Original artwork description:

Aerial view of Sagrada Familia still illuminated, just before a miraculous dawn with moon.

SAGRADA FAMILIA BARCELONA AERIAL VIEW DAWN BY MOON is a textural impasto knife oil painting that captures Gaudi's amazing cathedral Sagrada Familia seen fro above . I realized this work in impasto technique with professional oil paints applied with different types of palette knives.

I traveled to Barcelona many times and I was impressed by Sagrada Familia. It's architectural style has been called ''warped Gothic''. The rippling contours of the stone facade make it look as though Sagrada Familia is melting in the sun,during the day, while the towers are topped with brightly-colored mosaic. Gaudi believed that color is life. Perhaps that's why I personally admire so much his amazing creations.

This palette knife oil painting is part of my series ABSTRACT CITYSCAPES. I started this series of abstract cities years ago and it is a recurrent theme for me. I love to paint abstract cityscapes under bold, vivid, sometimes tormented skies - yellow, pink, purple, orange, red, blue, turquoise, even green skies, sometimes skies ''inhabited'' by huge sun or full moon...

In general I prefer to stylize the architectonic details of the houses. I paint mostly abstract cityscapes, as my main goal is to deconstruct the real architectonic shapes ( than to render them exactly as in reality) and to translate them practically in differently morphed color spots interacting with each other in various ways for generate the painterly quality of the textures, that I love so much.

'' Describing Sagrada Familia, art critic Rainer Zerbst said >.
The Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family, commonly known as Sagrada Familia, is a large Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi ( 1852 - 1926 ). Although incomplete, the church is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Thought construction of Sagrada Familia had commenced in 1882, Gaudi became involved in 1883, taking over the project and transforming it with his architectural and engineering style - combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms.
Gaudi devoted his last years to the project, and at the time of his death, in 1926, less than a quarter of the project was complete. Sagrada Familia's construction progressed slowly, as it relied on private donations and was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War. Construction passed the midpoint in 2010 with some of the project's greatest challenges remaining and an anticipated completation date of 2026 - the centennial of Gaudi's death. '' ( Wiki )

Materials used:

oil paints, canvas, palette knives

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