fruit

Magic and beauty, red peonies, cappuccino and Leonardo’s Notebook. Part 3.

ArtTravel

Still life and urban sketching. Art and travel

An advice I received from the Leonardo Da Vinci’s Notebook is next: an artist always needs to find something new to paint or draw. So I am always trying to learn something new, outside of convenient “box”. This summer I realized that watercooler graphic technique is not about coloring sheets:) It was a little discovery for myself. So I decided to explore more..

My still life subjects are bright reddish peonies, I put them on the my treasured book Leonardo da Vinci, added my glasses and a cup of cappuccino and ….voilà:) my new watercolor and ink painting in my favourite impressionist style

https://travelartblog.home.blog/portfolio/cappuccino-red-peonies-and-a-book/

Just imagine …warm evening, you walk somewhere near the Mediterranean sea’s streets and see flowers, red and pink peonies are in a straw basket on a wood door or window, watercolor and ink painting, impressionism. It’s my dream about our future travelling to the south of France or Italy or maybe …Greece. Who knows?:)

https://travelartblog.home.blog/portfolio/summer-flower-fantasy/

Thank you to my daughter for this great gift book Leonardo’s Notebook, it is providing so many tips to all artists from the Master who lived 5 centuries ago!

Bon voyage! Until the next travel:) Stay healthy.

All paintings belong to the author. No image is to be copied without permission.

You can visit my personal website pages here and find out more about the artwork I am offering in oil and watercolor paintings; purchase canvas prints, framed prints, and more artwork.

My favorite art store in Toronto Deserres, Spadina Ave

Tools used for my painting Watercolour used Charvin and Van Gogh brands, Pastel GrayPas Expressionist, Derwent watercolour pencils and Faber Castell artist pens. Paper Strathmore Watercolour and Mixed Media albums, 15×20 cm (6×8 in.)

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Italy, berries, Travel and Art, part 6. Urban sketching and Still life.

ArtTravel

Summer is here!!! Do you like to go to the local markets when you are travelling? I love it! My favorite one in Rome is close to the Vatican. It is called Mercato Trionfale, address is at the end of this.

Our family stayed in one of Vatican area hotels and we went to the Mercato Trionfale market often. Berry shopping was our favorite.

For this post, I gathered bright paintings from the market – only Italian and only berries.

(And yes, watermelon is a berry)

https://pixels.com/featured/still-life-watermelon-tamara-vitsenkova.html&nbsp

I love cherries, especially Italian ones. For some reason, I associate the aroma with my parents’ summer house when there was a plate on the table with bright juicy cherries, sometimes sweet and sometimes sour. The aroma of cherries reminds me the feeling of a summer break and leisurely summer evenings at the cottage. Cheries’ aroma and taste are so tender, joyful, feminine, just like summer itself:)

https://pixels.com/featured/still-life-cherrys-plate-near-window-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

My daughter sent me this photo with a view of their breakfast in Positano, Italy, above the Mediterrenian sea with berries, fruit and orange juice. I wish to visit this place, so I added my art travel tools, the sketchbook and my favorite Staedtler pencil to this painting –  e voila – it’s like I was here as well. Hope my dream will come true one day…

https://pixels.com/featured/italy-positanomediterrenian-sea-breakfast-tamara-vitsenkova.html

Grapes. Two interesting facts about them: they are also berries, and apparently, they have been around for 65 million years. Would you like to know why grapes are different colours? The funny ancient legend says that grapes appeared on Earth a very long time ago, its parents were Earth and Sun. At the time of the grapes’ birth, it didn’t take them a month or two to ripen, as it does now; it happened very quickly – from morning until dusk, and those that had time to ripen by dawn, borrowed its tender blush from morning dawn and turned pink.

https://pixels.com/featured/still-life-bunches-of-grapes-on-a-table-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

The clusters, ripened in the afternoon, became golden yellow – they took over the gold of its rays from the sun shining brightly in the sky. Berries ripened late in the evening as the southern night conveyed its dark or velvety blue tones. Voilà:)

Bon voyage! Until the next travel:) Stay healthy.

All paintings belong to the author. No image is to be copied without permission.

You can visit my personal website pages here and find out more about the artwork I am offering in oil and watercolor paintings; purchase canvas prints, framed prints, and more artwork.

My favourite art store in Toronto is DeSerred, address is 130 Spadina ave, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Tools used for my painting. Watercolour brands Van Gogh and Cotman. Paper Canson Mix Media album 28×35 cm (11×14 in.) and Canson Watercolour album 25×35 cm (11 x15 in.)

Mercato Trionfale, address Via le Goletta,1 Mercato Trionfale address Market · Via la Goletta, 1 Rome

Lemons, tea, aromas and Italy. Still life and Urban sketching. Part 5.

ArtTravel

#lemon #art #travel #Italy

Yellow, sour, fragrant … In tea with sugar it is pleasant … it is full of vitamins … And its name is LEMON!
Perhaps each of us, both an adult and a child, knows this bright, yellow citrus fruit…

https://pixels.com/featured/still-life-lemons-and-oranges-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

It was in Italy, travelling with my family around Italian “boot” from top to toe, several years ago. The painting was done in a south of Italy, one of its charming little towns.

https://pixels.com/featured/rome-italylemons-in-a-store-urban-sketching-tamara-vitsenkova.html

One of our next stop was a town in the north of Italy, “top of boot”. Lemon trees were everywhere on the Borromean islands in Italy. The background are mountaints, part of south of Switzeland.

https://pixels.com/featured/italy-lemon-trees-on-the-borromean-islands-italy-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

Lemons were HUGE and their aroma are everywhere in the air. I still remember the heavy yellow fruit in my hand…

Shall we have a tea with lemon now?…

https://pixels.com/featured/a-cup-of-tea-with-lemon-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

According to a legend, the aromatic fruits of the color of the sun were presented to Hera’s wedding when she married Zeus so that the newlywed was always young and beautiful: “Its aroma amuses the mind, the peel and grains are good for the heart, the flesh is excellent food, and the juice quenches thirst.

All paintings belong to the author. No image is to be copied without permission.

You can visit my personal website pages here and find out more about the artwork I am offering in oil and watercolor paintings; purchase canvas prints, framed prints, and more artwork.

My favourite art store in Toronto is DeSerred, address is 130 Spadina ave, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Tools used for my painting. Watercolour brands Van Gogh and Cotman.Derwent watercolour pencils. Paper Canson Mix Media album 28×35 cm (11×14 in.) and Canson Watercolour album 25×35 cm (11 x15 in.)

Bon voyage! Until the next travel:) Stay healthy.

Paris markets. Pomegranates and ancient Greek myth with pomegranate grains, part 4.

ArtTravel

Travel and Art, still life paintings,

#art,#France,#fruit,#Paris,#pomegranate,#travelsketch,#vacation

https://pixels.com/featured/pomegranate-fruit-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

Shopping in open markets (marché) is one of the most popular and fun ways to find the freshest food in a city. Paris and its suburbs has lots of food markets. One of my favorite is on Rue Cler , just next to the Eiffel Tower block.

https://pixels.com/featured/paris-market-pomegranates-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

Pomegranate is deservedly called the king of fruits – and not only because of its unique composition and healing properties. There is a legend that the “design” of the royal crown was copied precisely from a garnet with its crown of sharp cloves. Interesting idea… who knows?

https://pixels.com/featured/pomegranate-tamara-vitsenkova.html

Another legend about pomegranate is the Abduction of Persephone by Hades. This is one of my favourite ancient Greek myth where a pomegranate plays a central role.

https://pixels.com/featured/pomegranate-on-a-table-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

The goddess Demeter had only one daughter, her beloved Persephone. The god of the afterlife Hades fell in love with Persephone.  On black horses in a golden chariot, the lord of the kingdom of shadows Hades appeared from under the ground, who grabbed the young, unsuspecting Persephone, and in the blink of an eye disappeared with her on his horses into the bowels of the earth. Horrified, Persephone only managed to cry out … However, apart from Helios, the god of the Sun, no one witnessed the kidnapping. Demeter was yearning for her daughter to return so much, and from het great sadness, the earth ceased to bear fruit. Then the great Zeus sent to his gloomy brother Hades the quick Hermes.

Hades agreed to let Persephone go to her mother, but previously gave her some pomegranate seeds to swallow – a symbol of marriage. Smart and prudent decision… pomegranate seeds played the important role in the story.

Persephone ascended the husband’s golden chariot with Hermes, and in the blink of an eye they reached Eleusis. With great joy, Demeter rushed to meet her daughter, wrapping her in her arms, and returned to Olympus with her. Then the great Zeus decided that two-thirds of the year Persephone would live with his mother, and one-third in the kingdom of her husband Hades.

The mystical role of the pomegranate affected the Goddess’ decision to travel between her husband’s world and the parents’ one:).

Anyway, I just love pomegranates, these huge, sun-like fruits with delicate, large, crimson grains and juicy flavours.

Bon appetite..

and Bon voyage! Until the next travel. Stay healthy.

All paintings belong to the author. No image is to be copied without permission.

You can visit my personal website pages here and find out more about the artwork I am offering in oil and watercolor paintings; purchase canvas prints, framed prints, and more artwork.

My favourite art store in Toronto is DeSerred, address is 130 Spadina ave, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Tools used for my painting. Watercolour brands Van Gogh and Cotman. Paper Canson Mix Media album 28×35 cm (11×14 in.) and Canson Watercolour album 25×35 cm (11 x15 in.)

Oranges and its trees, Spain, part 2.

ArtTravel

Urban sketching and Still life. Travel and Art.

Do you like the smell of oranges as I like it? Sweetish, light, slightly tart and such a sunny smell of orange peel.

https://pixels.com/featured/still-life-oranges-and-slices-of-oranges-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

Oranges remind me about the sunny summer days and New Year’s eve at the same time. My mom used to put these little bright balls on the Christmas trees as additional decorations. Later we ate the oranges, its smell was the mixture summer’s aroma and pine needles’ smell, such a holiday feeling from these fruits.

https://pixels.com/featured/still-life-oranges-on-a-grey-cloth-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

This spring we are on hold for travelling. I continue “flying” through our family images, my paintings are the versions of some summer photos in Spain. Spanish cities have whole alleys of such trees.

Orange paradises with the smell of flowering orange trees are in the cities and their gardens, Barcelona, Cordoba, Madrid, Sevillia…

https://pixels.com/featured/still-lifeoranges-on-a-violet-plate-tamara-vitsenkova.html 
https://pixels.com/featured/spain-cordobaorange-paradises-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

There are many interesting legends associated with the orange. One of them claims that it was not an apple, but an orange, that was the forbidden fruit that served as the reason for the expulsion of our ancestors from paradise.

https://pixels.com/featured/still-life-citrus-fruits-on-green-background-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

According the legend, Eve was succumbing to the temptation of the snake tempter, tasted the fruit of an orange from the tree of knowledge and offered it to Adam, and the archangels blew their trumpets and showered her head with the snow-white, fragrant flowers of an orange tree (orange blossom). But after this episode, Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden.

https://pixels.com/featured/still-life-citrus-fruits-tamara-vitsenkova.html 
https://pixels.com/featured/still-life-oranges-on-blue-background-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

You can find the part 1 here, link below https://travelartblog.home.blog/2020/05/17/oranges-and-its-trees-rome-part-1-urban-sketching-and-still-life-travel-and-art/ 


Bon voyage! Until the next travel:) Stay healthy.

You can visit my personal website pages here and find out more about the artwork I am offering in oil and watercolor paintings; purchase canvas prints, framed prints, and more artwork.

My favourite art store in Toronto is DeSerred, address is 130 Spadina ave, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Tools used for my painting. Watercolour brands Van Gogh and Cotman. Paper Canson Mix Media album 28×35 cm (11×14 in.) and Canson Watercolour album 25×35 cm (11 x15 in.)

All paintings belong to the author. No image is to be copied without permission.

Oranges and its trees, Rome, part 1. Urban sketching and Still life. Travel and Art.

ArtTravel

Rome. Arriving in the Eternal City, tourists are wildly delighted with one thing that locals have not paid attention to for a long time. Oranges on the trees.

Orange trees on a street in Rome with buildings and motorcycle in the background.

https://pixels.com/featured/rome-in-may-oranges-trees-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

If you come to Rome… your senses will quickly catch the fresh jasmine-like aroma of Italian orange trees. If you come in May, you will see blooming orange trees popping up on Rome’s streets….

https://pixels.com/featured/still-life-mandarins-on-grey-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

Doria Pamphili’s Garden in Rome. Visitors might have some rest before and after tours in the museum, enjoying the smell and colour of bright oranges on the trees.

Doria Pamphili Gallery, Rome, Italy.
https://pixels.com/featured/romeorange-trees-in-doria-pamphilis-garden-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

According to an ancient Greek legend, Gaea presented Hera with golden orange orchards on her wedding day with Zeus. The first wedding night of the great gods lasted three hundred years.

https://pixels.com/featured/still-life-oranges-with-violet-cap-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

They poured water from a sacred spring and enjoyed the smell of oranges, Hera again and again became a virgin. From uninvited guests this magical orange garden was guarded by the Hesperids and the monstrous dragon.

https://pixels.com/featured/still-life-oranges-on-a-blue-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

At the end of this post, I would like to share the recipe of a juicy vegetable salad with oranges we ate in Rome. The main ingredient is arugula with feta cheese, oranges and olives. For the dressing add red wine vinegar, honey and olive oil. Its a light and bright salad on a hot summer day, enjoy it:)

https://pixels.com/featured/still-life-oranges-on-a-white-plate-tamara-vitsenkova.html 

Bon voyage! Until the next travel:) Stay healthy.

All paintings belong to the author. No image is to be copied without permission.

You can visit my personal website pages here and find out more about the artwork I am offering in oil and watercolor paintings; purchase canvas prints, framed prints, and more artwork.

Doria Pamphili Gallery. address is Via del Corso, Rome.

Tools used for my paintings. Watercolour brands Van Gogh and Cotman. Album for sketches I used Strathmore Watercolour 14×21 cm (5.5×8.5 in.) and Acquarello 12.5×18 cm, in my studio albums Canson Mix Media album 28×35 cm (11×14 in.) and Canson Watercolour album 25×35 cm (11 x15 in.).