Fiesole Still Life Painting

Dear Art Lover,

     It is October, the month of orange, no?  A few years ago, I saw this hearth-like scene at a friend’s house during their holiday party.  Orange always seems like a happy color to me and I wondered if I had it in me to tackle it in art to create a similar emotion. 
     This pastel on heavy Fabiano Artists Watercolor Traditional White paper - 140 wt depicts a Tuscan vase with a couple of metal kettles.  The dried plant stems make me think of a bad hair day, but they lend a wonderful element of contrast to all the other shapes and tones.  They all sat upon a shelf made from an old log and other wood parts.  

"Fiesole Still Life"

21.5" x 29"
Pastel on Fabiano watercolor paper 140 wt.
© 2010
Kelly Borsheim

"Fiesole Still Life" - 22" x 29" framed in black

      Fiesole is a quant small town up in the hills above Florence, Italy. Tuscany is famous for its orange warm colors and I liked the coziness of this scene.
       The pastel is framed in a simple, but angled black frame with Museum Glass and includes a black spacer so that the art does not touch the glass. No mat so you may focus on the warmth of the art and it looks more like a painting. [Museum Glass is a trademarked product that SERIOUSLY reduces glare. It is wonderful.]
This would look great in any room in which you want to feel cozy and comfortable, perhaps a reading room or social room.

 I chose to create this pastel painting on a highly textured watercolor paper. It is a thick paper and I was able to use the texture to beautiful effect. I like it that the closer one gets, the more texture one sees. I am also fascinated with the layering of colors and the play of cool and warm pigments together. Note that in the grey vase on the right, I added purples and yellows into the greys. I hope that you enjoy this composition in pastel.

     Now, if you have read this far, I want to share that starting with this cheerful and warm piece, I will be offering selected artworks at an enticing price over the next several months.  “Fiesole Still Life” is priced at $1600, framed.  If you mention this savings project, you may acquire this original artwork for only $1200, plus free shipping.  AND, if you already own an original Borsheim artwork (painting, drawing, or sculpture), you will receive an ADDITIONAL 10 % off!

Contact me.  sculptor@borsheimarts.com

    

Peace,

Kelly

http://BorsheimArts.com

P.S.  Welcome into the world, Noah!  My brother’s second grandchild.

Framed in simple angled black frame on the left

Cancer Fighting Kitchen

Dear Art Lover,

     JudyWitts Francini is a friend of mine here in Italy.  She has always been a great resource for all sorts of things that I have needed guidance on over the years that I have known her.  Given her high energy levels and optimism, I can only surmise that she feeds off of doing good deeds!  Judy teaches classes and gives tours about Tuscan cooking.  She loves to show people Sicily as well.  Check out her site:

http://www.divinacucina.com/

     Most all of us know someone, even a family member or two, who have, are, or will suffer through the fear of a cancer diagnosis.  I have a lot of caretakers in my family, as well.  And perhaps this is a stupid thing to say, but often caretaking is like suing someone:  You may not be on the scariest side of the fence, but your life is still not gonna be fun for a while. 

     I began hearing about nutrition ~ EXTREME nutrition ~ being a strong antidote to cancer back in the early 1980s.  Since that time, I began to pay attention to a lot of foods and what they do.  However, I am not really into cooking or food prep, so my actions have been more towards trying to avoid the not-so-good stuff to hedge my health bets.  Sadly, the “not-so-good” is often a typical American diet.  And since most countries and people watch what the US does and US Corporations have a way of sneaking into everyone’s lives, nutrition has seen the slippery slope for decades now.

     I was chatting with Judy recently about my grave concerns over someone in my family with cancer.  Judy immediately told me about her friend Rebecca Katz and her book, The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen: Nourishing, Big-Flavor Recipes for Cancer Treatment and Recovery  Written in English and available on Amazon,   Rebecca’s book gives recipes for nutrient-rich foods of all sorts of colors and textures, geared towards a variety of tastes and levels of eating. 

    What I also enjoy about the book is how she explains that the different stages of chemotherapy affect appetite.  For example, if chemo makes stuff taste funny [often metallic], one loses the desire to eat.  However, the last thing one should ever do is to starve oneself of life-giving nutrients!  It is horrible enough what chemo is doing to our bodies!  Rebecca has solutions for most everything.

     Judy also reiterated that it is not just the nourishment.  The simple acts of the cooking and smelling the flavors in the preparation help both caretaker and cancer-fighter heal and also feel as if they are not helpless.

 

     Anyway, Judy does not live in Florence, Italy, any longer, but she does come up here for private clients and tours.  So, I was thrilled to meet her at the Savoy hotel in one corner of Piazza della Repubblica the other day.  She loaned me her signed copy of Rebecca’s book.  I then shopped at the Vivimarket that sells foods that Italians consider ethnic.  The images I include in this post are from an autumn flower arrangement within the Savoy that I photographed since I had arrived early and was amusing myself, as I do.

      I have a favor to ask now:  I recently found out that I lost my Amazon affiliate status.  It was my fault since I procrastinated on responding to their e-mails about updating my status.  They have some new child protection clauses I was apparently supposed to sign off on.  I just saw e-mails to update my ad links.  Boh.   So, I started a new account and Amazon told me that they will verify it once I make my first sale. 

    If this book interests you or could interest someone you know, please click on my new affiliate link below.  You pay the same, but Amazon helps support my art career just a little.  Thank you!  Seriously, the recipes in this book look so good, I would not limit it to cancer patients.  It might even prevent cancer by keeping you strong and less polluted inside by processed foods.  Where is the downside to that?

Peace,

Kelly

~ Kelly Borsheim, sculptor, painter, writer, teacher

http://BorsheimArts.com

Street Painting Michelangelo Florence, Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

It may sound strange, but I paint in the street. In Florence, Italy, we street painters are called madonnari. Yesterday, I chose to draw Michelangelo’s Libyan Sibyl from the Cappella Sistina in Vatican City, Italy. I was fortunate enough to be assisted by this charming little gal from Canada. And thanks to her mother who took this image of us on my camera for me.

I try to save all of my “wet wipes” for when the kids come to help me. It seems a bit rude for me to invite people’s children to paint in the street and then send them on their way as a dirty mess. In truth, I enjoy watching how each child takes to the cleaning part of the job. Some are really cute in their methods, some thorough, some not at all interested in washing their hands.

I have to admit, I am as fascinated by the process of creating a drawing as much as the next guy, maybe moreso. Hence the following image -- I like how the street is visible as I pick and choose which parts I want to develop first.

Normally, I am not much of an orange person -- the color is just too happy for me. But there are exceptions, usually when I see orange in Nature. However, this particular work of Michelangelo’s moves me greatly and any other color than orange might change the effect in a less impressive way. I also love drapery.

Here you see the work just before I called it a night. The distortion from the camera angle and lens is much better on this side. I took another shot standing at the head, and . . . oh, my . . .


Not being much of a morning person, I started this pastel drawing around mezzogiorno (noon). I think I washed up around midnight, but in truth, the reason that I did not finish the art is because I have more friends now than before. For example, my ex-roommates Dragana and Elena brought aperitivo to me in this evening since I was unable to leave my work and I took a bit of a break around dinnertime. We rarely get to see each other now that we live in different homes.

My last image for this post is of the destruction of my work. Granted the patterns in the stone street determine most of the movement of the water, I still find the apparent randomness intriguing. I was really happy with this drawing (except for the feet) and felt sad that I had not done it on paper the way many madonnari work on occasion. But what could I do? I must scrub the street painting away so that the next day, another artist may begin.