Cortes and Hancock Expedition to the Italian Peninsula and Beyond: Chapter 3

Cortes and Hancock Expedition to the Italian Peninsula and Beyond: Chapter 3

I know what you're thinking: BAD BLOGGER...
I'll try and make up for lost time.
Here is the third installment, from the romantic city of Florence, which, during the summer, turns into Disneyland for drunken American frat boys. So, naturally, the Florentines take it out on every foreigner they meet. Such a welcoming lot...

Ponte Vecchio, which is, like, a totally rad place to urinate when you've pounded some brews.

The Romanelli Room, in the same building (ex-Chiesa dell'Arcangelo Raffaele) where I trained to paint (Charles H. Cecil Studios). It's pretty amazing, but belongs to the landlords and hasn't much to do with the school.

I love that there is some old statuary out there that isn't skinny, pretty boys and girls frolicking in the goddamn woods. This is a dwarf from court of Cosimo I in the mid-1500s, nicknamed Morgante, which sits at the entrance of the Boboli Gardens.

The statue in the niche at the end of the road is a recent commission completed by my former sculpture teacher, Jason Arkles, for the Anglican church of St. Mark's in Florence. The green car is a bonus.


Surrealist bicycles are not very practical for navigating the streets of Florence.

Cortes and Hancock Expedition to the Italian Peninsula and Beyond: Chapter 2

Last chapter, we were in Milan. We're now in Northern Spain, so I'll have to do some backtracking to get us up to date.
Chapter 2 takes us to Venice, that weird and wonderful city on the water...

This is the classic view of Santa Maria della Salute, taken from the Ponte dell'Accademia. The flags on the left show how windy it was.

Venice's visual culture is based on the passage of light through air, water, glass, oil paint, metal and stone.

The Fenice...
... reborn from the ashes of its former self, com'era, dov'era...
It took a bit of photoshopping to take the garish gold color out of the image.

I don't have anything to say about this one. (JC)

The church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo is full of tombs; many are adorned with very lifelike figures.

The island of San Michele, where dead Venetians go.A house in the far eastern tip of Venice, near Sampiero de Casteo. (JC/HH)

Cortes and Hancock Expedition to the Italian Peninsula and Beyond: Chapter 1

This is the rooftop of the Duomo of Milan at sunset

A guy standing around waiting for someone in Piazza del Duomo (JC)

Some more rooftop decoration on Milan's Duomo

Graffiti mural in Isola, where we've been staying

Another view from atop the Duomo roof

Below is a link to the time-lapse video I made while painting this landscape of the Cloisters Museum, New York City.

You'll notice that while the subject is a building in New York, it is on its own, not surrounded by other buildings, as you might expect a painting of New York to be. One of the few views of its type on Manhattan Island. As a visitor to the Open Studios yesterday put it, it's a very Uptown Manhattan painting, for all its emphasis on nature. The music is mine as well, composed, performed and recorded by me (except for the floor-squeaks at the end- I needed help for that).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6-VAkKjROw

Our New Apartment

As part of the Uptown Arts Stroll organized by the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, my studio (not shown in the photos above) will be open to visitors on Sunday, June 13th, 1-6pm.

The studio has three windows on the north and east sides of the room, and is set up with blinds to control light direction. It also has enough space so that I can stand back from my paintings while I'm working on them. This means I can paint classical portraits again! This will add a much-needed dose of sobriety after all the surreal collages I've been working on.

Open Studios:
1-6pm
Sunday June 13th
E-mail harry.hancock@gmail.com for details.

You Will Never See These Drawings...

...because the airline I flew with over the summer lost my bag.

In said bag, among many other things, was my cherished sketchbook with the following drawings in it.

Bye bye drawings.

Castles in Spain - Some Images and Comments

Here you'll find some of my latest work, all from my recent exhibtion, "Castles in Spain", at Azucarera Gallery, 145th st, NYC.

The posts below this one contain all of the oil paintings, a selection of the drawings and pen-and-ink collages, as well as Judith and the large sketches board.

Please feel free to leave any comments, suggestions, questions etc.