TRAVEL WITH MY ART #10: HVAR TOWN (CROATIA)

Hello dear readers! I'm  very excited  to share a new canvas painting with you. This painting will take you to Hvar town. In the centre of this painting there is a 12.5 meters long traditional wooden fishing boat and in the background you can see Hvar town (where we first spotted this boat about a year ago). Moreover, this painting with mark my tenth post in TRAVEL WITH MY ART series. I created this series as a way of virtually travelling with the help of my paintings and illustrations. Naturally, I will also share our photography, especially when it comes to reference photographs. It is my goal to use art as a way of showing an additional and perhaps a bit more personal view of some place. While I enjoy photography a lot, I think I'm more a painter than a photographer.  

I invested a lot of time and effort into this painting. I would say that I invested around 70 hours of work  into it. It was also a little nerve-wrecking because I wanted to get it just right. I often feel a bit nervous before starting a new canvas. Right now, I feel like I'm developing my own version of realistic style painting, particularly when it comes to painting water and boats. I think this might be my most detailed work in this 'TRAVEL WITH MY ART' category. What do you think? I worked on this canvas  for more than a week. During the weekend, I devoted all my time to it. I finally managed to finish this very ambitious and detailed painting yesterday. Today  was a sunny day so I decided to take some photographs with this painting and share them with you. I posed with this painting on my balcony earlier today.  I yet have to apply the varnish, but I'm pretty certain the painting is finished. I'm feeling a bit relieved as you can perhaps see on the photographs. I even wore the same gypsy skirt I wore on one of my visits to Hvar town (as you will see once you scroll down).

 I also 'photo-shopped' myself into one of my old photographs. I'm sure you will be able to tell which 'Ivana' is from the balcony and which one belongs to the original painting even if we are wearing the same skirt but just to be on the same side, I put the edited Ivana in the rectangle. I typically only edit my photographs to make them more fun, artistic or in some cases more lighter or darker. I think I don't overuse the editing tool and sometimes I don't use it all. The places I visit are so beautiful they really need no embellishments. Bellow you can see the photograph I used as a reference. It was a photographed shot in a good light and that made my life a bit easier. Most photographs don't like to shot around the noon when the light is at its strongest and the shades at their sharpest. My husband is quite the opposite, he embraces the strong light and so do I. This kind of light creates sharp contrasts that some do not find flattering on a face, but painters love them. Not too long ago I saw a video about an artists who praises photographs and models bold enough to shot and pose under the harsh light of a sunny day at noon. I'm mentioning this because it's sort of relevant for this painting and the whole direction I'm heading in.  I have spent hours staring and studying the way the light bounces of the sea waves and onto this boat...and many more hours studying the shadows, the colours and the shapes. Some of the lines on this painting are quite sharp and embrace the contrast and shadows of the original reference. I suppose it all depends on what you're looking for in a reference. I'm trying to create paintings that will really take me to some place. For me, what really creates an illusion of being in a certain place has a lot to do with the quality of light and the colours. So, naturally I try to pick the right reference. Nevertheless, I always take some creative liberties. 

THE REFERENCE PHOTOGRAPH VS. THE FINAL PAINTING

SPOTTING THIS MAGNIFICENT BOAT FOR THE FIRST TIME

What inspired me to paint this boat and Hvar town again? I'm saying again because I already painted this boat (see here). However, the angle from which I painted it last time doesn't really do justice to its size. What fascinates me about this boat is its size. It's more than 12 meters long and that is not usual for fishing boats of this type. At any rate, I haven't seen a similar boat of this size before. This boat belongs to one old fishing family and it's really a beauty. As you can see by the fishing gear inside, the boat is not an exhibition piece, but rather it is still used. It warms my heart to know that such a beauty still sails Adriatic. I wonder how old it is? I forgot to ask. I'm happy to have taken a few photographs next to this boat so that you can see how big it is. I took photographs next to this boat during two of our visits to island Hvar. 

READ ABOUT MY VISIT TO HVAR TOWN HERE!

DO YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE HISTORY OF HVAR TOWN? If you want to see more of Hvar town, you are more than welcome to check some of my previous posts about it.

VISITING HVAR CITY AND STYLING WIDE TROUSERS

FASHION ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: HVAR CITY

VISITING HVAR IN WINTER PART 1

VISITING HVAR TOWN IN WINTER PART 2

 CLIMBING THE FORTRESS IN HVAR CITY

PERFECTLY VALID REASONS FOR VISITING HVAR IN WINTER TIME

HVAR TOWN (SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING BLUE)

VISITING FRANCISCAN MONASTERY

 THE MAKING OF THE PAINTING

I won't share a lot of 'work in progress' photographs because I already included a lot of reference photographs and I don't want to make this post endlessly long, but bellow you can have a look at my mid stage in painting. I might create a collage with all the painting stages, but that will take me a lot of time. Basically, there are a lot of layers of paint here. Layers on layers. First I applied the dark colours, then the light ones. I changed the clouds a few times, finally settling for a look that was similar to the reference but that wouldn't take the attention from the town and the boat because that is really what this painting is about. I enjoyed painting the old buildings. When it comes to apartment buildings, I'm afraid I didn't enjoy it as much, but I think I managed to do a good job. I devoted a lot of attention to the details. I even painted the name of the hotel in the distance. I enjoyed painting the 16 century church and bell tower. Everyone who has seen this painting (so far) has commented on how well I painted the cathedral but this is actually not the cathedral rather an old church and bell tower that is no longer in use.  These bell tower and the old church date to the sixteen and seventeenth century. I blogged about them in this post. I tried to capture the way sunlight touches the bell tower and gets reflected in the water. So much history in this painting! Painting this, I remembered all my previous visits to Hvar town. I really tried to do justice to all these beautiful historical buildings. I spent a lot of time painting the pine trees as well. I tried to capture the light on them as well. This painting is all about light! Trying to capture the light. The final result is interesting. I'm not sure can you see it in the photographs, but in person this painted boat looks three dimensional somehow. Maybe because I worked so much on the shadows. I painted most of this painting by using a tiny brush and precise brush strokes. 

WORK IN PROGRESS- BEFORE I PAINTED THE BUILDINGS AND THE CITY

ALL THE 'TRAVEL WITH MY ART' POSTS BELLOW (WITH LINKS )

#1 PALERMO ISLAND SICILY (ITALY)

#2 BAY MALA STINIVA, ISLAND HVAR (CROATIA)

#3 IRKUTSK, SIBERIA (RUSSIA)

#4  MATEJUŠKA, SPLIT CITY (CROATIA)

#5 HVAR CITY, ISLAND HVAR (CROATIA)

#6 ZENTA MARINE, SPLIT CITY (CROATIA)

#7 ZAVALA, ISLAND HVAR (CROATIA)

#8 SUCURAJ, ISLAND HVAR (CROATIA)

#9 MALA STINIVA, ISLAND HVAR (CROATIA)

As always, thank you for reading and visiting. If you have any inquiries or questions about this painting, you can email me. Have a lovely day.