Burning, Trimming, and Mural Painting

Dear Art Lover,

      Lately, my neighbors have been making little fires all around these hills in Tuscany.  They are removing much of the grasses that have overgrown over the winter.  Today, my landlord and his brother will start trimming their olive trees.  I really hate to miss this!

     Tomorrow I leave for Firenze and will live there for one month as I work with a private student.  We will have fun on his new still life painting project (after his first project EVER was Leonardo da Vinci’s “Leda and the Swan” – a human figure, and animal, and a landscape!).  But, I love my new home and I want so much to see each season here as they unfold.  My landlord assured me that spring will not pass me by before I return, but … I love helping “my family” in Casignano each November with the olive harvest.  To be around for the trimming sounds interesting to me.  Here, it is dangerous work because the olive trees grow on the sides of the hills and they use ladders and saws.  It would be nice if I could be here even for added safety for them.  Oy yoy. 

     My mural project progresses slowly.  This is partially because there is so much detail work in creating a specific landscape, and I, sadly, get confused easily on which of my charcoal markings denotes the dark shape or the light one.  The other part, naturally, is that I have a fair amount to do before leaving tomorrow. 

     I took these close-up images last night.  It is weird to see them in this way.  I think the mural looks better in person.  However, I have not finished with these parts that I show you.  I just wanted to share how I am layering the acrylic paint and trying to get soft edges to create something of an atmosphere. Sadly, not much more will happen on  this for at least a month, in case you were thinking to hold your breath.  Hahaha…

Thank you.  And happy birthday to two very lovely ladies:  Giuliana and Dilya! 

Peace,

Kelly

http://BorsheimArts.com

Women’s Day and Mural

Dear Art Lover,

     Apparently, it is International Women’s Day.  While I do not get particularly enthused about holidays designed to remind us that we each have value [why should we need that?], I must recognize that we still have not created a world in which we treat each other as equals, or at the very least, with respect and dignity.  So, until such a time exists, these days serve as reminders to decent folks. 

     And speaking of women, I lost a very dear Florentine woman friend of mine on March 1.  She called me a sister and I will never forget Susanna’s kindness to me and her love and friendship.  This has been a long haul for her and these last several weeks were especially difficult for me and her other close loved ones, as we watched her slowly leave us.

     Back at home now, I started working today on the mural project I wrote about in an earlier post.  This one is slow going since it is a specific landscape painting, versus an imagined one.  The mural size is 109 x 240 cm, so about one-fourth the size of my firstTuscan mural in Caprese Michelangelo, Italy.

http://borsheimarts.com/painting/murals.htm

Thank you.

Peace,

Kelly

http://BorsheimArts.com

  

Detail of starting to fill in the cartoon transfer

Start of another Tuscan Mural, Italy, by Kelly Borsheim

Tuscan Mural Start

Dear Art Lover,

     This is by no means an original idea, but what do you do when you want a room with a view and cannot get permission from the city to put a large window in your home?  Well, if you know a muralist, why not create a finestra finta [a false window]?

      And thus, my second mural in Tuscany has begun.  I do not expect this to be as quickly executed as my first mural (here:  http://borsheimarts.com/painting/murals.htm

     I received a request from someone I have no desire to refuse to teach him how to make art.  This will be our first project.  However, this person has a full life and helps a lot of people in this mountain community.  So, let us see what sort of time he may devote to painting!

    Here is the start of the project.  I am prepared to have some fun with this!  So, stay tuned . . .

Site of future Tuscan Mural

Painting the window frame on the Tuscan mural

Thank you.

Peace,

Kelly

http://BorsheimArts.com

New Painting Weeping Willow Trees Live Model

Dear Art Lover,

     I have done a fair amount of paintings from live models while in the studio with a bunch of other artists.  Here in Florence, most of us tend toward similar styles (unlike my more fun experiences in Open Studios in Austin, Texas, in which anything goes!).  Maybe it is my being a tree-hugger that makes me want to turn these exercises into something someone might want, but in any event, I have been propping up some of the works and thinking about them.

     This painting of Magda sitting on a wooden bench seemed like a great one with which to start.  Her pose already gives the viewer a curiosity about where she is looking.  I have been longing for more trees in my life.  And maybe for times of innocence or less knowledge of what horrible things people are doing to the world and each other.  I have great memories of visiting my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in St. Paul, Minnesota.  And I especially loved the huge weeping willow in the lakeside lawn of my paternal grandparents.  Oh, what times we had in that house, in that yard, and in that lake!

    So, please indulge me with my sweet little painting.  It brings me comfort and wonder and memories of beautiful times.  I hope you can take away something positive from Reflections of a Studio Model as well.

Reflections of a Studio Model

60 x 50 cm  oil on canvas

Copyright 2015 Kelly Borsheim

Available, please ask.

     She is presented here in my latest newsletter about the great Artemisia Gentileschi:

www.borsheimarts.com/news/201505_ArtNews-ArtemisiaGentileschiCaravaggio.htm

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     Related to her story is one for my next art event.  I want to give something back to the Renaissance City for some of the many changes in my life since I first came to touch a Michelangelo in 2004.

You are invited!
Enjoy the party, meet artists, si mangia bene!
Aperitivo (buffet) free to attend
All artworks start bids at 100 euro
Firenze, Italy
drawings donated by Kelly Borsheim
plus many other artist donations

Sunday 17 May 2015
Bidding starts at 17:30 (5:30 p.m.)
Casa Torricelli
Via Manzoni 2 [near Piazza Beccaria], Florence [Firenze, Italia]

Fine print:

There are a LOT of artworks to auction off!
ArtemisiA in collaboration with Le Giubbe Rosse [the artist's café in Piazza della Repubblica]

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Calendar:

• Through 15 May, Cincinnati, Ohio: exhibit of two of my drawings in Manifest Gallery's DRAWN 2015. Be quick! Not much time left. 
•  
• In June I will be in Florida and South Carolina. If you want to get together, please contact me.
• In early July, I will be in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Chicago, St. Paul, and before that in North Carolina with family.
• In late July, August, and early September, I will be working to carve stone and create bronze sculpture in Austin, Texas.
• October 22-25 finds me at The Artists Fair, at the Bargehouse in London [Yes, England]:

www.theartistsfair.com

I would love to see you if possible.

Thank you,

Kelly

Tantalizing Tasmania

Dear Art lover,

     My new art newsletter is published after some serious editing.  I hope that you enjoy “Tantalizing Tasmania” at:

http://www.borsheimarts.com/news/2015_02_ArtNews-TasmaniaLandscapePainting.htm

CONTENTS of Borsheim Art News:

*  New Work:  Tasmania in the Clouds - Landscape Painting

*  Tasmania:  More images

*  Future Travel Plans:  Models Wanted PLUS

*  Blog Highlights:  Portrait Painting Process in Umag, Croatia

*  Subscription Info.

      I only knew of Tasmania because of the cartoon and I had nicknamed my paternal grandfather the “Tasmanian Devil.”  He was a lot of fun.  I used to think that Tasmania was a make-believe place.  Now I know it is a fantastical, but real, place!

      See Devils in the Sanctuary and other goodies in Tasmania.  I am afraid that you will have to go to my Web site to see these images, but it is easy… just click:

http://www.borsheimarts.com/news/2015_02_ArtNews-TasmaniaLandscapePainting.htm

     And, as always, thank you for your continued interest.  Share this with anyone you think might appreciate it! 

Kelly

~ Kelly Borsheim, sculptor, painter, writer, teacher

http://BorsheimArts.com

Tasmania in the Clouds New Painting

Dear Art lover,

     Tree lovers unite!  I went to Tasmania last June…the beginning of winter in that hemisphere and also the end of Tasmania’s tourist season.  My new friends there told my friend Amber and me that the weather that time of year could have been anything.  We enjoyed perfect weather, in my book.  We got fog and rain, but it was not too cold, considering.  We got sunshine and amazing vistas.  And we were amongst the trees, so many amazing kinds of trees!  Hiking weather was great and with so few others out and about, it really felt almost like undiscovered Nature.

     I would like to introduce to you a new oil painting that I created to remember the feeling of mist in the trees. I hope you like her.  She is available and I wish that I could show you the full size.  I love these larger, but still manageable painting sizes!

Kelly Borsheim's Original Oil Painting:

Tasmania - trees and cloud/fog  original oil painting 80 x 100 cm

Tasmania in the Clouds

80 x 100 cm [about 31.4 x 39.4 inches]
Oil Painting on Canvas
© 2014-2015
Kelly Borsheim

Available - $3,800

If you would like to see work-in-progress images of “Tasmania in the Clouds,” please check out her own page on my site:

http://www.borsheimarts.com/painting/2015/TasmaniaInTheClouds-LandscapePainting.htm

If you would like to see more images from my trip to Tasmania, please sign up for my upcoming art newsletter.

http://www.borsheimarts.com/contact.htm

A view of part of my studio space so you may see size.  WIP-Tasmania

 

I hope you have had a chance to check out the new online blog features and if you have any feedback, that would be appreciated.  I would like this site to be easy for you to use.

And, as always, thank you for your continued interest.  Share this with anyone you think might appreciate it! 

Kelly

~ Kelly Borsheim, sculptor, painter, writer, teacher

http://BorsheimArts.com