Open studio night

It was alost woody allen-esque. A film cliche. No one at the door. I could not be bothered to put on my trousers, reclined by the sophorific lamp in the living room bare knees in a big flowery jumper, feeling sleepy.
And i know, the rules of the game, -we all know them really, subconciousey. I knew that if i just streched out my feet and lied upon the couch i would have fallen alseep, and would have been phisicaly conent, but not entireley mentaly.
So i dragged the legs into white trousers, and pushed me into the kitchen to rattle about, with the excuse of cleaning the house- but as all witches know all the magic begins in the kitchen. And as i threw spaghetti bolognese to the seaguls rim for their breakfast- becosue despite this being banned by the husband- i believe we there would be no waste if we shared with the animals and plants- what we are supposed to.. And i washed the last of the pots.. It all begin to stirr, the energy boubled up, the meassages flew hither and a single harry pottery type visit happened.
I wanted no more than that,
they wanted magic
they wanted magic to happen to them
and by some unexplained chance they seeked me out, looked for me, found me ,and despite all the building security , knocked directley at my door.
We where expecting pumpkins and canddles almost they said- as i lead them to my pumpkins, their arrival had prevented my lighting the candles , yet.

She had always wanted to be an artist, and has not  given up, and has needed, wanted , teaching teaching of skills, of techniques, she is in a terribile long lost agument wether to study for the third time in slovennia.. for the taskes of technniques!!!

and he is an inventor.

and i had rakiya, and vine and music and it seems somone needed my knowledge,  i had a lot to teach, tonight, to stop somone making ridiculous mistakes, and face very simple realisation of their desires.

I dont know if my work mattered, but comming to my studio, being here , i saw that woman change, and that man with her change by the time they left. And i am a bit like the woody allen hooker- making them feel like the world is theirs to have for the time they where here- self help now- and all that jazz- but i belived it as did they. Perhaps i ought ot teach, becosue what i teach is that all that rubbish every one hears aobutthe impossible things, goes down the drain, they leave me and do what ever the thing they fantasised was. :)

sorry aobut spelling, im too tired to spellcheck now
 happy halows eve

An artist coaching session with Marina Kurikhina

After many years outside of the London art buzz, I flew to London for the Frieze art fair, with intention to re engage in that old city of mine and make it into a working base again.

Before making the trip , I took a live coaching session with Marina Kurikhina. I trough that I could benefit from her expertise and opinions, from the other side of the art spectrum that of a dealer/gallerist/ curator and as of recently artist coach, to give me some advice on how best to use my limited time there.

The way the coaching for artists works is very simple, you arrange a time and date to meet up using live video trough the internet, and than you have a two hour session. Before your session Marina sends you a few questions to familiarize herself with your situation. And than you meet up and discuss. These sessions can be recorded and re played later which is useful .


Before our time together Marina sent me a few questions by email in order to familiarize herself with my situation and goals. During the session we aired many inter-connected topics. What I found useful , was the fact Marina made me focus on what I needed to realize, not in  a vague way which  I had planned, but rather to dig deeper and understand what is important for me to achieve,  and work out flatt how to do it with a plan, rather than leaving it all to my intuition and being unprepared.

Probably the most important result of my coaching session, is the fact Marina with her eagles eye view on my practice, from the position of a professional who has worked with art and artists, pointed out an integral element of my practice I had disregarded for years, and give it the attention I need to. I have for years worked with performance, performance precedes every painting I produce, and yet I had neither documented this element nor valued it despite the fact I can not make paintings without it. It is easy to get immersed in ones art and not see the whole picture- there are so many elements we must think about, art practice, art development art production, livelihood form selling art, marketing of art. Essentially for years I had miss represented my self, my work , and I feel compromising all my project with this bad, devaluating attitude of my live per formative process, which is actually amazing and the very crux and reason why I  make art .

Marina provided me with tons of useful tips and solutions, making little bridges between things I plan and their realization in an easy and factual way.

Its actually pretty awesome to be able to arrange a meeting like this with a professional whose opinion and taste one can trust, especially when you are an artist living outside the art world buzz places, and you do not have people who can advise you, or whose opinion you value,  in your vicinity. This way not matter where you are- good advice  is available  on how to prep your work, presentation, practice, and be ready for the international scene even if you live in the provinces, or at the sea side as I do.

 

Sunčica Kuzmanić (Perišin-Tomljanović)

http://suncionstage.blogspot.com/

http://themarinerandtheocean.blogspot.hr/

 

 

a litle trip put of the quoditien

My breasts are about to explode.
I have not fed little boobie monster  today,
 I had left the baby to her nanny and father and spent the day as an adult, an artist, a mother to the four year old child and a toursit in my most favurite city, Hvar, on hvar island.
Today i had no need to shout.
 I have figured out why. Being with adrenalin loving toddler , is so stressfull, its constantley living in phisical strain and expectation and stress aobut the continuous dangers. The older child is trained to be less dangerous and one can relax a little, and even have a dinner in a restourant with them. So having exited the baby who on my arriving home i find happiley asleep with father(also asleep ) at 8pm. I had the most amazing day.
Having understood the four year old too, to be a little child- not simpley an enormousley big and must be faster, independent, giant in comparison to his sitter, i gave him more patience and understanding than usual, for which i feel better as well. As once one is holding a baby learning to walk- you can not simultaniousley give a hand to the four year old climbing some tree.

So today we played in the playground on Hvar, and ate at the amazing Passarola restourant twice and talked business, and took our first swim of the year quite properley and even supped - sub boarded a while on the emerald waters of Hvars shore.

That island for me is like pure magic. The second I place my foot on to its stone streets is like i enter a fammiliar stage setting, and a theatre play i know so well. The sun there is always shining, the sea is always emerald and wonderousley transparent. Mediteranian plants are in bloom, air smells of lavander. I some how encounter all the friends i want to encounter by pure chance and no prior telephone arrangement, just so in the streets, and often i incounter international friends from all over the world literarley . Today my son wanted to go on the sup board- and as i lie on  the beach a firend appears from by gone years, and gives me a sup board to use- without my asking for it .. Its this kind of very direct magic that occurs on that island.

Last night at midnight i had a desire for a pasta or rizotto with sea food and vine, it was too late to eat at the time but today bam, i am treated to three versiones of that story at the restourant i am entering a project with . I mean of all their many many dishes- they give me- what i imagine and fancy witohut my having said a word, and that was nice. ..

So I am on a new project with this restoruant. I will be painting a series of portraits in the large dimensions and my old monument project style for their interior. Which is amazing. as i have for years sort of avoided that project despite it being one of my favurites, i have not developed it to the end, to its furthest possibilites just becosue i had felt here that the portrait is not an apriciated thing in geografic setting. So this gives me a boost, to go play, again, in materials and style and subject i love, develop it a little further, and i am so gratefull for this boost. It takes me away form all the sail boats in watercolor, and oil landscapes of small fishing town which i have made my living form reecentley, and puts me back on to my own page, portraits of men and women, god damn monumntal beautifil portraits women, go, do!

Thank you universe.

This restourant having for a few years harboured one of the best, most talented chefs in croatia and  internatonaley acclaimed Hrvoje Zirojević , is one of those celebrity trappinng spiderwebs for those fine expensive booties entering the island form mega yachts. Being there agian made me get in touch with the chef after a long time, i laways love jamming with talented progressive people, who make me feel like everything is possible and who boost our self confidence and open up the limits so that put a smile on my face 

Some years back Hrvoje treated me and my dear firend Tatiana, mexican artist to dinner under the stars at Passarola, and just to surprise him back, i gave him an enoromus oil painting for that dinner that same evening to say thank you, just becosue he is super talented, and i feel talent should be apriciated. But he is internatonal and more traveled than i. The restoruants fight for him for be theirs for a year, as he sets alight  every place he goes to like a super nova, his enerrgy with his kitchen team, marvelous inventiones for the palette and the eye, make him a magnet for internationals who swarm to where ever he cooks.  An ode to a chef this is turning in to, of course i will have to paint him.

Exhausted. Must sleep. good night

Painting rainbows

Duje my son is getting old enough for my to be able to work beside him. Or at least I am more relaxed about  him possibly falling into the sea, and or getting wet, to take him along when he wanted to come and paint the sun set with me.

It was actually quite fun. I paint at the waters edge, where the tide meets with my feet, and where I can dip the old paper right into the sea and reach out and keep dipping my paintbrush when I need. Duje too ,did all as mother does. He primed his paper in the sea, let he pigments drip, shook te wet paper to spread the colors. He knows my stuff . To the point that the firenledy passers by came up to me and kept asking- ah how lovley here you are painting rainbows youth your son?. Yes. Yes and for the passers by his paintings made sense, and my paintings where no better than the kids.

And we had fun.
he discovered a "witches broom" in the marina and tried to fly on it- but it did not work- so he threw it into the sea- but than pulled it out scared by my threaths of what the witch may do to him.. Even though today he said that that witches broom does not work and is rubbish and probably belongs to an old witch and it may -even -be just a normal broom for sweeping the marina! The witches broom in the park is by far more magic( I lifted him up on it ).

The sky was quite dramatic and beautiful and changing very fast as it does before the sun sets. Colors turn on off and go, Big drama after a strom. Rain fell upon our paintings and watered them down. Had to hide the paintings with teenagers smoking the reefa in the fishemans hut so that they would not wash compleatley off. Though what ever I paint at the sea- changes by the time I get home. The air at sunset is always too moist to dry the paintings- so I walk with them drippig and smouldering and changing all the way home.

An enormous rainbow turned up and above Duje and I. I think he had invoqued it having drawn them again and again.
Lovley evening with Duje, quite rare during the reign of the baby sister- little possesive monster.

Ah. The are bot sleeping with the father right now. Im going to steal my self a whole bed of legs wide apart , hands spread out, deliciousness, until the first one cries me awake.

good night

The sailing boats.

 

You may be wondering why and how the heck did I make that leap from tons of portraits to painting sailing boast and why?

Hahah. Well to somone who knows me, its makes perfect sense. To somone looking form afar- it makes no sense at all, possibley.

The first time i stepped on to a sailing boat, it was love at first sight, I was 20, and I was debating giving up St. Martins art college and becoming a skipper- or marrying a sailor.

Some year later, after living in Rome, a life full of adrenalin in art, art parties and travel, I came to a cross roads with the optiones to go to a New York art residency or to a Robinson Crusoe type island residency in the Adriatic Sea.

Well I thoguht the island will be a than or never opportunity, when will I be mad enough to go to a almost deserted island , again.. So I packed me off to the island named Palmižana. There all my gadgets died. Phone, camera, computer, it all died reapitedley until I had no contact with the exterior world.

All I could do on that island was paint, swim and eat. I eneded up destroying most of my clothes with the paint, and I pretty much become the wild thing, one becomes on a wild island. I painted topless in the heat of the summer, half covered in thick oil paints all over my body , looking like some tribal woman with tribal markings. I could only get the paints off when I would visit the mailand and get a hot waxing removing, hair, paint and sand stuck to my skin.

Being stuck on a tiny island in a painting ,eating swimming, routine in the sun, makes you become like all robinsons, greedey for any boats and any changes. I like all natives of my island would see arriving sailing boats and stare at the new arrivals as if they where alians , and soon started leaving Palmizana with any boat that would take me sailing as if they where saving me form enprisonement. I'd see a boat, sail off the island in my swim suit, and than have to find a ferry back some days later.

There was a lack of adrenalin which I love and connect and need in art making on that island. In need of adrenalin that same summer I started surfing and became a windsurf journalist, following the regattas around the coast. And as winter hit- I wanted to get our of the water and started to learn to sail on boats.

The next spring having seen the most beautiful boat of my life- the Shipman carbon yacht at Split on the Boat show- I came up to the sales director an procured a job- at the factory of the Shipman Yachts in Slovenia- just becosue I love sailing boats so much, no other reason. I was in love with that boat.

So Sailing boats for me are this constant attraction, love, which I somehow ignored in my art making for all these years, as that love for the boat was private, and art is something that ultimatley is an expression that ends up wievewd by the public.

This show “ All the sister want to kiss sailors” is a fragile dare to paint this beautiful thing, the sailing yacht, which I expirence as being so gorgous, perhaps I have been frightened of painting them badley in the past so did not dare. But I feel that the paintings I have produced are not so bad, the more I paint the less stiff my boats become.

And as for tha sea and sky- well I cant fake it at all, I must paint those whilst at the sea, looking at the waters and heavens, and in this instance with the watercolor pigments I use sea water to move the colors , I dip the paper into the water, the wind lifts my papars and changes the color flows. But also I makes such a mess at sea I am free to splat and shake and dont have the constraints of the studio. Only in this way do I manage to catch the colors and movements of the nature which than are a decent stage for the boats.

Any way , I fear this has been a can of worms, opened, with my painting thise series of sailing boats- I have suddnely ignored all my portrait projets and put them on hold, completley engulfed in this boat painting, sea going, wind swpt hair, drinking the grappa, whilst hnging out with fishermen and painting at their dock thing.

Oh yeah.

the call of the ocean

My name is Suncica and I am an addict.

I am addicted to the ocean, to the sea to the waters, and I get orgasmic painting them. I feel like I am flying when covered by the rain and wind, with hair trashing, and sea water grabbing for my paper , I paint the sea.

there is nothing like it.

the fishermen safe in their coffee bar, drink the short hot stuff and watch me, madder than they are. I seriously feel at home among fisher men, sailor, mariners, because there is no need to explain the absolute connection to the wast waters. They think I m mad and don't becosue they are that too, what ever it is.


ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the call of the ocean, the draw of the ocean, the salt on my eyelashes on the hair . and I like sailor boy's obviously, the madder the better.

My husbands one too, haha, and his utter addiction keeps him at sea and he cant explain why he must go as much as he can , but I get it.


Any way my show, exhibition in Hvar in a weekor so is called, All the sisters want to kiss sailors. Come, Feel, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

The friendings

I block you

from all my cybernetic life reproduction sources.

Its not very dramatic in real life but than these days, much experience of life, people have is that which they gather and share trough the prism of technology and internet. Blocking someone is possibly the kick in the balls of real life. Any yet it must be done. It can be politely avoided, but I am one of those people who burns bridges.

I have a need for it. I need to blow the fucker up, and than watch the smoke and say now the bridge is burnt, even if this means I have to walk miles up water to cross the same river, but ultimately it forces me to create new paths, new relations, and more importantly just deal with the fact something is was not working for me and I must end it and start anew.

I am talking about  Friendship brake ups. We are all used to having a history of romantic brake ups in our lives, - the most decent way for things to end between two , is the break up, how ever ugly- rather than the vague corruption and very slightly noticeable , stretched over tedious amount of time auto destruction of a relation. The second is sickening. However most of the time the second method is what we apply in the case of a friendship which we have out grown, for what ever reason. 

I have several times in my life been in a friendship, which I start to feel is too intense, is suffocating and don't know how to stop it being so, I feel sad to end it.. Than I kind of continue socialising ,with less oomph, less frequently, but my gaging reflex is turned on often during these encounters, my suffocation/claustrophobia feeling is heightened, mixed in with joy at moments which are ok,- at their very being ok, and my being wrong for being so bothered by this up to than, close friend.

And than, upon this bundle of dead stuff mixed in with a little still sappy and green leaf, a spark flies, a situation, a perfect excuse, the fucking destiny , and the whole damn thing goes up in flames with smoke to be seen at a distance. The friendship, I mean, goes up in flames.

And do you know what I feel after wards? Relief. I feel like I can breathe. Like that is exactly what I needed.

Its not entirely logical or maybe it is. But this is a way a number of fast paced friendships, which became very close, very fast, very intense, and yet there are certain elements about that person or our relation , which are bugging, beeping, in the background, which seem utterly irrelevant, but bother, and eventually become of the utter relevance, and flip the whole thing, over and out.

I have wonderful friendships which have lasted decades without this happening.
I think it is intensity of a friendship, that bothers me. And jealousy, the moment I feel like that friend is boxing me into their "best friend " box, and this justifying their  being jealous of my time with other friends, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. And these people do exist. Than I turn into a waiting bomb. I mean who has the right to be jealous of a friends hanging our with other friends , right?




The awful thing is, that I do sometimes regret the launching method with which I launched these people into space away from me.  My method is the cutting, clean, with a letter. The letter can be explanatory, of my reasons ,but contains acidic humour, with which I condescend  and provoke  the person enough to make them mad at me and want me out of their life too, right than and there, and the very act of their reading my letter is like signing a mutual ending agreement as by the time they have read it, it will be all over.



The worse thing is, that I have realised that no one disappears. I mean- I have lived in various countries, moved among a huge amount of people of whom many I will not remember the names of, but people do not disappear. People form where ever in the world, appear in your life more than once. So its really never a real end when you end things with a person, because in some context or other you will bump in to them and be forced to communicate against your own pride. Than you may regret having ended it with a "spark" or bad words.

Or what may happen is that after a long break, these people you liked years ago, than hated, than disliked, than did not mind, ,than had no contact, suddenly have something in common with you and you end up actually quite enjoying their company and surprising yourself.  Probably you will be more wary of the person, and it will never be as great a friendship as it once was but neither as chokingly intense.


There are friendships too which end with no burnt bridges, they end with an ice age. I have a friend who iced everyone in a circle, including me for a long while, until the ice melted, our methods may have something to do with our geographic root belonging, I coming form the fiery south needed to spice it, and her coming from the frozen north just freezing everyone. Her method has the advantage of not having insulted anyone directly. And than there are friendship's which just kind of solidify and still, than bouble like lava, unpredictably.



This project I have been painting has pushed me to get in touch with a lot of friends who just kind of disappeared due to "logistics". Geografic distance + life going on,  and time passing so quick , that we where far away from being able to update one another from the spot we last met. But than that special magic, which was relevant and attractive years ago, was just as relevant , the second we met even trough skype.  It was kind of amazing to feel a person after so many years.

The wonderful thing about the internet is that these millions of miles away friends can still be very relevant and present in our lives. Also if stuck in some sparse social context, you are not entirely stuck , as long as the internet is working. On the other hand once it all goes to pot, and you end up blocking someone wishing never to see them again, well you better face the fact one day you will unblock them all on your own accord, so prepare your pride today.

Never the less. Ahh it feel so dam good to burn that bridge sometimes. Who knows if something will or will not grow in the ashes later. A forest fire, makes space for a new forest to grow.

pre show flutters

Tomorrow is the show, and tonight I bought the frames, framed most of the works, painted to completion what I thought where unfinished ones.
But the thing is even in the same project I have developed a variety of styles, depending on my mood.  It seems the less paint I put on, the more beautiful the paintings, and yet I sometimes have to work it like an ox works a field. And its always just the same the fear of the unknown the next step, will I ruin this, will I have to give up and start again which I am reluctant to, so I burrow on until several aesthetic solutions happen one after another on the same painting and of the same portrait, and eventually I settle with a style. hm. I have settled with Kzenya looking like a pretty Disney character, and Giada looking like a rainbow woman, and Linda appearing form a pink cloud , which is a style separate to the rest of the collection, but it somehow described them whe n I painted them live and I feel restarting from photo would be cheating and lack something .

Any way good night. This will be the second show painted since giving birth to Floriana last February, first show this year, and I hope there will be many more realised his year, and in various countries . Now good night.
sunci

A CALL FOR MUSES WHO WORK IN ART

ANY PEOPLE WHO WOULD LIKE TO BE MY MUSE

FOR A LIVE / SKYPE PAINTING

FOR MY 80 PORTRAITS AROUND THE ART WORLD PROJECT

PLEASE CONTACT ME HERE

( TO BE PAINTED FOR THIS PROJECT YOU MUST BE WORKING IN ART

ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD

 AS AN ARTIST, CUARATOR, WRITER, GALERIST, COLLECTOR, 

OR OTHER ART EMPLOYMENT)

WRITE TO ME AND TELL ME WHY I SHOULD

 PAINT YOU, WHAT DO YOU DO..?

 

My aim is to paint a collection of 80 portraits of people working in the art world wide sceene,

whom I get into contact with using social technology and whom I paint using internet technology,

 so painting an anthropological image, a slice of the arts scene at this time in history using and

representing the technologies we live symbiotically with.

I intend to exhibit the finished project.

(I PAINT FOR FREE FOR THIS PROJECT)

80 PORTRAITS AROUND THE ART WORLD / RICCARDO CRESPI

Out of the last four nights during which I have painted 4 portraits, the females I painted not entirely to my satisfaction and the men on the other hand in my opinion turned out beautiful.

Riccardo whom I painted tonight - explained this to me. It is the fact that painting women I feel like I will hurt their feelings unless I paint them pretty, so I try to make them pretty , and than make them look ugly as a result of the whole stress. This is so true.
I definitely feel adrenalin each time I paint someone live. Its a battle field in some way, I relax and do it ,but still there is the presence of the stress, - I hope to paint it in a way that will not hurt the feelings of my muse , and more so I hope that the muse will like it. I sometimes sacrifice wether I will like it. Last night istarted something so pretty ut different form my whole series so to not appear to eaasey idelved into Delphine and ruined the start.

Now being happy with this particular painting pust my mind at ease. I can go sleep and unwind. It is uncanny how every night I stop painting at midnight precisely. I must have angels who push me to sleep or my grandmother ghost, with various signs. Ether my baby wakes up precisely at midnight and I must stop painting, or there as tonight there are technical problems, and Riccardo, stopped being able too see me, as his battery on phone and computer went flat. Here is the baby too I can hear her form across the apartment.

Riccardo and I have experienced tons of Art fun, at all the hot art events about, form Istanbul biennale to the Italian one, and inbetween, as a part of a gang of art worshipers and firends.

Was fun to talk after years...

oh baby is crying, that's all for Tonght.

PARIS SPLIT SHOW / MLADEN

Having been commissioned to do this show by the French cultural Alliance, I thought about my relationship with France and its culture and came to realise it is Paris specifically which I am most connected to and Paris to me where the people who made Paris what it was.

The show however is in the institution in Split, where also I live and am painting the show physically, so I wanted to , also present this city in the show, which is why it has both the city names in the title.

To present Split I am also painting a number of portraits, but as this is the more physical, and present of the two cities in my actual life , my relation to it is physical, the portraits for this part of the concept are larger , more material, more tactile and opaque, the have a scent of paint which is stronger, they are the more monumental. These portraits as opposed trough skype -the way I painted the Paris part of the show, are painted in real life, with the muse in my studio, drinking, and listening to music, conversing and in my case dancing.

It has been a very long time since I painted a portrait of Mladen. We had just started dating and I invented a show in Split, to keep me here, to have something to do here, another purpose,  because I was not returning to London - because of Mladen. I was painting him in that phase, when the painting is part of my seductive dance. Well it worked and here I am many years later, in Split, where I stayed because of him, and where we where married and built our home. So I paint him as my Split, for he is probably the main character in my story of this city.

It was strange though . I gave him a time and date a while ago to prepare for this mentaly,  as I do to all my muses, to take it seriously, and we painted in the studio, with music on, drinks, son refusing to sleep and looking for attention in parts, but I found it unusual how different he was whilst I was painting him. The personality that reigns in the home , at work, with friends, no none of those where present. I was let into something new which I don't even know how to interpret. It was nice. It was nice to share with him the act of the painting, my thing, not just the personality I become when running the home, and  the him becoming the muse. Actually sailor man is  good looking, I was re discovering as I painted the familiar.

PARIS SPLIT SHOW/ GIADA DEL DRAGO

I have photos of Giada and I in, Venice looking pretty, with the breeze carrying our dresses posing on some kind of enormous second world war missile.

There are other photos of us, and we had encountered plenty of times without ever having so much had a conversation alone. I had painted once a man who was un-happily in love with Giada and I wondered what is this allure of hers, as at that time I knew of others pining away, as well .

But than we vanished to one another, until this random Facebook, lottery of contact, made us aware of each other's existence again, during what is clearly a different chapter in both of our lives  and perhaps a new chapter in our personalities as well.

Recently I embarked upon the experimental excursion of trying Giada's "life coaching " session via skype. I was delighted with the experience and found it very motivating, helpful, clarifying my own tangles and helping me organize my head and work. Her positive personality surprised me. And her coaching helped me get on with my PARIS SPLIT exhibition, get my priorities straight and confidence to make the step further, look for ways to get the show to Paris .

Having become so involved in this Paris-Split  of mine, of helping to realise it, I felt like she belongs in the show.

To some extent I wanted  her to experience the being painted in my way which she called "channeling", as I paint in conversation, which can be therapeutic to the muse in some way, looking very little at my painting, letting the energy of the muse flow from the muse, via the computer, into me, and out of my hand on the paper in colour, and to let her hopeful enjoy it .

However we ended up painting form 945-to midnight. That is a long time. And to start the painting looked older than she is perhaps, and now that I looked at it, she appears much younger. So I painted a person form older into a younger one, which is quite odd, for people don't tend to change age so much during the painting.

Without revealing any private details of the cinematic saga of her life,  Giada I discovered is a rare type of person, the kind I think I only have met a small number of in this life time, and painting her and having her share her life was indulgent almost. My eyes must have been huge like those of people in the caves trillions of years ago when they listened to the stories of the travellers, skype being our modern fire , but I could not get enough. Which ever way the story flipped , it continued to be fascinating. This is why it took me ages to paint her, I was concentrating on the conversation, but also subconsciously maybe I did not want  it to be over so quickly.

The adventures, the happening, the work, the travel, the languages and ideas and enormous changes she undertook in her life, courage to stop and change and start something completely different many times, It was quite amazing, inspiring, and really surprising to see how many different things one can do well, if they go for it all the way ,with all of their passion.



This exhibition other than allowing my to re-kindle friendships which where kind of frozen in time, has allowed my to discover new people.

I am more than grateful for the engagement of all the muses who had the generosity to participate and open them self's up, their world, and allow someone to look at them and give them an interpretation.

And this painting of Giada you can see once I finish its background..

PARIS- SPLIT SHOW / KZENYA OUTENDOT

Paris was my revenge.

In this instance. St. Martins college refused to let me do the student exchange year in the Accademie  des Beaux Artes in Paris, which was my plan. Instead, with the rest of the students, I had to think up "an exterior project"- Any way of putting my art out side of college.
A frieind printed her work in black and  white on  A4 paper and glued it to lamp posts in London around college. I went to Paris, convinced the manager of an alternative gallery  space on Rue Rivoli to give me a show.
 It was my revenge to the S.t Martins tutors. That was to be my first solo show in a gallery space. The first taste of being an artist, in the world, outside college. But more importantly , I started a collaboration with Kzeniya.

We planed a perfomance and had for the occasion invented the most complex, genius , paper stage, and audience holding apparatus, which held the heads of our viewers in place one by one, very uncomfortably close to one another, and by the end of the performance the stage was ripped and disintegrated, thrown out of the windows, to create once space with the audience and the performers mixed in together to become the protagonists.  It had never been seen before or since. We where a hit, in the Paris art events that month.

Getting to the show was hilarious, after we got of the London train, the painting could not fit into any taxi in Paris other than a type of limousine.

Kzeniya brought Marina K. to Paris with us to assist us, and I just could not understand than that this girl was coming becosue " she loves Paris so much she just needs an exscuse to go, any excuse".

We had lots of adventures that weekend. Having been very organised Kzeniya booked her hotel, via the internet, form London, and it turned out to be- who the hell knows where , and far from our show. She even got lost having taken a walk out of the hotel one evening, and had a very surreal expirence with a man called Angel, who spoke Russian her mother tongue,  and who helped her find her hotel in the middle of the night, and dissapered afterwards.



Kzenya and I met at the international students day at St .Martins college. She was fresh from Ukraine, and I somehow ended up there even tough I had been living in England for 8 years.  I yearned for international after living in a very English only, small village all those years.

We both ended up studying design for performance at the end of the foundation year at St. Martins, but the next year I retuned to my Fine Art roots and she remained in theatre. I don't know how we ended up woring on this project, I suppose we just wanted to do something together.
And than we had Paris.

What is funny is that  Kzeniya  more than a decade later, Kzeniya has just moved to live in Paris with her family!

She had no idea of that than..

80 portraits around the Art World / Ettore Bossi

This project is about the people of our time, working in our time, in the international art scene.
I am using the randomness of social technology , suggestions and common contacts, to choose and contact muses for the project,
Utiising the internet filiming / medistisation/ projection ,
to paint
an analogue portrait of what is essentially a digital projection,
 which I am recieving form the screen,
live,
or as good as live is,
 or as relevant as live is now a days.

And yet this technology affects the colours I see, the picture I am taking and the conversation I am having, too loud, too quiet , delayed or even fragmented.

I mean the whole thing crashed tonight, the phones run out of electricity , his skype did not work so we used facebook measanger video, which did not work in my computer,  which in turn forced me to paint him from the smallest possible image from the phone, and  I could not hear him until I added ear plugs , as if I was painting a tiny dwarf with a appropriate size volume.

The technology affects the expirence, sonically, visually changing colors, and time wise, there is a lot of time lost in all the technological trying to synchronise, meet, adjust to one another,  every time I paint using the internet.

But it also cuts the time of going somewhere, having to tidy my studio, provide enough vine or food for muse . You just turn on, fidget for ages, talk paint and are over.


Now that the technological part is over, I 'd like to say it was a genuinely interesting expirience painting Ettore.
Your essentially buying a cat in the bag, when approaching unknown people to pose for a portrait, right?
Well we got on quite well. There is a lot a painter can learn from the muse, about the muse, and useful technical knowledge. I had no idea for example that in the 50s, they used to glue paper paintings on to canvass to make them last longer and be durable. I know that the framers Lorcan o neil gallery used in Rome and who became the framers who  framed my work most, glued my huge paper works to canvassed and it looked pretty good.
Perhaps I should find out how do to it, for I love painting on paper .

Ther whree many themes, around art I enjoyed deicussing,  looking forwards to the next session, and drawing Ettores Eyes and nose.

THE PARIS SPLIT SHOW / LUCIA SANCHEZ BARRACHEA

Tonight Lucia Got stuck in the attic with no phone putting away christmass things.
There was just Lucia Christmas and spiders.

Any way I had no idea, where she vanished,  so I improvised her eyes, from her facebook,onto her head, which I had painted live at the previous skype session, as she sat in the garden.

Its tough to get us two together any way. She the argeninian, I met in London, but had paris with, now lives in mexico married to a Parisian and we have the same amount of kids to stop us planning things easily.


Marina took me to Paris as a birthday surprise for my 20th I think  birthday,  and we arrived also to Lucia's 20th birthday who was living and interning in Paris in some grand fashion house.  Had a girley time. And went to Disney land. And had melted cheese and croquer monsieur..

We painted via skype with babies limting out time. She shouted at her various servants like queen mother. It was all so different form our Paris ,than, but a fresh wham bam of energy, and of fun was present. So nice to meet after all these years. Magic started flickering in the croners of her eyes and static in the hair, and id say it was good to meet again, we should do this more often, and do something aobut this magic thing to harness it.

I love thiis painting.

THE PARIS SPLIT SHOW / SAM COX

Sam Cox and I and Nina all sat together in the French class. They where good at French grammar and I at the speaking.
We went to Paris with the art class at A- levels ,aged 17, with our art and literature teachers , form King Edwards ,Lichfield, England.

All has changed so drastically since that  I had to add where the trip started.

Sam and I had not seen in ages, spoken in years, but the Paris we had was our first Paris. Mine in any case. We explored Monmart , bought Paris boxer shorts for our boy firends back home and where charmed by the pot smoking class mate who was away there with us. Had a crush on him in Paris, we both decided, tonight a million years after. And got punished for the teachers catching him and the joint with us in the room, bad girls. haha. I forgot that part.

Sam is in Mexico tonight, and I am in Split ,and we where proper dear friends in England than, competing who could hold out longest against shawing ones legs.

But paris. Ah the old market with the second hand things. That was where I blew all the money ,coming back to England dressed like I was a 70s thing. There was feeding the famous delicious so called camembert to pigones because it was disgusting. And almost getting fine every time we sat on the grass of the French parks.


We spoke trough skype, Sam drinking water as she got some holiday poisoning in south mexico, and I the wine, painting her as we shared .  Than we spoke some French just because.

PARIS SPLIT SHOW / ANNA CAMERAC

Anna and moi, go back to the boarding school in Whem, I used to sleep in her bed so I could visit my boyfriend and she used to sleep in my house so she could escape the school at weekends. It was a very instant friendship , the kind you meet- and are friends always.

Anna and I had Paris together once , we where both students she at the Sorbonne in Paris and I at St Martins in london. There was a party in the house  of one of the St martins students in East London, and I got talking to some guy who was studying film from Dusseldorf. We talked about Paris for ages. We talked about Paris so much, that on the spur of the moment ,inspired by the warm London night and the happy party we decided to go to Paris that morning.
We went home got a passport and met at the Victoria station on the buss to Paris.
The was no romance intended.
Once we arrived, I kind of thought what the heck am I doing here with this polite but stranger guy. I called Anna and said, Anna ,I am in paris, can I stay with you?


Anna hosted me . Showed me what the French eat, apple pure and pancakes. And I spent my days at the louvre falling in love with Egyptian sculptures whilst she was studying.


After at least a decade we met over skype to paint two nights ago. Still the instant for ever friendship is there.
She was in Champagne, drinking tons of champagne and I in Split drinking the vine, and we painte and talked. And it was amazing.

I love this project form making me contact people I love.

The PARIS SPLIT SHOW / MARINA KURIKHINA

Marina is one of my protagonists in Paris. We became friends of the train to Paris from London at 5 am. She rushed in from the Russian war and peace ball with the period hair do and perfume, and I just almost missed the train to my show in Paris because my paintings could not fit into any London taxi apart form the 1983 London cab make.
We where 19 years old than.
Kzeniya Outendot, brought Marina to our performance in Paris Rue Rivoli, because Marina loved Paris so much she just needed an excuse to go there ,and  Kzenya and my  performance was enough for her to come help and just be.

Than at croque  monsieur at breakfast in Paris under the sunshine she asked me you believe in magic? And what do you think I replied? Of course I believe in magic and magic Paris was for us than and each time we visited it together after.

The birthday celebration at Disneyland with fashion designer Lucia Sanchez, the group show I had at pompidou museum, and her birthday, with Tarrek and Raffaella there.. Ahh Marina was my main character in Paris. I cant imagine Paris without Marina.


Today at her 9 am Los Angeles time and my 6 pm Croatia time we painted her for the show. It was nice. The way its nice to see family you have not in ages and you love no matter how much time passes. X

THE PARIS SPLIT SHOW / IVANA SERENCES

I have just painted Ivana S. The sailor woman. Oh god. I have forgotten that with her I can drink as much wine as a pirate can.
The painting is one of these huge ones, just for fun, for the sakes of it, maybe for the show. In the end all the paintingS which are for the fun of them selfs are better than all my serious planned works.  I think its aobut 200cm x 120 cm oil on paper. Ahh good night.