Not even alcohol. This is ridiculous. However, moleskine have these beautiful notebooks in lots of colours with really good quality paper and I'm completely addicted to them. I'm getting through one a week on average and have ten sitting on my desk waiting to be used.
Anyway, the size is brilliant. For comparison, it's smaller than my hand. I have never in my life met anyone over the age of 12 with smaller hands than me. They're like a doll's hands. Seriously. Also discovered today that due to them being constantly cold (I probably have really bad circulation), they're great for anything to do with pastry.
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Milano - Duomo drawn on day ticket. This was the first time I drew the Duomo. I've been going back to it a fair bit.
All about Rilke's Duineser Elegien, and the differences between reading it in German and Italian.
Inspired by cupcakes and vaginas. And the moment I realised I have next to no male friends here, which induced a moment of temporary meltdown.
Drawn at Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and 'Zando'' (hmmm) exhibition. The Italians have a tendency to take 2 internationally famous artists and stick a lesser known and not as good Italian artist on the end. Zando' wasn't bad, but he wasn't as good. Anyway, I think this was probably the exhibition in which I realised that the bohemian/avant-garde dream was horrible and brutual and I probably wouldn't want to live like the people did in that era and in that place.
Drawn at exhibition of Jaume Plensa and Rachel Goodyear at YSP. I love Rachel Goodyear, her drawings are something I can look at for hours and not get tired of. I'm using them as human figure training at the moment. Jaume Plensa is completely different in terms of scale, it's monumental. The installation with about 20 giant elongated heads was my favourite, they almost looked like computer holograms.
Inspired by Rachel Goodyear.
1. - Pieces of skull drawing. These are taken from my first real effort to draw with pencils, in Bremen. The most successful of those efforts was without doubt the conjoined baby skeletons. 2. A doubt tree. I always wondered what would happen when the seed of doubt found good soil. 3. Hair. I wish I could somehow make mine like this.
Preparation for returning to Italy, with help from P. B. Shelley.
Two images taken from a pregnancy scare. Not a terribly worrying one, just enough to think oh come on, I'm 20 and I really can do without this at the moment. It all turned out fine but you know, you can't quite eradicate the doubt entirely.
Santa Maria del Carmine, Pavia. I don't know what it is about this place, but the churches seem to be hidden in little alleys and you just stumble across them.
Crossing the Dolomites. Or the Alps. I'm never sure which they are but all I know is they're huge mountains and look like bear fur from above, or huge cushions.
Chiesa di San Francesco. At the end of our street, and one of my favourite churches in Pavia.
Drawings on gold and silver paper. The cafe Loft 10 has the most beautifully coloured chocolate wrappers for me to use. I'm trying to improve my human figure drawing by looking at Rachel Goodyear's techniques, which is hard going but enjoyable.
The Galleria and the Pinacoteca Brera. We didn't have time for the modern wing but I will go back and see it. Some of the paintings were incredible, this one by Giulio Cesare Procaccini was extremely bloody and wonderful.
Genova, Rapallo, Santa Margerita and Portofino. I went to visit Liza and her fidanzato Luca, where we took a trip around the coast of Liguria which was perfect, but rotten to the core what with private beaches and horrific affluence. The huge orange from her garden and sights like a flock of seagulls at night made the disgust abate.
Finding out someone you liked will be dead within months creates an unpleasant feeling of complete impotence.
The three towers of Pavia. There used to be about 300, and nobody really knows why. Some people think it was to show off family money, others to store treasure in...all I know is that I love them.
Blood oranges from Sicilia, one of the small pleasures I've found over here.
Places in Pavia - the Ponte Coperto and Cesare gelateria. Cesare operates on a very strange timetable. Despite the opening times on the door, it really does seem completely at random and it is closed pretty much every second time we try to go. The ice cream is still the best in Pavia.
One of the two earthquakes in the last week in January. There's quite a few here, and they're very distinctive - the feeling of a building shaking is bizarre and unforgettable.
Corso Strada Nuova, and the Universita'.
The pigs head in the market place in Pavia.
Pavia towers, and a quote from Dante which perfectly corresponds, when he sees the giants through the darkness and thinks they are towers.
The Duomo di Milano, and one of the statues inside, which is meant to be old man time, and which is terrifying. Emaciated and manic looking, made from marble. I'm not huge fan of the interior but this statue redeems it for me.
Artemisia Gentileschi at the Palazzo Reale, Milano. Her life story is incredible, and the paintings themselves were fascinating. I do admit to generally preferring the bloody ones, but she was clearly a very talented painter.
Marinetti, 'Zang tumb tumb'. I've been reading a bit of Marinetti of late. He's abhorrent and somehow compelling, purely due to being insane beyond all belief.
Kafka and Rilke's Malte Laurids Brigge - how clothes are used in their works, taken from a book on Rilke by Judith Ryan.
Anticipating Christmas in Pavia.
Absinthe, the remnants of the costume I devised for one of the feste in Collegio.
Paul Celan - I miss having my books here, and I hugely miss Paul Celan. Recently ordered a new book on his work which will be there when I get home. I have the Felstiner, which has been a great help, so hopefully this will add to that.
Duomo di Pavia - sadly it's not open to go into, having been under restoration for far too long a time.
Learning to draw nudes
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