Pisa Italy Antique Market

Dear Art-loving friend,

As a still-life painter living in Tuscany, I know about most of the big antique markets each weekend in this area.  I did not know that Pisa had a recurring market until recently when stone sculptor Mary Tanner came to visit Firenze and we took a trip together to Pisa, Pietrasanta, and Carrara.

We were in Pisa. Italy, on 9 November, so that will help me remember what one of the exhibiting vendors told me.  The market happens each SECOND Saturday and Sunday of the month.   Mary and I had gone to Pisa to see the famous pulpit by Nicola Pisano, completed in 1260 and which work marks the beginning of the Renaissance.  [More on that in my next artnewsletter.]  

After a good lunch we meandered towards the Arno River and found Palazzo Blu.  There was an exhibition of Amedeo Modigliani and Constantin Brâncuși with other contemporaries that Mary treated us to.  I had heard of it and was curious, but sadly, I walked out thinking less of the Italian painter than I hoped I would.  Still, I am grateful to Mary for having gone to see it.  One never really knows without a real experience?  Palazzo Blu is very easy to find along the river because It is the only obviously blue building in that area.  Incidentally, that sculpture in Palazzo Blu that I include in these images always freaks me out.  That rib cage, wide-spread breasts and uplifted arm stubs together look like some fanciful creature’s head.

 

So, in this post about Pisa, I give you some more dragon sculptures, a very short door (with the lovely Mary there for height comparison), random guitar playing, and some of the sites as we made our way back to the train station and headed north.

You may find other posts on this blog about Pisa by visiting the online version of the blog and using the “Search this Blog” blank in the right-hand column.

 

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http://artbyborsheim.blogspot.com

Thank you for your interest and enthusiasm,

Kelly

~ Kelly Borsheim, sculptor, painter, writer, teacher

http://BorsheimArts.com

All images in this post are copyright 2014 Nov 9 by Kelly Borsheim

Ciompi Antique Market Florence Italy

Dear Art-loving Friend,

Today I start my last term at the Angel Academy of Art (yesterday, a Monday, was a holiday in Italy).  I have been preparing for the challenge of painting three still-life paintings, each with a specific list of things to learn, as well as working with live models.

The hunt for objects to paint can be fun or frustrating, depending on the score.  Here are a few of the things that could have been found at the most recent installation of the antique market in Piazza Ciompi in Florence, Italy.  The market fills the piazza every 4th Sunday of each month.

Happy Hunting, indeed!

And happy new year.

Shopping at d. bartolini in Florence, Italy

I am not much for shopping, but I do love images and the patterns within them. So, one night recently while walking around Florence, Italy, I passed this kitchen store named d. bartonlini on the corner of Via Buffalini and Via dei Servi, and not too far from the famous Duomo of Florence.


Enjoy!

Ciao, ciao.
Kelly

La Perla - Shopping in Italy

Walking home in a misty night recently, I saw this storefront on a main road in central Florence, Italy. Now, how delightful is that? Is there any place in the United States that is so comfortable with this sort of display? ha ha

BTW, La Perla means in Italian 'the pearl' or 'the bead'

Oh la la. ;-)
Happy holidays. I head to Bologna this afternoon and fly back to Texas from that city early in the morning -- assuming that my travel agent fixes his error. He changed my itinerary without my knowledge and I was apparently supposed to be on a flight THIS morning. Doh!

Heidelberg Christmas Market – Florence, Italy

It arrived this past Wednesday – the annual Heidelberg Christmas mercato in Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, Italy. This market features 50 wooden huts filled with holiday goodies. Lots of food is available from cheeses, breads, spices, and meats to sausages, pig, kraut, and pretzels with all kinds of toppings. Other gift items are handmade clothes, ornaments, porcelain and ceramics, candels, toys, and hats. Vendors come from Germany, Poland, Austria, France, and other countries.

I miss my friend Sylvia, from Austria, though. She was here last year selling the clove ornaments that I so adore. No one this year has anything like them.

One of the favorite selections among so many of my friends here in Firenze is the gluwein (pronounced 'gloo - vine') or as the Italians call it vin brulé, perhaps best understood as a VERY tasty mulled wine. Oh, the smell is yummy and the effect powerful. I asked a tourist to take this photo recently, documenting us drinking the stuff for lunch: from left to right, my Austrialian artist friend Skye; our Italian friend, photographer and model Sara; and, I hope, one of your favorite sculptors (ha!) on both sides of the Atlantic. ;-)

The night image I took on my way home of the carousel bar out in front of the entire mercato. You can see the façade of the Basilica of Santa Croce, where Michelangelo and other famous Florentines are buried.

Cin Cin (pron. ‘chin chin’)

Shops in Florence Italy

I have to look for a new place to live. Not sure I should give specifics about why since I am in a foreign country and all. I do not feel free to discuss the problem that the friend I am staying with is having, in case it makes things worse for this friend. And few people know that I am here.

Anyway, room hunting has led me to walking around town at hours I would otherwise be working on my art and I am getting to see many shops that are not normally open when I am out and about. The shop in the image here is near the Pitti Palace, I think. Or maybe Santo Spirito, but I think the Pitti.

You may not be able to see, but there is a man working diligently behind a desk way at the back of a long and rather narrow shop. He makes masks and other art objects for decoration. I do not know if all of the paintings in this shop are his, but some fit the theme with the masks and faces. I have been enchanted with many different kinds of shops here and wonder how anyone can pay his rent. Most shops specialize to a degree that I cannot believe there are enough buyers out here to keep things rolling. But, oh, the eye candy!

Shopping in Florence, Italy

Florentine Sense of Humor:

Now, I have been known to exhibit some tasteless humor, but . . . While the knife holder in the little red man made me laugh in an uncomfortable way, I must admit that I was shocked a bit at the St. Sebastian Pin Cushion.

Martyrdom is funny? Or only to seamstresses? Or acupuncturists? Or tacky tourists?

Both of these images were taken of items for sale in shop windows in Florence, Italy.