Oh, Fortuny! How I Love Thee!!

"Fortuny". That name does something to me. It conjures-up beautiful, romantic images of years gone by. I'm a collector of Fortuny. Not only of his lamps, (reproductions!!) but also the books written about him, as well as the tiniest scraps of his fabrics that I can get my hands on!

Mariano Fortuny is my absolute favorite designer/artist!

This is my favorite Fortuny lamp.

I have one of these small, cone-shaped lamps too.

But I really love the glow that comes from the large one. Comfy-cozy!

Then there are the books. The books with photographs of the most elegant, beautiful dresses, made from the most gorgeous fabrics ever!

He took the secrets of his pleating on silk and fabric-painting techniques with him to his grave. According to the books written about him, he only shared the secrets with one of the ladies that worked for him for many, many years. And she didn't tell either!

Drives me crazy, actually! I want to know!!

Another one of my favorite books. Page after glorious, glossy, colorful page!

I believe Amazon.com carries these books, for all of you other Fortuny lovers out there.

(I've spent so much money on books, I think Amazon has a portrait of me, hanging in their corporate office.)

I think I have all of the Fortuny books now. (But I'm afraid to check!)

I even found a book written about his father, another fabulous oil painter!

A really wonderful book. I didn't want it to end.

Mariano was an oil painter as well as a fabric/clothing/stage designer and a ton of other things!

Remember the "tiniest scraps of his fabrics" that I mentioned earlier?

Well, here they are! I love to hold them in my hand...

And imagine being in his studio, in Venice, while he's working on them. For a fabric designer, that's pure bliss!

His work is such an inspiration! Here's a piece of velvet I designed. It was white when I began.

The white line is actually the shine of the panne-velvet. "Fortuny Influence", 46" x 72".

(More of my velvet work.)

Back to my stash of fabrics - I especially love the pieces with the gold background.

Unfortunately, I've never found any of his spectacular velvets.

These colors are a little hard to see in a small photograph, but trust me, they're luscious.

Here come my larger pieces. I didn't crop this photo so that you could get a better idea of the size of the fabrics. Okay... I have to tell you that I tried to iron a couple of the pieces and they acted funny. I was really careful with the temperature setting, but they still wanted to curl-up on the corners. For fear of damaging them, I decided against ironing! And if you know me at all, you'll know how those creases are driving me crazy!!

Close up of the creases... I mean fabric.

Love this.

Another piece, full length.

Close up.

Same piece.

Another one. I always wonder what the people selling these, made with the rest of it.

Close up.

It's hard to see the shine of the metallic, but it's stunning.

Here's an interesting, but simple pattern.

Up close and personal.

Another large piece.

And the close up.

And here is my absolute favorite one!! Silver-metallic and baby-blue!!

This is the oldest one in the bunch. One of his earliest pieces. I love it!!

And this is the one I handle very carefully.

It still has tags on it. Love that! I'm glad they don't still have a "Los Angeles Office", because I'd go broke!!

I was so happy when I found the tags on that piece.

I have no idea what they mean, but I was happy. Old tags are cool.

Finally, you can see a little shimmer from the silver-metallic! Gorgeous!!

One of his earliest signatures. Awesome! My oldest and favorite piece of fabric!!

Here are his pleated silks. They are not wrinkles. Not like my pieces. :(

Mariano Fortuny, 

Born in Granada, Spain, 1871. Died in Venice, Italy, 1949.

What a talented human being!! Love him!! ~~

There are SO many things to love!

I love "Followers" and comments too!

(Thank you.)

Signing off for now,

gabriele

For The Love Of Art: Part One

Before I became a silk painter, more than fourteen years ago, I painted in oils.

Here are a few of the many paintings I did back in the day.

I loved everything about oil paints... the smell, the texture, the Turpentine.

Then, one day, I discovered silk painting and tucked all the oil paints away!

But I still wanted to paint landscapes, so I did a few on silk. Like this one.

Then I started painting flowers on silk scarves and that was all she wrote! I was hooked!!

A few months ago, I went on a road trip to San Francisco and the wine country.

My nephew, Brad Gruno and I went to visit Katrina Frey at the beautiful Frey Vineyards.

I took a ton of pictures and when I saw this one, I knew that I had to paint it... in oils!!

Since I got that idea in my head, everything I looked at became a potential oil painting.

Here's another photo from Frey Vineyards. I love that place!

Katrina invited me to come down and be the artist-in-residence! Ohhh yeaah!!

(Katrina, if you're reading this, thank you again!!)

Another potential painting. (Minus the dashboard.)

From a recent trip to Descanso Gardens.

Another one from Descanso.

And another.

On a recent trip to Oregon I fell in love with the moss and thought that it would look gorgeous in a painting too!

Moss climbing on the side of a wall. A cool abstract!

Look at this lushness! Love it!!

I finally decided to go-for-it, but I couldn't find any of my old supplies!!!!

A few years ago, I came across my huge assortment of brushes and thought, "that's a weird place to have put them". Making a 'mental-note-to-self' I went about my life.

The moral of the story, don't put stuff in weird places and don't make mental-notes-to-self!

It ain't gonna work for ya. I've searched and searched for those brushes and supplies and can't find squat!! I finally gave up and bought some new stuff. Just the basics.

A container to put the globs of paint in, without having them dry out.

Two 16" x 20" canvases. Canvas'? Canvas? Canvy?

Some brushes and a palette knife. Ohhh! I had sooo many!!!! Still do... somewhere. :(

Over the years I've become very sensitive to chemical odors and I don't think I'd fare well with the smell of Turpentine, Turpenoid, or any of the other things associated with oil paints.

So I decided to try acrylics. I've never liked acrylics before, but I thought I'd give them a shot anyway. Maybe the texture is better now. I also bought a palette to mix the paints on.

I love a huge assortment of colors! I want them all!! But I behaved and just bought a set.

Okay... I caved and bought a few more.

I couldn't find my easel either, so I got this little inexpensive one.

Of course I had to buy a book.

I had to!!

So, wish me luck, my friends!! I'll give you an update and show you the painting in-progress and completed, in a future post.

"Peace-out, dude."

There are SO many things to love!

I love "Followers" and comments too!

(Thank you.)

Signing off for now,

gabriele