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La Dolce Vita. 

 

Joy called from Montefalco.  I'll collect you and we'll go to Trevi she said, the market may be on and then we'll go and see Alison.  I was pleased and couldn't wait.   An hour later Joy collected me just outside Piazza Garibaldi and we left for Trevi, a stunning little hillside village pretending to be an important Renaissance painting.    

 

Joy wedged her little car tightly in a small parking spot, a centimetre as good as a mile and I congratulated her cahunas, brrravissimo Joybelle.  We coffee'd in the main piazza,  wandered the back alleys and window shopped before leaving for Alison's. 

 

An Italian dream, I thought;  this vast Umbrian vista of rolling green and pale golden hills scattered with olive trees, round bales on their backs in the fields,  sprinkled wild flowers and miniature compositions of homesteads tucked away in clumps of dark trees, utterly paintable.  

 

Alison guided us through her home and studio, spacious, artistically arranged in old and modern Italian style.  These women are not afraid live their dreams and I am madly inspired.      

 

Alison's large loose paintings mirror the land and lifestyle.  Her studio is of good proportion yet compact in its layout, everything is at hand.  The garden is full and lush, a veggie patch provides everything needed in the household including strawberries for the grandchildren to snack on. 

 

We lunched long on the terrace, sipped Prosecco (one of my favourtite Italian words after gnocci) nibbled on pecorino, pastrami, olives, fresh bread, followed by pasta and more Prosecco, then dolce, Prosecco and cafe....aaahh, the sweet life!

Soon it was siesta time, Joy took me back to Spoleto and we promised we'd do it again.  I can't wait.    

 

 

 

 

Studio in Spoleto

As an artist I arrange studio space around me wherever I travel, be it the back seat of a motorbike under a tree in the Mediterranean, next to a canoe off an African river, the back of a jeep in New Zealand or a room somewhere in Europe. It doesn't take long before I'm organized.    

From the art shop I schlepped canvas and art material (that sense of always being an art student!) to my apartment, covered the dining room chairs to serve as easel, the dining table became a work table, pasta pot a water container, I kept empty jars and styrene trays to mix paint, a coffee jar to keep my brushes in - and I went to work on a painting for the hospital in Spoleto. 

 

Two weeks later 'Hope and Faith' was unveiled.  It was a special evening attended by artists, old friends and new friends.  The work is a landscape and narrative, it speaks of a deeply personal journey that started on the other side of the world and ended here, in Spoleto. 

 

Reading the work from left to right, it begins with our spiritual centre in Australia, Uluru, sacred place of prayer.  The raw Outback grows into the gentle greens of Umbria where gum and olive trees grow side by side, in one soil.  Architectural symbols of faith and prayer are illuminated and the journey ends in an empty bed on the right.  The figure behind the bed could be anyone; a doctor, a patient or perhaps a celestial being watching over us at the end of the day when we go to sleep.  The work juxtapositions day and night and is painted 'ala prima', in loose and spontaneous brushwork.

The painting is in honour and memory of my beloved Robert, and I feel strangely comforted leaving something of myself behind in Italy. 

 

re: Miss You.

 
 
   Happy to hear from You. More news soon. Baci Mafalda.

A Borrowed Image.

After a light lunch at a little bar around the corner, we said goodbye to Denise and Steve.  Laurie and Norma popped over to my place for a few minutes, she not knowing that I had done a painting for her birthday.  

Last week I asked if I could borrow her image for a piece of work, she agreed and we had a quick sketch session in my studio.  I took half a dozen photos from which I worked to complete the painting over the weekend, a loose, sketchy work in bold colour.  It occured to me during the night that she may not like it, what then?  Profuse apologies and start again?  Would I be painting myself into a corner and spend the next 6 months reworking it, Norma behind me until I get it right? or not speaking to me again?  Oh the perils of portraiture!  I had forgotten what a minefield it is.  I'd forgotten how intimite the whole process is, how delicate egos can be and how the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  

Well Norma's response was beyond my expectation and I'm thrilled. 




 
 

Vista Rocca

I'm up on the first floor right above Corso Garibaldi where it narrows into Via Porta Vuga, leading to la Rocca if you continue uphill and swing left.   My apartment windows look out and up to la Rocca.  Lit at night it is quite a fairytale.  In fact, all of Italy is a visual fairytale with fortified villages, castles, forests and fortresses.   The ancient walled-in city Spoleto's ancient architecture is an artists' delight and I've drawn around the piazzas and chiesas for years absorbing visual history and atmosphere...

The beautifully preserved fresco painted by Fr.Filippo Lippi 1467-1469 ! bring me to my knees in the Duomo, the colours as fresh as yesterday.   It depicts The Annunciation; the angel holds a stem of what we know as St Joseph's lillies - its wings faded, enhancing the spiritual quality of the work.    

First post from Spoleto 17 May 2011

Steve helping me set up a blog..thank you Steve. 

Cool morning in Spoleto, slept in.  Showered, coffee'd at Fratelli's on Piazza Garibaldi and came over to Steve and Denise who live in my apartment of last year, Rocco dei Perrugini off Corso Garibaldi.  It's Norma's birthday today, we're going to lunch nearby.  I borrowed Norma's image for a painting as a birthday gift to her.