May/June Exhibitions and Sicily

May and June have been very busy organising exhibitions, and holidays in Sicily. Consequently I have not been working in the studio - at least not painting there anything like as much as I would like. But the life of an artist is not all producing work - it’s a business and marketing, exhibiting and selling takes time.

In May the owner of the gallery in Sicily came to the studio and selected 20 paintings for the exhibition in Milazzo, Sicily - she is Carmen Caruso and the the Gallery is The Caruso Gallery.

Subsequently there was a lot of work cataloging, packing and shipping the paintings in time for the start of the show on 1st June.  I travelled there for an event  a "finissage" to end the show rather than for the opening night. It was a great event meeting lots of clients and making a video Here are a few photos - It is difficult to get a good idea of the show because the paintings are nicely spaced out on the walls but don’t make for good photos. Also I was constantly occupied talking to people so I didn’t get a chance to photograph them. 

II am now permanently represented by the gallery.

Carmen on the phone - lots of requests to see paintings after the show ended

Before everyone arrived - always a tense moment!

I travelled to Sicily with my husband by car and ferry. We stayed at Palermo for a few days then went on to Agrigento - where at last I visited the Valley of the Temples - amazing, and then on to Milazzo for the exhibition. Sicily is an incredible island but with the changing climate it was far too hot in June - 40 or 41 degrees every day!!  Here are a few photos 

Beautiful kapok trees in the Botanical Gardens Palermo

The "Scala dei Turchi" at Agrigento

In the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento- this chap was just lying there - no information about him - a bit "look at me"

The fabulous Agriturismo Reggia Saracena where we stayed in Agrigento

Other things that have been happening are:

My participation in a collective exhibition in the Palazzo Ottolenghi in Asti where I met new artist colleagues and opened a number of opportunities for future exhibitions together.

I installed a number of quite  figurative landscapes in the tourist office in the local town of Montiglio and a selection of floral paintings in the florist shop in Cerrina where I buy my flowers - they provided me with a lovely array of tulips in April and May

I participated in a collective exhibition in Venice with one of my very abstract iris inspired paintings  - I didn’t attend and so have no photos - but here is the painting.

Lastly but not least I have joined a new project/organisation  based in Turin called Artàporter. As an artist you register with the scheme (applications are vetted) and the organisation invites restaurants, bars, owners of public spaces etc in Turin and Milan who would like to exhibit art work, to register themselves with the scheme - they are also vetted. Then the property owners select from the Artàporter website those artists they would like to exhibit. I have had my work on exhibition in a beautiful bar GEF in Corso Francia, Turin for a month and for July/ August am exhibiting at the Cornoler restaurant in via Bellini in Turin. I keep forgetting to take photos of these events - so none here i am afraid! Will try harder next time.

I said I didn’t get to do much painting in the studio in this period - but I did some more ink sketches  on paper based on the tulips. I love the way the inks run into each other and produce new colours.

I then developed the theme on canvas which really moved away from the original imagery. 

These two will be going to the Corneler Restaurant next week along with 8 others

Just before I went to Sicily I started a couple of canvases - still floral but a bit different - they are inspired by photos of  my garden that I have taken in the past. I used the photos to kick off the paintings but focussed on the colour and overall forms more than anything.  Here they are still on the easel - not finished but I think close to it. I’ve not wanted to dive straight into them after not working for so long - so I have a bit of warming  up to do. 

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March/April Mostly Gardening and Flowers

Two months have flown by again and we are now into May. Although i said in my last newsletter that I was taking a break from mountains I couldn’t leave some paintings alone. 

Here is one large - more figurative work - I have been reading a number of books on mountains including Nan Shepherd’s “The Living Mountain” and I like to use some quotes from her as titles for my paintings - and I think this one was really appropriate.  

Look Creatively to See this Mass of Rock as More than Jag and Pinnacle

Here is one inspired by a sketch of the Alps west of Turin. "Rhythm in the Fluid Curve and Plunging Line of the Mountain"

And a drawing (Ink and gesso on paper) , inspired by the glaciers on Mont Blanc

The festival of San Marco on the 25th April was a great success - we had six artists showing their work, with lots of interest from visitors. I sold 4 works - so more than happy with the day. 

Here are  two of the works that have gone to new homes

However the gardening season has definitely started and I have been busy maintaining and planting in my garden, which of course involved some trips to my favourite nursery in nearby Casale and to the annual garden festival at Castello Massino near Biella. Tulips are one of my favourite flowers and I have been using them to make studies and loose paintings in inks. I just love their colours and forms - especially when they are going over and getting long and bendy and the flowers really open out. Here are a few examples of what I have been doing.

This one will be on exhibition at the Palazzo Ottolenghi - 13 - 29 May

These two were sold at the Fiera di San Marco

I can't resist putting in a few photographs showing the results of my labour in the garden - these will definitely appear in one form or another in some future paintings

In April I sold two paintings to clients in the UK - the first time since the Brexit trading laws have been applied. It took some research to make sure I had all the right paperwork for shipping and customs. In any case if I ship a painting out of Italy I have to have official permission to ship it  (proof that it is not a Leonardo or Raffaello et al). So it can be rather time consuming. However one has arrived successfully and I have just shipped the other- so fingers crossed. 

New homes in the UK for these two

I shall be participating in a mixed exhibition in the Palazzo Ottolenghi in Asti during May with three floral paintings. In a few days the Gallery owner based in Sicily will be coming to choose 10 paintings for my exhibition in Milazzo, Sicily. So I need to tidy up the studio for that visit.

In addition to all the above I started an on line course (Abstracting the Landscape) with Lewis Noble  - an excellent artist based in Derbyshire. I have not had the time to do the whole course. Luckily it will be available on line for some time and I think I will start from the beginning again. But here are two of the works in progress so far. They are based on painting sketches I made on site - during which time I heard my first cuckoo this year on the 5th April

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January/February 2022. Milan, Mountains and Flowers

Welcome to my first newsletter of 2022. It seems a bit late now to say Happy New Year!. In fact we are almost through the winter months now.  I have a new wood burning stove in my studio and it has been keeping me nice and warm while I have been painting mountains and looking at the cold weather outside. 

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I have exhausted the Dolomite paintings for the time being and although I don’t normally frame my paintings I have had a few framed as I think that it can help to contain the image - here are 3 that have recently come back from the framers - a triptych which works on that level but also as separate paintings. I have 3 more at the framers (didn't take photos before I took them in!)  plus this black and white one.

I might have exhausted the Dolomites but I am still obsessed with mountains. Looking through the many mountain sketches I made last year I found 3 that I particularly like and have started paintings based on them - they are still very much works in progress and at the moment I like the sketches more - yes I am at the phase 2 stage where I have lost the freshness of the first layers of paint and am now working through the process of getting it back again- it’s standard procedure for most painters - you just have to believe that it will happen - mostly it does!  So for the time being here are the sketches only!

The Milan exhibition in which I participated opened on the 15th February - here I am seated under 2 of my paintings - I exhibited 3 floral ones - two from the Florence Biennale and the pink one in the photo. It is inspired by Rose Petals - all fallen from the flowers, making a carpet on the ground. 

We stayed overnight after the private view. Our hotel was very near the church of Santa Maria della Grazie where Leonardo painted the  Last Supper or I should say Il Cenacolo Vinciano. We were very lucky to get tickets straightaway and at last I have seen it. It really is incredible - so beautiful and so amazingly restored. So here it is alongside me!!

The dates for my exhibition in Sicily have been fixed - from 1st June to 1st July. I will be showing 5 mountain paintings and 5 floral paintings - the gallery owner will be coming next month to choose them - really excited. We will obviously be making a trip to Sicily for the opening and to explore some parts of Sicily that I have yet to see- including Palermo.

I have managed to get a group of artists together to show their work at the Cocconato Festa di San Marco on 25th April which I hope will be at least an annual event but also lead to more art being shown in Cocconato. So any one within travelling distance of Cocconato please put that date in your diary

I have made a couple of sales this month - a mountain painting on paper and one of my favourite floral paintings.- which has gone to one of my best clients, so will be in good company with a few siblings!

Percorso Verso l'Alto

La Profusione Rose

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November/December - Autumn Colours and of course - Mountains

Again I am compelled to write a double newsletter - late November and early December galloped on a pace and here we are at the end of the year. So I will start by saying thank you to all of you who have subscribed to my newsletter. I hope you all had a good Christmas especially in these difficult times and I wish you all a happy, and importantly, healthy New Year.

So what has been happening in the studio? At the end of October I posted a few sketches which were the beginnings  of my response to the glorious autumn colours we were experiencing here in Piemonte. These led to this  small series of finished works on paper. All in acrylic using palette knife, scrapers, spray and transfers.

I then returned to the  mountains,  - literally. At this time of the year I can see the Alps all around me - living as I do in the "armpit" of the French/Italian Alps but that is not the same as being in them. So I went up to Courmayeur with my husband for a few days at the beginning of December.  I was wondering how Turner managed to get to a height above Courmayeur to make his paintings of the views looking down the Aosta Valley. However, we happened to be opposite the entrance to the SkyWay Cable Car, which I must admit I had been  little fearful of trying. But we did - and I am so glad. The views were really incredible - I did actually utter the words  “eat your heart out Turner”!!. It was a just marvellous to be there. On my return to the studio I had so many Dolomite paintings on the go so I haven’t yet started on any paintings directly relating to Monte Bianco - but as a taster of what might come here are a few photos - including one of us enjoying the view

As I said I am still very occupied with all the material I gathered while I was in the Dolomites. I have finished a number of small canvases - here are a few more: You can see more on my "Recent Work" page.

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I have a number of other smaller canvases on the go but I am also  working on a couple of 100 x 80 centimetre canvases and generally trying to scale up - which is not easy. 

Regarding publicity and showing my work -

As listed above in “where you  can see my work” I will be exhibiting some floral paintings with the MyMicroGallery in Milan in January - here is one of them. 

After a very pleasant visit to my studio by the owner of a gallery in Sicily I will be exhibiting there some time next year. 

I am beginning research to locate a prestigious location - probably in the mountains in the north of Italy to hold a large exhibition of my mountain paintings next year. So if anyone can help with that please contact me.

I belong to a business group - Business Network International and was asked to make a presentation about my work earlier this month. It went very well and I received wonderful feedback. It was the first time I have made a presentation in Italian without notes - so it meant that I took along time out of the studio preparing! 

Sales have continued well in November and December- with my latest one being a painting of tulips made in 2018 which I have always loved and am so pleased to see it going to the loving home of a horticulturalist

So that is all from me this year. It has been a great year for me and I thank all my newsletter subscribers, my followers on Facebook and Instagram and all my clients. Wishing you all a very happy New Year - see you in 2022

October -  Whispers and Florence Biennale