My Story

Self-Image

| Gisele

This isn’t my usual content, but I’m hoping you won’t mind me sharing some random thoughts with you. Although most of my paintings have a very personal background, which I often describe in my blog posts, I don’t ever stop by here just “to chat”…

I’ve been struggling with my self-image lately. Different reasons, most just reoccurring complexes I’ve had since I was very young. Some are new. But today I saw a beautiful painting of an artist I really admire, and she named it a “non-consensual self-portrait”. And it got me thinking.

I attempted a self-portrait once, a few months back. Oh, what a disaster! I wonder how hard that is for most artists, even more so female artists, to paint themselves. I assume men wouldn’t have much of an issue with it, perhaps their challenges would be of other sorts… I wouldn’t know.

But I’d love to paint a self-portrait, something borderline abstract maybe, free shaped, maybe, but I just can’t. I can’t see me.

Any piece of advice?

Anyhow, it’s a process, I know.

G.

Lótus, the manatee

| Gisele

So much has happened in my life the last five days I honestly don’t know how I found inspiration to paint. But it happened. And I’m so happy that it did.

Let me tell you a little bit about the story behind Miss Lótus, the manatee. There is this one very important person in my life, she’s my dear friend, life coach, adventurous soul, my enchanted fairy (as we say back home “uma fada sensata”), Jacqueline.

Jacque has been one of the greatest sources of hope and optimism for me for the last many years. She’s the kind of human being that just knows what to say to you, and she does it without an agenda – Jacque is the rarest type of person, she is the type that genuinely cares. I’m so lucky to have Jacque in my life.

This year Jacque moved from Iowa to Florida, and I couldn’t be more proud of her for chasing after her happiness. Jacque is a nature lover. She loves the ocean. She loves the sun and the warmth. And as far as the animal kingdom goes, she loves them all. But one of them has a special place in Jacque’s heart. Can you guess which one that is?

So as a token of my love and appreciation for my dear Jacqueline, I made Lótus, the manatee. Lótus was painted last night while Jacque and I were having one of our life sharing moments over the phone – a call that lasted for six hours and twenty five minutes. You read it correctly.

Jacque did not know I was painting during our call, it was a sudden idea I had when we were about one hour into it. The paint took me about 2.5 hours to be finished. And I personally really liked it.

So Miss Lótus will be making her way to Florida soon, she’ll be watching her manatee fellows swimming around through the window, she’ll watching over Jacque reminding her that somewhere in the middle of a cornfield there’s a someone who adores her, who looks up to her, and who is so grateful for their friendship.

Have a great Sunday all,

G.

Carmelitas

| Gisele

I’ve been insisting on the transparency technique. It’s going to be a long way before my paintings look like what I envision them to be, again, for the simple reason that “less is more” hasn’t yet become a constant for me. But when I look at this, I can see a light shining at the end of the tunnel.

Carmelitas – original watercolor painting.

Not much to report on this one other than the fact that the lines are off on purpose and that I love this color combination.

Life has been hard for me lately. I will share more eventually, just not quite yet. I didn’t think I would be capable of painting at all, but I was wrong, thank goodness. Painting is not, in my opinion, an exercise to be forced to, but it should be used as a life vest as much as needed…

Hope you have a great weekend,

G.

Tulle

| Gisele

Perhaps the problem before was that I went for the whole garden when truly I should have started with one single flower.

Wet on wet freehand watercolor painting. It took me about 30 minutes from beginning to end. Inspired by the blouse I was wearing today. And it put a big smile on my face.

Note to self: less is more, at least for right now.

G.

Buck At Dusk

| Gisele

Tomorrow is the birthday of my other half, so it was a great opportunity to work on something completely new and challenging to me. He is a nature lover, so the options were endless…

Yes. The options were endless. It took me some time to decided what I wanted to do.
I knew I wanted to paint the skies, so I envisioned a beautiful sunset. I don’t usually take advantage of my flat large brush, but I did use it quite a bit on this one.
As I was working on the colors I thought many times that it would not turn out okay. Insecurities… am I the only one? But I kept on going. I used the flat brush horizontally for the skies and vertically for the field.
It was also the first time I used some help to speed up the process! No, that’s not cheating…Definitely not…!
Black paint for the silhouette – I love it!
Okay, time to paint the silhouette of the buck. I got super nervous, I knew I had close to zero room to make mistakes here. So I picked my 00 brush and began to outline it as slowly as possible.
At this point I was very happy about how its body turned out to the point I asked myself if it would be okay to just leave it headless haha!
Well, he isn’t headless. He even has points and everything. Oh.. And a tail!
After finishing the buck I felt like adding another pine tree, and that was it. Singed it, done!
‘Buck At Dusk’ – original, watercolor
There’s something special about handmade birthday cards, right? This one does not fold, I have a handwritten message for him on the back. I hope he likes it.

Have a wonderful evening,

Gisele

Carnavale di Venezia

| Gisele

I’ve been missing home, as I mentioned on my last post. This time of the year, for the last fifteen years, is always hard for me for two specific reasons. First being how cold and snowy it usually is. Second being… well, it’s Carnaval. Although I was never the one into all of the heavy partying situation while I was still living back home, I always enjoyed the days off (nobody works or goes to school for about a week during the celebration), summer, the beach, hanging out with my family and friends, all of those sweet moments I could never forget.

I was never into the parades, but I have always been intrigued by the other rituals that happen to celebrate carnival in other parts of the world. Most catholic countries have some variation of carnival. And this year my dear father reminded me of probably the most ludic party of all, the Venetian Carnival. We are Italian by blood, and that inspired me for today’s painting. ‘Carnavale di Venezia’.

The mask, the face. I was not totally sure how this one would turn out.
What I knew for sure was that no carnival happens without feathers.
Lots of feathers…
…seriously, LOTS of feathers!
Painting a face is very difficult for me, so I figured going for a profile would reduce the challenge at least…50%. It was a very good idea since I was freehand painting. Otherwise I would have outlined the picture first.
When I first started watercolor painting I didn’t think I’d enjoy using metallic paint. Well, I found out I actually LOVE it. So painting the details of the mask was super relaxing and enjoyable!
I also absolutely love using the black paint. It’s so pure, and it dries beautifully.
More golden details on the mask, and then I decided to use it to also highlight the feathers.
I love the effect of the highlights depending on the angle you look at it. It’s mesmerizing.
I am so absolutely in love with this piece! Don’t mind me tooting my own horn, I’m never this confident about my art, put I am proud of this one. I even put it up on my refrigerator (no joke!). I also think the solid bright colors on the background look so festive!

So that’s it for my carnival 2022. I hope you are having a great one too!

Gisele

Brazilian Toucan – ‘Tucano Tupiniquim’

| Gisele

I have been missing home very much lately. It’s been almost three years since I last visited my home country. So I decided to start a new series of paintings that remind me of it, and that make me feel closer to it.

Here’s my inspiration, a picture off the internet.

One of the exercises I’ve been doing is to watch and replicate. The very first paintings I have done required outlines as step one. I was not confident enough to freely strike the brush onto paper. I needed some sort of assurance that the work would be “under control”. Eventually, I learned different techniques of watercolor painting and I’ve been able to freehand paint ever since.

I started by painting the toucan’s chest – wet on dry. Always start with the lightest areas of your paint, if needed use the paper as your white. I love using white paint because of its texture and finish. Art is all about personal preference.
As I waited for the chest to dry out I began painting its beak. Honestly, it was my favorite part. I love the yellow and orange combination.
As the other parts were still drying I worked on the branch that my toucan would sit on. (The weather has been nicer here in the Midwest, one of the signs of it is the paint taking longer to dry – it means the humidity levels have gone up! Thank goodness!)
Then it’s time to work with the black paint. I started off with the smaller details on its beak, eye and then body. I purposely left some areas unpainted and used the paper as my white for some highlighted points, dimensions and texture.
Painting the foliage around the toucan was fun and so relaxing. It was the step that didn’t require much precision. All I needed was my carefree imagination and a combination of greens and yellows that felt good – that was easy, green and yellow are the National colors of my home country. I just painted the leaves away…
‘Tucano Tupiniquim’

“Tupiniquim” is the name of one of our tribes. We often refer to ourselves, our culture, and anything we love and enjoy from our country as tupiniquins. It’s a culture for us. So, there it is! My Tupiniquim Toucan, a little bit fluffy, but a very happy one!

I hope you enjoyed it!

Gisele

Pilot Episode

| Gisele

Hi there! I’m happy to be writing this blog post today. I hope you enjoy this brief story, definitely not an extraordinary one, but very meaningful to me.

Back in October of 2021 I decided to move to a new town, not very far from the one I used to live in, but for someone like me even a mild change is a change. It didn’t take me long to settle into my new place, I don’t have a lot of things, in general. So there came November, and I was ready to try something new, to go along with my new life.

My first watercolor painting…!

I woke up in the morning with a persistent thought that I should just try to paint, specifically with watercolor. So I got up, got dressed, drove to a craft shop nearby and bought some supplies.

When I got back home I decided to try to paint a leaf. It took me about an hour, and I realized how great it felt to concentrate on the movement of the brushes and clear my mind about everything else. For that one hour the outside world didn’t matter at all.

Looking at this picture I can see I’m far from being gifted – I’m not a natural, I need to devote myself to learn the right techniques and improve the quality of my work. However, my heart is there. That I can clearly see. And talent without emotions could, very well, be worthless. Techniques with emotions, on the other hand, is often a fruitful combination.

So that’s my story. Well, at least the very first episode of the series of my artistic adventures – the pilot episode. I’ll keep telling this story here on my blog from time to time.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Gisele