Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela has passed away at the age of 95:(  (December 5, 2013)

R.I.P.

Nelson Mandela portrait. Acrylic on canvas. Sold, 2012

large nude oil painting

This is the biggest painting I have painted to date. Oil on canvas 120x90cm on boxed canvas. This photo is taken at my house and my hubby said he would not mind to keep it :) However, the painting has gone to its right home since then:)

Baby girl in oil

The local crafts shop had a sale, so I bought some great oil paint and had to try it out!! I wanted to do some for fun and experience. So I checked the photos on my computer and came up with a very cute baby girl from an extended family. Here she is!:)

Baby girl.
Oil on canvas, 30x40cm

Hope You like it!:)

Rose

People keep telling me to paint still life and flowers, here is an attempt:)

Oil on 22x30 inch boxed canvas.

Big paintings

The big paintings always make bigger impression- I hope this one will do too:)

This is the biggest painting I worked on so far- 120x90cm (36x48 inches). Oil on boxed canvas.

Fragment of the painting

This is going to be a surprise present, so I can't post a full photo. Painting is still in progress. and when it is going to be finished and presented to the lucky person, I may acquire rights to post it online.

Happy paintings!

Ritma

Exhibition in news

Hey, this is so cool!!!

My exhibition in Riga today is featured on Latvia's biggest news platform www.delfi.lv.

Here is the link.
http://www.delfi.lv/aculiecinieks/news/riga/vina-dzivo-afrika-un-nu-atrada-savus-darbus-dzimtaja-latvija.d?id=43737360

Apologies to those who don't read Latvian.

Exhibition Nr3/ Izstāde Nr 3- Restorācija, Rīga, Latvija

The 3rd Solo Exhibition in Latvia is up and running from 7- 20.October in Restaurant/ Bar Restoracija in Riga, corner of Terbatas and Stabu street. http://www.restoracija.lv/home.php

Thank You all for making it possible!!!

Trešā personālizstāde "Portreti" ir skatāma Restorānā/ bārā "Restorācija" uz Tērbatas un Stabu ielas stūra. Visi laipni aicināti baudīt mākslu un, ja ir vēlme- padoties tiešām fantastisko ēdienu un dzērienu kārdinājumam (to saku no pieredzes:)). http://www.restoracija.lv/edieni.php

Paldies visiem! bez jums tas nebūtu iespējams!!!

Newly married for 25 years

:) This is a commission I was asked to paint as a present for a 25th wedding anniversary. Here You can see both: the original photo and the photo of the painting. It was somewhat a challenge to do colors in the painting as the 25 years old photo does not the same detail as the 16 mega pixel digital photo... but it definitely was fun:) I really hope that the couple depicted have a great marriage and likes the painting:).

original

Oil portrait of newly weds 

More colors

As a response to my last post on my favorite colors- I decided to do a paintings with different / happier colors:

Save the Rhino,
Acrylic on canvas
29x40cm

I still used the ultramarine blue as the darkest color on the palette, but introduced some yellows and reds as well. Hope You like it:)

R

Favorite colors for paintings

Do you have favorite colors that You use in your paintings??? I do! I never new it would be these colors:

1. Oil: Paynes gray, Burnt sienna and Titanum White
2. Acrylic: Ultramarine blue, Burnt Orange and White

The last two of my paintings are excellent examples of this: 

Gallop, Oil on canvas 30x43 

Little Angel, Acrylic on canvas, 30x40

Did You notice that they give a very similar result? That grayish feel- I like to think its more sophisticated :) and I hope its not boring :D 

Horses in Oil

Hi Dear Friends!

Felt like playing around with the paint a bit, as had a difficulty finishing one of my commissions. Do You ever get that urge of side tracking??? You know- when You should be doing something, but just feel like doing something totally different??? Anyway, that was the feeling that got me painting horses again!:)))

Here is the result:

Have a fantastic day!!!

Going black & white again

This is my latest painting in black & white.

Acrylic on canvas, 18x24inch

Solo exibition / Personālizstāde - Riga, Latvia

This is the 3rd Solo - exhibition in Latvia (my home country).

Šī ir trešā manis gleznoto portretu  izstāde, kas apskatāma Rīgā, "Latvijas Gāze" Mācību centrā, Stirnu ielā 34 līdz 13.septembrim.

Beggining for the good energy!

Thank You to:

Taiga Treimane- for organizing the venue;
My sister- for logistic help;
My dad- for making all the beautiful frames;
My family- for accepting my crazy painting times:)

Replica in oil

Have You tried doing a replca of a famous painting?

I decided to try: this is how far I got!

Raphael's famous Cherubs

My attempt (R Grizane)

Original

New works

Here are my latest paintings. After coming back to Cape Town I felt so inspired and painted a few painting in a few days! Or maybe I should give credit to my husbands bike trip through Africa (http://1man1bike1adventure.blogspot.com/), because I was so worried about him, that I could not sleep at night and got into painting? :D

An African dream

Baby - palette knife

One can call it a self-portrait

Art Exhibit

So, it came and passed, my very first official Solo art exhibit! 

It took place in Latvia 18-24.July, place called Gaujiena, the village where my parents live. The venue - Local Information centre- holds a sensitive value to me- I used to work there... oh, no.... volunteer would be a more appropriate word:) It was very cosy and comfortable.

The next venue was in a bigger town - Smiltene- "Tējnīca KaTē"- so grateful to the owners of the place and wish them all the best!!! I even got flowers from my friends in Ventspils, who came to see the exhibit:)

What next?

I must admit that I was surprised by a positive reaction to the exhibit- so many more people were interested in helping me to exhibit elsewhere. I didn't expect that- but it's nice!!! The initial idea was to take the paintings back to South Africa, but as interest was high and paintings framed (framed paintings are harder to transport), I decided to go on with more exhibits. At the moment the exhibit is running in Gaujiena again and mid-August will hopefully travel to Riga- the capital city. 

Let's move on and do an exhibition in South Africa- there is just one slight problem- first need to do some more paintings:)

Thank Yous!

This would not have been possible without help from other people. So thank YOU:

My dear husband Neil - who has to try and sleep when I skratch arround (making indescribable sounds) at night while painting :)

My immediate family - who supported the idea of the painting exhibit. Special thanks to my dad, who worked hard to make all those frames on lats minute;)

To owners- of the paintings, as some of them are not my possession and they were so kind to borrow the paintings for the exhibition:)

To other painters and teachers - for helping me to grow as an artist!

And to all You, who helped me with exhibition arrangements!!!

Solo Exhibition!!!

My first Solo Exhibition is running!!! I'm so gratefull to all the people that helped me to get this far. Special thanks to my family who supported me even though they live on the other side of the Globe!

My first exhibition is organized in Gaujiena where my parents live and it is also the place I call home!

In the mean time my husband travels Africa on his BMW motirbike. More info: www.1man1bike1adventure.blogspot.com

Preparing for an exibit

Dear friends and readers, 

I have finally gotten together enough courage to organize an exibition!:) Interesting fact is that with the decission to exibit the motivation to paint skyrocketed!!! I have been painting like crazy for the last two weeks and been quite impressed with the result, too:)

Is there hope? Oil on canvas, 14x18"

Prof J.Vitols Oil on canvas, 14x18"

Mommy & baby. Oil on canvas, 14x18"

Our minds are interesting mechanisms!!!:)
I must say thank You to the book I read: "Magic of thinking BIG"

Ritma

Painting famous people

After painting Angelina Jolie and sketching Kate Middleton, I decided to try some more famous people. It did turn out to be quite a daunting task, especially the choice of the person.

Here are my two choices:

Dagmara Legante, she is a famouse socialite in Latvija as well as Director of Communications at Luxury Boats North. Why Dagmara? Because was lucky to meet her in person in Cape Town while she was visitiong the country and I discovered what a fantastic personality Dagmara has! The portait is owned by Dagmara and I really hope she likes it;)

Portrait of Dagmara Legante, oil on canvas by R Grizane

2. Justin Bieber, well, I guess we all know who Justin Bieber is:) Why Bieber? Because he had a concert in Cape Town in May and it left a big impression on the whole city- I was no different:) Bieber portrait is available for sale! You can buy this painting online or contact me directly to discuss other options.

Portrait of Justin Bieber, oil on canvas by R Grizane

Choosing the righ photo of the person was another challange! As I used photos that I could fing on the internet, they were not necessary the best quality, didn't give the right feeling or similar... So, photo choosing took me 30% of total time needed to do the painting. 

I hope You enjoy the results:)

Have a fantastic day!!!

Ritma

Oil paintings - portraits

I think I finally discovered why oil paint is so popular for portrait paintings! Its not that this was the first time I used oil paint for portraits, however it was the first time I enjoyed painting with oil.

Oil paint generaly is quite uncomfortable medium: requires turpentine for cleaning, linseed oil, zelkin etc for effects. Drying time is  long- which in my case is a shortcomming- I have no space to have paintings standing arround. Having two little boys arround does not help. Oil paint is also less forgiving with mistakes... 

Even with all of the shortcommings- I truly enjoyed painting the last portraits in my collection:

Free hand

In order to teach myself, I sometimes do free hand sketching:)

Here some of the sketches:

I must admit- I like to sketch beautiful women:)

Normaly, when I do portrait painting, I would do underdraving using some helping equipment of blocking or tracing paper... my ultimate goal is to be able to paint accurate portrait free hand.

R