flowers, especially the yellow ones. When you bring them home, hopefully a very fresh bunch, they look amazing. They are standing like soldiers at attention.

But soon the sun will begin to filter through a window, a sliding glass door, a hole in the wall, wherever, and the tulips will begin to turn towards those magical and invisible rays and they will begin to lean forwards, backwards, to the right, to the left and the bunch will go from «attention» to «at ease»…

So life is like a bunch of tulips, we go from attention to relaxation, from standing firm to leaning, from fresh and new to withered and old. There is no shame in ageing, on the contrary, there should be gratitude. And I think tulips are always grateful to exist, even in a bunch, in a vase, on top of the dinning room table, in an apartment on a hill, close to the lake, surrounded by mountains and blessed with the light of the sun.

Cheers…

Created in the Soviet Union and destined to become propaganda for the state and for the spread of socialism. However, some other artists embraced the style and altered it a bit and made something a little more interesting than what the Soviet artists were doing…

Cheers…

I thought I would share some of the wonderful things that the City of Miami Beach does for its residents and visitors. This is what the city considers «street art» and provides it for all to see (and step over).

And the good thing is that it is found in every corner of the city…

So, the city, which prefers this:

This means a beach filled with chairs and umbrellas pertaining to the hotels or to a private company that rents them at over $50/day…

To this:

And if you still want to spend your hard earned money in Miami Beach, don’t think of coming here for Memorial Day Holiday. You’ll be sorry…

Cheers…

This drawing…original one in black and white…has been retouched as Art Digital and now has acquired a new life as a Fine Art print available here.

And more here:

Cheers…

This is a painting from the Bodo days of Omnia Caelum Studios Miami. I painted it in oils on canvas back in 2003. I think now it should have a new life as a (digitally retouched, of course) Fine Art Print. I’ve just placed it in my gallery at Fine Art America. Check it out here.

And also…

Cheers…

I do not usually do religious themed art, but sometimes I do. This is taken from a larger painting (which is now in a private collection in France) and turned into Art Digital. All the colours and other aspects of the composition have changed completely from the original and now I have chosen it as part of my fine art prints collection and I’ve made it available here at Pixels.com for everyone.

Here are some more…

Cheers…