Redecorating a restaurant in Italy: Scaccianuvole ristorante and pizzeria, Ferrara

They say that creativity in an artist has no boundaries and that's exactly the type of artist I am aiming to be. So here it comes a new chapter in the creative process of an aura painter, helping redecorating and creating an interior design for the Italy based restaurant calle Scaccianuvole, Ferrara. 

The whole concept started with the colour scheme of the existing restaurant logo, without going too crazy on the splash of colours but only added little decorative touches to the purposely neutral background. The clientele of the restaurant spans across multiple generations, from trendy youngsters to very classic and traditional mature customers as well as business people having to stop by when on their lunch or dinner break. For this reason the restaurant's new face had to combine both traditional and trendy.

In addition to decorative touches such as repainting lamp shades or adding flower pots to create unique and distinctive corners, the restaurant has become a little art gallery for several of my aura paintings and artworks. 

Among others, 'The Phenix' which was purposefully commissioned by one of the owners several years ago as a good luck for a rebirth phase of the business. 

Over the years, no matter the ups and downs of the economy and current cost of living prices, this little restaurant has indeed managed to survive in many forms (especially during the pandemic-imposed lockdowns) and is still thriving, also thanks to the front-of-the-house wonderful owner Gaia, always ready to greet her guest with a smile and welcome them to a family feeling dining experience.

If you ever pass by Ferrara in Emilia Romagna in Italy, don't hesitate to pop by for a delicious traditional Italian meal with a unique gallery view of my aura paintings! 

Aura painting at Stokesley

It is with great pleasure to announce a return to painting aura portraits live! First event of the season is part of the Stokesley Spiritual Development Circle Group organised by the wonderful Ray Bokor. 

Ray and I met so many years ago both trading at a number of events in the Goth circuit and always wanted to start a collaboration and organise something together. Ray is currently hosting a very successful series of events and I was absolutely touched when he invited me to take part in one of them.

On occasion I will be selling prints as well as doing aura painting (pre booking only). More information on the event to follow but all the details are on the poster.

Hope many will turn up, looking forward to being there and paint again like in the past!

Collaboration with Gothzilla

Finally able to go back to my blog with a copious amount of updates after what feels an excruciatingly long hiatus! Following a bad fall on my bike with the result of a broken elbow to mend, then what can only be described as the ‘infamous’ Covid 19 with forced isolation lock down and all related ordeal we are all even too familiar with, then the habit of not updating the blog despite being quite proactive anyway.

First update of the season has to go to the joint collaboration with the mighty Gothzilla, a very well known and loved band in the UK Goth scene. For an artist, there is hardly any bigger honour than being asked to produce the illustration for a band's album cover. In my case, in addition to being able to create something for a band I truly respect and admire, I also had the privilege of seeing their album titled 'Auras'.

The artwork created for the album cover

In addition to the album cover, tees were also produced. It was great to be able to wear a t-shirt of I band I love and with my artwork on:

Gothzilla using my artwork on stage during their set at ALL THAT IS DIVINE FESTIVAL II:

Fab photo of Gothzilla performing on stage with @gothicrockgoddess with my aura painting artwork as backdrop. I always feel over the moon when I see others using my artwork!

Here you can see a video of Gothzilla talking about the album and artwork.

My humble wholeheartedly thank you to Gothzilla.

I truly wish the best success for the band, this and forthcoming albums.

Aura Painting in Whitby at Tomorrow's Ghost Festival April 2019

Finally, it is time to upload updates on my blog about the wonderful Tomorrow’s Ghost Festival April event. First of all I would like to express my thanks to the organiser Absinthe Promotions for the kindness of letting me trade for one day only (since I wanted to attend the events of the second day of the festival!!!!)  

As in previous years, it was simply a pleasure to be part of the whole event, so wonderfully organised and well attended. And, as usually, it was a pleasure to do aura sketched and sell prints. For the very first time this year I also took with me to exhibit some original pieces and this was a very great way to show the finish piece for commission, instead of just sketches.

Finally, my thanks to my wonderful new assistant Daniela who, not only is one of the first people to ever encourage me to start trading, but came to help with the sale on the day!

My little stall:

Original artwork on display:

Aura painting sketches in the making:

Aura Painting: The Black Sun (The mechanical clock)

As an artist, to see one of your works being rejected from the commissioner and the sale not going through is undoubtedly one of the hardest things to accept. If this is the case for any type of artists, portrait and general graphic artists of all sort among others, even harder is when your creation is the result of your spiritual perception and your artistic vision, all mixed in one.
When I started doing aura painting I thought the aura reading component was only a media for me to perceive a person and subsequently produce aesthetically pleasing art pieces. Over the years, I have come to the realisation that this component is instead key in my work and is not only a simple transition phase where I get inspiration from. For this reason, each painting is crafted as a self-discovery and somehow what I interpret as a journey to help people taking a step in a world that not many can (fully) perceive.

This painting represents a true vibrant energy that is like a mechanical core trapped inside a black sun-shaped cage, a mechanism as a whole that keeps on ticking and never stops. The black cage, like a clock, rotates around the core in a continuous  never-ending cycle. From the centre there are ray of lights and darkness coming out, all interlinked together in complex intricate unfaltering spiral of negative and positive. The energy irradiating from the core reflects on the mechanic cogs and also all the intricate patter. For this reason, the piece has received a sparkling gloss vanish finish, so to convey the same feeling as the reflecting energy, as I perceived.

Since the sale of the painting did not go through, the original piece is currently on sale. Please get in touch if you like to purchase the piece. I will also shortly produce and start to sell prints hand-embellished in acrylics.

The Black Sun
(The mechanical clock)

Aura Painting at Tomorrow's Ghosts Festival, October 2018

At the end of October 2018 I went to do aura painting at Dark Days Alternative Market part of Tomorrow's Ghosts Festival (26 to 28th Oct 2018 organised by Absinthe Promotions, in Whitby.

This time the venue for the festival and our market was the wonderful Whitby Pavilion and one of my favourite bands of all time, Paradise Lost was also present as one of the two festival headliners. I have been following this Yorkshire band for most of my music life and listening to Doom Metal currently is and has always been the biggest inspiration for my painting. For this reason, just to be part of the same festival I can say it was simply a dream came true!!! Even more I managed to get both set list and drumstick (as well as a band tee) so, it was overall one of the best festival ever!!

In preparation for the event I retouched a lot of prints in acrylics and I am glad I did so I could offer even more choice to customers. On the two days of trading I did lot of aura portraits of people's energies and the sale went well, so overall it was a positive experience, despite the super cold seaside weather. In particular, many friends came to the rescue, helping me with the selling of prints whilst I was busy paintings, and they even kept me well fed with a never-ending stream of cakes from local bakeries (I ate them all!!). Their kindness touched me deeply, made the event even better and for this I would never be able to express my gratitude enough.

Preparing hand-embellished prints for the event:

My stall at the market:

Selection of aura painting sketches:

With many many thanks to Absinthe Promotions for allowing me to be part of all of this.  I am already looking forward to trade at their forthcoming events in 2019!!