Making Art in Florence

I have been really lucky whilst we've been here to be able to have some lessons and studio time with Laura Thompson at The Florence Studio. I also did a watercolour landscape class with Tom Byrne. Here is what I've created.... A Mastercopy of Vermeer's Girl with the Pearl Earing

                         I painted this! It took me about 25 hours and I learnt an ENORMOUS amount about mixing colours, choosing materials, relative colour, the importance of “knocking out the white” so I can work out the value and colour, as well as the importance of working in big shapes then narrowing things down to finer details, how to work in layers (many layers), & how to glaze etc.  I’m feeling pretty proud of what I’ve been able to do and all that I’ve learnt. Now to put it into practice back home in Australia.

This quick alla prima painting took me about 90 mins, most of which was taken up with mixing my colours. I didn’t finish the whole exercise, as I wanted to move on to the next one (it was my last day in the studio), but I learnt a lot.

This very quick alla prima painting was done in a hour. I will go back and make some changes/fix some problems when I get home.

Laura Thompson has been a wonderful teacher and a beautiful person to be around. I can’t recommend her art school enough, The Florence Studio. https://theflorencestudio.com/ 

A quick urban sketch of a view of the Duomo from the roof of the Biblioteca della Oblate.

I made a “kitchen sink” lithograph in honour of the Artemis II launch that has happened whilst we’ve been here. This print is made using alfoil, coca cola & some left over paint (with some extra oil mixed in). I coloured it with watercolour. It is my interpretation of the Earth Rise photo by Astronaut William Anders in 1968.

A watercolour landscape that I did with Tom Bryne. He was a super lovely man and a fantastic teacher, but I still don’t “get” watercolour except as a wash over a pen drawing. I’m in awe of the skills that artists who use watercolour as their primary focus have (like Tom).

Tom Byrne

 

Florence Street Art

 Some street art in Florence that has made me smile

In the studio, walking around Florence

 

It has been a quiet week of me painting in the studio and us walking around Florence just soaking up all the art, architecture and history (& gelato!).

Leo the studio bunny has decided I’m ok and likes to watch what I’m doing 

I got myself some new painting (reading) glasses - I was going for the Edna Mode look (No capes!)

This is where my master copy of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earing is up to. Tomorrow I tackle the hard parts of the face and rework parts I’m not happy with.

I did a bit of urban sketching - this is the view of the Duomo from the Bibliotech delle Oblate (I did a watercolour lesson here 2 years ago & I’m thrilled to see that I’ve improved).

Someone has this over their front door, just down the street from our apartment - Florence really is a living historical city

There was a street parade celebrating the Florentine New Year

Rose flavoured toothpaste!

The view on the C2 bus to the studio is really impressive

Every day Steve & Skye pick me up from the studio and we walk home for lunch. Each day we go a different route, and this day we went through Piazza della Signoria with the copy of the statue of David (the real thing is in the Academia).

The statues of lions in Florence are much more lifelike than in Rome - because Florence kept live lions in the city for hundreds of years.

I never get sick of having views of the Duomo creep up on us as we walk down the street

Hanging out next to the Duomo

These simple tools (made out of paper and cardboard) help to get relative colours correct - they’ve been an absolute game changer in me being able to get the right colour and tone (value) with my colour mixing.

Prato Lego Brick Show

 Stephen took the bus & train to Prato to go and see the Lego Users Group show on there this weekend. It was much smaller than Canberra, but there were still some seriously impressive builds. They made him feel VERY welcome, which was kind of them, and as a bonus he was able to pick up some lego to bring home for his build for the next big show in Canberra later in the year. 

Cooking Class

 We were really lucky to have the same chef Allein, who did our market tour with us. We were especially lucky that again it was just us and Allain (all the other classes we have seen have been up to 12 people, so we are especially lucky to have a private tour of the market and a private cooking class).

Stephen did most of the cooking <3 We cooked everything from scratch (except the cannoli shells)

Gnocchi with pesto (we met the people who grew the basil when we were at the market last week with Allain) 

Fettuccini carbonara

                Bologenese Lasagne (5 layers of pasta & the two sauces!)

Scillian Cannoli 

We made two Bologenese Lasagne’s and one vegetarian lasagne - so much food.

We have also been enjoying traditional Florentine sandwiches