Cerullean Blue

On Providence

I came across this quotation by W.H Murray, and really found it empowering. It’s all about commitment. Commitment has brought me to many amazing places. Like painting in switzerland for example:

painting switzerland in plein air

One of the many places that painting has brought me...

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”
― W.H. Murray

The way I see it. If I never made the bold move to go back to Europe outside of the Florence Academy, I would never have made this painting. I regret not going to more places to paint. We will just have to see what the future holds.

Rolling hills in switzerland

Switzerland en Plein Air 20x30 CM - By Nigel Robertson

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A little R&R in Firenze

Fiume Arno - Florence

The Arno River - Firenze

After a little over a week in Florence… Actually at this point I don’t know how long I have been in Florence since I got back from Egypt. Was it a week, or a month? It’s difficulty to gauge without looking at the actual dates of arrival and departure. I feel like I had post traumatic stress disorder after going to Egypt and all the madness that went down with Bekkah. I felt like death after Egypt because of the air. I had a gnarly cough, and I was just plain worn out, so I focused on my website http://www.nigelrobertson.com to unwind from Egypt. I do hope you enjoyed the ranting. My mom didn’t. I barely remember writing all that. I was in some sort of trance like state where the thoughts flowed freely. Allora…

Santa Maria Novella - Florence

Santa Maria Novella - Florence

Florence was pretty awesome except for the fact that I was sick with a cough the whole ten plus days that I was there. I did manage to have fun. Basilio had three parties in a week, and I had a fun going away get together party. It was my turn to cook the most awesome meal in Florence. It was bacon cheeseburger night. Galambanino cheese on the burger with bacon over that with feta cheese over the bacon with grilled shallot and red bell peppers over the feta, and lettuce and tomato over that,with a specially made garlic aiolli spread for the toasted buns. The fries were fried in olive oil with rosemary salt, and finely ground crushed red pepper. I don’t really like to cook only for myself, but when it’s for other people I tend to go a little over the top. Its fun. Everyone was extremely satisfied. The rule in florence is that if you cook you don’t have to clean. Another reason for loving to cook in Florence.

Its costing me a fortune to make my way back to California. At least I have a suitcase full of paintings, and I have completely removed all of my junk from Florence from the past two years. Shipping everything back also cost me a small fortune. It’s not as bad as some of the numbers I have heard from other people. I have no complaints. I am just a bit numbed at the moment.

I still haven’t reached my one hundred plein aire sketches like I have been planning to do. I still have much to learn, but I am already seeing lots of progress. I’ll be posting all the good paintings soon, along with an available works page. I’m happy to be leaving, especially getting to spend a few nights in the Nederlands.

Plane to amsterdam

I love flying in the evening because the colors are spectacular

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Plein Air Painting in Cairo

Bekkahs Rooftop - Signifying the final peak of our relationship - The apocalypse is beautiful

It was a somewhat successful day here in Maadi, Cairo for me today. It was the usual routine for me, although I came up with the near perfect algorithm for painting such a complex view of Road 233. It is painted from the view of the rooftop of Bekkah’s apartment building. I started roughly at 2:00 after breakfast and coffee. I have been unable to sleep well, so I end up sleeping when I can which is usually when the sun comes up. I don’t understand why I can’t sleep. Perhaps I do, perhaps its something to do with Bekkah, and her mood swings causing me not to sleep. I only had one panel left anyway so so I wouldn’t be able to paint any more anyway unless I worked on the same painting every day. I like the slap dash sketchy style that I paint and I prefer to not continue to push my plein air paintings beyond the initial color sketch. If I feel compelled I will take the painting into the studio in the future.
I began this painting with a thin Transparent red oxide tone over the panel, and I did the drawing in a purpleish tone made of white, French Ultramarine, and alizarin Crimson. After the drawing was established I painted the greens to key the depth of the painting, as well as keying the values. I didn’t touch the sky until later. Usually I key the sky first, and even paint it first, but I felt that it would be a bad choice this time around, because I didn’t see anything epic happening in the sky at this time. I love epic skies, with peachy oranges, pinks and purples with the blue sky peering through, and apocalyptic fires off in the distance. That was my vision for this painting.
After painting the greens keeping the sky in mind I began to paint the architecture carefully with very precise brush strokes. I would maintain the drawing by chopping the shapes with other overlapping brush strokes. This is what I love about painting. Making all the puzzle pieces of nature’s complexity in front of me all fit together. I get a rush from this simple pleasure.
Once the architecture is established I moved to a different spot on the rooftop where one of the most fantastic sunsets unfolded in front of me, and I went for it. I am fairly happy with the result, but I wish I designed the clouds a bit better. Its difficult when everything changes so quickly.
After painting Bekkah and I take a cab to our last dinner together, most likely ever.
In retrospect, I came to Cairo to leave my bad energy between Bekkah and I here. We had a falling out the last night. I don’t ever want to talk to her again or see her again. She wasted two years of my life while I was in school and I can never forgive her for that. If she didn’t leave me ten days before I arrived back home, I would have given her the most incredible life she could have possibly imagined. What a shame how it had to work out.
I leave for Italy tomorrow. I still have the final stretch to make it out of this god forsaken place. I’m sure I will be fine. I can move on with my life now, and I have found the answers that I was looking for. I know have closure with this dead relationship and I am happy to be moving on. There were many lessons learned, and I am glad to have earned such amounts of wisdom.

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Painting with Maximiliano

Max is one of my best friends from the FAA and he’s back for the third term of the Florence Academy of Art. He’s quite the entertainer. Great sense of humor max has. Max arrives around the 20th of September. Soon after school starts we ride the scooter up to Monte Scenario, which is one of the most beautiful places in Tuscany, in my opinion. Its a long ride up the mountain. Its twice the elevation of Fiesole, and Florence is visible from Monte Scenario, but Monte Scenario isn’t visible from Florence. The inconvenience of going to Monte Scenario is Max can only go on Staturday, or Sunday. The days that the Italians go to mass. At least 50% of the people going to church stopped and talked to us. I know coffee shop italian, and not much more than that, Most of the Italians said that the painting was “Bellino! Bello! Bellisima! Bravo! Brava! Bellisima luce! They would also almost always ask the same questions, how much, how long did the painting take to make? Is the painting for sale? We got to spend three sessions on this painting getting these questions constantly. It was a nice feeling but also very distracting. I had a fantastic time painting here.

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