Dear Art Lover,
I love Nature’s holidays. And while I am moving slower than usual these
days, I tend to post and share stuff on Facebook. Here was part of my Italian lesson today:
Welcome! See Italy (and more) through the eyes of an artist: American sculptor and painter Kelly Borsheim creates her life and art in Italy and shares her adventures in travel and art with you. Come on along, please and Visit her fine art work online at: www.BorsheimArts.com
Showing posts with label san giovanni. Show all posts
Showing posts with label san giovanni. Show all posts
Saturday, June 24, 2017
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
San Giovanni Florence Italy
Cari Amici (Dear Friends),
The 24th of June was the festival of San Giovanni (St. John), Florence, Italy’s patron saint. I was street painting that day with my colleagues Johnny and Lalu. We chose to draw a copy of a painting by Pietro della Francesca, I believe. It depicts Jesus being baptized by Saint John. I show you a detail here of the work-in-progress.
Naturally, there was a parade through the center of Florence. I caught some of it on film in between drawing time. I love the expressiveness of this one man’s face as he points to one of the parade viewers.
On Day Two of our two-day pass to paint on the street, I arrived to discover that all three drawing spaces were occupied by Italian school children. Although I found them charming enough to photograph, I was not too amused professionally. For one, some of my colleague Johnny’s friends had come by around midnight the night before and invited us all to go to a nearby pub for a bit. Needless to say, I was not happy to have gotten up earlier than desired for no reason.
While our group paid for permits, apparently since 31 May, we have been paying the police. The teacher for this class, however, paid the Comune (Florence’s City Hall) and had more rights to draw than the madonnari did. The teacher assured me that they would be finished by noon. Since I was not prepared for this surprise, I did not have all of my street painting tools with me. So I asked if she would please wash my square again before she left (the drawing from the day before having been already removed).
The sun is normally straight above us until 2 pm, which helped to dry the street, but was not the condition that I wanted to start drawing in. So, I got a late start, but Johnny later joined me. I had chosen a Raphael painting, “Madonna of the Chair.” hoping to make a connection with a more recognizable (and for me fun to draw) image. Lalu was not working with us today, so Johnny took the left half and I the right.
This turned out to be a fun day and I got practice drawing babies. We did not have time to finish, but with all of the weird happenings of our day, we decided to just try to enjoy ourselves a bit. This last image was taken around midnight once we stopped working. In the foreground you can see some Persian language written by a very charming Iranian mother visiting Florence with her grown daughter and son. They wrote something to the tune of, “Kelly, this is a lovely painting.” Meeting them was one of the day’s highlights.
If you like what you read, enjoy the photos, and would like to help support this blog(ger) / artist, click here . . .
The 24th of June was the festival of San Giovanni (St. John), Florence, Italy’s patron saint. I was street painting that day with my colleagues Johnny and Lalu. We chose to draw a copy of a painting by Pietro della Francesca, I believe. It depicts Jesus being baptized by Saint John. I show you a detail here of the work-in-progress.
Naturally, there was a parade through the center of Florence. I caught some of it on film in between drawing time. I love the expressiveness of this one man’s face as he points to one of the parade viewers.
On Day Two of our two-day pass to paint on the street, I arrived to discover that all three drawing spaces were occupied by Italian school children. Although I found them charming enough to photograph, I was not too amused professionally. For one, some of my colleague Johnny’s friends had come by around midnight the night before and invited us all to go to a nearby pub for a bit. Needless to say, I was not happy to have gotten up earlier than desired for no reason.
While our group paid for permits, apparently since 31 May, we have been paying the police. The teacher for this class, however, paid the Comune (Florence’s City Hall) and had more rights to draw than the madonnari did. The teacher assured me that they would be finished by noon. Since I was not prepared for this surprise, I did not have all of my street painting tools with me. So I asked if she would please wash my square again before she left (the drawing from the day before having been already removed).
The sun is normally straight above us until 2 pm, which helped to dry the street, but was not the condition that I wanted to start drawing in. So, I got a late start, but Johnny later joined me. I had chosen a Raphael painting, “Madonna of the Chair.” hoping to make a connection with a more recognizable (and for me fun to draw) image. Lalu was not working with us today, so Johnny took the left half and I the right.
This turned out to be a fun day and I got practice drawing babies. We did not have time to finish, but with all of the weird happenings of our day, we decided to just try to enjoy ourselves a bit. This last image was taken around midnight once we stopped working. In the foreground you can see some Persian language written by a very charming Iranian mother visiting Florence with her grown daughter and son. They wrote something to the tune of, “Kelly, this is a lovely painting.” Meeting them was one of the day’s highlights.
If you like what you read, enjoy the photos, and would like to help support this blog(ger) / artist, click here . . .
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Calcio Santa Croce Florence
Cari Amici (Dear Friends),
I am not a big sports fan, although I loved watching the Olympics. However, if you catch me watching some kind of game, it is more because I want to be around the people who are fans.
Calcio (soccer) is an extremely popular sport in Europe, and Italians are quite addicted. The first time I noticed an entire group of guys in a pub, all facing the same way whether standing or seated, extending their heads beyond a reasonable posture, mouths dropped open, eyes glued forward in a hypnotic stare, I thought that I had just walked into a strip show. No, only calcio -- on TV even.
June 24 is a Florentine holiday. There is the annual Festa di San Giovanni, to celebrate the patron saint of Florence. I wrote about the Bapistry of San Giovanni (St. John) earlier. Typically there is a parade throughout the historical center of Florence, which would naturally include the traditional sbandierattore, flag wavers.
Then there is a Calcio Storico match in Piazza Santa Croce, which I show you the makeshift stadium here. The entire piazza inside of the bleachers gets fills with sand. This historical game is traditionally more violent than a normal gioca di calcio and a couple of years ago, after some serious injuries, the games were stopped. They resumed last year, but still people tell me if you enjoy watching fighting, this might be the event for you. 30 men from each side battle in the sand.
All this is finished up with a pretty good display of fireworks shooting over Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo. Last year I was impressed with how long the fireworks lasted. They are best seen from the three bridges closest to Piazzale Michelangelo. Fireworks are more lovely when reflected in the River Arno.
So, get ready for the Festa di San Giovanni in Florence, Italy, and . . .
Happy Summer Solstice today!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)