Divine Beauty Devotional Art

Dear Art Lover,

Bouguereau

I had hoped to write about this art exhibition at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy, while it was still happening, but I got sidetracked.  I am currently in Austria seeing people that I love, so I have little time at the moment.

The exhibition was titled, “Bellezza Divina / Divine Beauty” and included works from Van Gogh to Chagall and Fontana to my favorites, Antonio Ciseri (1821-1891).  While many of Adolphe Bouguereau’s works seem sappy to some art critics, the enormous painting in this exhibition is absolutely stunning.  I cannot imagine anyone walking away from it without admiring the artist who conceived and painted it. 

Anyway, here are the images.  If you want to know the artist, please leave a comment on my blog page and I will get back to you once I am home again in February.

Thank you … and enjoy the devotional art and divine beauty.  This was a wonderful exhibition!  [More images below.]

+++++++++++++++

It is January and this month I celebrate 15 years as a full-time artist! Wow.. thank you for being a part of this adventure. Your support has been invaluable. I would like to celebrate by making it easier to buy some art that moves you. Here goes:

·         15% off on all available sculptures. The pricelist is here:
http://www.borsheimarts.com/pricelist.htm#sculpture

·         15% off on all available 2-D work, from paintings and drawings in any medium to giclée fine art reproductions.

·         If you buy two or more Borsheim Art Works
before 15 February 2016,
you will also receive
a $50 framing gift certificate
to use as you like. This is a
Special Offer
from Don Elliott at
The Frame Shop/Franklin Barry Gallery in Indianapolis.

Buy Art

These offers end February 15, 2016. Prices you see on the Web site are BEFORE the 15% savings offer. Thank you for your interest!

If you would like to read the full art newsletter for January, including see a new work on the easel still, please visit:

http://www.borsheimarts.com/news/20160111_ArtNews-NitramCharcoalDrawing.htm

Thank you.  Peace,

Kelly Borsheim, artist

http://BorsheimArts.com

Ciseri

The Conversion of St. Paul

Detail of painting shown left

Chagall, apparently the Pope's favorite

Bouguereau First Kiss Streetpainting

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Last Monday, I assisted my streetpainting colleague Sukyong (from Korea) in recreating the Mona Lisa in chalk and pastel. In bed by 2:30 am that night, I was up early and streetpainting in Florence, Italy, again by 10 am the next day. My Japanese colleague Kumiko and I had agreed the night before to create William Bouguereau’s “First Kiss” (or as the Italians call it ”Il Premio Bacio”).

I decided on how I wanted to crop the image – the art of the madonnari is to create large works to make a spettacolo and then began making measurements in my space. I then sketched out most of the entire composition in white chalk. Just as I was wrapping that up, Kumiko arrived and we decided that she would create the masculine figure on the left, I would do the girl on the right.


Collaborating is often interesting and I think that Kumiko and I did a good job on this one. Although I have known this sculptor/madonnara for a couple of years now, we have never drawn together. You can see from this second image that she and I start off a little bit differently. While I was thinking of dividing my shapes into lights and darks and then layering in colors, Kumiko started off with a reddish base on the entire face, then adding darks and lights (and neutralizing the colors as she went along). I told her that her method was more like the classical painting method of starting with a campitura or more simply put: toning a canvas with a color that will show through a bit into the design.


After I smoothed all of my layers into the street with my palms and fingers, I stood up and back and had a good laugh. It looked to me as if I have drawn the face of a geisha, not a child! Kumiko agreed, jokingly suggesting that I just add a bit of color to the outer edge of the upper eyelid to finish the effect.


Bouguereau has always been difficult for me to copy because he is so subtle on his tonal contrasts. I have never felt gifted in the art of subtlety. I also love to draw hands and was enjoying this particular challenge today. Here I am laying in the arm (later to be trimmed down a bit).



Several times throughout the day, I offered a stick of chalk to a child. Earlier in the day, I must have met all of the shy kids. Later, two girls accepted. The first one is from England and was doing her “Oh my, this is hard work” pose. A future actress no doubt, her parents admitted. The little blonde girl is from Germany. I do find it fun to let kids participate. While technically, I am not supposed to have anyone help me with my work (unless they have paid the permit fee with me), no one has ever objected to my invitations to the children.




As the night wore on, my friend “Joe” that I wrote to you about a couple of weeks ago returned. “Joe” is the homeless poet from England who stole salmon and mushrooms in order to share lunch with me in the street. Well, he took a liking to Kumiko and I wish that I could share a few images that I took of him. He is very expressive with his hands and his body posture as he crouches down to speak with us.

Joe pulled out a new book he had started for pressing flowers and composed a poem on one page for my friend. To the left of the flowers he wrote:

Kumiko
Wake with a Smile
Walk with Grace
And the Day is Yours

He signed it to the right of his pressings, “So” with the “S” looking more like a long vertical squiggle and the smaller “o” tucked up inside the top curve of the “S.” I would not have realized that was what he was going for, except that he explained it to me. Here Kumiko shows off her gift.


Finally, I leave you with our final efforts. I must confess that the heart frame was actually my idea. This strikes me as funny since I do not particularly like hearts (in design – I tend to think they are too cheesey). However, for some reason the typical rectangular cornice seemed dull and I wanted parts of the wings to extend beyond the image border. I could not figure out how to make a circle around the composition without losing too much space around the figures’ heads, so … my desire for space and extended parts overrode my avoidance of cheese.

I include here a flash image and one with only the streetlight. I could not decide which situation I liked better. I was pleased with our work and Kumiko and I certainly have fun together: Not a bad way to spend my last day in streetpainting during this trip to Italy.

Streetpainting Florence Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

So, I last Friday I did my first stint this trip as a street painter on Via Calimala in Florence, Italy. On this day, I worked with one of the best street artists that I have ever met: Tomoteru Saito (who we all call simply “Tomo”). He is a gentle soul and you can see this in his lovely style of creating art.

This first image came from the camera of a Canadian artist who recently finished his art history studies here in Florence. His name is Antoine Mountain. We met the day before while I was crossing the (bridge) Ponte Santa Trinita. I saw a cute couple trying to take an image of themselves with famous Ponte Vecchio in the background and asked if I could take the photo for them. Then I heard a request from the man (Antoine) sitting on the bridge nearby, “Would you mind taking one of me, too, please?” Afterwards he decided to take a shot of me and I invited him to come over and check out the street painting the next day. He gave me permission to share this image of us that a tourist took while I was working.


Shortly after Antoine left, Tomo and I got rained out a little. Here is Tomo posing with our “good fortune.” I am not sure what the deal was, but with the rain came the cars and vans! This is strange to have happen around lunchtime. There is very restricted traffic in centro and I have yet to comprehend if the rain made the rules somehow obsolete. And yes, one of my money baskets became a taxi casualty.



One bright thing happened as the rain was slowing down: I met one of my blog readers! He happened to be in town and wondered if he would be able to find me street painting. So, this was quite fun and we got to have a decent conversation until the street became dry enough for me to return to work. Allora, Tomo and I finished well enough and we left just before midnight. Oh, and the original artist is William Adolphe Bouguereau.

Street Painting in the Rain

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

OK, so I paid to be a street painter every Thursday in November. Today it rained less than last Thursday, but it was still a wash. The skies started to clear up again (like they were in the morning) and I might have been able to tough it out, using newspaper to dry what had not been protected by plastic sheets. However, I locked myself out of the house this morning. I had put a few coins in my pocket to pay for printing today’s reference image, but later, I thought the coins were my keys and did not realize my error until I tried to put on the serious lock on the front door.

I usually work until midnight, knowing that there is a lull of pedestrian traffic here in Florence, Italy, from the hours of eight to ten p.m. as most folks are enjoying the Italian dinner hours at nearby restaurants. But I had sent my padrona a text message that I hoped to arrive home before she went to bed so that I could get into the house. Mezzanotte just would not do.

I tried to paint in the street (Via Calimala) a copy of “Le Crab” by William Bouguereau. I like this painting, in part because it uses the same red-headed girl for the model as “The Elder Sister.” The latter is a painting by the same artist owned (I believe) by the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (Texas, USA). I love that painting since it reminds me of my two baby sisters, especially the red hair.


Bouguereau is a difficult artist for me to copy because of his subtlety in tones. His work is gorgeous and I understand he was prolific, another of my challenges. I was not happy with my painting today, the proportion or the tones (too contrasty, as is my way). Maybe it was a good thing to be rained out. Besides, perhaps I can get to sleep a bit earlier this evening.

Street Painting Melinda Gallo

Cari Amici,

On Monday, I began working as an assistant to Canadian painter and current instructor at Angel Academy of Art Martinho Correia. Martinho is teaching a 2-week workshop on Painting Methods of the Great European Academies and I am happy to have been asked to assist so that I can learn something about this painting technique.

Allora, I am quite busy now as I prepare on my few “off” hours to return to Texas for a summer of teaching and sculpting. Luckily, I recently received an e-mail from the famous blogger Melinda Gallo with the attached photo taken on the 2nd of June here in Florence, Italy. I print it here with her permission. I heard about Melinda Gallo’s blog about her life in Florence last fall from my friend Lisa (who heard about it from her husband). And this past April, I met the writer at an ex-pat’s lunch in Piazza Della Signoria. Anyway, she caught me as I was re-creating William Adolph Bouguereau in 1888 titled “L’Amour au Papillon” or “Cupid With A Butterfly.”
If you want to visit Florence, you must certainly read her blog

Enjoy . . .

Street Painting Madonnari - Florence, Italy

Cari Amici,

On Thursday, May 15, I began another street painting on Via Calimala in Florence, Italy. This time, I challenged myself with a Bouguereau – a child’s face. He created the original painting ”La Tricoteuse” (“The Little Knitter”) in 1882.

A bit of a stressful thing about street painting is that while your good days happen in public, but so do your bad days. I have learned that major errors that happen in the beginning of creating a drawing usually are a constant struggle throughout the process. In this case, it is difficult to get rid of the poor attempt and start again. You can see here in this first image that I have already done a horrible job with the eyes. I never did get them right (or the level of contrast on the shadow side of the face, the mouth, the chin, etc.).


The mother of the two German children that I invited to draw with me took this second image. The rules of the madonnari state that no other person is allowed to draw in our spaces. But those kids were so cute and interested and I happened to have a large area of white background, so . . . occasionally, rules must bend for the greater good. And yes, I did receive the mother’s permission to post this image of her children.


I madonnari (the Italian word for street painters) all had a large street painting festival in Nocera Superiore, south, near Naples on Friday and Saturday. I really wanted to go, but with my never-ending influenza, I worried that a trip might set me back again. However, since all the madonnari would be gone the next day, Claudio (the organizer) told me that I could leave my drawing that night and keep working on it the next day. I decided to take advantage of this and work at a slower pace. This next image is how much I had completed by midnight.

I worked in the studio on Friday morning, my last day with the model Ernesto. When I returned to my square on Via Calimala at around 2 p.m., here is what the street cleaner did with my drawing. You can see a lot of evidence of the texture of the street. Some spots, such as the two on the girl’s neck, do not accept pastel well.


Most of the drawing is still intact, so I set about repairing her, starting of course with the face. But shortly after that, the rains came – again! Allora, my one day as the sole working madonnari in Florence was a wash. I returned to the studio to work on my unfinished écorché drawing and prepare him for the upcoming exhibition this Thursday.

Ciao domani,
Kelly

PS Happy Birthday, Dad, and also to Aunt Chris.

Siena, Italy - Art Exhibit of European 'Purismo'

Yesterday, I went with my friend Hafiza to Siena, a popular town in Tuscany, Italy. We went to see the mostra (exhibit) titled
"Nel segno di Ingres [in the sign/mark of Ingres]
Luigi Mussini e l'Accademia in Europa nell'Ottocento"

It was held at the Complesso Muscale in the Santa Maria della Scala (Saint Mary of the Stairs), right across from the "Zebra Castle" as my friend Michael Graziano once referred to the alternating dark green and white bars of marble that make up Siena's Duomo.

The exhibit wanted to show the influence of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres on the work of Senese painter Luigi Mussini and other artists, as well as depict some of the dialogue between 'purism' and 'naturalism' in European art during this time period. It is quite good. Here is a list of my favorite works in questa mostra (please realize that these titles are in Italian and you may know their titles by other names):

*"Abele Morente" 1842 by Giovanni Dupré
Disegno su carta (drawing on paper).
This work is absolutely fantastic! Subtle white pencil marks in this drawing on a mid-toned paper of the reclining arched figure of the dying Abel made one want to reach out and touch the figure.
Property of the Uffizi in Firenze.

*“Ulisse riconosciuto dalla sua Nutrice” 1849 by William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
(‘Ulysses recognized by his nurse’, upon his return from Troy)
If I could have located an image of this incredible painting that is on loan from La Rochelle Musée des Beaux Arts de La Rochelle (I assume in France), I would explain to you how intelligent and magnificent the composition is! Can anyone locate an image of this artwork "Ulysses Recognized by his Nurse" by Bouguereau for me?

*“La Riconoscenza” 1853-4; marble sculpture by Giovanni Dupré
riconoscere = to recognize or to admit, acknowledge
Private collection – a beautiful seated woman holding a broken chain in front of her knees. Delicate and shown with lovely lighting!

*“La carità educatrice” 1817-1835; marble sculpture by Lorenzo Bartolini
This sculpture depicts a mother with one child standing by her feet while she holds a baby against her body. The way the baby’s cheek is pushed against her shoulder, with his fingers close by and while one foot dangles away from her lower arm are just two examples of how magnificently carved this sculpture is.

*“Amore in agguato” 1854-58; marble sculpture by Lorenzo Bartolini
The title of this marble of a seated and resting Cupid figure was translated into “Love Lying in Wait” for the exhibit, but my dictionary says that agguato means a more daring ‘trap’ or ‘ambush.’

And I enjoyed the dramatic lighting on two paintings: Alessandro Franchi’s “Trasporto di Santo Stefano” 1864-8 and Cesare Maccari’s “Un episodio della vita di Fabiola” 1870.

Here is a link to the site of La Rochelle Musée des Beaux Arts de La Rochelle (but it only shows the painting in a bizarre, highly foreshortened view):

http://perso.orange.fr/musees-la-rochelle/b-arts/a/expo_1.htm

Thank you also to my friend, geologist Dr. Fabio Biselli who explained to me that mostro means 'monster.' Ah the difference one vowel can make! However, it is my spoken confusion around kind people that enables me to refine my Italian vocabulary and grammar. Trying is learning.

Oh – this exhibit “ Nel segno di Ingres” continues through to 6 January 2008. I highly recommend it – and relaxing Siena.

To learn more about this exhibit (although the text is in Italian, you may click on the Babelfish link on the top right of this page to attempt a translation), click here:

http://www.comune.siena.it/news.asp?id=17619