Hi all! Thought I’d drop by to post this new Youtube video where I show some interesting finds in Porto, Portugal. I got some nice watercolor postcard paper from Fabriano and Winsor & Newton, and acrylic paper block also from Winsor & Newton. I also got some souvenir items that I thought would be interesting to share in my channel.
Thanks for dropping by, and have a good weekend!
Spent the entire weekend last week in Porto, Portugal. It was my first time there and I had such a great time staying in an AirBNB right along the Douro River, overlooking the bridge that was built by Gustave Eiffel, the same guy who architected the Eiffel Tower.
Together with my family, we spent the weekend dining, trying out wine, local delicacies, and visiting famous sites . We did not like the local wines so much. We don’t like sweet wines like Porto, but I totally loved the Vinho Verde. Pastel de Nata is also too sweet for me, but you can find some versions in certain patisseries that make them less sweet. We found some at Mercado Bolhaõ on our last day.
Clockwise from top: My Vinho Verde glass at one of the best wine bars in Porto, My daughter and the Gustave Eiffel Bridge along the Douro River, The flower-patterned tile which was my inspiration for my tile painting, At Livraria Lello (oldest bookshop still in operation in Porto), The azulejos and me at Igreja do Carmo.
One of the highlights of our trip was the Tile Painting Workshop at this place called, Domus Arte, which is a small curio shop selling Portuguese arts and crafts. At the basement, they have an atelier where they organize the “Tile Painting Workshop”.
Here is my Youtube video for some quick highlights of our trip:
Thanks for dropping by, and have a good Easter!
Hi there! Been too long since I last posted here. Finally had some time to upload a Youtube video of a painting I did a few weeks back. My sister, who lives in Tokyo, commissioned me to do a painting for her Japanese friend. I enjoyed painting ballerinas so much, I took a video of one of them.
The weather has been uninspiring this past couple of months. It’s been raining endlessly. Gloomy skies and foggy atmosphere. It was starting to affect my mood. I would have liked to paint more and travel more but my work and family duties prevented me from it.
I am looking forward to some upcoming artistic adventures while on travel. And also some local adventures. I need to stretch my wings and broaden my horizons. I need to grow. Hopefully, a lot during this year.
Thanks for watching and have a lovely week ahead.
Can’t believe it’s that time of the year again! I’ve been so, so busy with work lately as I take on more responsibilities, and as our delivery deadline also approaches. But since I’m an expert on managing time and priorities, I still managed to squeeze in a teeny, tiny bit of time for my artistic creation. And so, I’ve recently added this new original watercolor print on Christmas cards and Christmas gift items, available on my zazzle shop.
This new addition to my collection features Santa Claus riding a colorful Philippine Vinta. If you do not know what a Vinta is, it’s a traditional boat that you find in the Southern islands of the Philippines, particularly in Mindanao.
I’ve always been fascinated with these colorful sailboats, and I thought, why not create a tropical themed Christmas card featuring this traditional boat where I come from? It’s such a marvelous idea. And very original.
And if you also like this idea, why not head over to my shop and send some of my lovely original artworks on Christmas cards and gift items to your loved ones.
Thanks for dropping by and have a good weekend!
So, I just got back from a wondrous, week-long watercolor art retreat with Harriet de Winton here in the South of France.
I spent a full week interacting with a small group of lovely people from different parts of the world — mostly from North America, and the UK. And I got to meet and chat and learn first-hand, up-close and personal some watercolor tricks from Harriet herself, who stayed with us in the same location.
First of all, the venue, Domaine d’En Naudet was lovely. The hosts, Nicolas and Sophie, are a lovely couple who own the estate. My spacious room was kept clean every day (very unusual in these parts, except in hotels), has huge windows and is conveniently located directly in front of the hall where we hold our daily (almost) watercolor sessions with Harriet.
Each meal (lunch and dinner) was specially prepared by a British chef (forgot to get his name) but he said he works only with uptrek (the event organizer), and that he has a food truck somewhere in Teyssode or Albi. I should look him up. He was really good. As for the wine, and the wine trip and dégustation, I was not so crazy about it, and really quite disappointed. Although, I appreciate that they are trying to promote local wines.
All in all, I had the most enriching experience and wonderful time painting and relaxing and walking around the neighboring village of Albi, which I had not seen in ten years! It was worth revisiting.
Thanks for dropping by and have a lovely weekend!
As the light temperature becomes warmer and more incandescent with the onset of Spring, and before the flowers start bidding, “Adieu”, I would like to share this Ode to my lovely flower garden.
But before anything else, I would like to share this watercolor demo of a quick doodle of my Agapanthus flowers:
This year, we have taken on the works of renovating our terasse floorboards surrounding our tiny swimming pool. And while we were at it, we took the opportunity to remove the old shrubbery and replace them with flowering herbs and shrubs with a tropical and Mediterranean theme.
And now it all feels like I’m on holiday all summer long whenever I step out into the terasse. We have more beautiful butterflies, all kinds of bees, and I even saw some dragonflies once while having breakfast. I absolutely adore it!
Here you see my newly installed terasse floorboards, while the surrounding plants are not yet planted.
That’s it! Have a lovely flower-powered weekend! 🙂
New item on the zazzle shop — original watercolor stickers and prints of Sampaguita, the Philippine National flower.
This artwork, together with a few others (see picture gallery below) were on exhibit during the Philippine Independence Day celebration of the Filipino-French community here in Toulouse last June.
I have been super busy with work, and life in general during the past months. I barely had time to update. But in the coming weeks, I shall be posting about our mini-garden / terasse renovation, recent road trip to Italy, and the upcoming watercolor retreat I shall be joining.
Thanks for dropping by, and have a good week ahead!
Omigosh! This is definitely the stuff of dreams. And this is such fresh news. I am feeling giddy with happiness. I just got my digital diploma and transcripts from the school, and imagine my shock when I read at the bottom of the diploma the following line:
Distinction / Mention : “ First Class / Summa cum laude (with honours) “
These are the sweetest words I had been waiting for since I started my master’s degree in autumn of 2021. All my hard work, blood, sweat and tears summarized in that lovely font, in one line of ascii characters, which could have practically spelled, “happiness” or “you did it”. 😀
Once upon a time, I decided on taking a random university degree that was not offered in our province so that I would have an excuse to study in the capital city. And what a fruitful future blossomed out of this total randomness. BS Computer Science was definitely not my first choice at sixteen. I wanted to enroll in Fine Arts. But that was not my calling. And who knew I would be able to practice art and fulfill my destined calling in tech at the same time! Everything in life falls right into place at some point.
After taking this course, I have a renewed appreciation of my experience and skills in the field of Information Technology. I have also developed a lot of interest in different fields of technology, like Artificial Intelligence, Data Engineering, Cloud Tech, etc. It made me realize how far I’ve come. And although, along the way, some people discouraged me, and a lot of people didn’t believe in me (including myself, at times), all it took was a handful of quality people to give me their complete faith for me to be able to have faith in myself.
Faith can really do move mountains.
I should end on this note coz I’m starting to ramble, and sound cheesy and all…
Lastly, I just want to say that my (real) friends and family (especially the hubs and the daughter, my number one fans) are so proud and happy for me. So am I. So please, indulge me with this extraordinarily in-your-face brag post. 😀
Lovelots,
Rio
In this youtube video, I take you to one of my favorite cities in the Basque Region — Donostia, San Sebastian, Spain. I was there a couple of weekends ago, to break the monotony of cold, gray, wintry weather in Toulouse. And also, to get some nice dose of Vitamin “Sea”. We were blessed with a superb sunny weather, and a lovely AirBnB apartment with a huge balcony overlooking the city center, which inspired me to paint plein air.
And so, I share with you a very quick and loose watercolor urban sketch of the view of San Sebastian’s rooftops in its city center, where you can also see the gigantic statue of the Virgin Mary, looking over the beautiful city. I also had some opportunity to visit a small art supplies shop called, La Casa del Artista.
I used my usual Silver Brush Black Velvet brush, and Da Vinci Casaneo brushes. And for pigments, I used Holbein Watercolors, and my trusty Portable Painter Micro to hold the pigments. For the sketch pad, I used my mini sketch pad from Moleskine.
Thanks for watching! 🙂
My online shop on Zazzle for shopping my original Filipino themed artworks
Nice restos in San Sebastian:
Hello out there! Been quite some time since I updated. I wanted to share a video of painting Snowdrops in watercolor but I messed up the recording. I feel so annoyed with myself. LOL. I’m still sharing it here anyway. Just a warning, I did not really manage to show the whole demo. I only got to show the part of drawing, putting the masking fluid, painting the background wash, and the finishing touches. Sorry, about that. I did mention this at the very beginning of the video.
I was thinking it would be so timely to create this watercolor painting of a flower in season! Also, I’ve been going back to botanicals lately. Trying to gain back my courage to trust the artistic journey I really wanted to take in the very beginning before I got into the habit of trying to avoid making my painting look like other people’s paintings, especially when those people seem to copy my style (intentionally or unintentionally). There’s nothing wrong with that. But if it distracts you, you should distance yourself from whatever is dampening or hampering your self-discovery or unique art journey, or you’ll never be able to discover your own style. I was always trying to create something original, and in the course of trying to avoid making my painting look like somebody else’s, I have deviated too much from what I wanted to do in the first place. I was sad about this for a while, but lately, I’m starting to feel enlightened. 🙂
I haven’t uploaded some video in a long time since I’ve been so busy at work, as usual. My second project with the big aeronautics company client started immediately after the first one ended first week of January. But at least, my generous company gave me some time to review for my AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification. Which I passed on the first attempt, I’m so glad! It was not very easy! You need to know all the technologies, networking, cyber security, databases, resource management, devops, etc. It’s also a requirement of my school for my Master’s Degree, in order to get a mention, “Bien”. I’m not really sure if that means “Cum laude”. But I hope so. Haha! Also, I’ve been taking on some bigger roles on the job now. Moving on from plain Full Stack Dev. Yay!
Anyway, I’m happy to announce, I’ll be graduating in a month’s time. Can’t wait to get that shiny new diploma. I’ve always wanted to get a Master’s Degree, and what more, one from a French technical school! I feel kinda proud of myself.
And speaking of announcements, I’m also letting you in on a little secret… I’ll be attending a week-long watercolor retreat here in the beautiful south of France on the last quarter of the year. It’s a week-long, day-to-day watercolor sessions with a famous YT artist. We will also have visits around the lovely town close by where we’re staying, see some museums, do some wine tasting, eat at restaurants, and stay all week at a gorgeous manor with a huge orchard! I can’t wait to meet my favorite YT artist and gain some new friends! I’m so excited about it!
Here’s to bright and cheery times ahead, folks! Thanks for dropping by! 🙂
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