Florence Academy of Art

Sometimes I am amazed how blessed I am. When we were in Florence I made an appointment to go see the Florence Acdemy of Art - where I would LOVE to go take a summer class in figure drawing. After the tour, Karen Hagan and I were totally blown away by the student work, and asked if they ever had exhibits and sales. We were then invited to a Student Show that night - and the special guest was going to be Antonio Benedito, aka Tony Bennett!

So here's the short story - we all walked across Forence, found the studio, decided to be "fashionably late", got gelato...and missed him!

But nothing compared to seeing the work of the advanced students. I even pluncked down my meager euros for a drawing by Carlos Madrid (out being framed and will post that next week) that I carefully carried around Italy for 10 days. Check out the site - truly remarkable!

It's been so long since I posted something, and now I have too much information! Spoleto was hot, tiring, and great fun. For an economy that is hurting, there were plenty of people out there buying what's important - paintings! Thanks to everyone for visiting and adding to their collections.

Italy - what can I say but "Bellissimo!" Another year of great people, memories and fabulous food. Il Chiostro is the group out of NYC that sponsors the Tuscany and Venice trips and they spoil us all rotten with all of their unique and wonderful dishes. Favorite this year - gelato with chocolate and almaretto cherries for dessert...YUM!

And Rome. I absolutely fell in love with the city. Stinkin hot, but Samantha, Angie Canady and myself walked the entire city for two days and marveled at the architecture, paintings and statues. Saint Peters was truly awesome.

Need to get myself organized this week, get ready for the show at Ella Richardson's gallery July 11th. Once I download some photos I'll post the Florence Academy of Art ones - that deserves a posting all on it's own

ciao

Out of the Box

Spoleto is over, I'm getting ready to leave for Italy in three days for the workshop by Il Chiostro, but wanted to share my first abstract, appropriately called "Abstract #1". After painting in the park small paintings each day, and looking at my neighbor's contempary work, I thought I would "get out of my box" and try something new- and it was really fun! I got lots of tips from fellow mixed media artists around, bought some tissue, and acrylics and worked all day on this 36x36 canvas.

When I start to paint, I pretty much have an idea of where I am going with the painting. With abstract, it was interesting because it was a new way of thinking as I approached the canvas. Except for the composition, the thought process was totally new for me and really took me in a whole new direction, which was challanging.

"Time Out"

Day 13 in the park today and I am taking my time this morning to play catch up before getting down there. Tuesdays are traditionally slower - good for the tourists, bad for the artists. To keep busy, we all paint, read up on the magazines we've collected and never read (we're all "picture readers" anyway). And we all get a bit tired of the heat and the comments of "Do have this in a poster?", "My mother paints", "How long did it take you to paint this", "Is this your best price?". (I know of one artist who was put into Time Out by her daughters the other day after this question was directed to her - and she was a bit short with the reply!)
Surprisingly, despite the economy, it's been a good Piccolo Spoleto. The collectors are still there, and paintings are finding new homes.
Tomorrow I'll post the paintings I've been working down in the park.