gpaolo.art

Category: People and traditions – EN

  • Hymn to the Simple Life

    A wheel of cheese, fragrant bread freshly baked from the old wood-fired oven, a glass of red wine that gathers the light of day.

    And a little robin in flight, like a light thought, come to celebrate this sacred daily communion.

    This was the authentic happiness that accompanied our grandparents when they returned from the fields, or after leading the animals along the paths of the mountain pastures.

    A happiness made of little, yet so full.

    Outside, the sky could be heavy with rain, low clouds crawled among the Alpine pastures, but inside the hut burned the flame of refuge, of quiet, of peace.

    The shepherd, a simple man, did not torment himself with questions about tomorrow.

    He walked in the present, with dignity, facing every unexpected event without worry.

    Worry is the disease of the man of the city, who runs without rest, stumbles over his own desires and complains about every obstacle on his path towards ambition.

    The shepherd does not.

    He lives in silence and waiting, he ignores the deep reason for events, but he knows how to recognize the beauty of the small and sincere gifts that life offers him. In the warmth of his cabin, in the light of a sunset that dyes the wine ruby, he gives thanks – in silence, with his heart – for the bread, the cheese, and the gentle flight of a robin

    TITLE:   

    Hymn to the Simple Life

    SUPPORT:

    Cotton canvas on frame

    SIZE:

    30 x 50 cm

    TECHNIQUE:

    Oil on canvas

    DATE:

    June 2025

    SERIAL N.:

    20250601

    NOTES:

    Fantasy subject, made entirely with a spatula

  • The Missing Point

    In the beginning, there was the line. Infinite, unchanging, luminous. It stretched silently from past eternity into the future, with no beginning and no end — like a timeless breath. It was true life, eternal life. Upon this line, suspended beyond the tangible, men and women walked in harmony with the divine order. They moved along the upper part of the line, wrapped in serene light, in an Eden where each step was understanding, presence, peace.

    But the perfection of the line concealed a secret.

    Along its perfect and linear course, a point was missing. A tiny absence, almost imperceptible — a void of infinitesimal size, as a mathematician might say: something that takes up no space, and yet it is there. An opening.

    And so, unaware, men and women, one by one, stumble upon that point. And fall.

    They fall beneath the line.

    They awaken in the earthly life — a world that appears fluid, unstable, ever-changing. Shapes shift, truth blurs, all previous reference points dissolve. Humanity forgets the line, and the light it carried. The memory of the eternal fades into the fog of the material experience.

    In the earthly dimension, humans struggle. They believe this is the only life. They seek security, they build, they hoard — sometimes at the expense of others. They cry out in loss, fight in fear, and withdraw in confusion. Suffering embraces them, and time urges them on.

    Yet not all surrender.

    Some, even immersed in the liquid realm of earthly life, do not fully forget what they no longer know. Some love. Some care. Some help their companions to rise, to walk, to search. Some look upward, without knowing why, and move toward the light.

    And then, one day, the point returns.

    The missing point appears again — but now not as a fall, but as a passage. It is death, yes, but not an end. It is the breach that allows one to rise again. The slender opening connecting the lower world to the higher one. And then, if the human heart has remained open, if the soul still listens, they can ascend.

    They emerge above the line once more.

    And now they are not the same. They remember. They recognize. They are in tune again with the Divine, reconnected to the infinite from which they came. Life resumes its eternal flow — but this time, in fullness. The being is restored in serenity, in wholeness, in truth.

    And the painting falls silent, but it tells all.

    TITLE:   

    The Missing Point

    SUPPORT:

    Cotton canvas on frame

    SIZE:

    90 x 60 cm

    TECHNIQUE:

    Oil on canvas

    DATE:

    May 2025

    SERIAL N.:

    20250501

    NOTES:

    Fictional subject, entirely made with a spatula

  • Time has made them accomplices and stronger

    Among the silent mountains of Grigna, a white writing — LOVE — becomes sculpture and refuge. She, lying lightly on that word, smiles with her head resting on the one she has chosen every day.

    Time has made them accomplices, stronger, more real. In that embrace placed on the landscape, a love is celebrated that does not fade, but is nourished by the seasons lived together, like the wind that caresses the peaks and tells eternal stories.

    TITLE:   

    Time has made them accomplices and stronger

    SUPPORT:

    Cotton canvas on frame

    SIZE:

    70 x 50 cm

    TECHNIQUE:

    Oil on canvas

    DATE:

    February 2025

    SERIAL N.:

    20250201

    NOTES:

    Subject for photography, made entirely with a spatula

  • Miss. Dior

    After his first years as an illustrator and then as a Designer at Maison Piguet, in 1946 Christian Dior and Marcel Boussac founded the fashion house in Paris on Avenue Montaigne. The following year he presented his first Spring-Summer collection to the public. Luisa and I visited La Galerie Dior this year (2022) in December, where this dress is exhibited, from which a photo was taken at the time that I interpreted. In the original photo the dress is completely black.

    “Uniformity is the mother of boredom.” Christian Dior

    TITLE:   

    Miss. Dior

    SUPPORT:

    Cotton canvas on frame

    SIZE:

    50 x 40 cm

    TECHNIQUE:

    Oil on canvas

    DATE:

    December 2022

    SERIAL N.:

    20221202

    NOTES:

    Made entirely with a spatula

  • The escape of the Ox

    This race is held in Montefalco in Umbria. Each district trains and cares for an Ox throughout the winter, to then have it compete in August against the other districts. The bearers cheer their ox between two wings of the crowd and run at speed along a path traced in a large, rugged field. The ox that covers its path in the shortest time while respecting the boundaries of its lane will be the “champion”.

    TITLE:   

    The escape of the Ox

    SUPPORT:

    Cotton canvas on frame

    SIZE:

    50 x 70 cm

    TECHNIQUE:

    Oil on canvas

    DATE:

    September 2022

    SERIAL N.:

    20220902

    NOTES:

    Painted with a brush

    OWNER:

    Painting owned by Donatela Bonfatti

  • Fighting the night together

    The invisible ones. We pass by them, we pass them at every corner of Milan. The city is full of these people who have left the world and live their solitary life. Many times the only companion is hairy, silent and patient, with whom they manage to spend the night sharing a little warmth and affection.

    TITLE:   

    Fighting the night together

    SUPPORT:

    Cotton canvas on frame

    SIZE:

    50 x 70 cm

    TECHNIQUE:

    Oil on canvas

    DATE:

    September 2022

    SERIAL N.:

    20220901

    NOTES:

    Made entirely with a spatula

  • The Indian’s Holi Festival

    The Holi Festival of Colors in India is a celebration of the victory of good over evil, with the destruction of the demon Holika. It is celebrated every year on the day after the full moon of the Hindu month of Phalguna, which corresponds to the beginning of March. People celebrate the beginning of spring and other events of the Hindu religion; they parade through the streets sprinkling colored powders on everyone, dancing and singing.

    I saw this photo awarded by Corriere della Sera in the spring of 2022. It was too bright to pass by without looking at it. I immediately filed it in my “photos to draw” folder and, one day, after finishing the tulips and still having many colors left on the palette, I decided to experiment using the spatula.

    At Atelier Crespi I had watched Maestro Fontanini teach this technique to a colleague, Vittorio Ragazzini, and, discreetly, I had understood that the color was mixed a lot on the palette and little on the canvas.

    Thus, and unexpectedly, this painting was born, an expression of the joy and happiness of the subject, who lets himself be shaped and seems to enjoy being modeled by the hands of his friends.

    The shot is by photojournalist Channi Anand (AP)

    TITLE:   

    The Indian’s Holi Festival

    SUPPORT:

    Cotton canvas on frame

    SIZE:

    50 x 70 cm

    TECHNIQUE:

    Oil on canvas

    DATE:

    March 2022

    SERIAL N.:

    20220302

    NOTES:

    Made entirely with a spatula

  • Awareness and beauty in the passage of time

    Old Man

    Silently the door of heaven
    closes.
    The night stops waiting.
    The dawn still asleep.
    The sun sleeps supine.
    The sea lingers doubtfully.
    The seagulls still sleepy
    fly like ghosts.
    The golden sand sticks to the feet of an old man.
    The footprints, it seems, hide from others.
    As if he wanted to leave
    this confused land.

    Remembers the past time
    He fears the future time.
    Then he sees among the rocks corroded by furious waves. A familiar flower.
    He remembers when,
    already a man
    he had given it to his wife.
    A sincere smile,
    a tear, now falls on the face.


    Antonio Petrucci
    (2022 Poet)

    TITLE:   

    Awareness and beauty in the passage of time

    SUPPORT:

    Cotton canvas on frame

    SIZE:

    50 x 40 cm

    TECHNIQUE:

    Oil on canvas

    DATE:

    January 2022

    SERIAL N.:

    20220101

    NOTES:

    Painted with a brush

    OWNER: Now owned by Antonio Petrucci

  • A rainy day is not the same for everyone

    This Reuters photo struck me in particular. The renunciation and submission to their own living conditions of these two little girls who work in an Indian dyeworks is disarming. In these countries the working conditions of minors are still the same as those that existed in the West over a hundred years ago. Yet it is here that the wealth and well-being that we enjoy is produced.

    Heavy rains have displaced thousands in northeastern Assam state, with no letup in the deluge. Many people have moved to makeshift camps set up by authorities on higher ground [Reuters]

    In this painting I partially learned how to drape a fabric (of which the maestro Fontanini is an excellent author) furthermore I tried to represent an intense and bright environment under a light rain that weighs down the clothes of the two subjects and fabrics hanging from the ropes after the dyeing process.

    TITLE:   

    A rainy day is not the same for everyone

    SUPPORT:

    Cotton canvas on frame

    SIZE:

    50 x 60 cm

    TECHNIQUE:

    Oil on canvas

    DATE:

    May 2023

    SERIAL N.:

    20230501

    NOTES:

    Painted with a brush

  • You will not bend us

    Gypsy dance is a whirlwind of emotions, where every step tells a unique and unrepeatable story. In a circus tent shrouded in darkness, the scene comes to life in an almost magical way. The soft lights draw an intimate atmosphere, and the only element that emerges forcefully is the face of a rotating dancer.

    Her expression is a picture of breathtaking intensity and beauty. When the music starts, a palpable energy envelops the air. Passion is revealed in every gesture, oscillating between the exuberance of a contagious joy and the sweet melancholy of a lost memory. I cannot see her eyes, but it is her face that captures all my attention, a beacon of emotions that shines in the sea of ​​darkness. Every expression, every movement, speaks of an indomitable strength of spirit.

    As if he were shouting to the world: ‘You will not bend us’

    I captured this moment on a trip to the Camargue in May 2024 with friends from Rotary Saint Cyr sur Mer.

    TITLE:   

    You will not bend us

    SUPPORT:

    Cotton canvas on frame

    SIZE:

    40 x 40 cm

    TECHNIQUE:

    Oil on canvas

    DATE:

    August 2024

    SERIAL N.:

    20240801

    NOTES:

    Made with a brush in Ronchi

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