See the Show

Maddine Insalaco, "From Vignale", detail

Settimana della Cultura civiTONICA

Con gli occhi degli artisti stranieri -Through Foreign Eyes

Museo Archeologico dell’Agro Falisco · Forte Sangallo, Cappella Papale

Via del Forte, Civita Castellana (VT) 01033

27 October 2012 through 11 November 2012

Open Tuesday–Sunday according to the museum schedule: hourly entry, every hour on the hour, first entry 8:00, last entry 18:00

Opening Saturday 27 October 2012 16:30 – 19:30

Free Admission

For further information:  347 143 40 36

Paintings available for purchase following show, by reservation

Participating Artists

Debbie Berger, Lucy Clink, Gordon France, Jacque France, Elizabeth Garat, Christine Godfrey, Liz Graham-Yooll, Joan Hooker, Charlotte Hope, Diana Horowitz, Maddine Insalaco, Salee Lawrence, Carol Magnatta, David Mayernik, Mary Louise McCarroll, Barbra Mudd, Jessica Pinsky, Molly Preston, Christine Ritchie, Ane Carla Rovetta, Joe Vinson, Amy Weiskopf

David Mayernik, "Forte Sangallo, Rear", detail

Italia di Nuovo

at the Forum of Nerva

It is thrilling to be back in Italy, even in what is proving to be a record hot summer. Yesterday (Ferragosto) I was in the full sun along the via dei Fori Imperiali--saved by watermelon! 

Having recently been in Lucca and now in Rome, what is posted here documents three aspects of my evolving plein air strategies: drawing a subject as well as watercoloring or painting it, making watercolors approach oils in saturation (while preserving light), and addressing simple single subjects in order to confront them in greater detail. Last things first, a photo in situ of yesterday’s painting at the Forum of Nerva, along with one from spring a year ago on the Campidoglio; then, two views of the city walls of Lucca, one in sanguine in my sketchbook (morning), the other in watercolor (afternoon). 

The Trophies of Marius

NB: the show of plein air artists in Civita Castellana has been pushed back to 27 October to 11 November, to coincide with the town’s Arts Week, and will now be in the beautiful and imposing Forte Sangallo. More info to follow when I know it.

Outside Porta S. Donato

Modern Artists in Civita Castellana

I'm ceding the floor in this post to my friends Maddine Insalaco and Joe Vinson, who have organized, along with Alison Kurke and Emanuele Rossini, a show in Civita Castellana this fall of modern plein air artists who have worked in this part of northern Lazio so beloved of Corot and others. Please do try to come and see what should be a wonderful exhibit.

“Through Foreign Eyes: Civita Castellana by Artists Past and Present” (Con gli occhi degli artisti stranieri)

Exhibition to be held from 19 -26 September 2012

American artist painting at Civita Castellana 2007

Curated by Maddine Insalaco, Joe Vinson, Emanuele Rossini, Alison Kurke

Before the introduction of the automobile and construction of modern highways, most overland travelers to and from Rome along the Via Flaminia passed through Civita Castellana. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries the town became a favorite destination for international artists seeking places of exceptional natural beauty with local hospitality, and it was immortalized in the numerous works they produced. Today it is rare that anyone, including Italians, has even heard of Civita Castellana except in the context of sanitary wares. Yet, the interest by foreign artists has continued through the centuries to the present day. Originally motivated by a curiosity about the open air painting tradition in Civita Castellana, contemporary painters have acquired a genuine appreciation of the territory that will be formally shared with the public in this proposed exhibition. Between reproductions of historic paintings now located in museums throughout the world and original paintings by professional artists, the exhibition will comprise between sixty and one hundred images of Civita Castellana.

Resources for Painters

 American Artist  magazine has just published a special edition Painter's Handbook, which you'll find on their website here. I continue to be astounded by the number and quality of artists out there who are working in a realist mode, especially en plein air. That abundance of activity means a wealth of information gained by experience, and American Artist is quite good at helping share it. In the spirit of Car Talk's Shameless Commerce Division, note that I have a few of bits of advice, and two Roman plein air works, in the publication. One of the paintings, at the Teatro di Marcello, I have already posted; the other, of the Casa dei Cavalieri di Rodi, is posted here (at a significantly larger size than in the magazine).

Painting, Actually

Actually painting out of doors

The flowering plein air phenomenon is a wonderful thing. Some ambiguity hovers around what it means to work en plein air—are you really painting out of doors, are you painting what you are seeing, are you painting what you are seeing in Valenciennes’ two-hour window of time—but there is an obvious love of the act of being on site and capturing the world. I don’t see, though, much discussion on the various websites and blogs about painterly technique, partly no doubt because, without consensus on how much one is expected to capture, there is no focused idea of how one does the capturing. So I’m posting here some details of relatively recent plein air work from Rome and Lazio that shows my brushwork, which is for me the essential aspect of what it means to paint—as opposed to render—what one sees. As Diderot said:

"The value of creating resemblance is passing; it is that of the brush which causes us first to marvel, and then makes the work eternal."

—Denis Diderot, "Salon de 1763"

(Le merite de ressembler est passager; c'est celui du pinceau qui emerveille dans le moment et qui eternise l'ouvrage.)

Over at Emulatio I’ve posted details of some studio work, to facilitate a comparison (or to suggest that I work similarly inside and out). I welcome comments on each site.

Columns Near the Theater of Marcellus, Rome

Ponte Sisto, Rome

Vignale, Civita Castellana

Rocks, Opera

on designing sets for the Haymarket Opera Company of Chicago’s upcoming performance of Charpentier’s La Descente d’Orphèe aux Enfers:

http://haymarketopera.org/events.html

Tarpeian Rock, Capitoline Hill, Rome
watercolor and gouache on toned paper

I’ve written elsewhere on what, in the end, one does with plein air work. It so happens that a very fertile opportunity has come my way to employ my plein air experience in another context: Baroque opera sets. I’ve designed sets for the upcoming Haymarket Opera company’s performance of Charpentier’s La Descente d’Orphèe aux Enfers, and for the second act’s underworld set I drew heavily on the experience of these rocky Tyrrhenian shores. Please visit the Emulatio blog for a series on the sets, and the Haymarket Opera company’s website.

Piscine Naturali, Island of Ponza, Italy

Bastia, Corsica

Water, Color

Some Thoughts on Process....

Plein air being a rather intense experience, I am not in the habit of methodically documenting my work as it evolves over the roughly two hours it takes to walk away with something credible. But a few months back I was working on a watercolor of a familiar subject as a model for my students, and having begun a version that I soon noted had some problems with the proportions of the parts in drawing, I abandoned it and began a new one; so here you’ll find the abandoned version, which might be useful to see what I start with—sky and the most saturated areas in this case—and how it all winds up. For me one of the critical things in this view of the Palatine Hill from across the Circus Maximus is the variegation of the brickwork, from the differentiation in color of the voussoirs that make the arches to the places where the brick has been rubbed/chipped away. Since the last thing I do is introduce the shadows—in the end perhaps the most critical thing—I want to get the proper color and texture of the material “right” before the shadows go one. So I often start with the strongest or most saturated areas of local color first, and from there work toward the more subtle and neutral ones.

Also, note the sky as the negative space of the form....

Happy New Year to everyone, and to those who labor in the open air, particularly in Italy,

Buon lavoro.