felicita sala illustration

paperville

2012-02-24T12:15:00.002+01:00

remember this post about the 150 paper houses? well, here they all are, on the set i made with gianluca for an animation he worked on recently, for a film. it all felt a little gondry-esque and dreamlike.

early morning character 4: samuele

2012-02-21T12:52:00.001+01:00

sam could slap a mean bass solo.

(for my brother sam)

abecedario

2012-02-16T19:22:00.000+01:00

im working on an alphabet project. yesterday i made some quick memory cards (there is some really bad ESL for kids material out there, picture wise, so i tend to make my own) for the kids i teach english to, who are learning B words, and i thought about making the whole thing as a side project.

the whole abc thing is a bit overdone in the illustration world but at the same time it's nice to see what kind of words different illustrators pick for each letter. what would you pick for A? and is there an alternative to xylophone for X?

wildwood

2012-02-13T14:13:00.000+01:00

i've just finished reading wildwood, the amazing fruit of a collaboration between decemberist singer colin meloy and illusrator/wife carson ellis. it was an exquisitely written and illustrated adventure, a real pleasure during these snowy days.

2012-02-06T16:28:00.001+01:00

cold and quiet.

puttin' the love back into rome, episode 5: snow

2012-02-05T14:57:00.001+01:00

this is not a snowy city. the last time i saw little kids in a snowball fight on the streets of rome, i was one of them. it was 1985. it only lasted one day, but it was grand.

steve

2012-02-04T09:03:00.001+01:00

have been cooped up at home making new series of recycled wood paintings for an upcoming market. here's steve.

bits and pieces

2012-01-30T11:50:00.000+01:00

from a series i've been meaning to finish off for a couple of friends, minimal and japanese printy.

early morning character 3: étienne

2012-01-25T14:26:00.000+01:00

étienne was known to have played his own ear off on his yamaha.

to paint again

2012-01-24T15:54:00.001+01:00

it's been almost 10 months since i moved into this house full of light, and i still haven't got around to buying a proper easel so i can start painting again! this photo dates back to maybe july: a temporary and precarious setup. now in this room there is a bed and a dear friend!

this is my one new years resolution: find an old easel, lug it up four flights of stairs, get back to the dirty work.

early morning character 2: Pilar

2012-01-17T21:07:00.000+01:00

Pilar likes to make dulce de leche for her niños when they come home.

shop update

2012-01-13T12:52:00.000+01:00

i've finally put some new work in the shop! you can find these five wooden paintings here.

early morning character 1: margherita

2012-01-12T09:32:00.002+01:00

this is the first of a series of characters i started working on in those beautifully quiet and productive 3am-to-dawn jetlag drawing sessions.

Margherita's first letter smelt like lavender and mouldy paper.

2012-01-10T08:59:00.000+01:00

this week everything starts again. rome's sunny january makes facing the winter ahead a little easier. but to really start the year with sunshine and warm the creative juices, here are some pictures from the trip back home to perth.

2012-01-01T23:13:00.004+01:00

jus de pamplemousse

2011-12-29T18:22:00.001+01:00

got back from australia yesterday, to a dreary cold and leafless rome. i'm making the most of my jetlag and the cold to start on some new illustrations though. this morning i woke up at 3am and worked til the sun came up. pity it won't last long, this early morning productivity.

here is a painting i made whilst in perth, in between beach visits of course.

2011-12-24T10:13:00.001+01:00

centostorie interview

2011-12-23T09:39:00.000+01:00

the children's book blog centostorie recently asked me five questions, which i answered, here. they are in italian, but maybe google will do a good job translating. i have faith in you google.

2011-12-18T02:37:00.000+01:00

the joy of doing not much at all. except paint pictures for friends' kids and drink lots of good beer and eat illegal amounts of sushi.

the petrol band

2011-12-15T01:40:00.000+01:00

two favourite boys.

i am home.

2011-12-01T05:11:00.000+01:00

making it this far.

2011-11-28T10:06:00.000+01:00

best thirty years of my life.

inside the ilustrarte package

2011-11-18T09:47:00.000+01:00

these are details from the three illustrations i had sent to the ilustrarte exhibition in portugal (whose selected participants can be seen here, and whose winner can be seen here! congratulations valerio!)

these illustrations and a few others were part of a book project i had started with susanna mattiangeli, who is in my opinion one of the greatest children storytellers in italy right now (one of the downsides of living in an age of images is the decreased importance of words. children's books today are often -not always- just amazing works of art surrounded by vague plots and poor content. susanna is a refreshing change from this tendency and i hope she will publish lots of stories for my future children to read).

making childrens books is an arduous task, and italian editors are hard to please, but it's an interesting experience and one i hope to be able to continue.

i've had a lot of fun making these illustrations, and i think that's a good sign.
you can see the full pictures here.

puttin' the love back into rome, episode 4: agostino iacurci

2011-11-17T09:23:00.000+01:00

the gazometro area is one of the most interesting and fresh and bursting with potential spots in the city. the downside is it will probably remain so, bursting with potential, for many years to come. full of post industrial warehouses, factories and abandoned war storage facilites engulfed by vegetation, this area has always been a magnet for street art. i drive past this street most days on my way to work, and love looking at the swimmer here.

agostino is a friend, illustrator and muralist based in rome, and this is my thumbs up to him for making my trip to work more special, and for puttin' some much needed love into this country for old men.

see more of his work here.

portrait series: zio cirillo

2011-11-10T00:28:00.001+01:00

a great great great uncle of the great federico baciocchi, Cirillo Cirio was a landowner who lived in friuli in the late 19th century. baciocchi likes to think him part of the same Cirio family that founded the infamous pasta sauce. i just like to think that, much like his younger relative federico, his hair was on fire.

puttin' the love back into rome, episode 3: sunday flea

2011-11-07T13:16:00.004+01:00

portaportese is rome's biggest flea market and, like all things in this city, it is imbued with a love-hate potential unequalled by other flea markets i've ever been to. the unpretentious uncoolness of its sellers has a magnet effect for certain kinds of misanthropes. i have a long standing affection for this place, dating back to early childhood sunday strolls. i love the feeling of chaotic solitude this place creates.

note: the scary looking man in the picture is actually harmless.

also, having recently dusted off my film camera after months of inactivity, i'll share a few photos i took there a few sundays ago.

that old feeling

2011-11-04T18:23:00.000+01:00

i walked into a plain looking and understocked art supply store in garbatella a few weeks ago and found a generously stacked and dusty tower of transfer sheets. that feeling of pressing the letters in is, i believe, up there with popping bubblewrap on the small pleasures of life scale.

while on the lettering theme, here is something beautiful i walk past so very often and always forget to photograph.

the whole story

2011-11-02T16:18:00.000+01:00

getting there. need sleep.

harvest magazine and pigeons present:

2011-10-27T18:09:00.002+02:00

early harvest magazine! 'the literary magazine published by children for children'

i was really happy to contribute to this project. friend Emma Hewitt (llustrator for cover/invite below) started a collaboration with pigeons, and along with harvest magazine they set up an after school program for aspiring young writers, editors and illustrators. the fruit of this peculiar collaboration between kids and bigger people is early harvest, a collection of short stories and illustrations, which you can find out more about here. if you live in melbourne, you should head down to the sun theatre for the launch (see invite below)!

and here is my picture for a hilarious story by Steph Brotchie.

runny nose, headless chook

2011-10-25T17:48:00.000+02:00

it's been crazy busy time but full of awesomeness that i hope to post about soon. in the meantime, here's a song.

music typewriter

2011-10-20T09:00:00.003+02:00

couldn't help but be amazed when i saw this! reminded me of the typewriter-piano (for all those singer-songwriters who lose sleep, stuck on a rhyme) that i painted a few years ago.
found on colossal.

treehouses part three

2011-10-18T10:59:00.000+02:00

without trees. have been thinking about australia a lot, and how i'll be there soon and i absolutely cannot wait,
among other things, to see the sky spread perfectly flat and clear and vast over suburbia.

here's the last of my digital colouring fun sessions.

puttin' the love back into rome, episode 2: post-market clean up

2011-10-13T17:36:00.000+02:00

there's something i love about that moment between 2 and 4 pm, away from the main streets and into the heart of roman neighbourhoods, when the remnants of the morning's market fervour get sweeped up and rinsed away, leaving behind a trail of defeated vegetables, like at the end of a party. there's something melancholic about it. the street is empty of people, and the only noise is the tragic hum of the garbage collection van.

treehouses part two

2011-10-12T10:16:00.003+02:00

i've been trying out some digital colouring, which i'm not used to doing, but works well in print.
here is a photo from a little while back, of another treehouse. sitting in a monstrous building waiting for my students i look at the trees outside and wish i could spend the day there instead.

neverending stop motion

2011-10-10T11:42:00.000+02:00

here are some photos of what we call 'the cave', the underground studio where gianluca works, and where i spend a lot of time (usually as personal assistant in the form of lunch-bringer, morale-lifter and plasticine-melter). i am such a fan of his work and therefore need to share it with you here. this set is for a short film on one of Poe's short stories. to see more of G's plasticine creations go here. and here are a couple of videos.

2011-10-07T16:04:00.001+02:00

working on a new book for ELI readers.

off to portugal

2011-10-07T13:34:00.000+02:00

not me (i wish), but my illustrations. sent them today to the international illustration competition ilustrarte, held in lisbon every couple of years. i hope they don't come back too quickly! i'll show you what's inside the package soon.

puttin' the love back into rome

2011-09-30T14:50:00.004+02:00

i've been livin here in rome for over four years now, and between the chaos of the city, italy's cultural and economic crisis, a disheartening level of pollution, beaurocracy and general technological backwardness, the aussie in me tends to get pretty fed up with it all. plus, i've even started driving now which means no more night buses, but a whole load of unparalleled road hysteria. there are a lot of angry people out there.

i crave wide open roads and forests and trees and silence and oxigen.
i've also realized that i need to take a different approach and start making note of all the things i do love about this place. so here we go: a new series called puttin' the love back into rome.

To start off we have:

More often than not, cars in rome do not stop to let pedestrians pass, unless there is a traffic light. One of the things that helps me love rome better is the surprised pedestrian. driving along the busy street i see him, he has been waiting forever to cross (too often i am in his place). i stop, he glances in awe, smiles and gives a little wave. there should be more smiling and waving everywhere, generally.

too much, not enough of.

2011-09-26T23:00:00.002+02:00

1.working on another set with g (gotta make 150 of these little houses!)
2. view from the window (rome is a bundle of heat still, killer mosquitoes lurking)
3. roadtrip weekend (sulphur smelling hot spring, gut eating chooks, ears buzzing from night silence)

mcsweeneys for tiny tots

2011-09-21T17:36:00.002+02:00

I have long been a fan of McSweeneys, the literary journal / publishing house / home base of a whole load o' literary projects and foundations. i've just found out they've produced a new children's book imprint with brian McMullen. To inspire aspiring authors and illustrator, they've even come up with a blank starter kit! Here is a vid for their latest book. love it.

oilbar

2011-09-19T09:32:00.000+02:00

i came across photos of an oilbar painting i gave as a gift to a friend last year. oil has the most wonderful shine and grit and flow.

home

2011-09-16T09:30:00.000+02:00

today is one of the days i work from home. there is such an incredible quantity of light in this place. it's been a while since i could call a place home.

reina y fauna

2011-09-13T11:25:00.000+02:00

acrylics and pencil on canvas, 80x80cm. a commissioned painting.

sketchbook

2011-09-12T23:46:00.001+02:00

wondering buddha

2011-09-12T23:29:00.000+02:00

weekend spent in green space. my little friend wanted to take a picture of the buddha by the pond, but he was gone. maybe he went for a wonder round the garden, i said. she took the picture anyway, of where he sat, in rememberance.

treehouses

2011-09-10T10:46:00.001+02:00

just a little series i'm working on.

welcome to my new space

2011-09-08T16:23:00.000+02:00

this will be a place to see new things, work in progress and little pieces of the everyday. one only hopes to be more consistent. à bientot!