MNAC

I am obsessed with museums.

Literally any chance to go to a museum that I get, I gotta take it!

I went to Barcelona over the weekend with the goal of going thrift shopping. Honestly, I hadn’t expected it to be so hot here and I was in desperate need of some more shorts and some T shirts.

Anyway, on my way there, I realized that — now that I have my UAB student ID — I could probably cop a student discount at the MNAC, the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (which I actually wrote about in a previous blog post).

The MNAC is one of my favorite museums I’ve ever been to. It’s really helpful to be located in the most gorgeous Palau Nacional on Montjuïc with a stunning view of the city out the front entrance of the museum.

I am so weak for oil paintings, you guys. I imagine that’s pretty obvious at this point with my attempts to do my own paintings, but I really can’t handle the impasto and texture that oil gives, as well as the vibrancy of the colors.

Details from Nen pompeià, Arcadi Mas Fontdevila, 1879

But I first took a jaunt through the medieval art section, where I sat and did some sketches of the radical ass wall paintings the old Catalan Christians created in their sites of worship (also included is a sketch of a female nude painted by Ramon Casas).

Forgive me a little for the perhaps not-so-flawless execution of these sketches. They were just studies of interesting characters I encountered and were done in very dark dim cave-like museum displays. Whatever, why am I making excuses for art I had fun drawing? We gotta stop apologizing, people!

Anyway, I enjoyed my stroll through the halls of the Romanesque and Modern Art halls very much. Cool thing that MNAC does: One ticket is good for two days within a month! So I decided to not do the whole museum in order to have a reason to head back down there and enjoy it all again.

A few more photos from my trip:

• 

• 

• 

Poster for ‘Bières de la Meuse,’ Alphonse Mucha, 1897; Tres dones collint fruita, Gaspar Homar, 1905 – 1906; Painting, Joan Miró, 1943

After such a pleasant morning and early afternoon consuming the fine art that the MNAC has to offer, I set about the actual purpose of my journey: Thrifting.

I stopped by Flamingos Vintage Kilo to grab some goodies, including the whackiest find of a 1987 Twins Wold Series Champs sweatshirt. If you didn’t know, the Twins secured their spot in the post season last week and will be facing the Yankees this Friday.

I’ve decided that this must be a sign of what’s to come. Fingers crossed, friends.

As far as life updates go, I had enrollment this past Friday. Pretty exciting stuff as we got to hear a little bit about the classes that are coming up for the year as well as the schedule.

Classes start on Wednesday! And by that I mean that I have two classes on Wednesday and nothing else, so that’s great (just kidding, I really want to get into the classroom and get to learning already!!)

Finally Finished

It’s been a while since I busted out the “odorless” mineral spirits and oil paint.

Life has been fairly hectic for me the past few months: visa preparations, visitors to host for, work, visa preparations. All of this has pushed a lot of my creative outlets to the back burner a bit.

With my visa appointment behind me (a post about that is upcoming), I finally had the chance to sit down, squeeze out some paint, and finish the oil painting I began all the way back in December.

For those who don’t remember — or didn’t read my blog back then — I started a piece that features Casa Batlló, a building in Barcelona designed by Antoni Gaudí, as it is decorated on La Diada de Sant Jordí.

Basically Catalan Valentine’s Day, La Diada de Sant Jordí (English: Saint George’s Day) is celebrated by the exchange of roses and books between friends, family, and partners. You’ll see Catalan flags, red roses, and books all over the region, including on Casa Batlló. It’s an image that has stuck with me very strongly since my time abroad and I had to take a shot at painting it.

I’m really happy with how it turned out.

At art museums, my favorite paintings are often those with heavy impasto and it’s something I would like to integrate into my painting more. The first two I did were much smoother than I’d have liked and I tried to apply the paint with a heavier, more expressive hand this time. Next, to push it even further!

I’m not sure what my next painting will be. At this point, I’ve done a portrait of Brighid (my kitty), a landscape of Puerto Escondido in Oaxaca, Mexico, and now Casa Batlló. Maybe a still life is what the future holds next for me?

Even then, I’m not sure about the style or the content I would like to feature. Plus, I wonder if I’d even have time to complete it before I leave in September. My only regret with this painting is how long it took me to finish.

If any of you friends have any suggestions as to what I should do next, I would love to hear them! I’d like to take my own photo of a still life to work from, rather than pull something from the internet, though there is nothing wrong with utilizing the great world wide web for inspiration!!

Have any of you tried oil painting? Do you have a preferred paint medium? Would you rather get roses or a book on Saint George’s Day?

(I would rather get a book personally. They do last quite a bit longer)

Obligatory mention of my GoFundMe! If you enjoy this blog or my artstagram, I’d love for you to check my fundraiser out. Especially after my visa appointment — which was all the way in San Fransisco — I would super appreciate if you could support my grad school journey, even if you only have $5.00 to spare! If you’re not exactly liquid right now, a share would be really amazing as well!

♡ Thank you so much Aunt Tracy for your donation!! ♡

Just Like a Grand Master

So, not to toot my own horn, but I’m well on my way to becoming the next oil painter grand master.

Okay, maybe not. But I’ve been practicing! And, again in my humble opinion, I think that I’ve definitely improved from my first oil painting to the one I’m working on now.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I took an oil class hosted by Poulsbo Parks and Recreation, taught by Julia Turk (You can find examples of her work here and check out the incredible tarot deck she created here). She does a lot of really cool surrealist work with vibrant colors and super clean lines. She was an absolutely fascinating person to listen to both teach and speak about her life. I’m also lucky enough to have a piece of her work in my room! It’s a landscape from the Florida wetlands.

The first piece I worked on was kind of the reason I wanted to take the class. I was really interested in painting a portrait of my darling kitty, Brighid.

I was, perhaps, a bit ambitious to begin with a portrait–even of an animal–instead of something with a little more wiggle room, like a landscape. Nevertheless, it’s what I wanted to start with so that’s what I did!

Now, it didn’t turn out perfectly. Her head is too wide, which I think throws off all of the other proportions. But, all things considered, I’m pretty proud of it for my first outing with oil paints, a medium I had never tried before this class.

After that, I was a bit worn out to say the least. I wanted to do something that would involve a little less precision. I chose a photo that I took during the trip that Skyler, his family, and I took to Puerto Escondido in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico (which, by the way, if you’re ever looking for a place to vacation in Mexico that isn’t quite as touristy as, say, Cancún or Cozumel, Pto Escondido should be high on your list. I’m still trying to recover from how much fun I had and how cool it was. I could do a whole blog post about how much I loved it there).

I plan on sending the finished painting to Skyler’s parents as a (very late) thank you gift for taking me, as soon as I figure out how to mail a painting without it breaking!

Those two paintings took up almost the full three months of class (We met once a week for two hours). I only had one class to start my next painting, but that was fine by me because I was just glad to have Julia to help me figure out proportions and layout of this painting, which features La Casa Batlló, a building in Barcelona designed by the incredibly talented Antoni Gaudí, on la Diada de Sant Jordi (Saint George’s Day). This is basically Valentine’s Day in Catalonia, with people exchanging roses and books with their loved ones, partners, or friends. La Casa Batlló is all decorated in faux roses for the day and it is just so stunning to see in real life that I knew I wanted to work on a piece of it next, so I could have it on my wall.

Now, you must be kind because I’m showing you all an unfinished work and, in my experience, oil paintings always look awful until they start looking better so keep that in mind.

I took a pretty sizable break in between the first day that I worked on this one and the next. I started it on the last day of class, which was way back in December, and I didn’t revisit it until a week ago or so. It just takes a while to set up and then clean up oil paints, plus I don’t really have any good place to paint that’s out of the way, so it’s sometimes hard to work up the artistic energy to get all prepped.

Look at me, whining about having to do art.